(SPRINGFIELD) Former Illinois Governor Jim Edgar has passed away at the age of 79. It was yesterday that the Edgar family announced that the former two-term Republican Governor died due to complications related to treatment for pancreatic cancer. Prior to serving as Illinois’ 38th Governor, from 1991 to 1999, the Oklahoma native was raised in Charleston and attended college at EIU before serving as a State Representative from 1977 to 1979 and then served as Illinois’ 35th Secretary of State from 1981 to 1991. Governor Edgar is survived by his wife, two children, and their families.
(SPRINGFIELD) Governor J.B. Pritzker has signed an executive order to establish the Statewide Vaccine Access Initiative. It’s a move that calls for the Illinois Department of Public Health to issue a Standing Order to allow eligible providers in pharmacy and other clinical settings to administer vaccines recommended by the IDPH. The Governor says the executive order was necessitated by federal actions, including the dismissal of top administrators from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
(SPRINGFIELD) Many are reacting to Governor J.B. Pritzker’s enacting a law requiring statewide schools to report firearms or threats to principals, describing the bill as “a just common sense kind of legislation” that ensures threats are at least reported to the proper school authorities. While originally law enforcement was a part of the process, a State House amendment removed them, which many say should have been left in place. But as the law establishes a baseline for reporting, schools and local law enforcement agencies can still conduct full threat assessments if they choose to do so.
(CHICAGO) Longtime Chicago radio and TV broadcaster, Bruce DuMont passed away last week, at the age of 81. DuMont founded the popular Museum of Broadcast Communications in 1987 and was the longtime host of the statewide “Beyond the Beltway” program.