EASTER BREAK: TAKE ADVANTAGE OF FREE MUSEUM PASS
There is a FREE museum pass available to constituents who live in the 89th District. This allows area families to visit a number of Chicago museums over the Easter break, and beyond!
The pass is available on a first come, first serve basis, and can be requested online HERE.
The following museums are available in 2025:
- The Adler Planetarium
- The Art Institute of Chicago
- Brookfield Zoo
- Chicago Botanic Garden
- Chicago Children’s Museum
- Chicago History Museum
- DuSable Museum of African American History
- The Field Museum
- Lincoln Park Zoo
- Museum of Contemporary Art
- Museum of Science and Industry
- National Museum of Mexican Art
- National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts & Culture
- Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum
- John G. Shedd Aquarium
- Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center
- CZS Chicago Academy of Sciences
I encourage area families to take advantage of this great resource and the opportunity to see all the museums the city of Chicago has to offer!
It is strongly recommended that families utilizing the card contact the museum they plan to visit to learn if pre-registration is required to visit. With questions, contact my office at 815-291-8989.
CRIMINAL LAW
Windhorst Leads Advocacy for Crime Victims in Resentencing Debate. State Representative Patrick Windhorst has long advocated for crime victims as Massac County State’s Attorney and now as an Illinois legislator. On Thursday, he continued that advocacy by helping to defeat legislation that would have allowed resentencing of murderers and rapists.
Windhorst, the Republican spokesman on the House Judiciary Criminal Law Committee and the House Restorative Justice Committee, rose in opposition to a controversial piece of legislation that would grant convicted murderers and rapists under the age of 21 the possibility of parole and resentencing.
During debate, Windhorst pointed to an existing youthful offender program already in place that provides an opportunity for parole for offenders under the age of 21 who are sentenced after 2019. HB 3332 would apply retroactively to all inmates who were under the age of 21 at the time of the commission of the crime. Because of Illinois’ Truth-In-Sentencing Laws, he noted that the majority of the individuals who would be eligible for resentencing under this legislation are those in prison for murder or sexual assault offenses. An evaluation by the Sentencing Policy Advisory Council revealed HB 3332 would apply to 774 individuals incarcerated for murder and 202 individuals incarcerated for sexual assault. He went on to advocate for the victims of crime.
On that, I issued the following statement: “Justice should never come at the expense of victims. Forcing families to face their loved one’s killer or rapist again in court is a cruel injustice. The system should stand with victims—not bend over backwards for violent offenders who made their choices and now want a do-over.”
The bill ultimately failed.
Rep. Windhorst leads the House Republican Truth in Public Safety (TIPS) Working Group which has introduced legislation aimed at protecting crime victims, retaining and recruiting law enforcement officers and ensuring pre-trial fairness applies to everyone, including victims and the public.
McCombie Passes Measure to Protect Sexual Assault Victims. This week, I passed bipartisan legislation to prohibit co-pays for sexual assault exams in what I believe is a commonsense bill to protect victims of sexual assault.
After passing this measure, I said: “This bill gives victims an added protection of knowing they will not be overburdened when they receive care. It is important we close harmful loopholes when we find them in statute.”
The legislation, HB 2805, has the support of lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. The bill passed unanimously when it was presented for a vote on April 8th, 2025.
HB 2805 will now move forward to the Senate for further consideration.
EDUCATION
Legislation threatening Homeschool Freedom fails to advance in IL House. The Homeschool Act would impose a variety of mandates on homeschooling families, some of which are highly intrusive. As amended, the Act would require each parent or guardian of a homeschooled pupil to submit a notification and data form to the public-school bureaucracy. If a registration form is not submitted for a school-age child, the child may be classified as a truant. Truancy imposes potential penalties, including criminal penalties, upon the allegedly truant student and his or her parents or guardians.
Homeschool families from across Illinois have mobilized in significant opposition to the Homeschool Act. In response to this opposition, the Democratic sponsor of the Homeschool Act threw out the old language of the bill, and substituted the language of House Amendment #2 to HB 2827. The amended bill maintains intrusions into the lives of homeschooling families, and when the amendment was debated in a House committee this week, tens of thousands of witness slips were filed in opposition.
State Rep. Amy Elik, Republican Spokesperson for the House Education Policy Committee, helped lead the opposition to the onerous Homeschool Act. On Thursday, Rep. Elik issued the followings statement regarding HB 2827:
“I have just heard that Terra Costa Howard will NOT be bringing the Homeschool Act to the floor for a vote this week. This is a big WIN for the Homeschool families, but the fight is not over! Keep making your voices heard!”
On Friday, Rep. Elik again stood up for homeschool families after the Democratic sponsor of the Homeschool Act blamed misinformation for the failure of her legislation.
I also added the following statement on the issue:
“This is a hard-earned and important victory for homeschool families across Illinois. The unified, passionate response from our homeschooling communities made all the difference in stopping this intrusive legislation—for now. But this is not the end. We will be back in session on April 22nd, and we must remain alert and engaged. Protecting educational freedom requires our continued vigilance.”
FAIR MAPS – DENIED TO IL VOTERS
McCombie: Illinois Supreme Court does the Democrats’ dirty work. After the Illinois Supreme Court refused to take up my lawsuit to fight for Illinois voters through a fair map, I released the following statement:
“Today is a shameful day in Illinois history. The voices of voters have once again been silenced by a Democratic machine that will stop at nothing to cling to power. This isn’t leadership — it’s a raw, cynical power grab. Every Illinoisan, regardless of political affiliation, should be outraged by what just happened.
“Governor JB Pritzker lied to the people of this state. He promised a fair map — but instead stood by as his party drew the most partisan gerrymander possible, rigging the system for yet another decade. This isn’t democracy.
“Let’s be clear: Democrats have no interest in protecting voters — only in protecting their majority. They’ve proven they’ll twist the rules, ignore the public, and crush accountability to keep their grip on power. House Republicans will not stop exposing this injustice. We will fight every day to restore fairness, transparency, and trust in our elections — because the people of Illinois deserve nothing less.”
Rep. Spain: Ridiculous IL Supreme Court Decision Disenfranchises Voters. Following the opinion released Wednesday by the Illinois Supreme Court to reject House Republicans’ lawsuit against Democrats’ gerrymandered legislative maps based on the laches doctrine, or a lack of timeliness, Deputy House Republican Leader Ryan Spain released the following statement:
“This decision by the Illinois Supreme Court is infuriating. I think Leader McCombie expressed it perfectly – the court is doing the dirty work for an artificial supermajority of Democrats.
“It was Senator Dick Durbin who said, ‘The highest court in the land should not have the lowest ethical standards.’ He was speaking about the U.S. Supreme Court, of course, but I would confirm that the same statement applies to the Illinois Supreme Court as well.
“It’s ridiculous and unfair for the Court to make this kind of decision to disenfranchise voters and do the dirty work of the Democrats for them. It was the Court, not the defendants, who raised the laches/timeliness defense, something Justice Overstreet showed clearly to be meritless in his strongly worded dissent.”
Spain also pointed back to 2016 and the citizen-led petition for fair maps that was struck down on a technicality by former Justice Thomas Kilbride. Kilbride’s decision used John Hooker, now infamous in the ComEd Four scandal, as the plaintiff to give then Speaker Mike Madigan and Illinois Democrats power to gerrymander legislative maps. Kilbride then lost his supreme court seat in 2020 because of that decision, one of the very few times an Illinois Supreme Court Justice has not been retained by the voters.
In response to Kilbride’s loss, Democrats bent the political winds to their advantage, and they gerrymandered the entire Illinois Supreme Court in 2021. Then, even worse, in the 2022 election, Democratic legislative leaders spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy the seats for Justice Elizabeth Rochford and Justice Mary Kay O’Brien. In addition, the controversial All for Justice political action committee spent $7 million on those court races, flouting the rules of disclosure for political spending, for which they were later hit with a $99,500 fine.
Spain continued, “We need comprehensive ethics reform for the Illinois Supreme Court like Chuck Schumer introduced in Washington. We need conflict of interest disclosure, rules for recusal, rules for the disclosure of gifts and travel activity, and all the things that contributed to allowing this absurd decision to be possible.
“Not even in Illinois, a place plagued by corruption, should you be able to buy seats on the Supreme Court to protect your artificial supermajorities in the legislature for years to come.”
Editorial: Illinois Supreme Court’s refusal to hear gerrymandering case is a blow to democracy.
Last month, we urged Illinois Supreme Court justices to consider state Republicans’ strong arguments against extreme gerrymandering in the Land of Lincoln. To no one’s surprise, on Wednesday the Democratic majority on the high court seized on a technicality to avoid confronting the obvious and refused to hear the GOP’s case.
That leaves intact legislative maps that badly undermine democracy in Illinois. Any reasonable, non-partisan person looking at the facts would arrive at that conclusion. State House districts are so distorted that GOP candidates won 45% of the total vote for the Illinois House of Representatives in 2024 and just 34% of the seats.
That’s plain wrong, and the justices ought to be ashamed.
After multiple failed attempts in the past two decades to get a fair hearing before the Supreme Court, the GOP thought this time might be different. A lawsuit led by House Minority Leader Tony McCombie presented hard data, strong arguments that numerous bizarrely shaped districts violate the state Constitution, and even responded to court decisions in the past that had tossed GOP litigation because it was filed too close to an election.
The court refused to take up this latest case, not based on its merits but because the majority of justices said the plaintiffs waited too long to act. There’s no winning with this bunch, which appears content to oversee a judicial version of Joseph Heller’s Catch-22.
Read the rest of the Chicago Tribune editorial.
STATE GOVERNMENT
House Republicans call Governor to task for agency mismanagement. Outraged at the continuing failures and mismanagement at several Illinois agencies, State Representatives Charlie Meier, Jeff Keicher, Patrick Sheehan, and Brad Fritts called on the Governor to take action to protect the state’s most vulnerable.
Reports of abuse, neglect and improper procedure have spurred an investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice that will be conducting an audit of the State-Operated Developmental Centers (SODC), specifically the Choate, Shapiro, and Mabley Centers, for abuse and neglect.
The Jack Mabley Developmental Center, located in Dixon, is one of three centers for adults with severe developmental disabilities included in this investigation.
“Unfortunately, Mabley Developmental Center has been rife with issues and utter mismanagement for years,” said Rep. Fritts. “Numerous cases of abuse and neglect have been reported at this facility that is supposed to protect and care for Illinoisans who have developmental disabilities.”
Rep. Charlie Meier, who has been a staunch advocate for people with developmental disabilities since taking office, focused on the disasters that have happened at the Illinois Department of Human Services (DHS). Meier pointed to several reported incidents of abuse at Community Integrated Living Arrangements (CILAs), that are not properly reported or investigated.
“Without DHS acknowledging their lack of oversight and the tragic abuse that happens at CILAs and SODCs as a result of their negligence, these tragedies of abuse will continue to be allowed to occur with no responses,” Meier said. “I am glad to help fight abuse anywhere, and it should all be stopped. It seems strange that we don’t follow up on our small CILAs.”
Rep. Meier urged DHS to take immediate action to ensure that those responsible for the care of individuals with disabilities are held accountable.
Rep. Sheehan spoke about the importance of safeguarding children and the need for DCFS to fulfill its mission. He highlighted alarming statistics showing that since July 2018, DCFS has failed to produce incident-specific reports for over 1,200 child deaths and more than 3,000 serious injuries under the Abused and Neglected Child Reporting Act.
“The frontline workers at DCFS are dedicated and work tirelessly, but they’re overburdened and lack the resources they need to protect the children in their care,” Rep. Sheehan said. “This is not their failure; it’s a failure of leadership and outdated practices.”
Rep. Jeff Keicher urged immediate action to address chaos at state agencies that, under Governor J.B. Pritzker’s leadership, have been riddled with controversy amidst reports of abuse, neglect, and improper procedures.
“Gov. Pritzker has been in office for six years, and, during that time, he and Democrats in the legislature have increased the annual state budget from $39 billion to $54 billion annually,” said Keicher. “Yet, we still have core agencies – DCFS, DHS – that are failing our most vulnerable.
“It’s time for the Governor and Democrats to stop the banter and join us in reform efforts to end this chaos at state agencies.”
Watch the press conference here.
I also added the following input: “Our caucus is fighting every single day to shine a light on the mismanagement, abuse, and bureaucratic failure happening inside Illinois state agencies. We’re not just talking about statistics—we’re talking about children who died under DCFS supervision, adults with disabilities abused in state-run facilities, and frontline workers left unprotected by a system that should be supporting them.
“While Governor Pritzker is flying around the country chasing headlines, our members are on the ground doing the hard work—writing bills, exposing failures, and demanding accountability. That’s the kind of leadership Illinois families deserve. If Democrats won’t fix the problems, we will keep pushing until they can’t ignore them any longer. We will not stay silent while the most vulnerable in our state are failed by the very agencies meant to protect them.”
CHRONIC WASTE DISEASE LEGISLATION PASSES
I passed two pieces of legislation in the Illinois House this week to address the concerns with sharpshooting deer to manage Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD). After passing unanimously in the Agriculture & Conservation Committee, they also earned bipartisan unanimous support in the House:
House Bill 2339 would automatically phase out the sharpshooting program in an identified county that has not had a confirmed CWD case in three years.
House Bill 2340 allows for landowner permits to those who own at least 20 acres compared to 40 acres within a positively identified CWD county by the Department of Natural Resources.
I also noted the impact: “The use of agency sharpshooting to test the deer population has taken a toll in northern Illinois. These bills present a step forward, one that was inspired by the significant input I received from constituents.”
Since its first detection in a Boone County deer in 2002, state efforts to manage the disease have impacted local residents in Leader McCombie’s northwest Illinois district. As a result, McCombie sought public feedback through a survey and community outreach, which culminated in the legislative package she filed in January to produce state-based solutions.
House Bills 2339 and 2340 now advance to the Senate for further consideration. Interested residents can follow their progress in the legislative process at ilga.gov.
BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT
I want to continue to honor local businesses to help promote the great business community in northwest Illinois.
This is an ongoing effort, and I am continuing to call for constituents across the 89th District to suggest local businesses that deserve some extra recognition. To gauge feedback, I have an online form where residents can nominate a business of their choosing to be recognized.
Residents can access the form HERE!
SAVE THE DATE: NATIONAL PRESCRIPTION TAKE BACK DAY
This is a great opportunity for you to safely dispose of any unused or expired medications you may have in your home…it is a drive-thru event, so you won’t even have to leave your car!
