Patch Flash: IL House OKs Drivers Licenses for Undocumented Immigrants

The Illinois House voted 65-46 on Tuesday in favor of a bill to give driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants, after advocates argued that the legislation could make the roads safer and prevent people from driving without insurance. 

The bill will now go to the desk of Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn, who plans to sign it. The state Senate already approved the measure, also with bipartisan support.

“I want to commend members of the Illinois House for their bipartisan passage of legislation that will help ensure every Illinois motorist is properly licensed and empower more immigrants to become stronger contributors to our economy," Quinn said in a statement after the vote. "Not only will Senate Bill 957 save lives, it will save Illinois motorists $46 million a year in insurance premiums by making sure every driver is properly insured." 

 Illinois lawmakers abruptly adjourned a lame-duck legislative session Tuesday without agreement on how to fix the nation's most dire pension crisis, declining even to vote on the governor's last-ditch effort to let an independent commission sort out the $96 billion mess.

The push to solve the crisis by Gov. Pat Quinn's deadline of Wednesday, when a new Legislature is sworn in, crumbled swiftly during the day. Democratic sponsors of a reform bill failed to amass the votes necessary amid stiff union resistance and legislative leadership unwilling to chance a roll-call vote.

Illinois' Attorney General Lisa Madigan on Tuesday asked the entire 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to review a lawsuit challenging the state's ban on concealed carry in an effort to salvage the only law in the nation that makes the practice entirely illegal. Last month, a three-judge panel struck down the Illinois ban as unconstitutional and gave lawmakers 180 days to write a law legalizing it. But Madigan is asking that all 10 judges on the court rehear the case, saying the previous decision "goes beyond what the U.S. Supreme Court has held" and conflicts with decisions by two other federal appellate courts.

The judges suggested in a 2-1 decision that legalizing concealed carry is long overdue. Judge Richard Posner, who wrote the majority opinion, said that there was nothing to suggest that criminal activity in Illinois was different enough from that in other states to justify taking a different approach to concealed carry. 

A driver is lucky to be alive after his car was hit by a Metra train Monday afternoon at the Northwest Highway railroad crossing near Arthur/Davis in Arlington Heights. According to Arlington Heights Police Sargeant Jerry Lehnert, as the train was coming westbound, it stuck the front bumper of the car. The driver, who has not been identified, was parked so close to the crossing that the gates actually came down on the roof of the vehicle at the time of the incident.  

at its business, according to local media reports. In light of the fatal shooting in Newtown, Conn., owners Mark Battaglia and Kevin Slota decided to eliminate all of the games that involved shooting and killing humans.

along with his boyhood friend, Joe Mailander, for best Children’s album, according to the Lake Forest College News.

Performing as the Okee Dokee Brothers, Lansing and Mailander received their nomination for the album Can You Canoe.