IL Senate Unveils New Sleep Aid

By Rachelle Bowden in News on Sep 1, 2004 12:50PM

This fall the IL Senate is installing a $220,000 video system so that we can all watch the IL state Senate session via the internet. Sounds exciting. The IL House added a similar system 4 years ago already, but we wonder how many people actually tune in. But maybe it's just us. Maybe the general public is interested in this. A spokeswoman for the Senate President Emil Jones said that the public reacted strongly to webcasts of audio so they decided to add "pictures". We think she means video.

Chicagoist tends to agree with Senator Larry Bomke, who objects to spending so much money on a video system while the state is cutting jobs because of budget problems, and former Senate President James "Pate" Philip, who argues that the audience would be too limited to make the project worthwhile.

The new video system should be ready by November, just in time for the Legislature's fall session.