Sen. John O. Jones

Amends the Firearm Owners Identification Card Act. Permits an Illinois resident to purchase ammunition from a person within or outside Illinois if shipment is by United States mail or by a private express carrier authorized by federal law to ship ammunition. Provides that a resident purchasing ammunition within or outside Illinois must provide the seller with a copy of his or her valid Firearm Owner's Identification Card and either his or her Illinois driver's license or Illinois State Identification Card prior to the shipment of the ammunition. Effective immediately.

Amends the Economic Development for a Growing Economy Tax Credit Act. Provides that certain taxpayers that are primarily engaged in the manufacture of inner tubes or tires, or both, from natural and synthetic rubber may elect to claim the EDGE Credit against their withholding tax obligations. Effective immediately.

Urges Congress to adopt legislation prohibiting the EPA, by any means necessary, from regulating greenhouse gas emissions, including if necessary defunding the EPA greenhouse gas regulatory activities, to impose a moratorium on the promulgation of any new air quality regulations by the EPA, except to directly address an imminent health or environmental emergency, for a period of at least two years, and require the present Presidential administration to undertake a comprehensive study identifying all regulatory activity that the EPA intends to undertake in furtherance of its goal of "taking action on climate change and improving air quality" and specifying the cumulative effect of all of these regulations on the economy, jobs, and American economic competitiveness.

Authorizes the Senate Appropriations Committees to jointly: (1) review the misconduct and mismanagement in the Illinois Department of Corrections; (2) review the physical condition, the size and composition of the inmate population, and any specific and immediate needs of each correctional facility managed or operated by the State; (3) hold public hearings, take testimony, and request detailed and specific information relating to the inmate population and staff of any individual correctional facility managed or operated by the State, as well as the State's prison system at large; and (4) issue their findings and recommendations in a final report outlining a long-term objective plan for the State's correctional facilities, the populations they hold, and the workforce needed to best protect the citizens of Illinois, by September 1, 2013. Urges the Governor to seek the immediate resignations of the Director, Executive Chief, Deputy Chief of Operations and Southern Illinois Deputy Director, then begin an immediate internal investigation into the negligence and corruption within the Illinois Department of Corrections. Urges the Governor not to close any prison facilities proposed to be closed.

Amends the Downstate Teachers Article of the Illinois Pension Code. Provides that a person who becomes an employee of a school board association, an officer or employee of a statewide teacher organization, or an officer of a national teacher organization must have, before the effective date of the amendatory Act, qualified as a teacher under the Downstate Teachers Article of the Illinois Pension Code in order to have service in one of those positions qualify him or her as a teacher under that Article of the Code. Also makes technical changes.

Amends the Public Utilities Act. Makes a technical change in the short title Section.

Expresses serious concern about the scope, justification, and substance of the Department of the Interior's Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation, and Enforcement's stream protection rule, and the procedure and process that have been used to adopt it.

Amends the Wildlife Code. Changes the definition of "case" to mean any case, firearm carrying box, shipping box, or container acceptable under specified provisions of the Criminal Code of 1961. Effective immediately.

Amends the Illinois Vehicle Code. Provides that a Section concerning accident counseling shall apply to Class I and Class II (instead of only Class I) rail carriers. Provides that each Class I and Class II rail carrier must review and update its accident counseling or trauma program filing on an annual basis. Provides that programs may be filed either by mail or electronically via an email address designated by the Illinois Commerce Commission. Effective immediately.

Amends the School Code. Provides that after June 1, 2012 persons may not be nominated for General Assembly scholarships and that General Assembly scholarships may not be awarded after that date unless the nomination is made prior to that date. Prevents both second nominations for any lapsed General Assembly scholarship and nominating persons to the unused or unexpired parts of any vacated General Assembly scholarship after June 1, 2012. Effective immediately.