Tagged: Illinois Department of Natural Resources

The Illinois Department of Natural Resources will be able to hire more veterans under new legislation signed into law.  Governor Pat Quinn signed four veterans-related bills yesterday in honor of the Illinois State Fair's Veterans Day.  One law allows the agency to hire more veterans as conservation police by waiving the four-year college requirement and goes into effect immediately.  Another bill doubles the number of days allotted for military service-related hospital visits for some state employees from two to four days annually.  The other laws deal with treatment records of veterans i

A bill regulating hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is advancing in the Illinois legislature. The state Senate unanimously passed a bill yesterday addressing the decades-old but debated technology used to reach previously inaccessible natural gas reserves deep underground. The bill comes as energy companies are pushing to prospect possible drilling sites using fracking in southern Illinois. The legislation allows the state's Department of Natural Resources to regulate fracking.