Senator Steve Stadelman has filed a bill that prevent Illinoisans from being microchipped without their consent. The law protects all Illinoisans from being required, coerced, or compelled to undergo the implanting of an identification chip under their skin by anyone, but has special protections for employees. The senator said rules are needed to safeguard human rights and ethical standards in the face of technological innovation.

Senate Bill 3481 would require facilities that store electric vehicle batteries to register with the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency by February 2026. The state’s Pollution Control Board would set the regulations for the proper storage of EV batteries. Senate Bill 3686 would require battery producers and importers to implement an IEPA approved battery stewardship plan starting in 2026. Retailers would be encouraged — but not required — to serve as collection facilities.

An Illinois lawsuit has led Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser and attorneys general from 11 other states and the District of Columbia to notify gunmaker Glock to preserve 37 years of documentation regarding its handguns. Illinois passed a law last year allowing lawsuits against the firearms industry, which is being challenged in federal and state-level courts.

Senate Bill 3462 from state Sen. Ram Villivalam would create the Illinois Guaranteed Income Law and establish a board within the Department of Human Services to evaluate the efficacy of the program, propose statewide policies and provide oversight. The bill as filed says after the board is dissolved at the end of 2027, DHS would administer the program with monthly cash payments of $1,000 to Illinois residents, regardless of immigration status, who provide care for a child or specified dependent, recently gave birth or adopted a child or is enrolled in an educational or vocational program.

The Illinois Association of Regional Superintendents of Schools partnered with Goshen Education Consulting to survey more than 750 school districts, and found that more than 90 percent of schools said they have a teacher shortage problem, and that teacher shortages are the most severe in city districts, in vocational centers, and in more rural parts of the state, such as west-central, southwest and east-central Illinois. The number drops to as little as 20 percent of schools in some more affluent counties.

“It makes it very, very difficult on the local level to do what we need to do for our community,” Bourbonnais Mayor Paul Schore said. “Also, we have to keep up with the mandates of the state of Illinois that every year keep getting more and more daunting, and in a lot of cases don’t have money to go with them.”

“(Gov. JB) Pritzker must not study history or classic film noir. But that hasn’t stopped him from bragging his fool head off like some idiot chumbolone. The other day on X he couldn’t help himself. Happily, for the Non-Chumbolones (meaning the rest of us) there was Mark Glennon, founder of wirepoints.org. He wrote about Pritzker’s boast … ‘With polls showing as few as 37 percent of Americans confident that our elections are open and honest, you wouldn’t think anybody would be bragging about integrity of the process,’ wrote Glennon. ‘That’s especially true in Illinois, where the bungled vote count for

Smollett took his case to the state’s highest court last month, asking justices to overturn his convictions on five counts of disorderly conduct, after an Illinois Appellate Court panel last year upheld his guilty verdict. Should Smollett’s appeal to the Illinois Supreme Court fail, he could take his case to the U.S. Supreme Court since he is arguing his conviction violates his Fifth Amendment protections against double jeopardy.

State Sen. Jason Plummer said the Illinois Prisoner Review Board shouldn’t be under Gov. JB Pritzker’s control: “He has politicized the process and he has tried to ram unqualified appointees through the Senate.” One board member, Max Cerda, was convicted of a double murder when he was 16 years old and was appointed by Pritzker in March 2021. He voted to let out a convicted cop killer whom Cerda actually served time with in prison.

The state could take an even bigger share of the winnings in the future if Gov. JB Pritzker gets lawmakers to agree to more than doubling the sportsbook tax from 15 percent to 35 percent. Pritzker proposed the hike as part of $898 million in new taxes, including taking $45 from the average family’s income taxes, to balance his record $52.7 billion budget for 2025.

Most Republicans consulted here to agree the GOP needs to adjust its strategy in 2026, no matter who the Democratic candidate for Governor may be.

Chicago and Cook County voters didn’t entirely reject the president — he still won 90% of Chicago votes cast in the Democratic presidential primary and 92 percent in suburban Cook County. He also won Illinois resoundingly and will almost certainly take the state in November.

Pritzker is leaning into the promise he made when running for governor that he’d be the state’s chief marketing officer. Illinois needs to rev up its economic development game to reverse stubborn population and job-growth trends that have been a drag.

While more migrant spending is on the table, lawmakers are also considering legislation that would expand migrant workers’ rights and eligibility for certain jobs. A slew of lawmakers are backing legislation preventing immigration-related retaliation in the workplace. House Bill 5071 would allow victims of this retaliation to pursue civil action and receive back pay and other compensatory measures.

“At a time of rising pension costs, along with unfunded mandates placed on local units of government by the state, this proposed elimination of revenues would create an undue hardship on Glen Carbon,” according to the resolution’s verbiage. The village will urge the Illinois General Assembly and Gov. JB Pritzker to protect the sales tax on groceries or to reimburse municipal governments for the totality of lost revenue if it is eliminated, as was done temporarily between July 1, 2022 and June 30, 2023.

“Anything mailed in the city will take one week to deliver but if you want to mail something in the Quad Cities, it has to go on a 50-mile round trip to Des Moines to be processed. Does that make sense? Does that sound more efficient? It doesn’t to me,” U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin said. And U.S. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi said the “Delivering for America” plan is essentially closing post offices.

The cost-savings initiative includes shipping more U.S. jobs to its growing overseas operations, the company said. Illinois is taking the brunt of the shift, with reported job cuts amounting to about 5 percent of TransUnion’s total workforce.

Senate Bill 3646 would limit the hours minors could work, including not working more than 8 hours in a single 24-hour period or more than 3 hours per day or more than 8 hours total of work and school hours on days when school is in session; the new bill would also ensure children 13 and under would not be allowed to get a working permit. Proposed legislation would also provide protections for children who are featured in online content and would require that they receive compensation.