Illinois Environmental Council Executive Director Jen Walling speaks at a news conference in Springfield on Tuesday. [Ben Szalinski/The Daily Line] 

With the state’s major climate law now almost three years old, Illinois environmental leaders are setting their sights on new targets to achieve the spirit of the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act (CEJA) by pushing new policies to limit natural gas use in buildings and get more drivers behind the wheel of electric vehicles.  

The Democratic Party of Illinois 

In a little more than 100 days, all eyes of American politics will be on Chicago as the city hosts the 2024 Democratic National Convention (DNC) to nominate President Joe Biden for a second term.  

It’s not new for Illinois Democrats to be in the host seat given Chicago’s rich history of political conventions, but it comes at a time when support for Biden struggles to rise, and many Americans protest the president’s decisions in the Middle East.  

Supporters of the Pretrial Fairness Act celebrate outside the Cook County Courthouse in Chicago on Sept. 18, 2023 as the law took effect. [Ben Szalinski/The Daily Line]

It’s been more than half a year since Illinois became the first state to entirely abolish cash bail and data on the success of the law is slowly trickling in. While more data is needed to make a better assessment of how the law has changed Illinois’ legal system, supporters of the law aren’t seeing any red flags so far.

Rep. Lilian Jimenez (D-Chicago) speaks on the House floor on April 16. [Blue Room Stream]

Legislators want to make mental health professionals that respond with police officers to calls eligible for line of duty benefits in recognition of their work and dangers they too face on calls.  

Rep. Janet Yang Rohr (D-Naperville) speaks on the House floor on April 18. [Blue Room Stream]

The State Board of Education is pushing for Illinois legislators to pass legislation to boost training materials for Illinois teachers to learn more about climate change to teach the subject to their students.

Chicago Bears CEO Kevin Warren speaks at a news conference at Soldier Field on Wednesday. [Ben Szalinski/The Daily Line]  

The Chicago Bears want $2.4 billion from the state of Illinois to build a new stadium and reimagine the current Chicago museum campus and Soldier Field property. But the plan was immediately met with little interest from Springfield’s top policy makers.

Sen. Steve Stadelman (D-Caledonia) speaks at a news conference in January. The graphic on the right shows which counties in Illinois are most deprived of local news, according to the task force report. [Ben Szalinski/The Daily Line]   

The Illinois Senate approved a bill last week that is designed to spark interest from the next group of young journalists and keep newsroom ownership local, though the bill was watered down from a more aggressive version that would have created tax credits for newsrooms.

Rep. Bob Morgan (D-Deerfield) speaks on the House floor on Thursday. [Blue Room Stream]

Small extra fees are everywhere — from credit card processing fees to surcharges on a restaurant check to the various fees that appear when buying airline or event tickets. It’s time to bring those out into the open, Rep. Bob Morgan (D-Deerfield) said.

Members representing pharmacies, pharmacy benefits managers, consumers and state departments participate in the House Healthcare Availability & Accessibility Committee on Monday. [Blue Room Stream]

Health insurance reform has been the dominant issue in Springfield this session and lawmakers are toying with more changes to further regulate pharmacy benefits managers (PBM).

Members of the House are slowing down the process on legislation that had been moving forward from Rep. Thaddeus Jones (D-Calumet City) and spent Monday trying to learn what PBMs do. But the hearing often left more questions than answers about the complex branch of the health insurance industry and was largely missing a key voice on the topic — the PBMs.

The Illinois Capitol   

The House concluded their deadline week to pass bills to the Senate on Friday after passing 324 bills during the week. Measures advanced toward the end of the week included a bill to criminalize AI-generated child pornography, criminalizing sexual acts with an 18-year-old student and a ban on certain large cats and Australian animals as pets.