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* I’m not saying this particular bill should pass, but the need is most definitely out there…
It soon could be easier for students to report bullying or hazing activities at Illinois schools.
State Rep. John Cabello, R-Machesney Park, is behind a bill that would allow students younger than 18 to use a statewide toll-free hotline to identify incidents anonymously.
“You might not want to tell a school official, because you might fear it will be let out you were the one who told,” Cabello said. “This gives them an anonymous way of contacting a hotline so that the hotline can contact the school and/or the jurisdiction of police in that area so someone can start looking into it to make sure it stops.”
The hotline is operated by the Department of Children and Family Services and currently is used to report child abuse or neglect.
“There should be no cost involved, at least to the state,” Cabello said. “Everything is already there. It’s just another way of trying to make sure we get these kids the help they need.”
Even today, far too many schools turn a blind eye to this behavior and it has to stop.
* This resolution was introduced just four days ago…
State Rep. Larry Walsh Jr., D-Elwood, has introduced legislation aimed at converting a stretch of Interstate 80 east of Morris into a tollway.
The resolution, if approved, would not finalize plans to convert I-80 into a tollway but could start the process. Walsh said the legislation is needed if a $1 billion-plus plan for improvements is ever to get funded.
“My purpose in introducing it is to bring that option to the forefront,” Walsh said. “We all know how bad I-80 is. We’ve been talking about it for I don’t know how many years.” […]
Walsh said as much as $1.5 billion could be needed to complete improvements planned for 16 miles of I-80 between Route 30 in New Lenox and Ridge Road in Minooka. The state is considering a capital bill that would authorize $38 to $40 billion in road and bridge improvements over 10 years, he said.
“To go and ask for a billion and a half (dollars) for just 16 miles is a huge ask,” Walsh said.
* The Tribune gets some guy from California to write an op-ed about an Illinois House bill that was assigned to subcommittee in February…
Imagine an America that prizes the vitality of newborns and joys of parenting more than our nagging penchant for work.
This remarkable shift now gains steam in a dozen states, where governors seek to create or lengthen paid leave for parents after a newborn arrives.
This includes Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who promises to “embrace more robust policies supporting paid parental leave and affordable child care.” He delivered a long-awaited pay raise this past week to 14,000 caregivers and preschool teachers.
But parental leave initiatives threaten to worsen wide disparities in children’s health and early learning, along the chasms of race and class. This inequity reveals the hazards facing well-meaning Democrats, as they promise unbridled entitlements.
posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Mar 26, 19 @ 10:54 am
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Based on Michigan’s experience, Cabello’s bill has a lot of merit. I fully support this measure that’s designed to help vilified bullying.
Personally, I just wish the tollway would take over US 20 between Rockford and Illinois’ border with Iowa. I’d happily pay tolls to get smooth roads and several lanes in each direction. The condition of US 20 is disgraceful given that it is the most convenient way to go across the northern part of the state.
Comment by Bourbon Street Tuesday, Mar 26, 19 @ 11:07 am
===In the past few years the State stopped putting it online, and when our counsel asked for it they refused to give us most of this information.===
I’d be curious exactly what the torturous pathway that the writer traveled to arrive at that conclusion.
Comment by PublicServant Tuesday, Mar 26, 19 @ 11:08 am
“they promise unbridled entitlements”
There’s the real reason for opposition. Silly Democrats, unbridled entitlements are only for multibillionaires via deficit-spiking, massive tax cuts.
Comment by Grandson of Man Tuesday, Mar 26, 19 @ 11:15 am
It’s rare for a GOP rep to propose something positive instead of anti-everything.
However
=== “There should be no cost involved, at least to the state,” ===
Is a typical political trope used by pols when they don’t have a real idea on implementation. There will be a cost involved. Before we get to that, the question must be asked as to what is to be done with these reports. Getting calls doesn’t correct the problem. There must be some action that these calls trigger. Does DCFS investigate or refer to schools or police?
Back to the cost. At a minimum DCFS staff will have to update their systems to collect the data and aggregate the information into useable reports. Taking some action will further increase cost.
Bottom line, think it through legislator. It takes more effort than what you’ve appeared to put into this idea.
Comment by Norseman Tuesday, Mar 26, 19 @ 11:15 am
We can’t have parental leave because it’ll lead to income inequality. We’ll be like just about every other Western country which has much more substantial parental leave and … less income inequality? Hold on, let me take another swing at this.
The Randian utopia Trib editors want is surely just one more cynical op-ed away.
Comment by PJ Tuesday, Mar 26, 19 @ 11:18 am
====The hotline is operated by the Department of Children and Family Services and currently is used to report child abuse or neglect====
So a hotline for bullying is operated by the DCFS which according to the post preceding this one:
===DCFS has been violating the terms of a court ordered consent decree that was supposed to bring caseloads down and help protect kids===
From this post: “It’s just another way of trying to make sure we get these kids the help they need”
DCFS cannot even help protect the kids in it’s own system so what reasonable person thinks DCFS is going to show any competence managing a hotline dealing with bullying???
Comment by Big Jer Tuesday, Mar 26, 19 @ 11:21 am
*victims of bullying*, not vilified bullying.
Comment by Bourbon Street Tuesday, Mar 26, 19 @ 11:23 am
This is a great idea, but it unfortunately does not take into account that no one under the age of 18 is going to call any phone number. This needs to be done electronically somehow. Kids literally don’t use the “phone” to call anyone. It is really just an electronic communication device to them.
Comment by Smalls Tuesday, Mar 26, 19 @ 11:25 am
Here is the reality. Not all pregnancies are the same. Half of all children are delivered by cesarean, a surgical procedure where the mother needs a month minimum to heal. During that time it is very difficult for the mother to care for the newborn child. One-fifth of the time there are other complications that require an extended hospital stay. Many times expectant mothers must spend weeks on bed rest. Currently, we provide nothing to these mom’s and treat them like dirt. We are an anti-child and ant-family society.
The status quo is unacceptable. Mom’s should not be bankrupted when they make a choice to go on bed rest or need additional surgeries to save the life of an innocent child. We need to look at pregnancies not through the lense of the non-eventful labor and natural birth, but through the lense of the 20% of moms who spend 3 weeks on bed rest, a week in the hospital and a baby who spends a week in the NICU.
Support these moms
Comment by Merica Tuesday, Mar 26, 19 @ 11:30 am
We’ll be like just about every other Western country.
Many report being happier than us. Right wingers want us to be angry and paranoid, to look at neighbors in need as undeserving “others” who take from us.
Comment by Grandson of Man Tuesday, Mar 26, 19 @ 11:39 am
I agree with turning part of I-80 into a toll way. It is really in horrible shape from all the cross country trucking that uses the road.
Comment by A Jack Tuesday, Mar 26, 19 @ 11:46 am
While applauding Sen. Walsh’s efforts, all this will do is move further west the I-80 traffic jam caused by Indiana being out of room for future expansion. As flawed as Illiana was - and it WAS flawed - it would have gotten some semi traffic headed South on I-65 off of the Indiana I-80. parking lot Back to the drawing board!
Comment by Anyone Remember Tuesday, Mar 26, 19 @ 11:46 am
CDC says 32%, not half of all births are Cesarean. Which is still a lot.
Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, Mar 26, 19 @ 11:48 am
$94 million per mile. $18,000 per linear foot. Don’t tell me there isn’t something jacked about the way the State contracts for construction work.
Comment by Shemp Tuesday, Mar 26, 19 @ 12:02 pm
Illiana was a good idea I thought and it would have been most helpful when the needed repairs on I-80 shut down that highway. But its not going to happen tomorrow. In the meantime someone has to pay for the repairs on I-80 and it should be those who use it the most.
I also think Illinois should convert the higher used highways into tollways such as parts of I-55. It is a more equitable solution than raising motor fuel taxes.
Comment by A Jack Tuesday, Mar 26, 19 @ 12:05 pm
A Jack — it ain’t the trucks. It’s the freeze/thaw cycles.
Comment by Shrimp gumbo Tuesday, Mar 26, 19 @ 12:11 pm
Freeze-thaw cycles are everywhere in Illinois. But you don’t see the kind of damage on lesser traveled highways such as I-72 as you do on heavily traveled highways such as I-80.
I hit a bump going in to I-80 last summer that took out my air bag module. And that bridge near Joliet is so bad that the operating engineers felt like they needed to post a warning.
Comment by A Jack Tuesday, Mar 26, 19 @ 12:21 pm
“Traffic is backed up on the Blagojevich Turnpike with a rollover crash at Ridge Road…”
Comment by City Zen Tuesday, Mar 26, 19 @ 12:58 pm
Yeah, make atleast part of I80 a toll road. No ipass accepted. Everybody should have to stop every couple miles and throw money out of the window. You know, just to remind them they are in Illinois.
Comment by Tequila Mockingbird Tuesday, Mar 26, 19 @ 1:30 pm
The Illinois School Code requires every school and district to have a procedure in place for anonymous reporting of bullying. Rep. Cabello’s bill is redundant. And I know from experience-and we all know from the piece in Capitol Fax- that DCFS has plenty of problems without using their hotline to report bullying!
Comment by S. Thompson Tuesday, Mar 26, 19 @ 1:43 pm
= *victims of bullying*, not vilified bullying =
A reasonable mistake, bullying should be vilified.
Comment by cover Tuesday, Mar 26, 19 @ 1:58 pm