SPRINGFIELD (WGEM) – A bill overhauling Illinois’ child labor laws is heading to Gov. JB Pritzker’s desk. The state Senate voted unanimously to approve the amended House version of the bill.

The House passed the bill with bipartisan support Tuesday.

The bill would substantially update the state’s child labor laws for the first time in nearly 75 years.

An initiative of the Illinois Department of Labor, agency officials argue piecemeal changes over the years have created outdated, conflicting and disjointed provisions in state law.

“Were trying to just create a whole new bill, gut and replace it, and allow for an easier new way to manage the bill and understand and so employers and everyone else can understand it. I think right now it just creates a lot of unnecessary misunderstandings for a bill that is very important in protecting the vulnerable,” said state Rep. Barbara Hernandez, D-Aurora, the bill’s House sponsor.

The bill would ban kids from working in jobs not covered 75 years ago. Those include working in cannabis shops and adult entertainment facilities.

It also limits the number of hours kids 15 and younger can work weekly to 18 hours during school weeks and 40 hours when school is not in session.

“We want them continue providing a great resource to our community and hopefully become that future doctor and so on, but we need to protect them now in those first jobs that they have,” Hernandez said.

The bill also adds protections for children in the film industry.

State Rep. Dan Ugaste, R-Geneva, opposed the bill. He was highly critical of the bill not having exceptions for businesses owned by the child’s parent.

“This bill goes over the top,” Ugaste said. “It has limitations on hours and other things that don’t need to be as drastic as they are. I don’t mind revising this law to the extend it needs it but this, as it’s written, is an overreach.”

The bill does have exceptions allowing kids under 16 to work on their family’s farm.

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OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Will Rogers finished one out shy of a complete game to lead No. 4 seed Michigan to a 4-2 victory over top-seeded Illinois on Friday night for a berth in the Big Ten Tournament semifinals.

Michigan (32-27) will play No. 8 seed Penn State the semifinals Saturday and will have to beat the Nittany Lions twice to advance to Sunday’s championship game. Penn State beat Michigan 9-5 on Thursday. Nebraska and Indiana square off in the first semifinal with the Cornhuskers needing two wins over the Hoosiers to advance.

The Wolverines grabbed a 1-0 lead in the top of the third inning after No. 9 batter Brock Leitgeb led off with a walk and scored on a single by Stephen Hrustich.

Michigan led 2-0 in the fifth after Mitch Voit tripled and scored on a double by Hrustich.

Caruso and Rogers had back-to-back doubles leading off the eighth inning to make it 3-0 and the Wolverines’ final run came on Voit’s solo home run in the ninth.

Rogers took a shutout into the ninth before running into trouble. He sandwiched a pair of fly outs around a walk to Connor Milton, but Camden Janik tripled in a run and scored on a Drake Westcott single to end his night. Dylan Vique induced a ground out from the first batter he faced to finish off the victory with his first save of the season.

Rogers (2-4) yielded two runs on three hits and two walks, striking out nine.

Payton Hutchings was saddled with the loss for the Fighting Illini (34-19). He pitched 4 1/3 innings, surrendering two runs on three hits and five walks.

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SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WIFR) – The Illinois state Senate passed the Clean Lighting Act Friday to phase out the use of fluorescent lighting.

If Gov. JB Pritzker signs the bill, LED lightbulbs will replace fluorescence lighting.

According to an analysis by the Appliance Standards Awareness Project, the new bulbs will save Illinois consumers more than $1.5 billion on utility bills, avoid more than 2 million metric tons of C02 emissions by energy waste and prevent over 400 pounds of mercury pollution by 2050.

Illinois becomes the tenth state to pass clean lighting policies.

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