It’s just a bill
Monday, Mar 9, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Daily Journal…
Proposed legislation in the Illinois Legislature would help bring a natural gas pipeline to Pembroke Township.
Sen. Patrick Joyce, D-Essex, is co-sponsoring Senate Bill 3696, which has been assigned to the Energy and Public Utilities committee.
The bill would allow for the extension of natural gas utility services in designated low-income areas, such as Pembroke. A companion bill is being introduced in the House by Rep. Larry Walsh Jr., D-Elwood.
Local officials, including those from Hopkins Park and Pembroke, are working with the Rainbow PUSH coalition and Nicor Gas to advance the extension of the pipeline since late last year.
* Sun-Times editorial…
A new bill making its way through Springfield would make it tougher for high schools to keep their Native American mascots.
We support the bill in concept, even as its particulars are being worked out.
Not all such mascots are necessarily objectionable, though that’s a judgment better made by Native Americans, not this editorial page. But most of us can readily see why a war-dancing man in a full-feathered headdress and buckskins, or a team name like the “Redskins,” or a grinning “Chief Wahoo” is deeply insulting.
In the 21st century, schools should know better than to promote such stereotypes, and many or most do. But old ideas can die hard and sometimes need a push. A student-led petition drive to scrap the Native American mascot of a Rockford-area high school prompted Rep. Maurice West, D-Rockford, to introduce a bill to provide that push.
* WCIA…
Five-year-old Lily Parlier might just be the youngest lobbyist in the Capitol.
Soon, thanks to her, hospitals will test for spinal muscular atrophy when babies are born. It’s a rare genetic disease that she lives with, but since she wasn’t tested early on, her mom had to wait 11 months before she was diagnosed.
“The prognosis is so much better,” Tracy Parlier said. The interventions will be so much less. They will live, I don’t want to say normal lives, they will still be affected. But the kids that won’t be able to sit up or talk… they are walking or talking.
Those first few months are crucial, and could drastically change a child’s quality of life if treatment starts quickly. That’s why Lily and her mom teamed up with their local lawmaker to fight for the new tests. That passed in 2018, and after a couple years of waiting, representative Dan Swanson announced encouraging news on the house floor on rare disease day at the Capitol.
* More bills…
* Sponsors of vaccine mandate proposals at Illinois statehouse face opposition: State Rep. Darren Bailey, R-Xenia, said he and others throughout the state have concerns about the vaccine bills. “When you start interfering with the parents’ right to raise their child as they see fit, you know, I’ve got a big problem with that,” he said.
* New bill would allow airline employees to take sick time for relatives
* House bill would create statewide drug take-back program
* Press release: Protecting Household Privacy Act Proposed to Regulate Unchecked Home Surveillance by Electronic Smart Devices
* Proposal provides positive payoff for private school teachers
- Ron Burgundy - Monday, Mar 9, 20 @ 11:29 am:
-When you start interfering with the parents’ right to raise their child as they see fit, you know, I’ve got a big problem with that.-
Or not raise them, apparently, if they catch the wrong thing.
- Bourbon Street - Monday, Mar 9, 20 @ 11:33 am:
I had no idea that “parents’ rights to raise their child as they see fit” included the right to expose “their child” and others to highly preventable, communicable diseases that could result in death. Who knew? Thanks for the lesson in Rights That Don’t Exist In Reality, Rep. Bailey. /s
- Perrid - Monday, Mar 9, 20 @ 11:42 am:
“When you start interfering with the parents’ right to raise their child as they see fit, you know, I’ve got a big problem with that,”
Rep Bailey supports child abuse if that’s what the parents believe in, apparently. Give your children adequate medical care, people.
- Cheryl44 - Monday, Mar 9, 20 @ 11:47 am:
People who don’t even try to keep a child safe aren’t parents.
- @misterjayem - Monday, Mar 9, 20 @ 12:03 pm:
As someone who grew up in a school with a Native American mascot, I don’t understand why schools still cling to these outdated stereotypes and caricatures.
– MrJM
- Pot calling kettle - Monday, Mar 9, 20 @ 12:03 pm:
-When you start interfering with the parents’ right to raise their child as they see fit, you know, I’ve got a big problem with that.-
What about a woman’s right to choose whether or not she wishes to have a child? Hmmmmm.
- Stark - Monday, Mar 9, 20 @ 12:04 pm:
We’re going to expand natural gas pipeline in low-income communities, but don’t worry, the only catch is that it will inevitably leak into the local groundwater supply. /s
- Ducky LaMoore - Monday, Mar 9, 20 @ 12:10 pm:
“When you start interfering with the parents’ right to raise their child as they see fit, you know, I’ve got a big problem with that,”
That’s it. Just close down DCFS. Obviously no need for it. I mean really, he must believe that people have the right to treat their children as an incubator for viral mutation that could potentially kill my children and others. More nihilist drivel.
- Demoralized - Monday, Mar 9, 20 @ 12:30 pm:
==When you start interfering with the parents’ right to raise their child as they see fit, you know, I’ve got a big problem with that==
I’ve got a big problem with your unvaccinated kid creating a public health risk. You don’t want to vaccinate your kids? Then keep them at home. I personally believe not vaccinating your kids - barring some medical reason - should be considered withholding medical treatment and child abuse.
- Donnie Elgin - Monday, Mar 9, 20 @ 12:45 pm:
“Not all such mascots are necessarily objectionable, though that’s a judgment better made by Native Americans, not this editorial page.”
I assumed the local School Board would be the best entity to remedy any objectionable mascot issues.
- Ok - Monday, Mar 9, 20 @ 1:21 pm:
Let’s extend that gas line into a low-income community so they can help pay for the $12 billion in pipe replacement throughout the rest of their territory.
They need these new customers for when Evanston, Oak Park, and the North Side of Chicago ban gas pipelines just like Berkeley did.
- All This - Monday, Mar 9, 20 @ 1:28 pm:
== They need these new customers for when Evanston, Oak Park, and the North Side of Chicago ban gas pipelines just like Berkeley did.==
Doubtful this will ever happen.
- Southern Illinois Mayor - Monday, Mar 9, 20 @ 1:41 pm:
Bailey thinks Trump is doing a good job with Coronavirus. Not your best source of medical advice.
- Pot calling kettle - Monday, Mar 9, 20 @ 2:59 pm:
==I assumed the local School Board would be the best entity to remedy any objectionable mascot issues. ==
I assume you are joking.