Sen. Chapin Rose

Amends the Code of Civil Procedure. Requires that the report from the reviewing health professional for a pro se plaintiff in a medical malpractice action contain the name and address of the reviewing health professional and documentation of compliance with the qualifying requirements for being a reviewing health professional. Provides that a reviewing health professional that provides frivolous or improper review of a case shall be liable to each of the parties for the reasonable costs and attorneys' fees expended in resolving the case. Provides that a review shall be found frivolous if it is substantially lacking in factual support, is based upon a standard of care or practice that lacks substantial use in the relevant specialty or field of practice, or is made for an improper purpose, such as to harass or cause needless increase in the cost of litigation. Limits the extension to one 90-day extension for a pro se plaintiff who was unable to obtain a reviewing physician's reports and who has not previously voluntarily dismissed an action based upon the same or substantially the same acts, omissions, or occurrences.

Makes appropriations and reappropriations to the Board of Trustees of Eastern Illinois University for various purposes. Effective July 1, 2005.

Amends the Open Space Lands Acquisition and Development Act. Makes a technical change in a Section concerning the short title of the Act.

Amends the Public Safety Employee Benefits Act. Defines "catastrophic injury", with regard to law enforcement officers only, as any injury causing an officer to qualify for a disability pension under specified provisions of the Illinois Pension Code. Effective immediately.

Amends the Illinois Renewable Fuels Development Program Act. Provides that a recipient of Program grants must be constructing, modifying, altering, or retrofitting an (i) ethanol plant (now, just plant) that has annual production capacity of no less than 30,000,000 gallons of renewable fuel per year or a (ii) biodiesel plant. Requires the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity to establish and administer grant programs including: the Illinois Renewable Fuels Majority Blended Ethanol Program, the Illinois Corn Grain to Fuel Research Consortium Assistance Program, the Illinois Renewable Fuels Corn-to-Hydrogen Fuel Cell Research Program, the Illinois Renewable Fuels Biodiesel Infrastructure Grant Program, the Illinois Renewable Fuels Ethanol Development Intergovernmental Assistance Program. Sets forth the purposes and conditions for these grant programs. Provides that subject to appropriation (now, subject to appropriation from the Build Illinois Bond Fund), the Director is authorized to award Renewable Fuels Development Program Fund grants. Sets forth that the annual aggregate amount for these grants shall not exceed $25,000,000 in Fiscal year 2007 and 2008 and $15,000,000 thereafter (now, may not exceed $15,000,000). Specifies how these grant funds shall be allocated. Sets forth certain limitations on spending on the various Program grants including for research conducted at the National Corn-to-Ethanol Research Facility at SIU-Edwardsville not to exceed $1,000,000 annually, and a one-time grant in FY 2007 not to exceed $3,000,000 for construction, remodeling, and expansion of the National Corn-to-Ethanol Research Facility at SIU-Edwardsville. Provides that normal operating and execution of renewable fuels programs in existence on January 1, 2006 within the Department from the Renewable Fuels Development Program Fund shall not exceed $5,000,000 annually. Amends the State Finance Act to create the Renewable Fuels Development Program Fund as a special fund in the State treasury to fund these grant programs. Sets forth certain conditions for the operation of this Fund. Provides for certain annual payments from the General Revenue Fund to the Renewable Fuels Development Program Fund. Amends the Use Tax Act, the Service Use Tax Act, the Service Occupation Tax Act, and the Retailers' Occupation Tax Act, to provide that on or after July 1, 2006 and on or before June 30, 2016, those tax rates apply to 90% of the proceeds of sales made on gasohol (now, apply to 80% of the proceeds of sales made on gasohol). Amends the Motor Fuel and Petroleum Standards Act to provide that beginning January 1, 2008 a minimum of 10% of all motor fuel sold or offered for sale in Illinois must be denatured ethanol and that beginning January 1, 2012 a minimum of 15% of all motor fuel sold or offered for sale in Illinois must be denatured ethanol. Effective July 1, 2006.

Amends the Criminal Code of 1961. Exempts, from an eavesdropping violation, the recording or listening with the aid of any device to a conversation of a public officer or public employee, including a peace officer, if the public officer or public employee in the performance of his or her official duties conducts the conversation in a public place and the physical act of recording or listening does not interfere with the performance of those duties.

Amends the Illinois Controlled Substances Act and the Drug Court Treatment Act. Provides that whenever any person, who has not previously been convicted of or placed on probation or court supervision for any offense relating to cannabis or controlled substances, pleads guilty to or is found guilty of possession of methamphetamine or any salt of an optical isomer of methamphetamine arising from an act or acts that did not involve a crime of violence, the person shall be referred to a drug court program for treatment under the Drug Court Treatment Act. If the person successfully completes the program, the court shall discharge the person and dismiss the proceedings against him or her. If the person does not successfully complete the drug court program, he or she shall be sentenced as a Class X felony offender.

Amends the School Code. Provides that in a school district having a population of 500,000 or less, if an evaluation rates a fourth-year probationary teacher as "unsatisfactory", but the teacher's immediately preceding evaluation rated the teacher as "excellent" or "satisfactory", and if there has been a change in the administration or personnel responsible for evaluating that teacher at any time between the current evaluation and the preceding evaluation, then that teacher may receive an optional fifth year of probationary teaching upon the agreement of the school board and the probationary teacher. Amends the State Mandates Act to require implementation without reimbursement. Effective immediately.

Appropriates $400,000 from the General Revenue Fund to the Department of Agriculture to conduct a public information campaign for farmers on the protocols to be followed when a farmer encounters a site in which methamphetamine is being manufactured. Effective July 1, 2005.

Amends the Local Mass Transit District Act. Requires any local mass transit district to obtain the concurrence, by resolution or ordinance, of the corporate authorities of the municipality within which the territory to be annexed is located when seeking to annex territory that (i) lies within the corporate limits of a municipality, (ii) is contiguous to a local mass transit district, and (iii) is not a part of another local mass transit district. Effective immediately.