Progress Illinois

Employers in Illinois may soon be prevented from asking employees for their social media passwords, according to a bill proposed by State Rep. La Shawn K. Ford (D-Chicago).

House bill 3782 would make it illegal for any employer to request any employee or prospective employee to provide a password in order to gain access to the person’s profile on a social networking site, such as Facebook. The bill easily passed a House vote last week, and Ford said he believes the Senate will vote on the bill shortly after returning from recess on April 17. Assuming the bill passes in the Senate, it will move to a full House vote.

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State Rep. La Shawn K. Ford (D-Chicago) is proposing a way to improve student performance at Chicago elementary and high schools that doesn’t involve spending taxpayer money.

Ford is looking to offer merit pay to elected Local School Council (LSC) members whose schools show marked academic improvement. If the proposal passes, Ford says the money used for the compensation would come from the Illinois State Lottery rather than a new tax. Merit pay is needed to show the LSC members support for the responsibilities they shoulder, Ford said.
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Last week, we reported on State Rep. LaShawn Ford's (D-Chicago) "high-outcome, low-income" proposal to make more Illinois farmers markets accessible to consumers who pay with food stamps.  Specifically, Ford's bill (HB 4756) would create a revolving fund used to purchase the requisite Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) equipment for individual markets.  Since our initial report,  the measure advanced out of committee and nearly two dozen co-sponsors signed on. Turns out progress has been made on another front as well.

Come summer, the City of Chicago will provide an EBT machine for five Chicago-run farmers markets. Apparently, the city plans to buy a single machine and shuttle it between the South Shore, Hyde Park, Lincoln, Beverly, and Austin markets (each is held at a different date and time).

UPDATE (3/17): After originally posting this item, we were informed that the city has not yet approved the proposal to provide an EBT machine to several Chicago-run farmers markets -- let alone purchased the machine and selected the specific locations.  Discussions over logistics and potential funding sources are reportedly ongoing.  We apologize for the error.