Plan Would Nearly Double Illinois Tolls

July 30, 2011

To complete tollway projects long on the drawing board, you’ll have to pay for them, officials announced Thursday. Tolls would almost double in a 15-year capital plan that includes extending the Elgin-O’Hare Expressway and building a western bypass around O’Hare International Airport, widening and rebuilding I-90, and building an interchange at I-294 and I-57 in [...]

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Law Raises Funds for Nuclear Safety

July 26, 2011

Gov. Pat Quinn has signed a bill intended to improve safety at the state’s 11 nuclear reactors. Exelon operates all of the reactors. The bill increases the annual fee that the company has to pay per reactor from $1.75 million to $1.9 million. The extra money will be used by the Illinois Emergency Management Agency [...]

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Unions Issue Report, Try to Avoid Layoffs

July 26, 2011

Union leaders issued a report Tuesday that outlines ways Chicago can save $242 million while also saving the jobs of hundreds of city workers whom Mayor Rahm Emanuel has said he must lay off. The union leaders said at a news conference that the report they delivered to Emanuel’s office takes aim at city departments [...]

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Chicago Law Strengthens Child Abduction Penalties

July 23, 2011

In response to a Chicago Tribune investigation that found child predators were rarely caught or incarcerated, Gov. Pat Quinn on Thursday signed a new law aimed at protecting youth by strengthening punishment and supervision of convicted child abductors. Passed by unanimous vote in the Legislature, the law makes it easier for prosecutors to charge strangers [...]

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Arbitrator Rules State Must Pay Workers 2% Raise in Budget

July 19, 2011

Illinois has to follow through on its contract with state workers and pay them a 2 percent raise in the current budget, an arbitrator ruled on Tuesday. Edwin Benn, the arbitrator who heard the case brought by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31, said the state violated its 2008-2012 collective [...]

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Law a Step in Building First Coal Gasification Plant

July 16, 2011

On Wednesday, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn signed legislation that advances a plan to build the state’s first coal gasification plant in Chicago. Leucadia National Corp. is developing the Chicago Clean Energy project, which calls for constructing a $3 billion coal gasification facility on the site of a former LTV Steel plant on Chicago’s southeast side. [...]

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Supreme Court Makes Ruling on Video Poker, Construction Plan

July 12, 2011

Now that the Illinois Supreme Court has blessed the state’s construction plan, Gov. Pat Quinn plans to borrow several billion dollars to pave even more roads, build more schools and launch additional public works projects. The governor hailed Monday’s legal ruling in favor of the state’s six-year, $31 billion program as a big lift because [...]

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Quinn Signs Bill To Prevent Violence Amongst Elementary Students

July 8, 2011

Gov. Pat Quinn has signed legislation that will expand conflict resolution and violence prevention training to students in grades Kindergarten through third. Since 1995, state law has mandated that Illinois schools teach students in grades four through 12 about preventing violence and conflict, but the new legislation has extended that to grades K-3 due to [...]

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It’s Official: Gun Ranges Coming to The City

July 8, 2011

Gun owners can get an injunction against a ban in Chicago on public firing ranges, the 7th Circuit ruled, finding that the Second Amendment challenge shows a strong likelihood of success on the merits. Shortly after the Supreme Court declared Chicago’s handgun ban unconstitutional with the June 2010 decision in McDonald v. Chicago, the City [...]

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City Council Panel OKs Gun Range Ordinance

July 5, 2011

Gun ranges would be free to operate in Chicago, but only in areas zoned for manufacturing under rigid conditions, thanks to a mayoral plan rushed through a City Council committee Tuesday to avoid an adverse court ruling. Two federal lawsuits have been filed challenging the ban on gun ranges in a city whose residents are [...]

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