 Fifteen days of overtime... and countingLawmakers left
Springfield June 15 with no action on desperately needed electric
rate relief and no state budget.
There has been plenty of rhetoric from Democratic leaders about
staying in Springfield until the "work of the people" is done, but
there is no action to back that rhetoric. The governor continues to
commute to Springfield from Chicago on a daily basis, and neither
the Senate president nor the House speaker has set any
five-day-per-week schedules.
The Senate and House are scheduled to return next week.
Democratic leaders had until May 31 to get the "work of the
people" done, but they failed. The legislative logjam continues. It
makes you wonder what they have been doing since the governor first
unveiled his spending plan on March 7. And skyrocketing electric
rates have been a problem since the beginning of the year, when a
10-year rate freeze ended.
The overtime session is unfortunate, but it does give Republican
lawmakers an opportunity to arbitrate and provide the kind of
leadership that has been sorely lacking.
Lawmakers pass Brady's campus press legislation
Under legislation I sponsored, college student editors and
reporters will have greater freedom from censorship.
Senate Bill 729 creates the College Campus Press Act to protect
free press on Illinois college campuses by adding protections to
Illinois law against government censorship. The legislation also
protects faculty advisors from retaliation.
Approved by the Senate on June 6 and by the House of
Representatives on May 31, Senate Bill 729 now moves to the
governor's desk and will become law with his signature.
Area communities receive Lincoln bicentennial grants
The Illinois Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission has awarded
more than $440,000 to 14 projects that will help the state prepare
to celebrate Lincoln's 200th birthday in February 2009. Several
project in the central Illinois region received funding.
The Bicentennial Grant funds were available to organizations,
museums, local communities, nonprofit institutions and government
agencies to support educational and interpretive programs and
special events related to Lincoln's Illinois heritage.
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 In the central Illinois region, grants were awarded to:
-- Major roof repairs will be made to
this historic landmark, the only log courthouse where Abraham
Lincoln practiced law as a young lawyer. The log building is
used for many interpretive and educational programs.
Bicentennial Grant: $11,000.
"Prairie Fire"
program, WILL-TV -- The public television station will
produce a series on Lincoln's life as an 1850s attorney on the
8th Judicial Circuit, featuring re-enactments and interviews
with historians. WILL-TV's audience includes the cities of
Decatur, Champaign-Urbana, Springfield, Charleston, Mattoon,
Bloomington-Normal and Danville. The features will also be
distributed to a national PBS audience. Bicentennial Grant:
$40,000.
Early American
Museum, Mahomet -- The museum will create a DVD of Lincoln's
life as an attorney traveling the 8th Judicial Circuit, focusing
specifically on Champaign County and east-central Illinois.
Copies of the DVD will be distributed to educators and visitors.
The grant will also help upgrade audiovisual equipment to show
the DVD in the museum. Bicentennial Grant: $9,700.
Menard County
Tourism Council -- The grant will fund a program to develop
interpretative signs and multimedia equipment to encourage
public visitation of Menard County's Lincoln sites and other
historical sites in the county. Bicentennial Grant: $26,500.
Land of Lincoln
Statewide Read Program -- Patterned after the "citywide
reads" programs in Washington, D.C., and Chicago, this program
will encourage readers across the state, through their local
libraries, to read Richard Carwardine's book, "Lincoln: A Life
of Purpose and Power." A study guide pamphlet will be developed;
a list of Lincoln scholars who are willing to make local
presentations will be prepared; and readers will be encouraged
to visit the Illinois locations mentioned in the book. This
program is in cooperation with Northern Illinois University and
Illinois Library and Information Network. Bicentennial Grant:
$18,065.
Brady appears on "Lawmakers" program
On a special edition of the "Lawmakers" program that was
broadcast June 8 and 10, Sen. Brady talked about state budget
negotiations and the lack of relief for Illinois consumers dealing
with skyrocketing electric rates
The show is hosted by Mark McDonald and is regularly broadcast on
WSEC in Springfield, WMEC in Macomb and WQEC in Quincy.
[Text from file received from
Sen.
Bill Brady] |
