Senator Linda Holmes’ two-year pursuit to allow terminally ill adults in Illinois to choose to end their suffering on their own terms was passed by the Illinois State Senate Friday.
Senate Bill 1950 would allow a qualified patient with a terminal disease to request a physician to prescribe aid-in-dying medication, allowing the patient to end their own life in a peaceful manner, if and when, they choose.
“I lost both of my parents to terminal cancers, and can’t forget the helpless feeling of being unable to relieve their suffering,” said Holmes (D-Aurora). “This measure is about allowing qualified, terminally ill patients an option to consider ending their pain and distress.”
The bill would include multiple specific measures to ensure a patient is eligible for the program, and protect them from potential coercion by anyone who may attempt to take advantage of the patient. It would let adults who are 18 or older – whose terminal illness diagnosis gives them six months or less to live – to receive prescribed medicine to end their lives.
Patients would be assessed by physicians and mental health professionals to ensure they are of sound mind, and only the patient can request this aid – not a surrogate, proxy or via an advance health directive. Under Senate Bill 1950, no physician, health care provider or pharmacist would be required to participate in the law.
Senate Bill 1950 passed the Senate and heads to the governor’s desk for final approval.
* GOP Rep. Bill Hauter…
In the early hours of the morning, while most families were sleeping, the Senate passed a bill legalizing physician-assisted suicide, prioritizing this controversial measure over the need to address critical issues such as lowering taxes, fixing pensions, and providing relief for skyrocketing electric rates, according to State Representative Bill Hauter, MD, (R-Morton).
“This is just another example of a corrupt and cowardly process that advances legislation of this consequence without warning in the dead of night without any input from stakeholders that have fought so hard to protect the miracle of life. As a State Representative and physician dedicated to preserving life and alleviating suffering, I stand firmly against the legalization of physician-assisted suicide,” Hauter said. “The very foundation of medicine rests upon the principle of ‘do no harm.’ This legislation inherently violates our sacred oath and forever alters the patient-physician relationship. We should be a society that values life instead of one that celebrates death.”
Hauter noted that Canada has seen a troubling expansion of assisted suicide, with recent reports indicating that it has become increasingly accessible, leading to concerns about the potential for abuse and the erosion of the sanctity of life. In 2023 alone, Canada reported more than 10,000 medically assisted deaths, raising alarms about the moral implications and the value placed on human life. Hauter said this should serve as a warning sign for Illinois.
“As physicians, our role is to heal, to comfort, relieve suffering, and advocate for our patients,” Hauter asserted. “Allowing patients to choose death goes against everything the medical community represents. This is why the Illinois State Medical Society opposes this dangerous legislation. Our focus should be on building a healthcare system that truly supports patients facing the end of life. We are not just heading toward the cliff; we are sliding down it.”
* Proponents…
Early this morning, the Illinois Senate approved and sent to the Governor’s desk Senate Bill 1950, also known as Deb’s Law, a measure that allows mentally capable, terminally ill adults with a prognosis of six months or less to live the option of obtaining a prescription medication that they can decide to take so that they can die peacefully and end their suffering. If Governor JB Pritzker approves the measure, Illinois will join 11 other states and the District of Columbia as jurisdictions that permit medical aid in dying – the first state in the Midwest to approve the practice.
In response to the vote in the Senate, Compassion & Choices and the ACLU of Illinois, who led the effort for passage of this measure, issued the following statement. It can be attributed to Callie Riley, Regional Advocacy Director for the Compassion & Choices Action Network and Khadine Bennett, Advocacy and Intergovernmental Affairs Director at the ACLU of Illinois:
“We are grateful this morning to the thousands of people across Illinois who have participated in the effort to move Deb’s Law to Governor Pritzker’s desk. Each of these people has been moved by a common commitment to ensuring that everyone in Illinois has the ability to access all options at the end of life. We also are grateful to all the legislators – especially our sponsors, State Senator Linda Holmes and State Representative Robyn Gabel – who supported the legislation after conversations with constituents and advocates leading up to the vote. We encourage the Governor to sign the measure into law at his earliest opportunity.
“Our hearts are with the families and individuals who have courageously shared their stories in the effort to advance this legislation. Their honesty and openness will make life better for Illinoisans once the law is implemented. Finally, we are thankful today for Deb Robertson, who, while facing her own cancer journey, has given freely of her time – and her name – to move this proposal forward. We are heartened that this measure will carry her name moving forward so that future residents of the Land of Lincoln may understand her determination and concern for others. Thank you, Deb.”
* Catholic Conference of Illinois…
With the passage of legislation to legalize assisted suicide in Illinois, the Illinois General Assembly has put our state on a slippery path that jeopardizes the well-being of the poor and marginalized, especially those in the disability community and have foreseeable tragic consequences. With all the assaults on human dignity and the growing number of vulnerable people we see every day, sadly the leaders and members of the General Assembly who voted for this offer us suicide as its response.
The bill now goes to the Governor, and we ask him not only to veto this bill in totality, but also to address humanely the reasons why some view assisted suicide as their only option and to heed the impact of similar legislation on other states and nations.
Many lawmakers chose to ignore the real advances in palliative medical care as an alternative to assisted suicide. Rather than signing this bill, we ask the Governor to expand and improve on palliative care programs that offer expert assessment and management of pain and other symptoms. These programs support caregivers and help ensure patient care is coordinated with other services. And they represent a compassionate and morally acceptable alternative to assisted suicide.
Today, we face real and immediate threats to human life and dignity, many from the very institutions created to protect them. The government shut down, a growing number of private and government sector layoffs, the terrorizing and deportation of our neighbors, and the loss of food and medical assistance for the poor and vulnerable are immediate problems that need attention, not enacting assisted suicide.
Let us also consider the impact on impressionable young people of legalizing suicide in any form. According to a 2022 United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study, suicide is the second-leading cause of death for U.S. teens and young adults 10-34. It is the second-leading cause of death for those 10-14. And, according to the National Institutes of Health, suicide contagion is a real risk to these young people after exposure to suicide. Add to that the ready availability of firearms in the U.S. and this is a tragedy we do not need to compound.
It defies common sense for our state to enact a 9-8-8 suicide hotline, increase funding for suicide prevention programs and then pass a law that, based on the experience of other jurisdictions, results in more suicide.
Join us as we continue to pray for all those who are sick and at the end of life, their caregivers and for all who feel life is no long worth living and need our support.
Detainees at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing center in suburban Broadview have been blocked from speaking with legal counsel and subjected to “inhumane” conditions during their incarceration, a new lawsuit alleges.
The suit, brought on behalf of Broadview detainees Pablo Moreno Gonzalez and Felipe Agustin Zamacona by the MacArthur Justice Center and the ACLU of Illinois, claims ICE officials have “cut off detainees from the outside world” by preventing them from making confidential phone calls to their lawyer or a prospective lawyer.
“By blocking access to detainees inside Broadview, Defendants have created a black box in which to disappear people from the U.S. justice and immigration systems,” the lawsuit states.
Broadview is meant to be a “holding” facility, a way station where people are briefly held for processing before being moved to a longer-term detention facility. Historically, people were held for a few hours in the holding cells that occupy a portion of the first floor. But in the wake of Midway Blitz, Defendants are now warehousing people at Broadview for days on end. The consequences have been dire, and wholly predictable.
Plaintiffs and the putative class members are immigration detainees who have been arrested by officers operating under Defendants’ command. They are being confined at Broadview inside overcrowded holding cells containing dozens of people at a time. People are forced to attempt to sleep for days or sometimes weeks on plastic chairs or on the filthy concrete floor. They are denied sufficient food and water. They cannot shower, they are denied soap, hygiene items, and menstrual products, and they have no way to clean themselves. They are often denied a change of clothes. The temperatures are extreme and uncomfortable.
“DHS personnel have denied access to counsel, legislators, and journalists so that the harsh and deteriorating conditions at the facility can be shielded from public view,” Kevin Lee, legal director for the ACLU of Illinois, said in a statement.
“These conditions are unconstitutional and threaten to coerce people into sacrificing their rights without the benefit of legal advice and a full airing of their legal defenses.”
“They treated us like animals, or worse than animals, because no one treats their pets like that,” one woman said in the lawsuit.
Meanwhile, the complaint says, officers are coercing people to sign documents that relinquish their rights, as officials try to deport them without going before an immigration judge.
“Defendants are transferring people to distant detention facilities—or sending them out of the country outright—before their attorneys can locate them and intervene,” according to the complaint.
* More…
* Sun-Times | Broadview ICE facility a ‘black box’ where immigrants denied access to lawyers, medicine: lawsuit: DHS officials have previously told Chicago Sun-Times and WBEZ that the facility is operated “in strict accordance with its National Detention Standards. But as a processing center, Broadview has no beds or cafeteria, and yet, the most recently available records show that federal authorities have jailed immigrants there for more than three, four or even five days. That’s according to records through the end of July, weeks before Trump escalated his mass deportation “blitz” on Chicago, flooding the city and suburbs with federal immigration officers.
American farmers welcomed China’s promise to buy some of their soybeans, but they cautioned this won’t solve all their problems as they continue to deal with soaring prices for fertilizer, tractors, repair parts and seeds.
The Chinese promise to buy at least 25 million metric tons of soybeans annually for next three years will bring their purchases back in line with where they were before President Donald Trump launched his trade war with China in the spring. But the 12 million metric tons that China plans to buy between now and January is only about half the typical annual volume.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said China also agreed to remove all its retaliatory tariffs on American ag products, which should open the door for sales of other crops and beef. Plus, China promised to resume buying U.S. sorghum, which is another crop largely used for animal feed that depends on that market. More than half the sorghum and soybean crops are exported every year with much of that going to China. […]
Trump had promised to offer farmers a significant aid package this fall to help them survive the trade war with China, but it’s been put on hold because of the ongoing government shutdown. Rollins said that aid package is still in the works, but she promised the administration is ready to “step in the gap” and address any sort of harm the trade war has caused farmers.
“We’ll see what the market does and we will be ready to continue to step in if in fact, we believe it’s necessary,” Rollins said.
* I reached out to Illinois Department of Agriculture Director Jerry Costello, who’s been critical of the trade war, to get his take. From Costello…
Today US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent reported that the agreement reached will have China purchasing 12 million metric tons of soybeans by January with 25 million tons purchased annually the next three years at minimum. That might be more reassuring if China had followed through on the purchases they were supposed to make under the 2020 trade deal, which the United States Trade Representative Office is currently investigating.
To put in perspective how the first Trump administration tariffs worked, below are the numbers directly from the USDA. The Trump 1 tariffs were instituted in 2017 and drastically impacted 2018 sales.
[From Isabel: 2023 should be million not billion!]
Currently, the Trump 2 tariffs (taxes) have caused input prices to skyrocket.
- Tariffs on nitrogen are up 10%.
- Tariffs on herbicides, insecticides, and pesticides are up 20%.
- Tariffs on ag equipment are up 13%.
- Tariffs on new tractors are up 16%.
All of this in roughly 9 months.
If you drive down the interstate and see white bags by grain bins, that’s temporary storage - which cost farmers even more money. This is visible evidence that commodity prices are too low to be sustainable. Prices on commodities have been way below costs with Illinois inputs averaging $11.60 - $11.65/bushel for soybeans and $4.50 - $4.65/bushel for corn.
Many farm equipment dealers are down 70% to 80% from year over year sales, and John Deere has laid off or dissolved thousands of jobs, even closing a plant in large part due to the economic chaos caused by the Trump administration.
Farms have been lost, lives ruined, and prior to this chaos, farmers were already 3.5 times more likely to commit suicide than other occupations. The bank won’t cash promised agreements. We are almost at the end of harvest. Bills are due.
It also takes 30 to 40 days for a cargo ship to reach China after departing from the Gulf of Mexico.
Let’s not forget that feeder cattle prices are down close to 15% in less than a week after the President announced quadrupling beef purchases from Argentina. This drove down prices for domestic beef producers after the President also announced investing tens of billions of US tax dollars into Argentina. Cattle production was the one bright profitable spot for a diversified farm.
This is no different than an arsonist setting fire to your house and then returning with your hose to connect to your water expecting a “thank you” for extinguishing the flames. You’re still left with damages and cleanup you never should’ve endured in the first place.
So anyone who wants to be part of this masochistic victory lap, which at its very best only aspires to pre-(second)trade war sales levels, be my guest. As we all know, Albert Einstein is famous for saying, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
Thoughts?
* Related…
* Reuters | China to buy 12 million metric tons of US soybeans this season, Bessent says: U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Thursday that China has agreed to buy 12 million metric tons of American soybeans during the current season through January, down from 22.5 million tons in the prior season after a months-long tariff battle halted all purchases of the current U.S. harvest. China also committed to buying 25 million tons annually for the next three years as part of a larger trade agreement with Beijing, Bessent said, following a meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea.
* WJRT | Mixed reactions from Michigan farmers on new soybean deal: “The idea that there has been a significant gain here is woefully misstated,” Thompson said. Thompson, whose organization represents more than 500 farmers across Michigan, expressed being ‘cautiously optimistic’ but emphasized the importance of follow-through. “I think that it’s well known that statements are made and then sometimes the follow through isn’t as strong as we would like,” Thompson said.
* Des Moines Register | China pledge of soybean purchases ‘great news’ for Iowa farmers, state ag secretary says: “This is great news for Iowa farmers and our ag economy,” Iowa Agriculture Secretary Mike Naig said in a statement. “Expanded soybean purchases by China will make a meaningful impact at a time when many farmers are feeling the pain of a tough farm economy. The announcement “addresses many of the concerns around market access to China following months of stalled purchases and uncertainty,” said Tom Adam, an east-central Iowa farmer and president of the Iowa Soybean Association.
* KWCH | 5th-generation Kansas farmer shares thoughts on soybean deal with China: “Until we can get some agreement signed and get some teeth into it, I don’t really know that we have anything solid that we can plan on,” Winter said. With all the recent changes between China and the U.S., many farmers are wondering if soybeans are still a safe crop to plant next year. “It really makes a person stop and think and scratch their head a little bit about, ‘Do I really want to pant these crops?’” Winter said. “However, I revert back to, ‘All these crops are part of my crop mix, they’re part of my program.”
- A new transit funding bill passed Thursday night raises $1.5 billion for public transportation agencies, mostly in the Chicago area.
- The plan goes to the governor’s desk without any of the controversial statewide taxes on package deliveries, streaming or event tickets that were part of previous bills. The House two days earlier had introduced a measure that taxed entertainment and billionaires’ investments.
- The bulk of the funding, $860 million, would come through redirecting sales tax revenue charged on motor fuel purchases to public transportation operations. Another estimated $200 million would come from interest growing in the Road Fund.
*** Isabel’s Top Picks ***
* Crain’s | Senate OKs energy bill that includes billions for battery storage and nixes nuke ban: The Illinois House passed the legislation yesterday. It now heads to Gov. JB Pritzker, who called it “an important step that will help lower utility bills and make our electrical grid stronger.”“This legislation takes two routes toward affordability,” the governor said in a statement. “First, it will accelerate clean-energy projects with new grid-scale batteries and other clean-energy technology to increase the available electricity supply. Second, it will require utility companies to help their consumers to lower their utility bills and access energy efficient resources.”
* Tribune | Illinois lawmakers pass bill to tackle constitutional violations in immigration raids, ban courthouse arrests: The legislation came in response to what one of the bill’s sponsors, Democratic state Sen. Celina Villanueva of Chicago, described as “the reality of the pain and the cruelty and the inhumanity that’s being inflicted on my community, on my district, on the communities in this state — that are also American — for the simple fact of looking the way that I do.” “I’m going to fight back,” she said on the Senate floor late Thursday, shortly before the bill passed 40-18. The Illinois House passed the legislation 75-32 a little more than an hour later.
*** Statewide ***
* Daily Herald | ‘Progress, not just achievement’: State emphasizes growth over proficiency in new Illinois Report Card data: When looking at student learning, proficiency and growth, each tell an important part of the story, officials say. Proficiency shows what a student knows and can do at a single point in time. It’s a snapshot of performance measured against the state’s learning standards. Growth shows how much a student has learned in comparison with peers who started at the same level.
*** Statehouse News ***
* WCIA | Illinois Sen. passes Clean Slate Act to seal criminal records for crimes not considered serious: “The Clean Slate Act is about creating pathways to opportunity for people who have earned a second chance,” State Senator Elgie R. Sims, Jr. (D-Chicago) said in a release. “By automating the sealing process for eligible records, we’re removing unnecessary bureaucratic obstacles that keep people from finding employment, securing housing, and fully reintegrating into their communities. At the same time, we’ve been deliberate in maintaining strong public safety protections and ensuring law enforcement has the access they need.”
*** Chicago ***
* Chalkbeat Chicago | Chicago school board approves controversial $175 million pension payment to the city: The Chicago school board voted Thursday to make a pension reimbursement to the city after 18 months of controversy and leadership turmoil stemming from the payment. But there is one catch. The board voted unanimously to authorize the $175 million payment to the city to support a municipal pension fund that covers city workers and some non-teaching district staff — but only if the entire $552.4 million tax surplus boost for Chicago Public Schools that Mayor Brandon Johnson has proposed comes through.
* Sun-Times | Chicago Sun-Times demands DHS remove social posts using its photos without permission: A letter sent to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem Thursday says the government used three Sun-Times photos without permission to promote its immigration enforcement campaign. The newspaper threatened to file an intellectual property right infringement lawsuit if the posts aren’t taken down.
* Block Club Chicago | Pilsen’s Massive Ofrenda Returns For Día De Los Muertos: This year, Hernandez’s ofrenda, 1340 W. 19th St., features about 400 photos of people that were shared by Pilsen neighbors. To the side, Hernandez built a smaller altar dedicated to about 40 pets, including cats and dogs, who also deserve to be honored because “they are family,” she said.
*** Cook County and Suburbs ***
* The Record | ICE activity confirmed in Wilmette. Number of arrests remains unclear: Resident Chad Boomgaarden told The Record that he spoke with at least one border patrol agent around 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday in an alley between Park and Prairie avenues near his home. Boomgaarden, who shared photos supporting the encounter, said he inquired about federal jurisdiction on and near private property, among other topics. He was walking his dog and was not pleased to see men in “face masks, camo, tactical gear and long rifle weapons” just feet from his backyard.
* Daily Herald | DuPage County Board members balk at clerk’s request for more funding: The two-term clerk, who is up for re-election next year, obliged and showed up at a finance committee meeting this week. Her message, however, was not welcomed by board members “We simply cannot finish fiscal year 2025 on the funds allocated, which were considerably less than our request last year,” DuPage County Clerk Jean Kaczmarek told board members Tuesday. “We absolutely will not be able to fund 2026 on the proposed amount budgeted for our office.”
* Aurora Beacon-News | Aurora again pushes back purchase of police equipment: One of Lawrence’s concerns was that the device would be used to surveil residents’ cell phones, in particular by seeing whose cell phones are within a certain area, without needing a warrant. But Aurora Police Det. Darrell Moore told The Beacon-News that the device, called a “drive test scanner,” is not able to do that.
* Daily Herald | Cook County to hold hearing on improving rush-hour congestion on Quentin Road in Palatine: Cook County Department of Transportation and Highways met with residents this week to explain why a combination of factors led to their preferred solution being the addition of just a turn lane and a traffic signal. What the residents of the two Dunhaven Woods subdivisions want — and the village has also endorsed four times since 1996 — is a continuation of Quentin Road’s four-lane configuration that exists north and south of them as well as a turn lane.
*** Downstate ***
* WMBD | On the Record: Special education cuts haven’t affected Central Illinois, yet: Those layoffs, the continued government shutdown, and further budget cuts to the Department of Education, have made Peoria County and McLean County regional superintendents anxious. “The concern is that special ed funding in particular for students is a large portion of a lot of our district’s budgets,” Peoria County Regional Superintendent George McKenna said.
* WSIL | Fulton County Transit expands services to Calvert City residents: “The expansion of Fulton County Transit Authority into Calvert City ensures that our residents have access to essential services and the freedom to travel where they need to go,” said Calvert City Mayor Gene Colburn. FCTA offers same-day “Demand Response” trips within Region 1, available Monday through Friday. Medical trips can be scheduled in advance to cities like Louisville and Nashville.
* WGLT | Demand softens but prices remain high across Bloomington-Normal housing market: It cost around $213,859 on average to buy an existing home in 2021. Now, it’s $287,107. That’s a 34% increase in just five years. “What we are seeing is, with fewer houses available, a lot of buyers right now are getting discouraged and exiting the market,” said Dawn Peters, a Realtor with Keller Williams. “And so the demand is softening a little bit while the supply still remains low. Prices are still holding because of that.”
*** National ***
* NYT | Big Tech’s A.I. Spending Is Accelerating (Again): Last week, the Bank of England wrote that while the building of data centers, which provide computing power for A.I., had so far largely come from the cash produced by the biggest companies, it would increasingly involve more debt. If A.I. underwhelms — or the systems ultimately require far less computing — there could be growing risk. “This is a fast-evolving topic, and the future is highly uncertain,” the bank wrote.
* Reuters | Daylight saving time bill stalls again in US Senate: he U.S. Senate briefly took up a long-stalled effort on Tuesday to make daylight saving time permanent and end the twice-yearly practice of switching clocks, but again failed to reach consensus. […] Cotton said that the bill’s proponents are pushing Congress to repeat a prior mistake that would create absurdly late winter sunrises and force children to go to school in darkness in much of the country.
Retailers take risks. Eric Williams, founder of Hyde Park’s The Silver Room, wants politicians and policymakers to know most retailers open their stores out of passion and to fill a creative need, not to become wealthy. Located on Chicago’s South Side, the Silver Room is part clothing boutique, part music venue, part community hub, and part artists’ studio. The Silver Room is as diverse as the community it serves.
Findings of a recent economic study are clear: the retail sector is a cornerstone of the state’s economy and crucial to our everyday lives. Retail in Illinois directly contributes more than $112 billion in economic investment annually – more than 10 percent of the state’s total Gross Domestic Product.
Policies that support small businesses help communities thrive as retailers like Eric are better equipped to meet local needs. We Are Retail and IRMA are showcasing the retailers who make Illinois work.
* It’s 6:40 am as I write this. We’ve been up all night covering the veto session. I’m gonna try to get a few hours’ sleep. Isabel, who’s young and can handle it, is in charge for the rest of the morning…
