Exelon plan likely a go:

A plan to keep two nuclear power plants operating and save thousands of Illinois jobs is on its way to Gov. Bruce Rauner. The Senate voted 32-18 to approve the plan Thursday night just an hour after it got House approval 63-38. The measure provides $235 million a year to Exelon Corp. for 13 years. Exelon counts it as a subsidy for nuclear power producing no gases harmful to the atmosphere. It allows unprofitable nuclear plants in Clinton and the Quad Cities to stay open. Proponents say it will cost electricity ratepayers less than 25 cents a month and provide hundreds of millions of dollars in energy-efficiency programs. Critics say it’s a corporate bailout that will hike energy prices and that Illinois has enough power generation without the nuclear plants.

3 deaths over Thanksgiving:

Illinois State Police say only three people died in traffic collisions during the five-day travel period around Thanksgiving. State police say that between Wednesday and Sunday there were three fatal crashes in Illinois. That’s a sharp drop from 2015, when 17 people died in 15 crashes and from 2014, when 15 people died in 13 crashes. During the Thanksgiving holiday travel period officers patrolled Illinois roadways, conducted road side safety checks and took part in other traffic enforcement efforts. State police say they handled 381 traffic crashes, issued 6,473 citations overall, 4,511 warnings, 3,732 speeding citations, 569 seat belt citations and made 120 driving under the influence arrests.

Man sought in shooting:

Police in suburban Chicago are searching for a 24-year-old man wanted in the fatal shooting of a security guard at a Canadian National Railway facility in suburban Chicago. Harvey police officials said during a news conference Thursday that they are looking for Rashad Williams of East Hazel Crest in the death of 38-year-old Tyrone Hardin of Merrillville, Indiana, on Saturday. A first-degree murder warrant has been issued. Police say the shooting occurred while Williams was fleeing after allegedly stealing a car. Police say he also shot at a second person.

Rauner talks short-term rules:

Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner is telling Illinois Democrats the only way he’ll agree to another short-term budget is if they consider term limits and put a permanent freeze on property taxes. Rauner outlined his ultimatum Thursday in a video message posted on his Facebook page. It comes on the last day lawmakers are scheduled to be at the state Capitol for the last time this year. But the two items Rauner is asking Democrats for are long shots because the party has expressed little interest in doing either. House Speaker Michael Madigan has also said after meetings with the governor this week that a budget needs to be done without preconditions. The state hasn’t had a full budget since July 1, 2015.

Project aimed at seniors:

Up to 2,000 older adults in Illinois will be enrolled in a demonstration project during which a pharmacist will visit them at home to review their medications. The program launches Thursday and will run for a year. The Illinois Department on Aging says the program is aimed at preventing unnecessary hospital and nursing home admissions linked to medications. Bolingbrook-based APC is offering the program without charge. Its goals include reducing medication errors and improving quality of life. Participants will be 60 years old and older. A typical patient might be diagnosed with two or more chronic illnesses or take five or more daily prescription medications.

Smuggler gets 27 years:

A Mexican national who smuggled drugs into the U.S. for two cartels has been sentenced to 27 years in prison by a federal judge in Chicago. The U.S. attorney’s office said in a statement Thursday that Judge Ronald Guzman sentenced 48-year-old Manuel Fernandez-Valencia on Wednesday. Mexican authorities arrested Fernandez-Valencia in 2010 and he pleaded guilty in the U.S. last year to one conspiracy count. Fernandez-Valencia admitted he used planes, ships, submarines and other means to smuggle drugs into the country for the Beltran-Leyva Organization and Sinaloa Cartel, which authorities say was headed by Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman. Prosecutors made their case against Fernandez-Valencia with the help of twins Pedro and Margarito Flores, who ran a lucrative Chicago drug network. They are each serving 14-year prison sentences.

Will County prison shut down:

Illinois prison officials have moved the last 36 inmates of a Stateville Correctional Center roundhouse that a Chicago watchdog group deemed unfit for humans to live in. Illinois Department of Corrections officials say the maximum-security F House at Stateville in Crest Hill, which housed 348 male inmates, is closed. The Chicago Sun-Times reports that no other U.S. prison has kept roundhouses in which jail cells circle a watchtower in the middle of the building. The John Howard Association, a prison watchdog group, says the outdated roundhouse design intensified the already visually chaotic and distressing auditory experience prison often causes.