Modern roads and bridges make our communities safer for families and more attractive to businesses. Investing in our transportation network is a top priority.

In January, I wrapped up a six-month effort to meet with every municipality and discuss the transportation and infrastructure improvements most vital to their cities, villages and towns. I want to make sure state transportation officials know the needs of Lake County and its communities and that we finally get the investment in projects that we’ve long deserved.

Please help me fight for our communities by signing my petition to show that transportation needs in Lake County must be a state priority.

Click here to view and sign my Transportation Petition.

2013 case revealed technical loophole that could have prevented arrests

SPRINGFIELD - Late last year, a man who’d been legally declared a sexually violent person in Illinois, cut off his ankle monitor to evade authorities. When he was found, waiting on a train in St. Louis, he had a ticket in hand bound for Albuquerque, NM.

Police quickly worked to obtain an arrest warrant only to find a legal technicality in their way. The man in question wasn’t technically an escaped criminal. That’s because he’d been committed to state custody under civil proceedings -- not criminal proceedings.

So, when he crossed state lines, police were essentially powerless to use criminal laws to arrest him for hacking off the electronic monitor and thereby violating the terms of his conditional release.

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SPRINGFIELD - The Senate today passed a proposal out of its chamber that seeks to improve business retention in Illinois counties that border other states.

State Senator Melinda Bush (D-Grayslake) is the sponsor of the initiative that recognizes the unique business retention concerns specific to border communities.

As a lifelong resident of a border community, Bush knows all too well about the business-poaching practices of the states surrounding Illinois. Her proposal will improve the economic conditions of Illinois border communities, keeping them competitive with the states that they border.

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