‘Barack Obama Day’ is the newest holiday in Illinois – MarketWatch

Former President Barack Obama now has an Illinois holiday in his honor but state employees still have to go to work.

Former President Barack Obama now has a day commemorating his birth, but residents of the state where he began his political career shouldnt expect time off: Aug. 4 wont be a full-scale legal holiday.

Illinois will honor the 44th president on his birthday, after Gov. Bruce Rauner, a Republican, signed the commemorative day into law on Friday. It goes into effect in 2018.

The Illinois House rejected a plan to make Obamas birthday a state holiday amid concerns about giving state employees another paid day off, the Associated Press said.

Obama was born in Hawaii but served as an Illinois state senator and was elected to the U.S. Senate from Illinois in 2004. Earlier this year, Rauner said he thought it was awesome that Obama came from Illinois and that the state should celebrate it. On social media, others disagreed:

Hillary Clinton, Obamas fellow Democrat, won Illinois by 16 percentage points in last years presidential election. On Sunday, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel who was Obamas first White House chief of staff said the city would file a federal lawsuit challenging the Trump administrations use of federal grant money as a way to force local authorities to cooperate with a crackdown on illegal immigration.

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'Barack Obama Day' is the newest holiday in Illinois - MarketWatch

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