* Fran Eaton’s latest column talks about a bill introduced by Rep. Darlene Senger which would’ve required much stricter standards at abortion clinics…

State Rep. Darlene Senger (R-Naperville) found Illinois’ law to be inadequate concerning standards for abortion clinics. Senger’s concern about women’s safety caused her to introduce a bill that would have raised those standards.

Senger said this week she’s giving up on the bill, however, HB 3156 would have required a facility performing more than 50 abortions a year to install a statutory number of scrub stations and halls and doors wide enough for patient ambulance gurneys in case of emergencies. It also would have required that ceilings be washable in the procedure and recovery rooms and proper ventilation be available and working.

“Surgical outpatient centers are built for surgery, and that means if something goes wrong, they’re equipped to deal with it,” she said.

Sounds reasonable, doesn’t it? Who wouldn’t want basic, fundamental health care facility requirements for abortion clinics?

Except she left something out of her column about why Rep. Senger withdrew the bill. Eaton did include some of that reasoning in a post at Illinois Review…

Democrat State Rep. Elaine Nekritz (a beneficiary of Personal PAC money) filed a hostile amendment that she knew would kill Senger’s requirement as soon as she added it to the bill. Nekritz muddied the issue of women’s health by expanding the scope of the regulations in order to bring into the debate the powerful Illinois Medical Society lobby, which has often been a partner with the pro-abortion industry in Illinois; and a major contributor to many state legislators.

So, thanks to Rep. Nekritz’ efforts the legislation has been stopped.

But she still didn’t explain what actually happened. As I’ve already told subscribers, Nekritz’s hostile amendment would require all clinics to abide by the higher standards that Senger wanted to impose only on abortion clinics. Rep. Nekrtiz’s rationale was if they want to increase standards for abortion clinics, why shouldn’t all clinics fall under the stricter regulations?

And that was what brought the Illinois State Medical Society into the debate. Senger withdrew from the fight because she knew she couldn’t beat the docs.

* From Greg Hinz…

A dispute over who ought to distribute beer and perhaps other drinks in Illinois is building a big froth in Springfield, with Anheuser-Busch Cos., the company that just bought Chicago’s Goose Island brewery, hiring some very heavy lobbying talent.

In the past couple of days, Anheuser-Busch has retained recently retired state Rep. James DeLeo, a close ally of state Senate President John Cullerton; and Tom Taylor, the lobbying partner of former Senate GOP staff chief Carter Hendren.

A little earlier in the session, Anheuser-Busch hired Michael Thomson and Michael McClain, both of whom previously served as top aides to House Speaker Mike Madigan, as well as former state Liquor Control Commission chief William O’Donaghue.

Springfield insiders say that Anheuser-Busch — whose lobbyists failed to return phone calls — clearly wants to cut out the middle man in Illinois’ odd liquor distribution system, in which companies that sell the product must use a wholesaler to get it to their customers.

The reason for all this is that a federal judge ruled that the state cannot allow Illinois craft brewers to self distribute their product and at the same time not allow anybody else to do so.

The General Assembly is now attempting to work out a compromise (allowing out of state craft brewers into the game and setting limits on how much they can distribute) while attempting to maintain the traditional “three-tiered” system of brewers, distributors and servers. But that ain’t easy because the microbrewers want in on the action and the big brewers are always hovering above while the distributors are attempting to protect their turf.

The judge said he’d wait to see what the Legislature does before issuing a final ruling. There’s probably no way that the Legislature will allow Anheuser-Bush into the distributing business (the beer distributors are major heavy hitters), so I’m told the brew magnate likely wants to kill off any attempt at finding a Statehouse resolution. Gridlock would send the matter back to the court, which could then result in a very big win for A-B. They already own 30 percent of a distributor here, and they want to buy the whole thing.

* John Bambenek has an e-mail that was sent out by the Illinois Department of Public Health last week which claims that Bank of America is canceling credit cards used by state employees…

Folks:

Not to send panic, but just a heads up to each of you as to what’s happening.

Bank of America is cancelling the contract with the State of Illinois effective April 22, 2011. They will not do another contract extension for the State of Illinos. So what does that mean? On April 23, 2011 at 12:01 a.m., the cards currently held by IDPH employees will no longer be valid. The State has been trying to finda new vendor, encourage BoA to give us a few more months, but as of this writing has been unsuccessful on all fronts. So what does this mean to our travelers? Most establishments will not direct bill especially conferences, (prior approval needed by travel office for this process) so persons required to travel will have to put charges on their personal charge cards or set aside personal funds on prepaid travel card, or pay cash out of pocket. For those who are non-GRF [General Revenue Fund] this should be not big deal, but to those traveling on GRF, this could have an impact.

One additional details are received. I will share that information with you so that you can share with our travelers.

Unti then . . . this is just a heads up!!!!

I’m checking on this one.

*** UPDATE *** From the administration…

The statewide contract with Bank of America for state employee travel credit cards has not been canceled, but is expiring April 21, 2011.

Official notice is here.