The Illinois Department of Central Management Services (CMS) announced today it will host a resource and networking event designed to connect small and diverse business owners, and to raise awareness about opportunities to participate in the state’s procurement and contracting processes.

The Make a Connection: “Connecting Communities to Illinois Business Opportunities” event is hosted by CMS in collaboration with several federal, state and local elected officials. This event is one in a series of ongoing events around the state. It will be held on Friday, March 20, 2015, from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Malcolm X College, 1900 West Van Buren Street, Chicago, and it is open to the public at no cost.

Today, State Representative Grant Wehrli (R-Naperville) moved his first bill in committee earning unanimous support with an 8-0 favorable vote. DuPage County Coroner Dr. Rich Jorgensen joined Rep. Wehrli in committee as a witness to offer supportive testimony on HB 438 a bill that would allow schools to administer an opioid antidote in the event that a student overdoses due to the usage of an opioid.

“I am very encouraged to see committee movement on this legislation. Heroin usage has become an epidemic not just in the home but also in the schools. Overdosing from opioids, most commonly used heroin, has become a very real reality in DuPage,” said Wehrli. “One opioid antidote is already administered by emergency first responders for overdose victims. Providing schools with this antidote and the proper training can mean saving a student’s life while waiting for emergency responders to arrive.”

House Bill 438 would allow school nurses and trained personnel to administer opioid antidotes to students, staff members, or visitors at a school or a school activity if the nurse or trained personnel believes in good faith the person is experiencing a drug overdose. It has the potential to save the lives of those suffering from a drug overdose. Read more.

Representative Steve Andersson (R-Geneva) presented his first bill in committee on Tuesday.  House Bill 2744  amends the Illinois Municipal Code and provides that  it shall not be considered a "conflict" under this Section when a municipality that is a party to a jurisdictional boundary line agreement cedes property within its own jurisdiction to another municipality not a party to the same jurisdictional boundary line agreement.

HB2744 will insure that orderly growth can occur between adjacent municipalities and lessens the risk that litigation will break out between municipalities over boundary lines.  Andersson said “As development rebounds following the recession, more growth will naturally cause friction between communities.  This bill reduces misunderstandings and encourages the smart growth of our communities.”

The bill won unanimous approval in today’s Cities and Villages Committee hearing.  Representative Andersson looks forward to presenting future bills in committee, and further moving his government reform legislation in the 99th General Assembly.

The bipartisan House Task Force on Education Funding will hold its first organizing meeting on Wednesday, March 11 at 3:00 PM in Room 118 in the Capitol. It is expected the Task Force will set objectives and future meetings. The Task Force will study equity and adequacy issues as it relates to funding schools in Illinois and from the information gathered, propose any necessary changes to the current school funding formula.

Rep. Robert Pritchard is the Republican Spokesperson for the 23-member Task Force and Republican lawmakers include Representatives Steven Andersson, Peter Breen, Mike Fortner, Jeanne Ives, Ron Sandack, Joe Sosnowski, Mike Tryon, Grant Wehrli and Barbara Wheeler. In January, Rep. Wheeler sponsored and filed HR9 calling for the creation of a committee to examine the existing school funding formula.

Randy Frese serves as the State Representative of the 94th District.

Rep. Frese was raised on his family’s farm in rural Illinois and earned his Bachelor of Sciences in Applied Sciences/Agriculture at Western Illinois University. After graduating from WIU, Randy learned about business traveling West Central Illinois. Based out of Macomb, he was first a sales and service representative for White Farm Equipment, and then he worked as an industrial minerals salesman. He soon returned to Adams County and began developing a series of entrepreneurial small businesses. Throughout his years as a small business owner Randy employed hundreds of individuals in the western Illinois region. He knows what it is to make the hard decisions of a small business owner, he knows how to maintain a budget and follow a plan, and he is able to relate and work with those who bring small business opportunities to western Illinois.

Randy has been married to his high school sweetheart for 31 years and has three daughters. Read more about Rep. Frese.

Comptroller Leslie Geissler Munger urges taxpayers to register online to check the status of their Illinois tax returns and sign up for text message and email payment notifications.

The Tax Refund Alert System allows taxpayers enter their name and Social Security number to see if the comptroller's office has processed their 2014 tax refund. Taxpayers also can enter an email address and phone number to receive a payment notification.

In addition, Munger announced her office will include inserts with all tax returns detailing where the state spent $36.7 billion in 2014, information on the state's bill backlog and other tools to help taxpayers learn about state and local finances.

Those who receive their tax refunds through direct deposit may view the tax insert digitally if they register for the Tax Refund Alert System.

Specifically, the tax return insert provides a spending breakdown by state agency. It further provides snapshots of the state's unpaid bills over time, documenting the backlog at the end of the fiscal year and six months later at the end of the calendar year. It refers residents to the comptroller's transparency websites, the Ledger and the Warehouse, for more detail on state and local finances.

The state would be required to operate a hotline to receive complaints about jet noise from O'Hare International Airport and collect scientific data that "creates an accurate overall portrait of the impact of noise on community quality of life," under legislation that was introduced Thursday.

The state would be required to operate a hotline to receive complaints about jet noise from O'Hare International Airport and collect scientific data that "creates an accurate overall portrait of the impact of noise on community quality of life," under legislation that was introduced Thursday.

State Rep. Christine Winger, a Republican from Bloomingdale in DuPage County, said residents in her district are concerned about how O'Hare noise may be affecting the health of families as well as potentially lowering property values.

Major changes in O'Hare flight patterns that took effect in October 2013 are sending more planes west and east of the airport, while generally reducing the number of flights north and south of the airfield.

Winger introduced three bills that she said would require the collection of more information by jet noise monitoring devices and implement tougher accountability measures. Read more.