“You don’t get everything done in one year,” Gov. JB Pritzker said during a post-session news conference when asked about several of his initiatives that failed to pass this year. “Sometimes they (lawmakers) spend two years, four years, six years, trying to get something big done.”

SPRINGFIELD – While Illinois State Police has long investigated child sex crimes, a new measure would explicitly name addressing internet crimes against children as a core mission of its criminal division.

Senate Bill 1181 explicitly adds news media as an entity protected under the state’s Citizen Participation Act, which prohibits “strategic lawsuits against public participation.”

Lawmakers voted along party lines Saturday to pass House Bill 3363, which would create the “Office of State Public Defender” that would primarily be responsible for providing public defender offices around the state with more resources.

The ban was supposed to take effect on July 1, but lawmakers voted with strong bipartisan majorities Sunday morning to pass House Bill 742 to push the ban back until July 2026.

Despite desire from Native Americans in Illinois, the ban on Native imagery for mascots in K-12 schools stalled in the Senate after it made its way out of the House.

The Hair Braiding Opportunity Act would have amended the Barber, Cosmetology, Esthetics, Hair Braiding, and Nail Technology Act of 1985 to strike a 300-hour training requirement, $30 initial licensing fee and $5,000 penalty for practicing without a license for hair braiders.

Illinois lawmakers worked right up to the May 31 deadline to pass a $55.2 billion spending plan for the upcoming fiscal year. State Democrats say the plan accounts for an uncertain future, while Republicans say more cuts are needed to address what’s ahead.

A version of the bill passed in the Senate, sponsored by Sen. Ram Villivalam, D-Chicago. But the House adjourned early Sunday morning without concurring as some of its tax hikes became too controversial. Now, the future of Chicagoland transit is in limbo as the bill awaits further action.

The $55.2 billion spending plan is supported by $55.3 billion of revenue, including just over $1 billion in new taxes and revenue changes. The four bills making up the budget and capital spending plan were part of a flurry of thousands of pages of legislation that went from introduction to passage in the final 48 hours of the legislative session.

The bill, known as the Prescription Drug Affordability Act would put new regulations and impose new fees on a large but little understood segment of the prescription drug industry — pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs.

The bill would legalize the use of prescription drugs that aid in dying, what’s commonly referred to as physician-assisted suicide.

The bill mandates that gun owners store their firearms in a secure, locked box in any place where they know or “reasonably should know” that a minor without permission to access a firearm, an at-risk person or someone who is prohibited from obtaining a firearm can access the weapon.

The measure, filed late Wednesday night, features a new menu of revenue sources to help keep Chicago-area buses and trains running. Lawmakers believe the measure will be enough to address the anticipated $770 million fiscal cliff next year.

In the backstretch of the legislative session, horse racing advocates are pushing to revitalize the industry in Illinois and its accompanying horse betting, both long in decline.

The bill would allow trained library workers to administer opioid antagonists to potential overdose victims on library grounds, in the immediate vicinity of libraries and at library events.