In this episode, Spotlight brings a Legislative Update from David E. Curtin, IFI’s Lobbyist in Springfield.

We are only five weeks into the new session of the Illinois General Assembly, and already, more than 6,000 bills have been filed.

“It’s a record and they are proud of it. The super-majority is proud of it, but it is not good for the state of Illinois.”

IFA’s David E. Smith hosts this episode to highlight three very concerning bills that are pending debate at the Capitol.… Continue Reading

The corporate media will not tell you this, but as a resident of Illinois, you need to know that during the 103rd General Assembly (2023-2024), more than 9,800 bills were filed during this legislative session. Thus far, Governor JB Pritzker has signed 1,057 of these bills into law. And since the session isn’t officially through until January 8, 2025, that number may yet grow.

On New Year’s Day, 293 of those laws will take effect.… Continue Reading

Governor JB Pritzker has been forthcoming and direct in articulating his desires to make Illinois the “abortion capital” of the United States.

In July of this year, Pritzker signed the Birth Equity Act (HB 5142) into law, which mandates insurance companies in Illinois cover the cost of abortion without any deductibles, extra costs, or copays.

In the state of Illinois, you can kill your baby at any point, for any reason, and with no added impact to your wallet.… Continue Reading

In this week’s Spotlight episode, David Curtin, IFI’s Springfield Lobbyist, gives an update on the Illinois General Assembly.

As it relates to Assisted Suicide in Illinois, David Curtin has a hopeful update:

Assisted Suicide is dead for now. We don’t expect it to come up before the end of May. If it comes up during veto session in the Fall, maybe? If it comes up next year, maybe?

But, we are just ecstatic that IFI listeners registered their opinion on so many bills down here.

The hope in a “Red Wave” election didn’t come to fruition in November. The work to flip the U.S. House and U.S. Senate to Republican control produced mixed results.

The GOP barely gained control of the U.S. House, which means Nancy Pelosi will no longer be the Speaker of the U.S. House, and third in line to the presidency.

Of our state’s 17 Congressional seats, three downstate districts have Republican representation, as we lost one to redistricting and one to a Democrat candidate in the newly redrawn 13^th district in central Illinois.… Continue Reading

In this week’s episode of Illinois Family Spotlight, we introduce listeners to Mr. Scott Greene, a Republican candidate for Illinois House District 86. He is stepping up to challenge State Representative Larry Walsh Jr. (D-Joliet), the incumbent since 2012. Value voters are hoping to help Greene win the election and bring some trucker sense to the Capitol in Springfield. Knowing that faith, family, and freedom are on the line, he promises to try his best to represent his district.… Continue Reading

In south Cook County and into the southern suburbs, we have Frederick Walls from Crete who is running for state representative in the 34th District. This seat is currently held by incumbent State Representative Nicholas Smith, another left-wing Democrat from Chicago.

Walls is a Christian husband and devoted father of four children. He is a graduate of The Chicago Regional Council of Carpenters’ Apprentices and Training Program (CRCC), and has been a carpenter for 13 years.… Continue Reading

During the weeks of October 19-21 and 26-28, Illinois state lawmakers will be headed back to Springfield for the annual “Veto Session.”

Using his social media account to circumvent the liberal media, Illinois State Rep. Dan Caulkins (R-Decatur) recently posted a video update on Facebook to warn his constituents about the corrupt priorities that the Democratic majority has on the docket for these six days of Veto Session. Of these, we are specifically concerned about the following:

1.)… Continue Reading

The Democratic Party is firmly in control of both federal and Illinois government – now what do we do? Former Illinois state representative, Jeanne Ives, addresses that question in part two of our Spotlight conversation (listen to part one here). We discuss an alarming proposal by liberal, secular Democrats to “restore constitutional secularism and patriotic pluralism” and Jeanne details how we can and must fight against this assault on religious freedom.… Continue Reading

People of faith are sensing something is very wrong with our government right now. In Illinois, the newspapers might as well publish Jeremiah Chapter 36 as their front page cover story. After all, his Biblical account sounds like it’s taken directly from today’s headlines.

Pending disaster, dire warnings, arrogant leaders, cowardly representatives, people of faith banned from their place of worship, untrustworthy people turning each other in and an increasingly godless society, tempting God’s wrath every step of the way.… Continue Reading

The news in Illinois these days is grim to say the least. A few days ago Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker announced a plan to ‘Restore’ Illinois that, if actually followed, will surely destroy whatever is left of both our God-given and constitutionally protected civil rights and our livelihoods. According to the governor, ‘normal’ will not return to Illinois until we have a vaccine or a drug that he deems “highly effective.”

If we take the him at his word, it’s quite possible that normal will never return to Illinois. … Continue Reading

Written by Cal Skinner
McHenry County Blog – Former Illinois State Representative

With the current budding scandals in Chicago, it’s hard to believe that the city council’s ethics rules are stricter than Springfield’s, but, that is the case.

Former Chicago Alderman Will Burns broke the revolving door rule which prohibits Aldermen from lobbying the city within a year after leaving office. He resigned, went to work for Airbnb and, before twelve months had elapsed, Burns called a city official on behalf of his new employer and appeared on WTTW’s “Chicago Tonight” to talk about the regulatory ordinance being considered by his former colleagues. … Continue Reading

Another election has come and gone. A number of states saw a noticeable political shake-up. For pro-life/pro-family conservatives in Illinois, things went from bad to worse.

As promised last week, Monte Larrick and I are once again joined by Richard Hartian, Chairman of Illinois Family Action, for this episode of Spotlight.

Moving on from the post-mortem of What went wrong? to a discussion of Where do we go from here? – Hartian, Smith, and Larrick consider what Illinois might look like under a Democrat-controlled statehouse led by J.B.… Continue Reading

The Illinois News Network reported some big news about a new national “political power” record that was set this week:

Illinois’ longest serving House speaker is now the United State’s longest serving statehouse speaker.

The title was held for years by a South Carolina politician from the 1970s, but the title now goes to Chicago Democrat Michael Madigan.

Madigan has been speaker of the Illinois House every year since 1983, except for two years in the 1990s when Republicans were in the majority.

Written by Carol Ostrow

Illinois lawmakers are using a seemingly surreptitious way to give themselves pay raises: creating new and useless committees for which they are automatically paid an extra $10,326 as chairmen, a Chicago-based think tank is arguing.

The Illinois Policy Institute (IPI) says that legislation enacted in the House in January created 12 new standing committees, bringing the total to 45.

Written by the Chicago City Wire

The Illinois Policy Institute is proposing a budget conservative group leaders contend would put an end to the state’s nearly two-year impasse, closing a $7.1 billion deficit without adding any new taxes.