* Chicago Magazine…

Jim Kelly remembers how his 91-year-old father died: alone in a nursing home bathroom after a long, agonizing battle with prostate cancer. Kelly, a 77-year-old Oak Park retiree, is now dealing with the same disease himself. While his cancer is under control at the moment, if it worsens, if he’s given a terminal diagnosis and his pain can’t be relieved, he hopes Illinois lawmakers will let him choose another path. “I can’t think of any better way to die than at home surrounded by our wonderful friends and neighbors.”

If a pending Illinois Senate bill is enacted, Kelly could drink a lethal drug cocktail prescribed by doctors to allow patients to die quickly, painlessly, at a time of their own choosing,  as terminally ill patients in 10 states and Washington, D.C., are already able to do. Senate assistant majority leader Linda Holmes, a Democrat from Aurora who is cosponsoring the End-of-Life Options for Terminally Ill Patients Act, plans to bring it up for a vote as early as this month. “Many of us of boomer age have watched our parents die, and that’s when you become an advocate of this,” says Holmes, whose own mother and father died painfully of cancer. “It’s horrible to lose a parent, but seeing them suffer and not being able to do anything to alleviate that suffering is worse.”

Proponents call such legislation medical aid in dying, or MAID. Opponents call it physician-assisted suicide. And like such laws in other states, the Illinois bill would limit the option to adults 18 or older who have a prognosis of six months or less to live and who are mentally capable of making an informed health care decision, as confirmed by two physicians. No health care provider is required to participate, and the patient must be able to self-administer the medication. […]

Holmes, as well as House majority leader Robyn Gabel, a Democrat from Evanston, are guardedly optimistic that lawmakers will pass the bill in both houses this time — if not in the November veto session, then in 2025. The response to the bill among Democratic lawmakers and the public has been “overwhelmingly positive,” Holmes says. But would Governor JB Pritzker sign the bill? Gabel thinks he would. The governor did not respond to requests for comment for this story, but back in 2018, when he was running for office, he wrote this in a candidate questionnaire: “I am in favor of putting this very personal decision in the hands of patients to make in consultation with their doctors.”

* Sun-Times…

In the wake of President-elect Donald Trump’s reelection, advocates for transgender people in Illinois are scrambling to strengthen the state protections they’ve created, while some trans Midwesterners consider moving to states with shield laws for safe harbor.

State Rep. Kelly Cassidy told the Sun-Times there has been a coalition effort of state lawmakers to protect trans and reproductive health care access since the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade leaked in 2022. […]

One gap the coalition identified is medical data privacy and the use of geolocators to track people who visit health care facilities, which Cassidy said she’s confident will be fixed before the fall legislative session ends.

“There’s a hole in that [legislative] shield, and that’s data privacy, so that’s the top priority,” Cassidy said.

* WNIJ…

It’s unclear what changes the next federal administration will make related to the environment. But in Illinois, there is proposed legislation to protect the state’s remaining wetlands. It comes after last year’s Supreme Court ruling that rolled back some of those protections. […]

The ruling changes which wetlands are federally protected. After the Supreme Court decision, the only protected wetlands are ones that have a continuous surface connection to a water body like a river, lake or ocean. This could mean nearly all of Illinois’s wetlands are left unprotected, according to experts. […]

Robert Hirschfield’s a senior water policy specialist with the [Prairie Rivers Network].

“But what we know, he said, “is that wetlands across the country, many wetlands, have likely lost federal protections. Prairie Rivers Network and many of our partners here in Illinois are trying to respond with state legislation in Illinois to basically recreate what was done at the federal level at the state level.” […]

Several groups have come out in opposition to the proposed bill. The Illinois Farm Bureau, and state corn and soybean associations cite the extra regulation that could fall on private landowners.

SB3669, Sponsored by Sen. Laura Ellman, was re-referred to the Illinois Senate Assignments Committee in April…

V Creates the Wetlands and Small Streams Protection Act to restore protections for wetlands and small streams that were formerly protected from pollution and destruction by the Clean Water Act. Includes provisions concerning: exemptions; wetlands delineation, classification, notification, permits and veto; general permits; appeal of final decisions made by the Department of Natural Resources and judicial review; investigation and enforcement; and county authority. Creates the Wetlands and Small Streams Advisory Committee and establishes duties and rules for the Committee. Creates the Wetlands and Small Streams Protection Fund. Provides for permit review fees. Defines terms. Makes conforming changes in the State Finance Act and the Illinois Environmental Protection Act. Effective immediately.

* Daily Herald…

Republican state Rep. Jeff Keicher of Sycamore introduced a bill to end the age-triggered tests early this year, after hearing complaints from constituents, many from Huntley’s Sun City active adult community.

The legislation passed a committee vote, but it was shelved in May. Despite gaining 48 bipartisan cosponsors, only a few top Democratic leaders signed on, and Speaker Chris Welch was not among them. […]

“Don’t hold out hope that something will happen in veto session,” Keicher said. “The measure will need to be reintroduced in spring when the new General Assembly is there.

“I think the best step forward will be to hand it to someone on the other side that can navigate the Democrat hurdles that I might be encountering a little bit more effectively,” Keicher said.

* FOX Chicago…

Exonerated individuals and their advocates are pressing Illinois lawmakers to pass a bill aimed at increasing compensation for those who spent years, sometimes decades, wrongfully imprisoned.

Activists say the current compensation formula, which would pay just over $6,400 per year for wrongful imprisonment, falls far short of a fair amount.

The Illinois Innocence Project, a group focused on overturning wrongful convictions, is calling on lawmakers to act urgently during the current legislative veto session to pass the Exoneree Compensation Bill.

Stephanie Kamel, an advocate with the project, says the legislation — officially known as Senate Amendment 1 to HB 1015 — has bipartisan support across both chambers of the Illinois legislature.

* Sen. David Koehler introduced SB3974 last week…

Amends the Property Tax Code. Provides that the fair cash value of commercial energy storage system improvements in counties with fewer than 3,000,000 inhabitants shall be determined by subtracting the allowance for physical depreciation from the commercial energy storage system trended real property cost basis. Provides that those commercial energy storage systems are not subject to equalization factors applied by the Department of Revenue or by any board of review, assessor, or chief county assessment officer. Provides that the owner of the commercial energy storage system shall commission a metes and bounds survey description of the land upon which the commercial energy storage system is located. Contains other provisions concerning the assessment of commercial energy storage systems. Effective immediately.