Illinois is set to become the latest state to adopt medical marijuana. The Illinois State Senate gave final approval to a medical marijuana bill sending it to the governor. The senate approved HB 1 in a vote of 35 to 21. The bill was narrowly approved by the House of Representatives back in April.

If the bill becomes law it will created a four year medical marijuana pilot program in the state. The whole new system would be highly regulated. Individuals diagnosed with certain debilitating medical conditions will be able to register with the Department of Public Health and allowed to legally possess up to 2.5 ounces of medical marijuana.

Illinois is the next state on the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)‘s target list for putting the oil industry’s interests ahead of the public interest.

Just moments ago the Illinois Senate passed the Religious Freedom and Marriage Fairness Act (SB 10) on a vote of 34 to 21.

Three Occupy activists known as the “NATO 3,” who came to Chicago to protest at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit last May and were arrested and later indicted on terrorism charges, are challenging the constitutionality of an untested Illinois anti-terrorism statute under which they were charged.

Chairman of the Illinois Republican Party Pat Brady “is calling GOP lawmakers asking them to support a proposal to legalize same-sex marriage,” the Daily Herald reports.

The Illinois state Legislature is gearing up to consider passage of The Religious Freedom and Marriage Fairness Act (HB5170), a marriage equality bill. Unsurprisingly Cardinal Francis George, Catholic Archbishop of Chicago, opposes the bill.

What is surprising is Cardinal George’s reliance on “natural law”, not Bible references, to make his case.

Last year, a hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) chemical fluid disclosure “model bill” was passed by both the Council of State Governments (CSG) and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). It proceeded to pass in multiple states across the country soon thereafter, but as Bloomberg recently reported, the bill has been an abject failure with regards to “disclosure.”

That was by design, thanks to the bill’s chief author, ExxonMobil.

At its most basic level, the decision in Roe v. Wade guaranteed women in every state the right to chose an abortion. Usually the impact of the decision is discussed in the context of expanding rights of women in states that had previously criminalized abortion care. But some states, like Illinois, actually provide greater privacy protections for women than recognized in Roe and later Planned Parenthood v. Casey. So what happens when a legislature passes an abortion restriction that may be in line with federal precedent but conflicts with state constitutional protections?

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission cannot issue a license for the construction and operation of a new nuclear reactor in Maryland–that is the ruling of the NRC’s Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB) handed down Thursday.

Michael Mariotte, Executive director of NIRS, called Thursday’s decision “a blow to the so-called ‘nuclear renaissance,’” noting that back in 2007, when permit requests were submitted for Calvert Cliffs 3, the project was considered the “flagship” of a coming fleet of new reactors. “Now,” said Mariotte, “it is a symbol or the deservedly failed revival of nuclear power in the US.”

A symbol, yes, but far from the only symbol.