SPRINGFIELD – State Senator Mary Edly-Allen (D-Libertyville) advanced legislation through the Senate Special Committee on Criminal Law and Public Safety on Wednesday to create the Uniform Statewide Crime Statistics Task Force.

“This legislation is a public safety win for both residents and law enforcement,” said Edly-Allen. “By bringing law enforcement agencies, academics, and experts together, the task force members will work together to help respond to the needs of neighborhoods and communities across Lake County and our state.”

SPRINGFIELD – State Senator Mary Edly-Allen advanced new legislation in collaboration with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources to update the existing rules on additions to the state’s Exotic Weeds Act.

“As an environmental advocate, I always welcome working with our state’s environmental agencies to make current laws more efficient,” said Edly-Allen (D-Libertyville). “To protect Illinois’ landscapes from invasive species, we need to continually modernize the list.”

GURNEE – State Senator Mary Edly-Allen and State Representatives Laura Faver Dias and Joyce Mason are reminding residents of their upcoming event, “Getting Answers: An Information Forum for Families of Adults with Disabilities,” that will run from 2-4 p.m. on Saturday, March 16 at the Warren-Newport Public Library in Gurnee.

“It was brought to my attention by two of my constituents, who are also disability advocates, that there was a need to have an event that would be not only educational, but be a safe place for people to share their stories with each other,” said Edly-Allen (D-Libertyville). “As an educator, I knew the best way to create such an event was through a combination of local experts and agencies that could best explain ways to help the community in their daily life.”

The informative event was created for families and caregivers of adults with disabilities. It will give them the opportunity to hear from experts from residential agencies, day programs, lawyers, independent service coordination agencies and other experts in addition to sharing their own experiences.

SPRINGFIELD – State Senator Mary Edly-Allen introduced new legislation that would protect artists and music labels from situations where a third-party creates music using AI and replicates their voice without permission.

“Deepfakes can falsely and convincingly portray anyone saying anything, creating confusion and eroding public trust. This raises serious implications in a world already struggling with rampant misinformation and social media manipulation,” said Edly-Allen (D-Libertyville). “We need strong regulations and protections in place to protect artists from the ever-changing world of AI that intends to steal their work and pass it off as their own.”

Last year, a song, “Heart on My Sleeve,” purportedly by Drake and The Weeknd landed on TikTok and Spotify and quickly spread across the internet. The song was created using AI by a TikTok user, who had trained AI on Drake and The Weeknd’s works and generated the new song, which perfectly mimicked the artists’ voices, lyrics, and musical styles. Within days, his video, which had gained over 9 million views, was removed from TikTok, Spotify, and other platforms in response to claims by the artists’ record label, UMG.