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* Environmental lobby day is the 19th…
It’s our favorite time of year–Enviro #LobbyDay2023! We're so excited to join forces with IL's enviro community for a rally, meetings with elected officials, and the shared goal of getting pro-environment bills passed! Sign up today: https://t.co/cg6jIBsxJ8 pic.twitter.com/0odNAGigcb
— Chicago Food Policy (@ChiFoodPolicy) April 4, 2023
* Shaw Local…
Sometimes lawmakers advance plans that shape the state for generations. Others are simple applications of common sense that solve an obvious problem.
The latter aren’t always headline material, but can have significant benefits. Consider Senate Bill 2288, headed to the House on a 57-0 vote, which Amends the Articulation Initiative Act in hopes of eliminating situations where community college students have to repeat courses at four-year schools
State Sen. Cristina Castro, D-Elgin, introduced the bill and said the idea is to “reduce the burden on our students and accelerate the time it takes them to earn a degree and start a meaningful career.”
So long as the four-year school offers the specific major, a student’s community college transcripts would transfer as fully equivalent. This effort represents another vote of confidence in the vital community college network, one of the state’s best investments in higher education.
* WMBD…
Rep. Darin LaHood (R-Illinois) has introduced bipartisan legislation to strengthen existing laws for mishandling classified documents.
The Classified Documents Accountability Act would create civil penalties of $500,000 per violation, create a screening and certification process for classified materials during administration transitions, and revoke security clearances from officials who violate the act. Outgoing Presidents and Vice Presidents would also be required to certify they do not have any classified documents in their possession.
“So right now the law, the way it’s structured, it really turns on intent or knowledge, and what was your intent and knowledge in that. It doesn’t address carelessness or negligence or sloppiness,” said LaHood. […]
LaHood introduced the bill with Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Chicago), who also sits on the House Intelligence Committee.
* Rep. Yang Rohr will be the lead sponsor in the House. WAND…
Sen. Doris Turner (D-Springfield) said her bill allows school buses to have two stop arms with flashing red lights to partially obstruct roads to ensure safety for riders and pedestrians.
“Student safety has to be our top priority,” Turner said. “Allowing school busses to have an extended arm would provide more protections for passengers and hopefully lessen the number of drivers who pass stopped busses.”
Any drivers hitting a bus or outstretched stop arm will face steep fines. […]
Sen. Chapin Rose (R-Mahomet) passed the same plan nearly five years ago. Although, he stressed that the Illinois Department of Transportation never created administrative rules to implement the law.
“They could’ve done this well before now,” Rose said. “So what this bill is doing now is basically telling IDOT, ‘Too late. We’re just going to go ahead and tell you you have no choice now but to do it.’ Thank goodness that nobody has gotten killed in the meantime.”
* Sen. Dan McConchie introduced legislation after seeing news coverage on a couple claiming the City of Chicago was forcing them to pay a red light violation that wasn’t theirs. Here’s WGN…
A new bill has been introduced to protect Illinois drivers from wrongfully issued automated tickets. […]
“It is abysmal that it takes a news outlet such as yours to run a story and contact these elected officials or these employees in order to get them to do the right thing,” Illinois Senator Dan McConchie (R-26) said.
The Department of Finance said the red light violation has been withdrawn, and the motorist will receive a confirmation notice. […]
“It needs to be a streamline simplified process and it cannot be allowed that you prove it’s actually not me that the fine could stick anyway,” McConchie said.
* NIU’s student newspaper…
Illinois [legislature] should pass the bill to legalize natural organic reduction, or human composting. Think the circle of life, not the woodchipper scene from “Fargo.”
Proposed by Rep. Kelly Cassidy, D-Chicago, the bill was recently passed by the Illinois House of Representatives. Should it pass the Senate, Illinois will become the seventh state to legalize the procedure. […]
While Neil Blackstone, a professor in the biological sciences department at NIU, notes the logistical downsides of human composting, he said he ultimately supports the bill. Blackstone’s only true critique is the procedure’s unsettling name.
“If people want to do it, what’s the harm? I mean, as long as, you know, people realize that you don’t put a dead body out in your backyard to compost,” Blackstone said. […]“Turning human persons into compost for the purpose of fertilization of trees, as one would with vegetable trimmings and eggshells, degrades the human person,” according to Catholic Conference of Illinois.
Returning to the Earth should not be so heavily stigmatized. The decomposition of our bodies is not a process we should be afraid of. Joining the soil is one of the few realities we share with every other organism on the planet.
posted by Isabel Miller
Wednesday, Apr 5, 23 @ 11:38 am
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The community college bill is a no-brainer, evidenced by its 57-0 vote. I’m surprised a new law is needed to ensure something so logical.
I was fortunate that my credits from two private colleges transferred to ISU, allowing me to start as a junior there.
One of the points of community college is to let students complete Gen Ed courses at lower cost (perhaps commuting from home). Community colleges have been coordinating curriculum with four-year schools for decades.
Good on Sen. Castro.
Comment by Streator Curmudgeon Wednesday, Apr 5, 23 @ 11:56 am
===Turning human persons into compost for the purpose of fertilization of trees, as one would with vegetable trimmings and eggshells, degrades the human person===
Is this … not the point of compost?
Comment by Suburban Mom Wednesday, Apr 5, 23 @ 12:11 pm
==degrades the human person==
Apparently the people that want this don’t think so. So what’s the problem
Comment by Demoralized Wednesday, Apr 5, 23 @ 12:21 pm
==degrades the human person,” according to Catholic Conference of Illinois.==
As opposed to ashes and dust?
Comment by Jocko Wednesday, Apr 5, 23 @ 12:30 pm
“Think the circle of life, not the wood chipper scene from Fargo.” So how am I not supposed think of that scene, now that you brought it up?
Comment by Siualum Wednesday, Apr 5, 23 @ 12:32 pm
=“Turning human persons into compost for the purpose of fertilization of trees, as one would with vegetable trimmings and eggshells, degrades the human person,”=
I would much rather be able to let my body directly benefit another living being than sit in a box or add to emissions by being cremated. Dignity to me is getting to choose to rest in a way that gives back what I took from nature.
Comment by Shibboleth Wednesday, Apr 5, 23 @ 1:41 pm
“Degrades the human person”
Maryland AG report into Archdiocese of Baltimore alleges 156 Catholic clergy members and others abused more than 600 children.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/05/us/archdiocese-of-baltimore-clergy-sexual-abuse/index.html
Comment by Henry Francis Wednesday, Apr 5, 23 @ 2:01 pm
“Turning human persons into compost for the purpose of fertilization of trees, as one would with vegetable trimmings and eggshells, degrades the human person.”
We can’t all be taken up body and soul into the glory of heaven, padre.
Nourishing a tree is as good as it’s gonna get for most of us.
– MrJM
Comment by MisterJayEm Wednesday, Apr 5, 23 @ 2:01 pm
The IAI bill is formalizing what’s already been the practice most everywhere except UIUC, I have heard. But there are programs for which it’s a problem not to have a particular sort of course in a major degree sequence. The ability of four year schools to offer unique (rather than statewide streamlined) general education approaches and major degree programs is limited by the rise in early college (community college) course credits. One unintended consequence of this shift is that there is more uniqueness now only at elite private liberal arts colleges and universities, which can limit how much early college credit transfers in and provide a robust liberal arts-based education for four years with professors with terminal degrees in their fields. Public universities increasingly cannot compete with that, because of all the pressure and drive to do college in high school.
Comment by Yooper in Diaspora Wednesday, Apr 5, 23 @ 10:05 pm