* WGLT…

A bill that’s pending in the Illinois Senate and backed by dozens of Central Illinois surgeons is aimed specifically at that latter part: Ensuring that surgical technicians, the right hand of surgeons in the operating room, come from accredited education programs and are nationally certified.

“What is happening is that there are hospitals… who are offering ‘on-the-job’ training and online programs and there is no formal education behind it,” said Melissa Jensen, a surgical technician and Illinois State Assembly board member. “Then, these individuals are getting placed in the OR [operating room], which is a very dangerous, important job.”

The Illinois State Assembly is a professional organization representing surgical technicians across the state, one of 50 similar organizations in the country. It’s also one of several organizations championing Senate Bill 2653, introduced in January, which would require hospitals to hire surgical technicians that have graduated from accredited education programs and have passed a national certifying exam. […]

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, an average of about 8,600 surgical technologists and assistants will open each year over the next decade. Filling them will be the challenge, which is why the Illinois Health and Hospital Association [IHA], an advocacy and membership group for hospitals, said in a statement it opposes the legislation.

“IHA and the hospital community are concerned that SB 2653 increases the regulatory burden on Illinois hospitals and unnecessarily restricts pathways to certification for surgical technologists, which will exacerbate the healthcare worker shortage that plagues Illinois hospitals and presents significant challenges to maintaining health services in communities across Illinois,” the organization said.

* Tribune…

The recent fatal stabbing of a 2-year-old Joliet boy, allegedly at the hands of his 6-year-old brother, has bolstered calls to amend how Illinois’ criminal code handles young children. […]

The 6-year-old boy could be charged with murder because Illinois is one of 24 states without a minimum age for criminal responsibility. […]

A growing body of research on child development supports [Lisa Jacobs’, a law professor at Loyola University Chicago] doubts. Clinical psychologist and attorney Eugene Griffin told the Tribune that the abstract thinking required to conceptualize death and understand what it means to plead guilty doesn’t develop in the average person until age 12. Meanwhile, the area of the brain responsible for decision-making, impulse control and emotional regulation isn’t fully developed until at least 26, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. […]

Shortly after, Griffin was appointed to evaluate his mental fitness to stand trial. The clinical psychologist ultimately found the boy, who was 10 by that time, unfit to stand trial.

Griffin, however, said Illinois’ fitness test is inadequate for assessing children. It is the same test used for adults and has a strong focus on mental illness and intellectual disabilities. Griffin is part of a coalition advocating for a separate fitness standard for minors that considers developmental maturity and traumatic stress.

The bill the coalition has proposed would also limit how many times a child can be evaluated for mental fitness based on the severity of their crime. Currently, any child can be reevaluated every year until they are 21. The boy accused of the 2019 killings and fire was last evaluated in March 2023. He was 13 and living with his grandparents. The case is still ongoing, according to his lawyer, Peter Dluski.

After passing the House 71-38 in 2023, HB1294 was referred to Senate Assignments and has not moved.

* WGLT…

Champaign-Urbana area lawmakers want legislation to ban carbon capture near the Mahomet Aquifer, the massive underground water flow that supplies nearly a million people with drinking water in Central Illinois.

Democratic State Sen. Paul Faraci and Democratic State Rep. Carol Ammons said they will introduce measures preventing carbon dioxide sequestration wells in 14 counties, including McLean. Those wells are supposed to help reduce greenhouse gasses and address climate change.

“This aquifer serves over 100 communities, businesses, industry, and farmers throughout Central Illinois. It is vital to our economy and well being. We need to ban sequestration activities in order to protect the Mahomet Aquifer from contamination in perpetuity,” said Pam Richart, co-director of the advocacy group Eco-Justice Collaborative. […]

“We must protect our water from corporate interests that prioritize profits over people,” said Ammons. “I fought for the sole source designation in 2015, and I’m standing up again to protect our Mahomet Aquifer, which supplies millions of gallons of water daily to our Central Illinois communities.” […]

Ammons and Faraci said the legislation could be introduced as early as next month’s fall veto session of the Illinois General Assembly.

* Cooley…

On August 31, 2024, the California Legislature passed Senate Bill 219, approving certain technical amendments to the climate disclosure requirements under Senate Bill 253 (greenhouse gas, or GHG, emissions) and Senate Bill 261 (climate risk), the most notable of which gave the California Air and Resources Board (CARB) an additional six months (until July 1, 2025) to issue implementing regulations for SB 253, but left the reporting deadlines in both laws unchanged. Covered entities now have greater certainty around timing and when to expect implementation guidance, but will have to wait longer for the substantive regulations themselves. […]

HB 4268, first read in the Illinois Legislature in January 2024, closely tracks the requirements of California’s SB 253. Known as the Climate Corporate Accountability Act, HB 4268 requires public and private US companies doing business in Illinois with greater than $1 billion in total annual revenue to annually disclose and verify Scopes 1 and 2 emissions for the prior calendar year starting on January 1, 2025. Under HB 4268, Scope 3 emissions reporting would be due no later than 180 days after Scopes 1 and 2 emissions are disclosed. The bill also provides that the secretary of state will contract with an emissions registry to develop and adopt rules related to the implementation, timing and oversight of the bill’s reporting requirements.

HB 4268 was referred to the Illinois House Rules Committee on January 16, 2024, but so far has not received consideration by any policy committee. Illinois’s General Assembly is now in recess and will reconvene in November 2024, but there is currently no indication that the bill will be taken up for consideration at that time.