* WCIA…
Republican lawmakers are working to make mishandling human remains a crime after a central Illinois funeral home mishandled dozens of cremains last year.
A new bill filed in the Capitol Tuesday would make it a class 4 felony for mishandling human remains by providing misidentified or inaccurately identified cremains to individuals. The bill is filed by Sen. Steve McClure (R-Springfield), and supported by Rep. Mike Coffey (R-Springfield) and Rep. Wayne Rosenthal (R-Morrisonville).
If someone is convicted of a class 4 felony, they would face at least one year but no longer than 3 years in prison. […]
Last year, the Sangamon County Coroner Jim Allmon announced his office was opening an investigation into Heinz Funeral Home/Family Care Cremations in Carlinville after almost 80 families were given the wrong cremains. August Heinz, the funeral director for Heinz, has since had his license for embalming and funeral directing revoked by the state.
* HB4840 from Rep. Kelly Cassidy…
Amends the Charter Schools Law of the School Code. Provides that an initial charter shall be granted for a period of no more than 3 school years (instead of for a period of 5 school years). Provides that a charter may be renewed in incremental periods not to exceed 3 (instead of 10) school years. Makes conforming changes. Amends the Chicago School District Article of the School Code. Specifies that nothing in the provisions concerning a moratorium on school closings, consolidations, and phase-outs affects the Chicago Board of Education’s ability to not renew its authorization of a charter or contract school.
* Rep. Maurice West filed HB4816…
Creates the Pretrial Success Act. Provides that the Department of Human Services has grant making, operational, and procurement authority to distribute funds to local government health and human services agencies, community-based organizations, and other entities necessary to execute the functions under the Act. Provides that subject to appropriation, the Department shall issue grants to local governmental agencies and community-based organizations to maximize pretrial success each year. Provides that grants shall be awarded no later than October 1, 2024. Provides that grants in subsequent years shall be issued on or before September 1 of the relevant fiscal year and shall allow for pre-award expenditures beginning July 1 of the relevant fiscal year. Provides that each judicial circuit with a population of at least 250,000 constitutes a service area. Provides that each judicial circuit with populations of less than 250,000 shall be combined with at least one other geographically contiguous judicial circuit to constitute a service area with a population of at least 250,000. Provides that resources for each service area shall be distributed based on maximizing the total potential pretrial success. Subject to appropriation, the minimum annual grant amount awarded in each service area shall be $300,000. Provides that beginning in fiscal year 2027 and subject to appropriation, grants shall be awarded for a project period of 3 years, contingent on Department requirements for reporting and successful performance. Provides that organizations receiving grants under the Act shall provide the following services directly or through subgrants to other organizations:(1) case management for mental health and substance use disorders; (2) detoxification or referral to detoxification when clinically indicated and available in the community; (3) medication assisted treatment or referral to medication assisted treatment when clinically indicated and available in the community; (4) child care to remove barriers to court appearances; and (5) transportation to court appearances if not available through the Office of Statewide Pretrial Services or other court stakeholders. Effective immediately.
* HB4828 from Rep. Kevin Olickal…
Creates the Isolated Confinement Restriction Act. Provides that the Act may be referred to as the Nelson Mandela Act. Provides that, except as otherwise provided in the Act, the use of isolated confinement in correctional facilities in the State shall be restricted as follows: (1) a committed person may not be placed in isolated confinement for more than 10 consecutive days; (2) a committed person may not be placed in isolated confinement for more than 10 days in any 180-day period; and (3) while out of cell, committed persons may have access to activities, including, but not limited to: job assignments, educational classes, vocational classes, meals, recreation, yard or gymnasium, day room, bathing facilities, medical appointments, visits, and group therapy. Provides that a committed person in protective custody may opt out of that status by providing informed, voluntary, written refusal of that status. Provides that nothing in the Act is intended to restrict any rights or privileges a committed person may have under any other statute, rule, or regulation. Provides that the Department of Corrections shall post on the Department’s official website quarterly reports on the use of isolated confinement. Provides that these reports shall not include personally identifiable information regarding any committed person. Defines terms. Amends the Unified Code of Corrections to make conforming changes. Effective immediately.
* HB4835 from Rep. Anna Moeller…
Creates the Safety Moratorium on Carbon Dioxide Pipelines Act. Establishes a temporary statewide moratorium on construction of carbon dioxide pipelines until the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration has adopted revised federal safety standards for transportation of carbon dioxide and the State has commissioned and finalized a relevant study regarding the safety setbacks required in the event of pipeline rupture or leak. Requires the State study to include input from first responders, to analyze pipeline ruptures or leaks in a variety of settings, and to recommend setbacks and funding based on that analysis. Provides that pending applications for carbon dioxide pipelines shall be held in abeyance. Provides for expiration of the temporary moratorium after 4 years, or when new safety standards are established, or upon enactment of a law that meets certain criteria. Makes legislative findings. Defines terms. Effective immediately.
* WGEM…
During a rally outside the capitol Tuesday, lawmakers officially announced they’ll be filing a bill requiring every worker be paid at least full state minimum wage.
State Rep. Lisa Hernandez, D-Cicero, and state Sen. Lakesia Collins, D-Chicago, will be the primary House and Senate sponsors. The bill is expected to be officially filed later this week.
Tipped workers make only 60% of the state’s minimum wage. That’s $8.40 of the $14 per hour state-mandated minimum for most workers. Those figures will go up to $9 and $15 in 2025. Employees under 18 working less than 650 hours annually also can make less. Their minimum wage is $12 per hour. It will go up to $13 per hour in 2025.
The proposal would standardize the state’s minimum wage, raising youth and tipped workers to the full minimum wage.
* Capitol News Illinois…
Families of gun violence victims are asking the state legislature to reform how police handle unsolved murder investigations through legislation introduced this week.
House Bill 4753, sponsored by Rep. Kam Buckner, D-Chicago, would establish a procedure for families to request a review of “open unresolved murders” or cold cases.
Buckner, whose uncle died in a yet-unsolved shooting, said the bill began as a “passion project” in 2019 that has gained new momentum since several advocacy groups have begun supporting it. […]
Another bill from Buckner, House Bill 4754, would require law enforcement agencies to publish monthly data on how many homicides occurred and how many homicides were “cleared” through an arrest or were otherwise closed.
* Press release…
Today, standing with gun violence survivors with unsolved cases with the Everytown Survivor Network and Moms Demand Action, Representative Kam Buckner introduced House Bill 4753, the Homicide Victims’ Families Rights Act. HB 4753 would allow the surviving family members of cold case victims to seek new investigations. HB 4754, the Homicide Data Transparency Act was also introduced, which will require all law enforcement agencies in Illinois to publish monthly clear and transparent data in regard to homicides and their subsequent investigations. These bills honor gun violence survivors and families impacted by gun violence by addressing cold case clearance rates.
“Too many mothers across the United States have had their children taken by gun violence, and far too many like myself wait year after year while never getting answers or seeing justice served,” said Valerie Burgest, a deputy lead volunteer with the Illinois chapter of Moms Demand Action and Senior Fellow with the Everytown Survivor Network whose son, Craig Williams, was shot and killed at a store in 2013. His murder remains unsolved. “Having closure is incredibly important for healing and breaking cycles of violence. We need to pass HB 4753 to empower survivors of unsolved shootings immediately.”
Solving gun crimes is an important component in preventing gun violence, building community trust with law enforcement, and providing a measure of justice for survivors and family members who have had loved ones taken by gun violence. Nationally, nearly half of murders and non-negligent homicides go unsolved. In 2021 in Chicago, which had its deadliest year in more than a quarter century, about half of homicides were cleared. But less than half of those cleared homicides ended with an arrest.
Research consistently shows that homicides committed with a gun take longer to solve and are solved less often than when committed with other weapons. Further, firearm homicide clearance rates have dropped 20 percent from the 1980s, while non-firearm homicide clearance rates have improved by 11 percent, suggesting the police are increasingly less effective at solving fatal shootings. Additionally, cases are less likely to be solved when the victim of gun violence is Black and/or Latinx.
* HB4839 from Rep. Laura Faver Dias…
Creates the Protecting Illinois Native Landscapes Act. Provides that a unit of local government may not enact or enforce an ordinance or resolution that prohibits or unreasonably restricts an owner, authorized agent, or authorized occupant of privately owned residential land or a premises from allowing Illinois native species to voluntarily grow within the landscape or to install and maintain Illinois native species within a managed native landscape. Provides that native landscaping that may not be prohibited includes small or large areas of native landscaping in the front, back, or side yard or in areas that do not fit a standard definition of yard, such as areas on farms, rural properties, corporate campuses, school campuses, and large estates. Excludes from the scope of the Act an ordinance or resolution of a unit of local government that prohibits plants, trees, or other landscaping from interfering with public transportation, vehicular traffic, or driveway or entrance road sight lines or from crossing sidewalks or property boundaries. Limits the concurrent exercise of home rule powers.
* SB3140 from Sen. Dale Fowler…
Amends the Firearm Concealed Carry Act. Provides that the prohibition against a licensee carrying a firearm into any building, parking area, or portion of a building under the control of an officer of the executive or legislative branch of government does not apply to any rest areas under the control of the Department of Transportation or to buildings located in rest areas under the control of the Department of Transportation. Eliminates a provision that a licensee shall not knowingly carry a firearm on any bus, train, or form of transportation paid for in whole or in part with public funds, and any building, real property, and parking area under the control of a public transportation facility paid for in whole or in part with public funds. Eliminates a provision that a licensee shall not knowingly carry a firearm in any public park, athletic area, or athletic facility under the control of a municipality or park district. Effective immediately.
* Rep. Rita Mayfield filed HB4819 yesterday…
Amends the Unified Code of Corrections. Provides that the Department of Corrections shall provide lactation or nursing mothers rooms for personnel of the Department. Provides that these rooms shall be used exclusively for nursing mothers. The rooms shall be provided in each facility of the Department that employs nursing mothers. Specifies the requirements for the lactation or nursing mothers rooms.
- up2now - Wednesday, Feb 7, 24 @ 9:36 am:
Re: raising the minimum wage for tipped workers. Dining out already is prohibitively expensive. What’s this going to do to the coat of a meal? Welcome the $20 Big Mac combo meal to Illinois!
- Free Market - Wednesday, Feb 7, 24 @ 9:39 am:
Have these people been to a restaurant and seen the prices lately? I guess when lobbyists buy most of your dinner you don’t care what it costs.
- The Dude Abides - Wednesday, Feb 7, 24 @ 9:52 am:
Re: Free Market
Tipping culture needs to go away, along with the raising of restaurant employees’ hourly wages.
- Donnie Elgin - Wednesday, Feb 7, 24 @ 10:00 am:
“Amends the Firearm Concealed Carry Act”
Common Sense legislation to allow trained and licensed CCL holders to carry at interstate rest stops and public transportation.
- Give Us Barabbas - Wednesday, Feb 7, 24 @ 10:12 am:
Had a bad experience with cremation in our family last year; got ripped off by an internet based outfit called Legacy cremations. They pretend to be an Illinois company but they are out of Florida, where the feds sued them for a bunch of scary stuff including lost remains, remains held hostage for additional payments, and bodies diverted from cremation to sale for medical cadavers with no notice to the family. They “lost “ my mom’s body for months, and couldn’t provide me with the death certificates necessary for handling all the estate paperwork, and no Illinois government agency we asked could help. Until an angel from Comptroller Mendoza’s staff not only recovered mom from a literal storage limbo, but brought her ashes and that critical paperwork to my doorstep. We were lucky but others were not. Beware internet based cremation outfits called Legacy or Heritage.
- vern - Wednesday, Feb 7, 24 @ 10:13 am:
I love the pair of bills from Buckner. “Solve more crimes” is the lowest hanging fruit for improving public safety, police-community relations, and the well being of police officers.
- Rich Miller - Wednesday, Feb 7, 24 @ 10:17 am:
===Welcome the $20 Big Mac combo meal to Illinois! ===
LOL
You think people tip at McDonald’s???
- West Sider - Wednesday, Feb 7, 24 @ 10:23 am:
Give us Barabbas, my deepest condolences for your loss. And three cheers for Mendoza’s staff for coming through for your family in such a difficult situation.
- Demoralized - Wednesday, Feb 7, 24 @ 10:28 am:
==Tipping culture needs to go away, along with the raising of restaurant employees’ hourly wages.==
So get rid of tipping and don’t increase their wages?
- Hannibal Lecter - Wednesday, Feb 7, 24 @ 10:44 am:
I would imagine that servers at higher end, higher quality restaurants will not be happy with this development.
- The Dude Abides - Wednesday, Feb 7, 24 @ 10:46 am:
Re: Demoralized
No - I’m saying both the raising of wages and elimination of tipping should be done simultaneously.
- Demoralized - Wednesday, Feb 7, 24 @ 10:52 am:
ah. OK. Thank you for the clarification.
- Aaron B - Wednesday, Feb 7, 24 @ 10:53 am:
==I would imagine that servers at higher end, higher quality restaurants will not be happy with this development.==
Did I miss something where the new law would say that all servers can only be paid minimum wage? If those restaurants want to keep their servers the same rates then they just have to raise the hourly wage. You know, just like how any other business increases pay to keep employees. Menu prices would be raised to pay for it of course.
- ChrisB - Wednesday, Feb 7, 24 @ 10:55 am:
Contrary to popular thought, raising the subminimum wage and eliminating tipping will be a massive pay cut to a majority of servers and bartenders.
By law, servers must be paid minimum wage if their tips are less than that. In my experience, that never happened, as my tips were always well above the threshold.
- Candy Dogood - Wednesday, Feb 7, 24 @ 11:04 am:
===Have these people been to a restaurant and seen the prices lately?===
I’ve spent my entire adult life adding 15% to 25% to the bill at sit down restaurants because we have a law that allows restaurants to not pay employees a living wage with the expectation that I tip. I’m pretty sure that me feeling obliged or required to tip a server isn’t really a component kf a ‘free market’ because I am not employing that worker to perform the labor. The restaurant is. The restaurant also might be misclassifying work and paying below legal wages to have their server do tasks that should be paid at at least the minimum wage. There’s also the tendency of a restaurant to over staff servers with the result of diminished wages for the server, so you know, maybe we don’t pass all of the risk along to the employee for the restaurant’s benefit.
The idea that the employer can’t tack 10% or 15% or 20% onto their prices to support their staff because it will hurt the business while expecting their customers to do it is ridiculous.
The tip wage in this country is a continuation of abuse and exploitation and should be ended. Let Illinois lead the way.
- Candy Dogood - Wednesday, Feb 7, 24 @ 11:06 am:
===By law, servers must be paid minimum wage if their tips are less than that.===
I bet the compliance with this law is measured as a single digit percentage.
- Friendly Bob Adams - Wednesday, Feb 7, 24 @ 11:10 am:
I doubt most people going to restaurants are aware of the tipped wage issue. Most will probably continue to tip wait staff as usual.
- Homebody - Wednesday, Feb 7, 24 @ 11:14 am:
This may be a dumb general question, but is it common practice in other states to file trial balloon bills that have zero chance of going anywhere? Or to file bills that a specific constituent, donor, or lobbyist asks you to file, even if you are personally opposed to them?
These seem like regular practices in Illinois, but they never made sense to me.
- JB13 - Wednesday, Feb 7, 24 @ 11:16 am:
One of the most endearing features of Illinois is the undying belief that there has never been a regulation, tax, fee, fine, jury award, statutory wage hike, or amount of shoplifting and theft that businesses cannot endure and overcome, because “if you can’t deal with it, you shouldn’t be in business.”
- TJ - Wednesday, Feb 7, 24 @ 11:31 am:
re: mishandling human remains
Sounds all well and good on paper, but considering that the GOP in several other states have charged women that have had miscarriages and the likes under such provisos, I can’t help but think that they will try to sneak in deliberatively coded verbiage in there to try to attack abortion and the likes. When they can’t attack directly, they attack in a roundabout fashion.
- H-W - Wednesday, Feb 7, 24 @ 11:35 am:
Re: “Welcome the $20 Big Mac combo meal to Illinois!”
If the choice is (a) eat cheap and perpetuate poverty and its ancillary social costs, or (b) pay the fair market value of the labor behind my meal and reduce social welfare costs, I choose “b”.
After all, not everyone needs to eat out at restaurants. But everyone does need to be able to afford food.
- ChrisB - Wednesday, Feb 7, 24 @ 11:40 am:
@Candy
Personal experience, but it was literally never an issue for me. Even on slow nights, I always cleared minimum wage. Also, if the restaurant is using an electronic POS system, the CC tips are automatically calculated when the server cashes out, so the server and manager know immediately if minimum wage is hit.
Presumably, the bigger issue is declaring the cash tips for tax purposes. To me, this is a way to tax lower and middle class workers disguised as solving a made up problem.
- Donnie Elgin - Wednesday, Feb 7, 24 @ 11:49 am:
=I doubt most people going to restaurants are aware of the tipped wage issue. Most will probably continue to tip wait staff as usual=
The menu prices will be the tell. Currently, wait staff gets paid via a combo of an hourly wage plus a “voluntary” tip from customers’ pocketbooks. Offer exceptional service you get paid more - give lousy service get paid less. Under the Dem plan the restaurant owner would bear the cost of paying higher wages direly - hence the menu prices will have to go up. Additionally with no incentive to offer better service the overall experience will be diminished.
- Pundent - Wednesday, Feb 7, 24 @ 11:52 am:
=In my experience, that never happened, as my tips were always well above the threshold.=
Maybe on the weekend. In my prior life I worked many a Tuesday and Wednesday nights for next to nothing. And no one should have to go to work wondering if they are going to make enough to survive.
- Friends of Carlos - Wednesday, Feb 7, 24 @ 11:53 am:
-Tipping culture needs to go away-
Try opening up a restaurant with your viewpoint and surviving in the marketplace. It’s easy to talk when you don’t have please consumers.
- Pundent - Wednesday, Feb 7, 24 @ 12:07 pm:
=Additionally with no incentive to offer better service the overall experience will be diminished.=
Nonsense. Offer lousy service and your business will suffer. I’ve travelled to many countries where tipping is not customary and experienced exceptional service. Tipping is nothing more than shifting responsibility for wages to patrons.
- Demoralized - Wednesday, Feb 7, 24 @ 12:09 pm:
==Additionally with no incentive to offer better service the overall experience will be diminished.==
Bull. I’ve dined in countries that don’t have tips and the service isn’t any worse. To suggest that someone is going to offer subpar service because they are now being paid full wages instead of relying on tips is ridiculous.
- btowntruth from forgottonia - Wednesday, Feb 7, 24 @ 12:16 pm:
“Dining out already is prohibitively expensive. What’s this going to do to the coat of a meal? Welcome the $20 Big Mac combo meal to Illinois!”
Ohs noes…..next thing you know they’ll do away with the valet parking….
- Leap Day William - Wednesday, Feb 7, 24 @ 12:18 pm:
Tell that to several breweries, bars, and restaurants around the state who have ditched tipping culture and are doing just fine One of my favorite local breweries 86′d tipping during the pandemic and they’re very much still thriving in their tap room.
- DuPage - Wednesday, Feb 7, 24 @ 12:19 pm:
The moratorium on CO2 pipelines is a good start.
- Leap Day William - Wednesday, Feb 7, 24 @ 12:21 pm:
== Additionally with no incentive to offer better service the overall experience will be diminished.==
This reads like you want to personally be able to withhold someone’s pay because you didn’t like how they performed their job, as if you were their boss. Is this what was meant by conservatives boasting about being “job creators” a few years ago?
- NotRich - Wednesday, Feb 7, 24 @ 12:47 pm:
Rep Kelly C carrying the CTU water. I guess she’s not pro choice when it comes to respecting parental choice on educational decisions.
- EP1082 - Wednesday, Feb 7, 24 @ 1:34 pm:
As a consumer tip or no tip will not matter, eventually it will all get figured out and the total cost will be about the same. As a former tipped restaurant employee I would not want to work restaurant hours (nights & weekends) for a fixed wage. Seems like this is just the groundwork to eventually unionize restaurant workers.
- Skeptic - Wednesday, Feb 7, 24 @ 3:06 pm:
“Creates the Protecting Illinois Native Landscapes Act.” Lawn mower and leaf blower culture needs to go away as well. (When was the last time you were able to sit in your back yard on a beautiful day and not listen to the drone of lawn mower?) I fully support this bill.
- NorthsideNoMore - Wednesday, Feb 7, 24 @ 4:31 pm:
Lots of restaurants are going to “service fee” added to the bill (take a look at your next one). They had to do this, I am told, to get/keep good workers. Times have changed, but I will always tip and recognize good service.
- This will come - Wednesday, Feb 7, 24 @ 4:50 pm:
This will make a dinner out even more expensive….but at least I won’t feel bad when I don’t tip, especially for sub par/poor service.
- JS Mill - Wednesday, Feb 7, 24 @ 6:39 pm:
=parental choice on educational decisions.=
Nobody should be, parents are not experts in: school governance, instruction, instructional strategies, curriculum and assessment, evaluation or any other aspect of what a school does, nor do they have the required licensure.
If you want choice or control over nstruction homeschooling is always available.