The law gives state-operated facilities one year to implement the necessary infrastructure to serve halal and kosher meals. Illinois has one of the largest per capita Jewish and Muslim populations in the country.

State Rep. Maurice West chairs the House Elections and Ethics Committee. He said he’s willing to have a conversation about ethics legislation, but doesn’t want to dwell on Michael Madigan. “Doing the right thing does yield dividends, however, Madigan is behind us now,” said West. ‘Let’s move forward, that’s how I feel about it.”

Minooka Mayor Ric Offerman said Equinix could bring hundreds of permanent jobs to the village of 13,000 people 40 miles southwest of Chicago. It could bring in tens of millions in added tax dollars each year, even after an abatement the company is seeking. And unlike a proposed Canadian National Railway terminal nearby, Offerman said the data center wouldn’t flood Minooka’s central commercial district with hundreds of thousands of diesel trucks each year.

From a $140.3 million school construction plan in far Western Kane County to establishing a mental health board in Palatine Township, voters will weigh in on various issues during the upcoming election.

Once held up by Democrats statewide as a beacon of progressive governance protecting some of Illinois’ most vulnerable residents, the Health Benefits for Immigrant Adults program has been put on the chopping block by the governor due to ballooning costs in the face of a massive overall budget shortfall.

The law in question, the Illinois Human Rights Act, was amended as of Jan. 1 to prohibit discrimination based on a person’s “reproductive health decisions,” including abortion, contraception, and fertility treatments. The law provides no religious exemption for pro-life organizations evaluating employees on reproductive matters.

The county school facilities sales tax is a one-percent tax on prepared foods and entertainment that will go to fund important school upgrades. The money can be used for facility upgrades, school safety and mental health support. Currently, schools depend on property taxes and loans to fund those projects.

After legislators ignored protections to the Mahomet Aquifer last year, a bill to protect the supply from carbon sequestration is advancing at the Illinois Statehouse.

“Chicago politics wasn’t a cloistered convent. It was and remains a place of thieves protected by the laws and regulations that they themselves controlled. It is a Democrat Barter Town and like all such towns it is hell bent on strangling itself.”

“What the universities did was pure gangsta. They clearly out-muscled the governor.”

All of the House Republican ethics proposals will be sent back to the House Rules Committee, or effectively killed, unless Democratic leaders extend the deadline for bills to be discussed in committee. The House Ethics & Elections Committee has only discussed elections bills during several subject matter hearings since session started in January.

This law will require the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency to conduct statewide samplings of certain community water supplies to assess the levels of dangerous chemicals.

The governor used a statewide tour this past week to present a path forward for national Democrats struggling to unify around a strategy to counter the Republican president, highlighting the effects of Trump’s early actions in Illinois. The three-day swing included meeting with farmers in a central Illinois barn to discuss agriculture and with older adults in suburban Chicago who are concerned about Social Security cuts.

Residents say that more than 180,000 people in District 15 are enrolled in Medicaid. “We would think that Rep. (Mary) Miller would want to reassure her constituents that hopefully their benefits will remain. But we’ve not heard anything back. The lack of care…it’s hard to see,” Jacksonville Indivisible Illinois member and resident Tabitha Carden said.