* If they’d just adopt the California statute I don’t think there would be much opposition. And despite what it says in the article, the burden on small companies won’t be light…

The state Senate on Thursday approved the groundbreaking Right to Know Act, a measure that would require online companies such as Google, Facebook and Amazon to disclose to consumers what data about them has been collected and shared with third parties. […]

Major internet companies have been pushing back against the Illinois initiative, ramping up lobbying efforts as the privacy legislation advanced through the Senate, Hastings said. Online trade associations, including CompTIA, the Internet Association and NetChoice, also met with Hastings to voice opposition to the measure. […]

Sen. Chris Nybo, R-Elmhurst, questioned the value to consumers, and the potential burden it might place on e-commerce businesses in Illinois, if it passes into law.

“Every technology company that I’ve spoken to, from Microsoft down to Uber, Lyft … is opposed to this bill,” Nybo said. “People are watching across the country what happens on this bill. I think it sends the wrong message.”

* Oops…

The question of how to fund Illinois schools has become one of the most urgent — yet complicated —issues facing lawmakers.

Last night, as a panel discussed the two proposals pending in the Senate, those two facts were reiterated again and again. The meeting adjourned around 9 pm, after almost three hours of discussion of the bills sponsored by Senators Andy Manar (D-Bunker Hill) and Jason Barickman (R-Bloomington). They agree on the same basic plan, but disagree on how to ensure that no district loses money.

Manar’s plan aims to hold all districts “harmless,” ensuring they get at least as much state funding next year as they received in fiscal year 2017. Barickman’s plan mirrors that concept, with the exception of Chicago Public Schools.

But testimony at the hearing revealed a mistake in the spreadsheet Barickman distributed last week showing outcomes for each district. Jennifer Garrison, superintendent of Sandoval schools, shared a letter from North Berwyn schools superintendent Carmen Ayala, stating that Barickman’s plan (Senate Bill 1124) would cost North Berwyn more than $500,000. That result appears to run counter to the overall goal of both plans — to replace the state’s infamously inequitable school funding structure with a formula that helps poorer districts. The student body at North Berwyn is 87 percent low-income, and more than a quarter of the students are English language learners.

* John O’Connor…

Protesters chained themselves together on the Illinois Capitol steps. Some on hunger strikes, having gone a month without food, sat inside under the dome. Others staged a House-floor sit-in, forming their hands into illuminati pyramids signifying the few at the top commanding the many at the bottom.

And when the civil disobedience dissolved on June 30, 1982, without legislative action, the Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was presumed dead.

But 45 years after Congress approved the ERA and sent it to the states for ratification, Illinois is back at the center of a national movement to revive the issue. An Illinois Senate committee approved the ERA this month, setting up a floor vote not yet scheduled.

* Illinois Review…

Despite threats from the Trump Administration to cut federal law enforcement funding to jurisdictions that refuse to cooperate with federal immigration officials, Illinois is moving towards becoming the nation’s fifth sanctuary state after California, Connecticut, New Mexico and Colorado.

With one vote to spare, the Illinois Senate passed a SB 031 Thursday, which would set Illinois state-funded schools, health care centers and secretary of state facilities as “safe zones” for undocumented immigrants to find protection from federal law enforcement.

In those locations throughout the state, state and local police would be prohibited from arresting persons based on their immigration status - the same practice now in place in the city of Chicago and Cook County.