Stories by Peter Hancock — Capitol News Illinois

At a bill signing ceremony in Schaumburg, Pritzker highlighted three historic sites that were significant in Native American history in Illinois.

A new law in Illinois aims to give former inmates a better chance to succeed outside of prison and reduce the likelihood that they’ll be sent back.

House Bill 2831 codifies an executive order Pritzker signed in 2021 that established the Illinois Interagency Task Force on Homelessness and the Community Advisory Council on Homelessness. It centralizes programs across 17 state departments and agencies to develop and implement a comprehensive plan to combat homelessness. 

The governor’s office said the contract is projected to cost an additional $204 million in the first year and $625 million over four years.

On Friday, Pritzker was in Joliet where he joined other elected officials and local dignitaries to celebrate the grand opening of a new Lion Electric assembly plant, the first new automotive factory in the greater Chicago area since 1965.

The change repeals existing language that allowed factories, refineries, power plants and other facilities to exceed their emission limits during shutdowns, startups, and malfunctions.

At issue is a policy Illinois has had since the 1970s that allows factories, power plants, and other industries with air pollution emission permits to exceed their emission limits during startups, shutdowns, or malfunctions.

The latest version of the plan is the largest multiyear plan in Illinois history. Nearly $41 billion in federal, state and local funds will go toward repairing and upgrading roads, bridges, airports, rail lines and other infrastructure.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Friday signed House Bill 3882, which will phase out the “Temporary Visitor Driver’s License,” or TVDL, which noncitizens currently use to drive legally in Illinois. The new law takes effect July 1, 2024.

The judges on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals are being asked to decide whether Illinois’ recently enacted assault weapons ban violates the Second Amendment’s right to bear arms. 

The measures establish a state-based exchange for policies sold under the Affordable Care Act and give the Illinois Department of Insurance the authority to modify or reject proposed rate increases.

The new law declares it to be the policy of Illinois to “encourage and protect the freedom of libraries and library systems to acquire materials without external limitation and to be protected against attempts to ban, remove, or otherwise restrict access to books or other materials.”

The bill came in response to a flurry of lawsuits filed in recent years in courthouses throughout the state challenging such things as Pritzker’s COVID-19 mitigation orders, a law that would end cash bail, and, most recently, the state’s ban on assault-style weapons and large-capacity magazines.