(SPRINGFIELD) A group of gun control advocates rallied yesterday in Springfield, at the Illinois Statehouse. Those attending were calling for the state to permanently fund a 2021 law that provided dollars to community violence intervention. The estimated cost for the program, $140 million, is in the proposed fiscal year 2025 budget which will begin July 1st.
(SPRINGFIELD) An Illinois women’s prison could be moved into the same site as Stateville Correctional Center as part of a plan to rebuild both facilities. The recommendation from the Illinois Department of Corrections comes a little more than a month after Governor J.B. Pritzker unveiled a plan to rebuild Stateville and Logan Correctional Centers, citing the deteriorating conditions at both prisons. IDOC officials are asking for $161 million in the fiscal year 2025 budget for the Stateville project & nearly $80 million for the Logan project.
(SPRINGFIELD) The Illinois Department of Public Health and the Illinois State Water Survey are reminding Illinois private water well owners to properly maintain their wells and recommend that they test their water wells for potential contaminants. Officials at both departments say that while most private water wells provide continuous safe water for years, contamination can quickly occur due to changes into the well’s aquifer. They note that many contaminants cannot be detected by sight, taste, or smell, but only by testing.
(SPRINGFIELD) Governor J.B. Pritzker and First Lady M.K. Pritzker have donated a historic document to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library & Museum. The document is President Lincoln’s final authorization to begin a blockade of southern ports, a strategy that would play a decisive role in the outcome of the Civil War. The document, dated April 19th, 1861, launched the famous “Anaconda Plan” which remained in effect for the rest of the Civil War and very critical for the Union victory over the Southern Confederacy