* Pantagraph…

Legislation that creates a state regulatory framework for carbon capture and storage projects, plus a moratorium on pipeline construction, is now headed to Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s desk.

The bill cleared the Illinois House with a 78-29 vote Saturday, received the OK from the Illinois Senate on a 43-12-2 roll call on Sunday and now only needs Pritzker’s signature to become law.

The governor, in a statement Sunday evening, said he looked forward to signing the legislation “as soon as possible.”

Its passage builds on the state’s existing energy laws, he said, “by setting nation-leading safety and environmental standards around carbon capture and sequestration while bringing thousands of new jobs and billions of dollars in investment to Illinois.”

* WCIA…

A bill is heading to Governor Pritzker’s desk that would protect people from retaliation by their landlords. But not everyone is on board with it.

The Landlord Retaliation Act would prohibit landlords from knowingly terminating or refusing to renew a lease, increasing rent, decreasing service or threatening a lawsuit after tenants seek assistance to ensure their housing is safe and habitable. Protected actions by the tenant include:

- Making a requests for repairs
- Making a complaint of code violations
- Organizing a union or being a member of one
- Testifying in an official proceeding
- Seeking assistance from elected officials
- Exercising any other right provided by law

“With fear of retaliation, tenants would rather stay in inadequate living conditions than speak up – this cannot continue,” said State Senator Karina Villa (D-West Chicago), the bill’s chief sponsor in the Senate. “Tenants spend their hard earned money on rent. At minimum, they should be confident when taking actions to ensure that their home is properly maintained.”

“These unjust methods of retaliation lead to housing instability, financial insecurity and ultimately homelessness which further harms our communities,” Villa added. “It is the responsibility of landlords to maintain a property and we must protect tenants who are simply holding their landlords accountable.”

* Capitol News Illinois…

In the final days of their spring legislative session, Democrats in the General Assembly advanced measures aimed at expanding and protecting aspects of maternal and women’s health care.

If signed into law, the measures would expand insurance coverage of pregnancy and postpartum services, maintain abortion as a viable treatment option for women experiencing certain emergencies, and regulate how providers and authorities can keep and use abortion patient data.

Proponents claim House Bill 5142 will improve maternal and neonatal health outcomes by providing coverage for pregnancy and postpartum support services – like doulas, midwives, home births, lactation consultants, breastfeeding supplies and more. […]

The Senate approved the bill along party lines Thursday, 40-19, sending it back to the House, where it passed 70-35 on Saturday.

* Sen. Celina Villanueva…

State Senator Celina Villanueva passed a measure to preserve lifesaving reproductive health care as anti-choice action threatens to infringe on people’s rights.

“It is imperative that Illinois continues to shield itself against these persistent anti-choice attacks,” said Villanueva (D – Chicago). “This pending Supreme Court ruling threatens access to vital life-saving care for women throughout Illinois and beyond by limiting medically necessary services.”

House Bill 581 would protect Illinois patients from another likely Supreme Court rollback of reproductive rights by ensuring Illinois hospitals must provide any medically necessary services—including abortion services—to stabilize a patient at risk of severe injury or death.

While this is currently federal law, the Supreme Court’s anti-choice majority is expected to rule as early as this June in Moyle v. Idaho. This case questions whether Idaho’s total abortion ban is exempt from the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act. Idaho has argued that it should be exempt, an argument that, if upheld, could undermine critical patient protections in cases of severe pregnancy complications. If the Supreme Court again strikes down federal protections for patient health, House Bill 681 would ensure these protections remain in place in Illinois and would impose civil penalties on hospitals that refuse to provide lifesaving abortion procedures.

“I am committed to maintaining and reinforcing the measures that ensure the well-being and inalienable rights of women in Illinois,” said Villanueva. “The delicate process of bringing life into this world is already unpredictable. We must safeguard the legal protections to offer lifesaving emergency services.”

House Bill 581 passed the Senate Sunday and heads to the governor’s desk for further consideration.

* News Nation Now…

Illinois could soon join a handful of states with digital IDs and driver’s licenses.

House Bill 4592, introduced by Rep. Kam Buckner (D-Chicago), passed by a unanimous vote in the state senate Friday. The bill cleared the state House of Representatives earlier this week and now heads to Gov. JB Pritzker for his signature.

The legislation would not eliminate physical driver’s licenses but would allow the state to offer them as a companion to a physical card.

Several states, including Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, and Utah already have digital IDs.

* Southland Journal…

The Illinois General Assembly passed legislation to protect workers from unwanted or offensive political and religious speech unrelated to job performance. If signed, Illinois would be the 8th state to enact legislation with these protections. The bill had the support of a diverse group of stakeholders, including the Illinois AFL-CIO, Chicago Federation of Labor, Equality Illinois, Planned Parenthood, Citizen Action, Women Employed, Shriver Center on Poverty Law, and Raise the Floor Alliance.

“Captive audience meetings are a direct violation of workers’ rights. They force our most vulnerable employees to choose between their job and personal values,” stated Illinois AFL-CIO President Tim Drea. “Employers are increasingly using the workplace to advance their political and religious interests, and this creates an atmosphere ripe for coercion. The Worker Freedom of Speech Act ensures that workers are protected when choose to walk away from these meetings.”

The Worker Freedom of Speech Act is designed to prohibit employers from threatening, disciplining, firing, or otherwise retaliating against workers who refuse to attend mandatory workplace meetings focused on communicating opinions on political or religious matters. It will not prevent employers from holding meetings, only protect workers who choose not to engage in matters unrelated to their work.

“The Illinois General Assembly did the right thing today by taking a stand to protect workers from captive audience meetings,” remarked Cherita Ellens, President and CEO of Women Employed. “Coercive speech causes particular harm for groups of workers who are already vulnerable to discrimination and unfair treatment at work—including Black, Latinx, LGBTQ+, and disabled workers. Today’s passage of the Illinois Worker Freedom of Speech Act lets working people know that they are valued, and that Illinois will not tolerate employer abuses.”

* It’s just a bill. Capitol News Illinois…

The Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation is a step closer to acquiring a 1,500-acre state park in DeKalb County, much of which was once part of a reservation that was illegally seized from the tribe in the mid-19 th century.

As the Senate worked through its last stack of bills Sunday before planning to adjourn for the summer, it voted 49-7 to pass Senate Bill 867, which authorizes deeding the property to the tribe for $1.

“Rarely do we get to make amends for the sins of our collective past,” Sen. Mark Walker, D-Arlington Heights, the bill’s chief sponsor, said on the Senate floor. “As you might expect, this bill is to repair the 150 years we have suffered with a moral wound.”

The Prairie Band Potawatomi were originally granted a reservation of roughly two square miles – about 1,280 acres – in the 1829 Treaty of Prairie du Chien. But around 1849, Chief Shab-eh-nay traveled west to northeast Kansas, where many other members of the tribe had relocated. While he was gone, the federal government declared the reservation land abandoned and sold it at public auction.