Ann Williams
“As someone that represents Chicago, it seemed irresponsible to completely overhaul the makeup of the board just months before the election,” state Rep. Ann Williams (D-Chicago) told WTTW News.
New safety requirements for carbon dioxide pipelines as well as a temporary ban on their construction are now in effect after Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a bill that passed the General Assembly earlier this year.
While proponents of carbon capture technology say it is key to addressing climate change, it is often criticized for the risks it brings with it. A pipeline can burst, resulting in a flood of carbon dioxide for miles that can poison those caught in it.
Carbon capture and sequestration technology is used to take carbon dioxide — a powerful greenhouse gas — and move it through pipelines before storing it deep underground. Several groups are pushing for a bill that would regulate the emerging technology at the same time some companies are pitching pipeline projects to state regulators.
Other measures regulate garbage truck littering, allow yoga in schools
Lawmakers passed more than 200 bills this week ahead of their scheduled May 24 adjournment. Many of the measures will soon head to Gov. J.B. Pritzker, including a bill that changes how damages accrue under Illinois’ first-in-the-nation biometric data privacy law.
Tuesday marks the first day board of education candidates can begin to gather the minimum 1,000 signatures they need from neighbors in order to make it on the ballot.
A plan headed to Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s desk will allow voters in November to choose half of the Chicago Board of Education. Johnson will appoint the other half, plus its president.
Chicago is on the path to getting the hybrid school board preferred by Mayor Brandon Johnson, with the Illinois Senate’s begrudging approval of legislation Tuesday finalizing the transition to an elected school board.
State lawmakers left the capitol on Thursday without finalizing a plan to put in motion the 2021 law that seeks to diminish mayoral control over Chicago Public Schools. Competing plans from the state Senate and House are cause of the delay.
The end to mayoral control of the Chicago Board of Education could come sooner than expected.
A year from now, Chicago voters will for the first time decide who will run the city’s schools. But first, Illinois legislators have a lot of decisions to make about how that process will work. Chief among their responsibilities is dividing Chicago into 20 districts.
Oil refineries are discharging toxic pollutants into our waterways and the Great Lakes with little oversight from regulators, according to a new report from the Environmental Integrity Project, a nonpartisan nonprofit group that advocates for enforcement of environmental law
The Illinois House on Wednesday approved legislation that will turn the current seven-member appointed board — the lone appointed school board in the state — into a 21-member body with elections beginning in 2024. Mayor Lori Lightfoot has strongly opposed the bill, calling it “very ill-constructed.”
Lawmakers couldn’t clinch a deal on a comprehensive energy package before their regular session ended in May, but were called back to Springfield on Tuesday to try again. Instead, the Senate adjourned once again without taking action.
On the 50th anniversary of his becoming a state representative, Michael Madigan lost the gavel to Rep. Emanuel “Chris” Welch – making the representative from suburban Hillside the first Black House speaker in state history.
With longtime Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan pausing his campaign for another term as speaker, Democratic members of the Illinois House are scrambling as the other contenders for the job attempt to secure the necessary votes.