FRIDAY, MARCH 8
Vigil held for people killed in Israeli-Palestinian conflict
More than 60 people gathered on the corner of Broadway and Main in Urbana on Thursday night. They mourned the lives of Palestinians and Israelis lost since October 7. The event was organized by CU Jews for Ceasefire. Clara Belitz was one of the organizers.
“The reality is that our feelings aren’t going anywhere. And that grieving is a very important human ritual and to deny the devastation and the sadness is not going to help us fight for a just future we have to allow ourselves space for mourning in order to say, ‘no more’,” said Belitz.
Demonstrators read the names of those lost for 7 minutes, to symbolize the seven days of Jewish mourning – called Shiva. Organizers say their mourning doesn’t end when the vigil does, and now is the time to call for a ceasefire. – Mae Antar/IPM News
Illinois reaction to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union fell along party lines
Governor JB Pritzker (D-IL) said Biden laid out a vision for a nation that respects individual freedoms, working families and international allies.
A similar sentiment from Rep. Nikki Budzinski (D-IL-13). She praised the bipartisan infrastructure act and said Biden will defend democracy and protect women’s reproductive rights.
Meanwhile, Rep. Mike Bost (R-IL12) called Biden’s speech a “State of Delusion.” Bost, who faces Darren Bailey, in next week’s primary, says Biden offered divisive political rhetoric and class welfare. Bost has been endorsed by former President Donald Trump, who is challenging Biden to return to the White House in November.
Rep. Darin LaHood (R-IL16) says Biden has put the United States on a path of decline. However, he says he agrees with President Biden on working together to address threats from China and Iran.
THURSDAY, MARCH 7
Capitol Briefs: Stipends for student teachers
A pair of competing bills in the House would, for the first time in Illinois, offer state-funded stipends for student teachers. Supporters of the idea say it’s needed to ease some of the financial burden on teachers-in-training, which some argue is one source of the state’s teacher shortage.
Student teaching typically involves a full semester of on-the-job training in a classroom under the supervision of a licensed cooperating teacher. But while student teachers work similar hours as a full-time professional teacher, they are not paid for their labor and, in fact, have to pay full tuition and fees at their college or university to get credit for the experience.
Some districts discourage student teachers from working outside jobs, although many say that’s the only way they can make ends meet.
Both bills call for paying stipends of $10,000 for a semester, the rough equivalent of $15 per-hour for 40 hours per week – even though most student teachers say they work much more than that. Assuming an average of 5,400 student teachers per year, that would work out to $54 million in state funding needed to support the program.
The major difference between the two bills is how the program would work in years when lawmakers don’t fully fund the program.
House Bill 4652, by Rep. Barbara Hernandez, D-Aurora, does not account for underfunding the program. An initiative of the Illinois Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union, it assumes lawmakers would fully fund the stipends each year.
“You all have constituent groups. Our constituency group is our aspiring educators, and they have said they want everyone to be paid for student teaching,” IEA lobbyist Unique Mickens told a House committee Wednesday.
House Bill 5414, an initiative of the advocacy group Advance Illinois, calls for paying the same $10,000 stipend to student teachers, plus another $1,500 to cooperating teachers, raising its total price tag to an estimated $67 million per year. But in years of underfunding, it would prioritize recipients on the basis of financial need, then focus on hard-to-fill subjects and areas of the state with the highest teacher vacancy rates.
Both bills are pending in the House Higher Education Committee. – Peter Hancock & Jerry Nowicki, Capitol News Illinois
Capitol Briefs: Promoting local food sources
Although Illinois is one of the nation’s leading agricultural states, it can still be a challenge for consumers here to shop for food that comes from local farms, dairies and ranches.
The Senate Agriculture Committee heard testimony Thursday on two bills that seek to make Illinois-grown food more accessible to the state’s consumers.
Senate Bill 3077, by Sen. Dave Koehler, D-Peoria, would establish a $2 million per-year grant program within the Illinois Department of Agriculture to help fund projects to enhance local food processing, aggregation and distribution within the state. Those could include projects such as food hubs, canneries, mills, livestock processing and other kinds of infrastructure that help move food from a farm to communities.
“And this is important because while we have some of the best farmland in the world, we don’t actually have the infrastructure in place to feed ourselves,”said Molly Pickering, deputy director of the Illinois Stewardship Alliance. “Ninety-five percent of the food that we eat here in Illinois is imported from out of state. That means every dollar that anyone spends on food is not going into our local communities. It’s being exported.”
Senate Bill 3219, by Sen. Doris Turner, D-Springfield, would establish another kind of grant program through the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity to help fund equipment upgrades at farmer-owned grocery stores.
Jenny Sauer-Schmidgall, who runs a small store on a farm that she and her husband operate in west-central Illinois, said it’s a concept that has been growing in popularity around the country.
“The heart of the home is the kitchen,” she said. “Food brings everybody together. And it would just be really amazing to see the farmers’ stores be a part of a community and keep everything there.”
Both bills advanced out of the Senate Agriculture Committee Thursday and could be taken up soon by the full Senate. – Peter Hancock & Jerry Nowicki, Capitol News Illinois
Capitol Briefs: Reducing plastic
People who travel frequently and stay in hotels may have noticed that the small bottles of shampoo, conditioner and body wash have become less common and are being replaced by larger, refillable containers attached to the shower wall. So far, that’s been a trend that the hotel industry has been adopting voluntarily, but it soon could become mandatory in Illinois.
Senate Bill 2960, by Sen. Laura Fine, D-Glenview, would create the “Small Single-Use Plastic Bottle Act” and phase out the use of those items in Illinois hotels. Large hotels with 50 or more rooms would have until July 1, 2025, to comply with the law while smaller hotels would be given one additional year.
Keenan Irish, who lobbies for the Illinois Hotel and Lodging Association, said the industry believes sustainability initiatives like the elimination of single-use plastic are important in demonstrating a commitment to the environment.
“The hotel industry recognizes its responsibility to lead the way in adopting environmentally friendly practices,” he told the Senate Environment and Conservation Committee Thursday. “Transitioning away from these bottles is a pivotal stride towards mitigating the environmental harm they cause.”
Some on the committee, however, questioned why a law was necessary if the industry was adopting the practice voluntarily.
“Part of the industry is doing it but not all of the industry is doing it,” Fine said. “And this will encourage others who are not to hop on board and join us.”
The bill advanced out of committee and could be taken up soon by the full Senate. – Peter Hancock & Jerry Nowicki, Capitol News Illinois
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 6
Former Gov. Pat Quinn backs GOP-sponsored ethics amendment
An effort to put a constitutional amendment dealing with ethics reform on the November 5 ballot is getting some bipartisan support in Springfield. Capitol News Illinois reports former Democratic Governor Pat Quinn is endorsing a proposal that would allow citizens to circulate petitions to put certain ethics-related amendments on the ballot. It’s being sponsored by Republican Representative Ryan Spain of Peoria. Quinn says he tried to push for ethics reform when he was governor but was blocked by then-Speaker of the House Mike Madigan. Lawmakers have until May 5 to pass a constitutional amendment in time to get it on the November 5 general election ballot. – Capitol News Illinois
Rivian reducing shifts at its automaker plant in Normal
The electric automaker Rivian says it’s changing from three shifts of manufacturing workers to two at its Normal manufacturing plant starting next month. Rivian plans to make around 57,000 vehicles in Normal this year, the same as last. A Rivian spokesperson says they can do that with just two shifts, given the plant is getting more efficient. The spokesperson says all hourly employees will be offered a job on one of the two available shifts. Rivian plans to increase capacity on those remaining shifts. The two-shift change will go into effect April 28, after a planned shutdown of the plant. That’s when new engineering design changes will be made to lower the cost of producing each vehicle. Most of Rivian’s 8,000 employees in Normal are hourly manufacturing workers. – WGLT news
TUESDAY, MARCH 5
Urbana city council issues statement for Middle East peace, but not a ‘ceasefire’
The city council of Urbana has approved a statement calling for a lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians. But they are not calling for a “ceasefire.” Sana Saboowala is a member of the CU Muslim Action Committee. She and many others at the meeting criticized the council for shying away from that language.
“We’re asking the City Council to stand against this clearly and wholeheartedly. The idea that the world word ceasefire is too polarizing is a testament to the level of depravity that we’re allowing ourselves to be complicit in now,” said Saboowala.
As a compromise, the councilors added a call for an immediate and permanent end to violence after several hours of comments. Urbana’s committee of the whole passed the resolution yesterday. The councilors have to vote again at a city council meeting. This comes after months of passionate public testimony for and against Israel’s war in Gaza. The cities of Chicago and Minneapolis have also passed cease fire resolutions. – Emily Hays, IPM News
Nearly 9 in 10 state-level primaries give voters no choice in candidates
Illinoisans are already voting early for the primary elections on March 19, but in most districts their choices are limited. Capitol News Illinois reports about 88 percent of state-level legislative and judicial primary contests are uncompetitive, meaning there is either no one running or a single candidate. This is at least a 20-year high, according to data from the state board of elections. John Shaw at SIU’s Paul Simon Public Policy Institute says the lack of competition stems from long-term trends in political polarization, and decades of partisan redistricting. The state’s primary contests also highlight the urban-rural divide, with competitive primaries in downstate Illinois more likely to feature Republicans. Chicago and its suburbs are seeing more Democratic candidates. – Capitol News Illinois
Representatives urge postal service to maintain Champaign Mail Processing Center
Central Illinois congresswomen Nikki Budzinski and Mary Miller rarely agree on policy. But the Democratic and Republican representatives are asking the US Postal Service to maintain the Champaign Mail Processing and Distribution Center. In a letter to Postmaster Louis DeJoy, Budzinski and Miller said a plan to downsize the center would mean worse delivery rates and dozens of jobs being relocated to the Chicago area. The center is located along Mattis Avenue south of I-74. Budzinski encourages local residents to submit feedback to a public comment period on the future of local mail facilities. Click here for the form. – Reginald Hardwick, IPM News
MONDAY, MARCH 4
Governor: local tech hub to receive millions in federal money
I-FAB, the Illinois Fermentation and Agriculture Biomanufacturing Tech Hub hopes to receive $70 million from the federal Economic Development Administration. At the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign campus, this morning, Governor JB Pritzker celebrated the submission of I-FAB’s application and the state’s overall work in the tech industry.
“We have all the pieces to become a global tech powerhouse in the next decade,” said Pritzker. “And I-FAB becoming an EDA tech hub is just one signal that the rest of the world is taking note of us. Illinois is competing, and we’re winning.”
The I-FAB tech hub is to be based in Champaign, Piatt and Macon County. It would promote precision fermentation techniques to convert crops like corn and soybeans into everything from fuel to cosmetics. Pritzker says the bio-manufacturing industry is expected to generate a million jobs and be valued at $200 billion dollars by 2040. – Mae Antar, IPM News
Illinois Women’s Basketball beats Nebraska at State Farm Center
The Fighting Illini women’s basketball team won their final regular season game yesterday at home against the Nebraska Cornhuskers, 74-to-73. Illinois senior guard Makira Cook led the team with 20 points and 5 assists. The Illini finished the regular season with an overall record of 14-and-14 and an 8-and-10 Big Ten Conference record. Illinois will play in the Big Ten Tournament later this week in Minneapolis. – Colin Hislope, IPM News