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Spotcheck

Newsletter of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform October 31, 2003

In this Issue
* Veto Session to Consider Ethics Legislation
* National Conference on Media Reform
* Illinois Legislature Website Among Best in Country

Veto Session to Consider Ethics Legislation
In the words of one Illinois politician, it’s time to belly up to the bar. The Illinois General Assembly will reconvene during the first and third weeks of November, and ethics legislation is on the agenda. Despite the six-year-old Operation Safe Road investigation, which has so far resulted in 58 convictions or guilty pleas, the legislature has failed to enact new reforms.

Supporters of ethics reforms are urged to contact your legislators now. Reformers are calling on legislators to pass tough new legislation to establish ethic commissions with broad powers, mandatory training for all state workers, independent investigation of alleged ethics violations, and clearer definitions of illegal activity.

For more information on the pending ethics proposal, click here.

National Conference on Media Reform
Media reform activists, policymakers, journalists, and concerned citizens are scheduled to gather at the National Conference on Media Reform, which will be held November 7-9 on the campus of the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Panel discussions include the relationship between media coverage of elections and campaign finance reform. For more information, click here.

Illinois Legislature Website Among Best in Country
The Center for Digital Government has surveyed websites for legislatures across the country, and Illinois’ site, www.legis.state.il.us, ranked in the top ten. First in the survey was Nevada, which beams video and audio coverage of committee hearings over their website. The Center is a for-profit consultancy; the survey was underwritten by Hewlett-Packard. For more information, click here.