Legislation signed into law Sunday will ensure Illinois seniors and others living with chronic eye conditions can obtain refills when needed of their eye drop medications. Public Act 99-0226, spearheaded by Representative Dan Brady (R-Bloomington), requires insurance companies to refill eye-drop medications before the anticipated refill date for those with a chronic need.

Brady said his early refill law was initiated by local ophthalmologist Dr. Catharine Crockett and the Illinois Society of Eye Physicians and Surgeons. It was supported by the Illinois State Medical Society, the Chicago Glaucoma Society, Illinois Prevention of Blindness, Illinois Optometric Association and the Health Care Council of Illinois among others.

And in other state news, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) expects Republican opposition to President Obama’s Clean Power Plan, and says the party’s political donors are to blame.

Durbin supports the new rules, which are aimed at cutting carbon emissions by 32 percent by 2030. Most Republicans in Congress and in the presidential race are against the regulations, and Durbin blames their opposition on the billionaire political donors Charles and David Koch, whose company, Koch (Coke) Industries, is heavily involved in fossil fuels.

Durbin says the Koch brothers’ influence has led to Republican opposition to the existence of climate change, despite the scientific consensus that it’s occurring and is predominantly caused by human activity.