Voting rights advocates critical of how Illinois has rolled out automatic voter registration say they’re considering a lawsuit because the implementation of the law is behind schedule, but Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White said he won’t be intimidated by threats.

Here’s a link to the story at Illinois News Network.

SPRINGFIELD — Informing medical students about the social and economic hardships that can influence the health of patients and intervening to alleviate those problems are primary goals of a new department at Springfield’s Southern Illinois University School of Medicine.

Here’s a link to the story at the Southern Illinoisan.

KEENES — This time of year, some employees at Frey Farms ride school buses to work.

Here’s a link to the story at the Southern Illinoisan.

CHICAGO — Lawyers for a white Chicago police officer who fatally shot a black teenager presented an animated video to jurors on Tuesday that was intended to show the officer’s perspective during the shooting and support his claim that he feared for his safety.

Here’s a link to the story at the Southern Illinoisan.

Illinois’ Department of Natural Resources is telling deer hunters about a few changes for the 2018 deer hunting season. 

Here’s a link to the story at Illinois News Network.

Gov. Bruce Rauner shouldn’t be worried only about Democratic rival J.B. Pritzker in the four-way race for the governor’s mansion.

Here’s a link to the story at Illinois News Network.

Broadband in rural areas may be as vital as running water. One politician has seen a shortage of both in her district.

Here’s a link to the story at the Southern Illinoisan.

Cites steps as improvements in ethics, transparency, efficiency

 

CHICAGO — Gov. Bruce Rauner today issued executive orders eliminating 53 boards and commissions that serve no public purpose and have been inactive for years, some for as long as two full decades.

“This is a matter of good government through transparency,” Rauner said. “The people of Illinois need to understand the ongoing work of the state. They should not be led to believe that people are still at work doing tasks that were completed 10 years ago, or that they are supporting advisory roles for which the need expired in the 1990s.”

Over the years, the State of Illinois has created more than 600 authorities, boards, bureaus, commissions, committees, councils, task forces and other similar entities. Many of them have completed their work and no longer operate, yet they still appear in State publications, public-facing websites, and Legislative Research Unit reports as if they were still doing the people’s work.

Today’s executive orders, EO 18-10 and EO 18-11, are a follow on EO 18-5 that Rauner issued earlier this year abolishing 19 other moribund entities. Collectively, the orders eliminate 72 redundant or inactive boards and commissions so that executive branch operations are more transparent and efficient.

One of the organizations that Rauner eliminated today — the State Government Accountability Council — was formed in 1999 and there isn’t any recorded activity since that time. Another, the Illinois Board of Athletic Trainers, last met a decade ago in 2008.

Rauner has used his constitutional executive authority to address ethical issues ranging from personal codes of conduct, conflicts of interest, and recrimination against employees reporting illegal behavior. Along those lines, the governor today also issued Executive Order 18-12, eliminating nepotism in state hiring. The move brings Illinois in line with more than half U.S. states including Indiana, Missouri, Iowa, Kentucky and Michigan.

The order prohibits executive agency heads from the practice of nepotism in the appointment, promotion or recommendation of a relative to any agency or department under their control.

Rauner has supported ethics legislation as well. In June of this year his signature gave the legislature’s top watchdog freedom to investigate sexual harassment complaints without first having to get approval from the Legislative Ethics Commission, a panel of lawmakers appointed by House and Senate leaders of both parties.

He also signed legislation banning members of the General Assembly from using any public funds, including their member office allowances, as “hush money” to keep someone silent as part of a settlement of a sexual harassment case.

CAIRO — A congressional House panel will hold a hearing Tuesday concerning the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s failed oversight of the Alexander County Housing Authority — though no one from HUD’s program offices were asked to participate.

Here’s a link to the story at the Southern Illinoisan.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate Judiciary Committee scheduled a hearing Thursday for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, a woman who says he sexually assaulted her as a teenager, as a claim of sexual misconduct emerged from another woman.

Here’s a link to the story at the Southern Illinoisan.