Springfield News
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As the number of local law enforcement agencies joining forces with video doorbell company Ring grows, two Illinois Democrats urged lawmakers to act to prevent what they called “warrantless searches.”
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Companies who do business with the state risk having their $50,000 or larger contracts automatically voided and be barred from bidding on state projects if a firm makes three or more campaign contributions to Illinois’ executive officers within a 36-month period.
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Senior officials from Illinois’ largest utility companies are split on whether Illinois should create a brand-new market to allow energy providers to sell power to the state.
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Although it has been a relatively mild winter in Illinois and natural gas prices are low, residents gas bills haven’t budged — due in part to the cost of ongoing efforts to replace decades-old natural gas pipes.
A crew works in 2015 to replace a gas line in Portage Park. [Heather Cherone/DNAinfo Chicago]
A years-long dispute over the pipe replacement project between consumer groups and the utility companies heated up this week with the introduction of two bills.
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State Rep. Allen Skillicorn (R-East Dundee)
Legislative Inspector General Carol Pope on Tuesday determined State Rep. Allen Skillicorn (R-East Dundee) was actually marching in the Harvard Milk Days Parade when he was recorded as voting on 23 bills in the House chamber on the last day of session in June.
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A bill tabled at the 11th hour a year ago in order to ensure Republican support for the state’s operating budget and infrastructure plan has reemerged in Springfield, and has a new opponent: farmers.
State Sen. Mike Hastings said SB 1407 is needed to protect firms from hiring out-of-state workers. [Hannah Meisel/The Daily Line; submitted]
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House Republicans blasted Democrats on Tuesday for leaving GOP ideas out of a draft report from the House Property Tax Relief Task Force and declining to co-sponsor Republican bills members say would chip away at Illinois’ highest-in-the-nation property taxes.
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Local governments are once again asking lawmakers to restore the share of income taxes municipalities receive from Illinois’ income tax back to 10 percent — a figure cities and towns haven’t seen in a decade — as part of the Illinois Municipal League’s legislative platform for the General Assembly’s spring session.
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Advocates behind Illinois’ 2017 automatic voter registration law on Friday sued Secretary of State Jesse White and the Illinois State Board of Elections, slamming officials for “bungling” the law’s implementation and violating the federal Voting Rights Act.
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Illinois allows lawmakers to hold more than one elected office, as long the two positions don’t conflict — but no one is keeping an eye on whether officials are following those rules, members of the Joint Commission on Ethics and Lobbying Reform heard Thursday.
