TINLEY PARK – State Senator Michael Hastings (D-Tinley Park) is sponsoring legislation that focuses the attention on youth suicide awareness and prevention. The measure would require the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) to develop a model suicide awareness and prevention policy, which would then be adopted by all the school districts in the state.

The measure is intended to raise universal awareness for youth suicide and to prevent these unfortunate events from happening again. Hastings brought this legislation as a result of a local event.

"Ann Marie Blaha was a shining light in our community. She was a nice, 11 year old girl with a great family involved in our community," Hastings said. "Unfortunately she committed suicide and as a result her great parents have made it their mission to prevent other parents from having to go through this."

TINLEY PARK – State Senator Michael Hastings (D-Tinley Park) proposed legislation which would extend the statute of limitations for crimes committed in the course of committing a sexual offense.

"It is imperative to make sure that those who commit sexual offenses are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law for all of the crimes involved with the offense," Hastings said. "Home invasions, burglaries and kidnappings are all very serious crimes. Letting someone off the hook because a given amount of time has gone by demeans the effectiveness of our judicial system."

Hastings' proposal would give prosecutors more time to charge an individual for committing armed robbery, home invasion, kidnapping or aggravated kidnapping in the course of committing a sexual offense.

On April 2, State Senator Michael Hastings (D–Tinley Park) met with other members of the Illinois Discharged Servicemember Task Force and representatives from the Department of Veterans Affairs for a roundtable discussion focused on challenges faced by the veteran community.

The purpose of the discussion was to develop guidelines for legislation that will lead to increased opportunities for veterans relating to employment, education and entrepreneurship. The group focused on ways to expand college training programs, tax incentives and government contracts for veteran-owned businesses as well as updating state licensing requirements for veterans utilizing military experience.

“As the Federal Government continues to scale back the number of troops overseas, we are starting to see a greater number of post 9/11 veterans transition back to civilian life,” Hastings said. “This task force was created to focus state and private resources in assisting with that transition.”

Created in 2011, the Returning Veterans Task Force consists of members from specified veterans' organizations tasked with developing policy guidelines as well as coordinating efforts to open doors for returning veterans who have sacrificed for our nation.

HOMEWOOD – On Sunday, Senator Michael Hastings (D–Orland Park) joined hundreds of cancer survivors, family members and friends for the Walk of Hope, a charity walk to raise money for childhood cancer research.
Hastings provided the opening remarks at the walk and noted that funding research is important to discovering new treatment methods.

“The Centers for Disease Control estimate doctors are diagnosing more than 18,000 cases of cancer for people under age 19,” Hastings said. “That number is too high. I believe funding for cancer research must be a priority.”

Hastings supported a measure in the spring legislative session to create an 11-member Childhood Cancer Research Board to work with the Illinois Department of Public Health to award grants to public and private not-for-profits to conduct research on childhood cancer.

According to the National Cancer Institute and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, cancer is still the leading cause of death for children over one year old. Cancer kills more children than cystic fibrosis, AIDS, asthma and juvenile diabetes combined.

Currently, the state’s Childhood Cancer Research Board has the ability to provide funds for at least one fully-funded cancer research project grant.