INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Indiana’s Republican Gov. Mike Braun on Thursday signed into law a bill to establish a northwest Indiana stadium authority.

His approval came more than an hour after the Senate overwhelmingly backed the measure, and just days after the Bears announced they are considering a site in Hammond, just over the state line from Illinois and barely 20 miles from their current home of Soldier Field in downtown Chicago.

The Senate passed the bill 45...