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* WAND…
A new bill being proposed in the legislature would bring Illinois into the 21st century by modernizing its virtual car dealer laws. […]
Existing Illinois law is vague about whether new and used car dealers can sell their products online, and get electronic signatures for purchase.
“This bill is designed to modernize Illinois law regulating the home-delivery of purchased vehicles, to ensure customers don’t have to go to a physical facility just to sign some paperwork,” Will Munsil, Senior Corporate Counsel for Carvana told WAND News. […]
The bill has been voted out of the Senate Judiciary Committee and is now set for a third reading in the full Senate later this month. It still needs approval in both the Senate and House before becoming law.
* Hyde Park Herald…
State Rep. Kam Buckner (D-26th) is concerned about turnout in Chicago municipal elections after concluding his campaign for mayor. […]
Buckner nevertheless suggested working with organizations like Chicago Votes and the League of Women Voters to have “a more intentional and streamlined approach” to boost turnout.
He also has some legislative changes in mind, including lowering the voting age for state and local elections from 18 to 16. […]
Buckner has also filed legislation to allow municipalities to adopt ranked-choice voting without an affirmative ballot referendum.
Illinois lawmakers advanced a bill last week that would effectively abolish life sentences for any incarcerated individual who was under the age of 21 when they received their sentence.
In January, Gov. JB Pritzker signed a law that makes any individual who was under the age of 21 when sentenced to life in prison eligible for parole review after they served 40 years or more of their sentence. But the measure only applied to those sentenced on or after June 1, 2019.
Senate Bill 2073, carried by Republican Sen. Seth Lewis, of Bartlett, would extend the measure retroactively to apply to any currently incarcerated individual who was sentenced before turning 21. The law signed by Pritzker in January takes effect Jan. 1, 2024, and SB 2073 would be effective July 1, 2024.
“The 3,251 current inmates who were sentenced prior to June 1, 2019, or Jan. 1, 2024, should have the opportunity (for parole review),” Lewis said in committee. “That is the essence of this bill.”
The measure passed out of committee on a 7-3 vote and awaits action from the full House.
* HB 1568 was re-referred to Rules Committee on Friday. WCBU…
A bill intended to protect the public’s right to access navigable waters — first introduced in the Illinois House in January — is under consideration again.
The bill’s language explains that while the amendment would not change any actual law, it would protect the public’s right to access and use any waters that are currently, or have been in the past, used for recreational and commercial purposes.
The Prairie Rivers Network is promoting the bill. Robert Hirschfeld, senior water policy specialist, said it is disappointing to hear of the initial denial of the amendment. He said the issue stems from events in U.S. history that protect the public’s right to waterways.
“So, the Northwest Ordinance, right at the end of the 1700s, which brought new territory in the United States, the federal navigation, servitude, and other bodies of federal law grant the public rights to use navigable waters,” he said, “and our position is that the state of Illinois and state agencies have improperly restricted that right.” […]
Hirschfeld and the Prairie Rivers Network intend to return the bill to the General Assembly in the next legislative session.
House Bill 2910 provides that a person who holds an animal in the person’s lap while operating a motor vehicle is guilty of a petty offense. The bill’s sponsor, state Rep. Jawaharial Williams, D-Chicago, said pets aren’t covered under distracted driving laws.
“The new law would allow police officers to pull you over if they see that you are driving with an animal in your lap, whatever the animal may be,” Williams said.
Williams cited a AAA survey that showed that 31% of drivers with pets said they have been distracted by their pets while driving, and 20% of drivers who have admitted to driving with the pet on their lap have been involved in accidents.
Offenders would be subject to a $50 fine. The measure moved out of the transportation committee and is headed to the House floor.
Violence on public transit in Illinois and around the country remains near the highest levels seen in the past decade.
State Rep. Eva-Dina Delgado, D-Chicago, said House Bill 1342 would suspend the riding privileges of those responsible for abusive behavior.
“Transit officials have found that the same folks keep repeatedly abusing their riding privileges by harassing folks or outright harming folks, and those folks could include our transit workers, and/or their fellow riders,” Delgado said.
Supporters of the legislation say the dangerous working conditions have led to a shortage of public transit workers statewide.
The measure moved out of the transportation committee and is headed to the House floor.
posted by Isabel Miller
Monday, Mar 13, 23 @ 12:57 pm
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Kam wants to have a better turnout for municipal elections, how about amending he Election Code and have municipal elections at the same time as the General Elections. It would save millions of dollars as well.
Comment by Unionman Monday, Mar 13, 23 @ 1:08 pm
–The bill’s language explains that while the amendment would not change any actual law, it would protect the public’s right to access and use any waters that are currently, or have been in the past, used for recreational and commercial purposes.–
This is a broken way to fix a problem that wouldn’t exist in the first place had public agencies and for-profit corporations not ignored the law for years in the placement of their facilities. One public agency in particular local to me comes to mind. It didn’t help that the local state’s attorney refused to prosecute the violators, despite the law being openly violated for commercial profit.
Now it’s being framed as a public interest issue, when it is clear the purpose is to protect the companies who have been violating the law for years.
Fix it the correct way. This isn’t the correct way.
A lot of people would now suddenly have public property that they purchased, have property deeds for, and have insurance on that they purchased as private residential property.
Nothing in this bill compensates those land-owners or indemnifies them of liability against what is trying to be done here. All this does is protect the for-profit corporations that have been using the private property of others to generate revenue and profit for themselves. That’s one of the many ways this attempt is broken.
Comment by TheInvisibleMan Monday, Mar 13, 23 @ 1:10 pm
>>>>Violence on public transit
Taking away their CTA tokens is not gonna cut it.
Riding public transit without a means of self-protection is the same as being prey in a canned hunt.
Comment by We've never had one before Monday, Mar 13, 23 @ 1:22 pm
Thomas Fuller II was 18 when he killed 7 people including 5 children. The surviving children and other family members collect signatures on petitions every time he comes up for parole. Does he get another bite the parole apple if this passes or becuase he routinely comes up for parole is it moot for him?
Comment by cermak_rd Monday, Mar 13, 23 @ 1:27 pm
===being prey in a canned hunt.===
How did you type that without passing out from hyperventilating?
There needs to be a discussion and movement towards a better CTA, be it service, cleanliness, homelessness, and safety, but a drive by calling riders “prey” is a bit much
Comment by Oswego Willy Monday, Mar 13, 23 @ 1:30 pm
I guess Pat Quinn will just have to leave Squeezy in the back seat when he drives.
Comment by cermak_rd Monday, Mar 13, 23 @ 1:39 pm
HB 1568 is simply a bad bill. In the 1790’s we did not yet have steam engines let alone the powered devices used today for commercial river traffic (barges).Someone on a raft or small recreational device poses a danger to commercial users and simply themselves. Restricting the use of waterways is simply common sense.
Comment by The Professor Monday, Mar 13, 23 @ 1:49 pm
Oswego, I take it this commenter has not ridden recently, either. Tokens were phased out quite a while back in favor of Ventra cards.
Comment by cermak_rd Monday, Mar 13, 23 @ 1:53 pm
Conductors (or their equivalent) should have been brought back on the CTA after 9/11.
Comment by Jerry Monday, Mar 13, 23 @ 1:59 pm
@The Professor.
The intent of the bill is a work around for the companies who have been profiting by running a kayak business which runs through the private property of someone else on a small creek. These are what are considered non-navigable waters, thus the attempt to shoehorn them into navigable waters - but without all the legally bothersome things like… individual property rights.
The impetus for all of this was the lawsuit in Mazon between two competing fossil hunters. One of them used the private property stream of the competitor to access land for fossil hunting. Since then a local company in partnership with a local park district has decided to use the private property of people downstream on a non-navigable waterway to generate profit for the for-profit company. The Supreme Court as recently as last year ruled in favor of landowners, because that’s what they current law stipulates.
You are correct though. This bill, on the other hand, makes shipping lanes wide open to the public as a side effect of trying to protect a for-profit kayak company from the consequences of ignoring the law for the past 4 years. Less legally problematic, but infinitely more hilarious, is that this bill would allow public access to anyone to any pond in any neighborhood no matter what they HOA tries to claim, or how restricted the neighborhood wants the lake they previously privately owned to be.
The bill basically takes a small problem, and creates a massive problem.
Comment by TheInvisibleMan Monday, Mar 13, 23 @ 2:09 pm
Considering Illinois has the most regressive water access laws in the Midwest the premise of HB 1568 is hardly an unreasonable intrusion on anyone’s private property rights. Most of the other states in the Midwest allow stream access up to the high-water mark for recreational purposes. I would be interested to understand what part of this law would permit trespassing to access a private property HOA pond? Any water access would still need to be from public property or by permission of the on private property.
Comment by SBfisher Monday, Mar 13, 23 @ 4:20 pm
I dislike flimsy lawsuits like the boneless wing thing, but how hard would it have been to call them nuggets rather than inventing a new chicken part? Not like people have to be educated on what a nugget is…
Comment by JIbba Monday, Mar 13, 23 @ 6:21 pm