Illinois House Bill would further limit demonstrators at military funerals

Illinois has a law limiting how close protesters can get to military funeral services, but a local lawmaker wants to make it tougher on protesters.

State Representative Frank Mautino, a democrat from Spring Valley, is supporting a bill that would expand the prohibited protest area to one thousand feet from a funeral or service and ban protests one hour before and one hour after services.

The Let Them Rest in Peace law was created after members of the Westboro Baptist Church began using military funerals to promote their agenda while deliberately offending family and friends of the deceased.

As it stands, protesters are not allowed within 300 feet of a funeral site, during a service and for 30 minutes prior to and following a memorial service.

The bill needs to be heard by the House Judiciary-Criminal Committee.

Rezin and Mautino react to Rauner’s State of the State address

Governor Bruce Rauner outlined his vision for Illinois during a State of the State speech, but it’s his budget speech that State Representative Frank Mautino wants to hear.  Rauner is the first Republican Illinois governor in more than a decade.  He gave the speech Wednesday afternoon.

Mautino, a Democrat, says he doesn’t see Rauner’s right-to-work legislation going anywhere but he agrees with some of the governor’s ideas on reforming unemployment insurance and increasing funding for education.

State Senator Sue Rezin, a Republican, says that Governor Bruce Rauner has done a good job at reaching across the aisle to Democrats.  She says his speech was bold and laid out a good plan to revitalize Illinois.  She agreed with Rauner, that high property taxes are a concern for people statewide and believes that state lawmakers could provide relief by giving more money to school.

Rauner gives his budget speech February 18.

Hear more about what Rezin and Mautino had to say by listening to interviews that are available at the Classic Hits 103.9 WLPO news page.

Long concedes in race against Mautino

The wait is over in the race the 76^th State Legislative District. Two weeks and a day after the November 4 election, Republican Jerry Long of Streator has conceded to Democrat Frank Mautino, the incumbent.  Long says he called Mautino Wednesday.

The race was close but even after waiting for the absentee and provisional ballots to be counted, Mautino maintained a lead of more than 330 votes.  Long hasn’t ruled out another run in 2016.

Mautino carries narrow lead over Long

Trailing by about 350 votes, Republican Jerry Long isn’t ready to give up his effort to unseat Democrat State Representative Frank Mautino.

There are grace period voting and absentee ballots that still need to be counted.  Long believes each ballot counts and says

a race this close is not something you can easily give up on.

Mautino isn’t calling himself the winner but says he feels good about the numbers.

The 76th District includes La Salle, Bureau, and Putnam Counties along with two precincts in Livingston County.  Hear more reactions from the candidates by listening to interviews available at the Classic Hits 103.9 WLPO News Page.