In addition to placing the matter on its May calendar, the high court is set to hear oral arguments next week on a law that would end cash bail in the state, another landmark measure approved by the Democratic legislature and signed by Gov. JB Pritzker.

“We simply cannot continue to exempt Uber and Lyft from the same standards of care that would apply to any other taxi, train, common carrier,” state Rep. Jennifer Gong-Gershowitz said. “One of my colleagues pointed out that a Ferris wheel is a common carrier in Illinois. Uber and Lyft are common carriers and should be treated as such.”

“We’ve got a strong labor backbone in the State of Illinois, and if that can overcome difficulties, that’s great,” state Rep. Jeff Keicher said. “But each year, and not addressing BIPA, makes that a higher and higher threshold for a business to consider.”

SB 2354 would create the Redefining Science in Elementary Schools Task Force Act. The group would focus on identifying age-appropriate anatomy, physiology, and nutrition education materials at Illinois grade schools.

House Minority Leader Tony McCombie has been a vocal critic of the criminal justice package SAFE-T Act. “We have seen victims’ rights be sidelined through the SAFE-T Act and it’s something that needs to be rectified if we are truly going to make our neighborhoods safer; it means we stop empowering criminals,” she said.

The governor signed a law in 2022 that capped contribution limits in such campaigns to $500,000 from “any single person.” Despite that, to each candidate, half a million came from each of Pritzker’s political campaign and his revocable trust. Pritzker donated a total of $2 million to then-Illinois Supreme Court candidates Mary O’Brien and Elizabeth Rochford.

As of Tuesday, more than 6,500 bills had been introduced in the 2023 session. Illinois lawmakers began working through mountains of proposed legislation as a Friday deadline approaches for bills to pass out of their original committees.

“Political officials routinely work with lobbyists and entertain outreaches from their constituents,” Michael Madigan’s attorneys wrote in a pre-trial motion seeking to have many of the charges dismissed. “This conduct is central not only to the conduct of office but also to American democracy.” The attorneys further argue that “statutes that impermissibly chill such interactions infringe on rights that go to the core of democratic government and violate the First Amendment.”

State Rep. Charlie Meier introduced several measures to address video surveilance, site visits and reporting. Among them, “House Bill 1298 requires the Department of Human Services to establish a system of sight inspections. Once again, I want to say unannounced. Right now, once every three years (small group homes) are inspected,” he explained.

Almost 60% of MRI’s workforce includes people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. “We’re over five million plates now so it’s really grown. Which on average is about 24,000 plates a day have to come to our facility,” said Ryan Raleigh, Chief Operating Officer at MRI.

The Illinois Manufacturers’ Association “Makers Madness” is a bracket-style tournament in which voters across the state will decide which product is The Coolest Thing Made in Illinois. The economic impact of manufacturing in Illinois is estimated to be between $580 billion and $611 billion every year – the largest share of any industry to the state’s Gross Domestic Product.

For the second year in a row, Gov. JB Pritzker is proposing the state spend tens of millions of dollars on a witness protection program that went unfunded for the first nine years of its existence. Eight months in, however, no witnesses have been relocated, and only about $67,500 of the $30 million approved by the General Assembly last spring has been spent, primarily on employee-related expenses.

In the House and Senate, there are 6,545 bills filed for consideration. Many of those are what is referred to as a “shell bill.” State Sen. Steve McClure, R-Springfield, gave his take on shell bills “Shell bills can be used after deadlines have passed to get sometimes important bills passed but more often than not they’re used to ram a piece of legislation at the very last moment where you can change the bill number by attaching an amendment to a brand new shell bill,” McClure told The Center Square.