SPRINGFIELD, IL – State Rep. Karen Yarbrough (D-Maywood), joined by friends, family and supporters, was sworn in for her fifth term as a member of the Illinois General Assembly during a ceremony held at the University of Illinois at Springfield on Wednesday.
 
“I am honored that the people of the Seventh District sent me back to Springfield to continue our work to make our neighborhoods better places to live and raise a family,” Yarbrough said.  “There’s a lot of work ahead to get our state out of this recession and out from under the cloud of ethical wrongdoing caused by Governor Blagojevich, but we will be stronger when we emerge, and our state will be a better place for our efforts.” 
 
Yarbrough has earned a reputation in Springfield as an effective legislator able to overcome hurdles and pass legislation in the face of tough resistance from special interest groups.  Most recently, she passed a law to protect workers and families by banning smoking in public places.  She also passed tough reforms to Illinois’ banking industry that targeted the predatory lending practices that have fueled the Chicago region’s foreclosure crisis.
 
Yarbrough has consistently fought for quality and affordable health care in Illinois, especially for those dealing with HIV and AIDS.  She created a special scratch-off lottery ticket to fund community-based organizations that work for prevention and education, and has worked to help families see a doctor before an illness warrants an emergency room visit.  She has also targeted poverty as the underlying cause of many of our state’s problems, and created a special commission to find ways to halve extreme poverty by 2015.
 
“Poverty and economic challenges cause so many problems, and I will be working closely with the Commission on the Elimination of Poverty to develop a comprehensive strategy to finally bring all our well-intentioned but fractured efforts together to see some real results,” Yarbrough said.  “With a new administration in Washington, and hopefully in Illinois, it’s time we stop cleaning up messes and start making progress.”
 
The 7th Representative District of Illinois includes the suburban communities of Maywood, Bellwood, Broadview, Forest Park, Hillside, and parts of Oak Park, River Forest, Melrose Park, Westchester, and the Austin community of Chicago.  For more information, please contact Yarbrough’s constituent service office at (708) 615-1747.