* HB5876 from Rep. Ryan Spain…

Amends Public Act 103-0589. Increases the Fiscal Year 2025 appropriation to the Department of Agriculture from the Partners for Conservation Fund for grants to Soil and Water Conservation Districts for ordinary and contingent administrative expenses from $4,500,000 to $8,500,000. Effective immediately.

WGLT reported in July that the FY2025 budget included a nearly 50% cut to operating funds for Illinois soil and water conservation districts.

* Chalkbeat Chicago…

The Chicago Board of Education is slated to vote on a resolution that commits to no school closures until 2027 — a response to a Chicago Teachers Union assertion that CEO Pedro Martinez is planning closures, which he has staunchly denied.

The vote on resolution, which Mayor Brandon Johnson’s appointed school board will consider at its Thursday meeting, comes days after Johnson asked Martinez to resign. In an op-ed for Chicago Tribune published Tuesday, Martinez said he will not step down — and described the talk of closures as a tactic aimed at undermining him.

The resolution is worded as a recommendation from Martinez that the board will be asked to approve. But in the Tribune piece, Martinez said both he and Board President Jianan Shi are asking the board to approve the resolution. In a letter to staff and families, Martinez said the resolution has the board’s “enthusiastic support.”

* HB303 would have prevented the Chicago Board of Education from making any changes to selective enrollment schools until 2027…

IIRC CPS Board filed witness slips opposing this idea back in the fall when a Illinois House bill proposed a closure moratorium too. The bill passed House easily before Senate President held it without a vote. https://t.co/qayE0SeBy2 https://t.co/63eQ00cBzD

— Chicago Bars (@chicagobars) September 24, 2024

* WGLT…

There are few issues that animate conservatives these days more than immigration and voter integrity. Bring those two issues together, and you have a bill proposed by a conservative lawmaker from Central Illinois.

Dan Caulkins’ district includes much of rural eastern and southern McLean County. The three-term Republican lawmaker from Decatur won’t be on the ballot in November. He’s retiring. But Caulkins said he’s worried about other candidates whose names will be on the ballot and those who will be casting ballots. […]

When pressed further about where ineligible voters are being signed up, Caulkins cited Oregon where more than 1,000 non-citizens had been mistakenly registered to vote since 2021.

“If it’s not happening and people are not involved in this, then what’s the harm? Why not put a little teeth in it? Why not make a deterrent?” Caulkins asked.

Voter fraud does happen, but cases are rare. The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, tracks voter fraud across the country.

Illinois has had one confirmed ballot fraud incident since 2019, a duplicate primary election voter in Macon County in 2022.

…Adding… Governor Pritzker was asked at an unrelated news conference today about Rep. Caulkins bill…

That’s a stunt. It is already illegal to vote if your are a non-citizen. So, you can’t register to vote without ID and you can’t vote if you are non-citizens.

So that’s just a stunt. That’s something leading into the November election they’d like to raise, but we have no signs that there are people that are voting, or have been over any of the last bunch of elections in Illinois who are non-citizens.

* HB5879 from Rep. Sonya Harper…

Amends the Barber, Cosmetology, Esthetics, Hair Braiding, and Nail Technology Act of 1985. Requires a person seeking licensure as a cosmetologist to complete training on the properties of the hair and all hair types and textures, including coil, curl, or wave patterns, hair strand thicknesses, and volumes of hair.

* Rep. Carol Ammons introduced HB5874 earlier this month…

Amends the Environmental Protection Act. Provides that no person shall conduct a carbon sequestration activity within a sequestration facility that overlies, underlies, or passes through a sole-source aquifer. Defines “sole-source aquifer”. Effective immediately.

More information about the bill is here.