SPRINGFIELD (WGEM) – Illinois’ Human Rights Act will soon protect people’s reproductive health decisions thanks to a new law taking effect Jan. 1, 2025.

“It amends the Human Rights Act to protect an individual’s reproductive health decisions from discrimination or retaliation in the context of employment, housing, public accommodations, education and financial credit,” said state Sen. Laura Fine, D-Glenview, the legislation’s Senate sponsor.

She said under the law, reproductive health decisions aren’t limited to pregnancy-related choices. Yes, someone’s past decision whether to get an abortion will be covered, but so will family planning choices like whether to take birth control, sterilization, whether to seek fertility treatments, or use holistic medicine or alternative medicine.

“It would be a violation, for example, for an employer to terminate an employee for seeking in vitro fertilization, a housing provider to refuse an apartment rental because a person had an abortion or a bank to deny a loan because it is going to be used for fertility treatments,” Fine said.

The law’s opponents fear it could limit people’s First Amendment rights. Though it has exemptions for religious organizations, it does not exempt groups like nonprofits that may have a faith-based mission but are not directly affiliated with a denomination.

“There is a right of association under the First Amendment and it allows the freedom to associate with other who have similar political, religious and cultural beliefs, and I fear that is exactly who this bill is targeting is organizations that aren’t affiliated with one religion but they are formed for a purpose and to associate with those who have a similar religious belief,” said state Sen. Jil Tracy, R-Quincy, citing a previous U.S. Supreme Court decision.

She said crisis pregnancy centers are an example of organizations that could be affected by the new law.

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DIXON — The Illinois Tollway Board of Directors has approved a new seven-year capital plan to support ongoing infrastructure projects and bridge the gap between the “Move Illinois” program and the agency’s next long-term capital plan, “Bridging the Future.”

The $2 billion “Bridging the Future” capital plan will help modernize the Illinois Tollway’s infrastructure to help support future projects while addressing maintenance issues along the five roadways on the Tollway system, including the Tri-State Tollway (I-94/I-294/I-80), the Jane Addams Memorial Tollway (I-90), the Reagan Memorial Tollway (I-88), the Veterans Memorial Tollway (I-355) and the Illinois Route 390 Tollway.

‘Bridging the Future’ overview

• Connecting infrastructure – $258 million will be spent on interchange work, including the I-355/I-88 interchange, state Route 390 Tollway at County Farm Road and the I-88 at York Road/22nd Street interchanges. Improvements will also be made to the Lake Cook Road Bridge over I-94.
• Improving mobility – $725 million will be spent on bridge reconstruction and widening projects, including local crossroad and mainline bridges on I-294, railroad bridges on I-294 and I-88 and crossroad bridge reconstruction at the north end of I-94.
• Modernizing the system – $532 million will be spent on system upgrades and maintenance systemwide, including bridge repairs, pavement rehabilitation and funding for improvements to toll plazas and tollway facilities.
• Preparing for the future – $485 million will be allocated for technology investments in active traffic management, upgrades to back-office systems and support for pilot programs and studies.

“The Bridging the Future capital plan is a smart and balanced approach that ensures the completion of critical improvements as we continue the engagement necessary to advance our long-term capital planning process,” Board Chairman Arnie Rivera said. “The Illinois Tollway Board has a fiscal responsibility to prioritize strategic regional projects with system upkeep to leverage funds efficiently.”

No changes to the tollway’s current tolling structure or any further debt financing are expected to fund “Bridging the Future” outside of what is already planned for the “Move Illinois” program, according to a news release.

“Throughout the past year, we’ve been gathering stakeholder and community input as part of our long-term strategic and capital planning process, and one thing we’ve heard across the board is that customers, communities and contractors don’t want to see a pause in progress or wait for the next capital program to begin,” Executive Director Cassaundra Rouse said. “The Bridging the Future plan will help keep our regional economic engine primed, delivering jobs and contract opportunities and also ensuring our planned infrastructure improvements remain on track.”

“Move Illinois,” the tollway’s current $15 billion capital program, is expected to finish by the end of 2027. The program has already accomplished several milestones, including the 2017 completion of state Route 390, the rebuilt Jane Addams Memorial Tollway (I-90) with its SmartRoad corridor and the 2022 interchange connecting I-294 to I-57.

Construction of the new I-490 Tollway, including reconstruction and widening of the Central Tri-State Tollway (I-294), is on schedule for completion.

The Illinois Tollway is a user-funded system without federal or state funding for its maintenance and operations. It oversees 294 miles of roadways across 12 counties in Northern Illinois.

For more information, visit illinoistollway.com.

About two weeks ago, Illinois was fresh off a bounce-back win over then-No. 20 Wisconsin and sitting at 7-2 (1-1 Big Ten).

Even considering the previous Friday’s overtime loss to Northwestern – which hadn’t won a high-major game at that point – and the fact that Illinois had dropped out of the AP Top 25 poll, the Illini were still well-respected by the metrics, landing at No. 15 in the KenPom rankings.

Fast forward to present day, after the Illini have played two more games. A heart-breaking two-point home loss to No. 1 Tennessee and a commendable 80-77 neutral-site win over a 10-2 Missouri squad in St. Louis.

Naturally, one would think 40 competitive minutes against the top team in the country and a victory over a high-quality SEC team (especially in a rivalry game) would boost not only Illinois’ reputation but also its standing in metrics such as KenPom.

Actually, the opposite was the case.

In fact, Illinois dropped all the way to No. 23 – no longer even among the top five in the Big Ten (Maryland, Oregon, Michigan State, UCLA, and Michigan are all ranked above).

Even more surprising, this came during a time when the Illini’s defensive efficiency actually climbed, from 17th all the way up to 11th over the past two weeks.

The issue, as has been the case all season, lies on the other end of the floor.

Over that two-week stretch, Illinois’ offensive efficiency has fallen from 25th to 37th. Given that KenPom’s metrics use a combination of data from the box score and play-by-play, it’s likely that Illinois’ KenPom offensive efficiency has continued to falter due to its combined 40-for-108 shooting (37.0 percent) against Tennessee and Missouri.

It’s important to note that it is only late December and Illinois has played just two conference games, which means two things: 1) KenPom isn’t working with a great deal of data just yet, and 2) the Illini will get a boatload of opportunities to prove themselves moving forward.

And those opportunities are coming sooner rather than later, as Illinois gets its last tune-up game of the season against Chicago State on Sunday before diving head-first into conference play and kicking the New Year off with a matchup against No. 9 Oregon in Eugene on January 2.

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