Facebook Safeguards
(AP) -- Illinois is one of several states adding more safeguards to protect young Facebook users from sexual predators and cyberbullies.

Facebook is the world's second-largest social networking Web site.

Forty new safeguards include banning convicted sex offenders from the site, limiting older users' ability to search online for subscribers under 18 and joining an existing task force seeking ways to better verify users' ages and identities.

Officials from Washington, D.C., and 49 states have signed on.

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan says she's concerned about the risks young people run when using Facebook. She says children can often be too trusting with information made available on social networking pages.

Pay Hike Fight
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) -- Senate Democrats got personal today in their dispute over legislative raises as they try to change an effort to block them from taking effect.

Senator Rickey Hendon of Chicago says he'll push a new version of the legislation blocking the raises that the House passed yesterday.

Hendon wants to say the raises won't apply to any lawmaker who votes against the extra money. He says it's unfair for House members to vote against pay raises and then collect the money when the Senate upholds them.

The raises kick in starting this summer unless both chambers vote on the same language to block them.

He also criticized Senator Susan Garrett for being a millionaire and pushing the effort to block the raises.

Garrett called the comments unfortunate and says they distract from trying to inform the public where lawmakers stand on the pay raises.

IDOT Audit Revealed
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) -- State auditors are scolding the Illinois Department of Transportation for poor oversight of government money.

For instance, IDOT didn't keep a sharp watch on payments to businesses that did work for the state. Auditors checked some bills and found that a quarter of them were actually paid twice.

They also found poor oversight of grants paid by the department.

IDOT paid $3.2 million to reimburse a city for doing maintenance of state highways. But IDOT could provide no evidence that it checked the maintenance work to make sure it was ever performed.

Auditors also said poor paperwork made it difficult to tell whether state vehicles were being used properly.

IDOT officials say they'll improve their accounting procedures.

Ethics Bill Moves Ahead
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) -- A Senate committee adopted legislation today to crimp pay-to-play scandals in Illinois state government.

But the ethics legislation prohibiting big state contractors from giving campaign donations to elected officials faces an uncertain future.

Senate President Emil Jones -- a Chicago Democrat -- says the money ban has a "gaping loophole." He says it simply means people will give money to political parties to distribute to candidates.

The bill would prohibit anyone who gets a $50,000 state contract from giving money to the officeholder who awarded the deal. It would ban contributions to challengers too.

It's aimed at ending scandals such as the one involving Tony Rezko. Rezko is a fundraiser for Governor Rod Blagojevich who is on trial in federal court in Chicago for allegedly demanding kickbacks from businesses seeking state work.

Bush Signs Lincoln Heritage Bill
(AP) -- President Bush signed legislation that designates a massive swath of Illinois as the Abraham Lincoln National Heritage Area.

Bush signed the measure Thursday. It calls for up to $15 million in federal money over 15 years to fund grants to help keep alive the story of Lincoln.

The area includes 42 counties in central Illinois where Lincoln spent his pre-White House years.

The provision was part of a bill involving public lands and was introduced in Congress by Illinois Senator Dick Durbin and Representative Ray LaHood.

FutureGen Hearing
(AP) -- Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman ran into trouble today when he testified about the ill-fated clean coal power plant that was planned for Mattoon.

Bodman says a jump in the project's estimated cost to two years led him to kill the project last December, after energy companies chose a central Illinois site.

FutureGen's price tag was $1.1 billion, but that later rose to $1.8 billion.

Bodman says he scrapped the project "in order to save it from itself." And he says it wasn't economically or politically sustainable.

Illinois Senator Dick Durbin peppered Bodman with questions about why the project's price changed so dramatically.

But Bodman couldn't answer.

Many say they think political considerations played a role in the government's sudden move to kill FutureGen.