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SPRINGFIELD – Illinois lawmakers advanced a bill last week that would effectively abolish life sentences for any incarcerated individual who was under the age of 21 when they received their sentence. In January, Gov. JB Pritzker signed a law that makes any individual who was under the age of 21 when sentenced to life in prison eligible for parole review after they served 40 years or more of their sentence. But the measure only applied to those sentenced on or after June 1, 2019. Senate Bill 2073, carried by Republican Sen. S...
SPRINGFIELD – A temporary restraining order that partially blocks Illinois’ new assault weapons ban from going into effect will remain in place after a divided state appellate court panel’s ruling Tuesday. The restraining order was issued Jan. 20 by Effingham County Circuit Judge Joshua Morrison, but it applies only to the 800 or so gun owners and firearms dealers named as plaintiffs in the suit. The case was filed by southern Illinois attorney Thomas DeVore, the unsuccessful Republican candidate for attorney general in 20...
SPRINGFIELD – The Illinois State Rifle Association has joined forces with other gun rights advocates in filing a federal lawsuit challenging the state’s new ban on the sale and manufacture of semiautomatic weapons and high-capacity magazines. It’s the latest legal challenge to the law, which went into effect upon Gov. JB Pritzker’s signature on Jan. 10, and the first filed in federal court. The case, which will be heard in the Southern District of Illinois, was filed within a week of a similar case being filed in state c...
SPRINGFIELD – Gov. JB Pritzker signed a bill into law Friday expanding access to abortion and other reproductive health care services. House Bill 4664, passed Tuesday during the General Assembly's "lame duck" session, came in response to the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in June overturning the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision and declaring that the federal constitution does not protect a woman's right to abortion. That decision triggered the reinstatement of long-dormant laws in o...
SPRINGFIELD – In Illinois, the role of state treasurer is that of chief investment officer. Treasurer Michael Frerichs has held that position for two full terms, winning by less than 10,000 votes in 2014 before cruising to an 18 percentage-point victory in 2018. He boasts that Illinois has topped $1.2 billion in interest gains on its investments since he took office, making him just the second treasurer since Republican Judy Baar Topinka, who held that post from 1995 through 2007, to reach that threshold. “We've raised mor...
SPRINGFIELD – Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker said Tuesday that abortion rights will be a central issue in the 2022 election, not just in his bid for reelection but in races up and down the ballot. That includes races for Congress and the Illinois Supreme Court as well as the governor's race and state legislative contests. Speaking at a news conference with officials from political advocacy arms of Planned Parenthood organizations, Pritzker said the U.S. Supreme Court's d...
SPRINGFIELD – Vice President Kamala Harris came to Chicago Friday to rally voters who support abortion rights and urge them to turn out in the upcoming midterm elections. Speaking at a roundtable discussion on reproductive rights at the University of Illinois Chicago, Harris said the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade has put abortion rights at the forefront in races up and down the ballot. “Who is your governor matters,” she said. “Whether they're going to protect these rights and support these r...
SPRINGFIELD – Gov. JB Pritzker said Wednesday that Illinois will continue to welcome migrants bused here from Texas as he blasted that state’s governor for relocating them to other cities without sharing information or providing resources. Pritzker said Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and his agencies have been providing little notice for incoming migrants and has not responded to calls from Illinois’ agency heads. That’s meant Illinois has had “between three and 24 hours to find shelter for potentially 100 or more people....
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker called patient abuses at the Choate Mental Health and Developmental Center in rural Anna “awful” and “deeply concerning,” and he said the future of the facility depends on correcting poor conditions. Pritzker’s comments at a news conference on Tuesday came on the heels of articles published Friday by Capitol News Illinois, Lee Enterprises and ProPublica outlining a history of egregious patient abuses and other employee misconduct at Choate. At least 26 employees over the past decade have been arre...
SPRINGFIELD – The state on Tuesday announced the award of the first electric vehicle manufacturing-targeted tax incentives made possible by a law signed by Gov. JB Pritzker last year. The incentives come from the Reimagining Electric Vehicles Act, which passed nearly unanimously and became law in November, and will provide an estimated $2.2 million in value to T/CCI Manufacturing in Decatur. The REV Act passed two months after the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act which incentivizes EV adoption, driving Pritzker’s vision to make...
Betting on in-state college sports could become legal with the stroke of the governor's pen after lawmakers in the General Assembly approved an amendment to the state's sports betting law Thursday. The amendment to House Bill 3136 passed both the House and Senate with vast bipartisan support, reaching the threshold necessary for it to take effect immediately once signed by the governor. The measure would be a major expansion to the sports betting bill which Pritzker helped...
Troy Middle School and William B. Orenic Intermediate School choir instructor Kelsey Robb has received the Illinois Grade School Music Association's 2021 Barbara Buehlman Young Conductor Award. The award is presented annually by the IGSMA to a school music instructor who has 5-10 years' experience, the majority in Illinois; who is actively involved in IGSMA events; who shows growth as a music educator; whose students consistently excel in IGSMA events; and who is a...
Lewis University rightly prides itself as an excellent academic institution that is always seeking to not only to provide its students with quality educational opportunities but also a school with a rich history of supporting individuals from local communities who are involved in law enforcement, fire protection and military service. That's why it was appropriate for the university to host a special 9/11 ceremony on Thursday at Convocation Hall that commemorated the 20th...
Masks will be required at all Illinois long-term care facilities, day cares and Pre-K-12 schools, Gov. JB Pritzker announced Wednesday amid a nationwide surge of COVID-19. "Every time we think we know where this virus is headed, it changes and it shifts," Pritzker said at a COVID-19 briefing in Chicago. "For example, unlike before, people 29 years old and younger accounted for 12 percent of hospitalizations. All across the nation, we are seeing young people with no underlying...
Gov. JB Pritzker signed a bill into law Tuesday that repeals criminal penalties for people who transmit HIV to others. House Bill 1063, by Rep. Carol Ammons, D-Urbana, and Sen. Robert Peters, D-Chicago, deletes language adopted in Illinois and many other states during the early days of the HIV epidemic that made it a felony for an individual to engage in certain activities such as unprotected sex, donating blood or tissue or sharing nonsterile intravenous needles knowing that he or she was infected with HIV. “Research has s...
Since economic shutdowns began and COVID-19 death counts started to rise in March 2020, national unemployment rates have hovered at historically high numbers, stressing state unemployment systems left dealing with an unprecedented number of claims. In Illinois, that’s led to a deficit in the Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund – or the pool of money used to sustain the social safety net – that could rise to $5 billion. Stakeholders from both political parties, as well as business and labor groups, are now warning of “crip...
Drawing new district lines for state and federal elections is the main focus for lawmakers when they begin the redistricting process every 10 years. But Illinois Democrats, who control all three branches of government, have some incentive to redraw the boundaries for the five Illinois Supreme Court districts this year as well after a Democratic justice was defeated in a retention bid in the 3rd Judicial District in November. House Minority Leader Jim Durkin, of Western Springs...
Republican senators on Monday raised concerns about four Prisoner Review Board members who have continued to serve for almost two years despite not being confirmed by the Senate Executive Appointments Committee, a constitutional requirement in the state. In a news conference in Springfield, Republican Sen. Steve McClure, of Springfield, said Gov. JB Pritzker, who initially appointed the members in 2019, is using "shady practices" in allowing the appointees to serve...
Whether it was ship captains navigating by the stars, Neil Armstrong walking on the moon or the countless Hollywood adaptations of what the future may look like, space has been a constant source of intrigue dating back to the beginning of time. In December of 2019, the United States Space Force became the newest branch of the Armed Forces. It is responsible for "developing Guardians, acquiring military space systems, maturing the military doctrine for space power, and...
Lawmakers representing the LaSalle Veterans' Home, including Sen. Sue Rezin, R-Morris, unveiled new legislation that would allow inspectors general of state agencies to subpoena former state employees. The legislation was prompted by an investigation into the COVID-19 outbreak last year at the LaSalle home that killed 36 veterans. The former director of the Illinois Department of Veterans' Affairs, Linda Chapa LaVia, and the former LaSalle home administrator, Angela...
Republican Rep. Tim Butler on Thursday accused the new Democratic leadership in the state House of Representatives of preserving practices from previous leadership which Republicans say unfairly benefits the majority party. “So, what the speaker said back in January about this place being different and running in a different manner is a bunch of BS right now,” Butler said in a Thursday night floor speech during which he threw a paper calendar and pounded his desk out of anger. Butler said Democrats have “ignored” importa...
Members of an Illinois Senate committee sparred with officials from Gov. JB Pritzker’s administration Friday in a hearing on tax changes proposed by the governor in an effort to balance the state’s budget for the 2022 fiscal year. The Senate Revenue and Appropriations committees held the joint hearing, questioning the directors of the Illinois Department of Revenue and the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget among others. In his budget proposal released in February, Pritzker outlined nine changes to the corpo...
SPRINGFIELD – A massive health care reform bill, the fourth and final pillar of the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus agenda, passed the state Senate Friday, the final step before heading to Gov. JB Pritzker for his signature. House Bill 158, sponsored by Democratic Rep. Camille Lilly and state Sen. Mattie Hunter, both of Chicago, is centered around eliminating race-based and other inequities in the state’s health care system, and includes provisions to expand medical services available to low-income residents and res...
A bill to expand the use of vote-by-mail and curbside voting in future elections passed the Illinois Senate Thursday, meaning it needs only a signature from the governor to become law. House Bill 1871, which was approved by the House last week, would revise the state election code to make permanent some of the changes that were widely adopted across Illinois for the 2020 general election in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. If the bill is sent to the governor and signed...
A new report by the credit rating agency Moody’s says Illinois will set a new record this year when it reports a total net pension liability of more than $300 billion, the highest of any state in the nation. As of June 30, 2020, the report stated, the total unfunded liabilities of the state’s five pension systems stood at $317 billion, a 19 percent increase from the prior year. That was largely due to historically low interest rates, which have depressed pension fund earnings throughout the country. With the state’s gross...