The Illinois Freedom Caucus today is issuing the following statement on the recent court
ruling striking down the pre-trial release and cash bail provisions in the SAFE-T Act, which
were set to become law on January 1st. The Illinois Constitution explicitly addresses bail in
Article 1 Section 9. It is not the place of the Legislature to unilaterally act to change our
Constitution. Simply passing a bill with a majority vote is not the way to make changes to our
Constitution. We have a process to place amendments on the ballot to allow voters to decide
any changes to our Constitution and the Legislature did not follow that process. The SAFE-T
Act violates the Separation of Powers clause of the Constitution by stripping away important
tools courts have to keep communities safe. It also violates the Victim Rights Act and makes
unconstitutional changes to the bail provisions in Article 1 Section 9 of our Constitution.
Fairfield Memorial Hospital honors an employee each month who has been nominated by
their peers for providing extraordinary patient care and customer services within and outside
of the Hospital. Steve Bruce, who works in Plant Operations at Fairfield Memorial Hospital,
was selected as the December 2022 Employee of the Month. Steve has been with Fairfield
Memorial Hospital since July of 2021. Steve is extremely efficient and hardworking and is
praised by his co-workers.
The Illinois Critical Access Hospital Network recently recognized Fairfield Memorial Hospital
for its ongoing commitment to exceptional quality of care, during a ceremony held November
10th during ICAHN’s Annual Conference at the I-Hotel and Conference Center in Champaign,
Illinois. As part of the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy Medicare Beneficiary Quality
Improvement Program, Fairfield Memorial Hospital and other critical access hospitals were
asked to voluntarily participate in four defined domains of quality outcomes. These four
domains include: Patient Safety/Inpatient; Patient Engagement; Care Transitions; and
Outpatient Measures. Fairfield Memorial Hospital was honored for being a top performer in
all four domains. Fairfield Memorial Hospital was recognized for being in the top 10% of all
critical access hospitals in the country for outpatient quality measures.
The Illinois minimum wage is set to increase another dollar on January 1st. Beginning
Sunday, the new required minimum wage will be 13-dollars an hour. There have been five
increases in the state minimum wage since Governor Pritzker signed legislation in 2019 that
establishes a schedule of wage increases, putting Illinois on the path to a 15-dollars an hour
minimum wage by 2025.