Current lottery winners in Illinois might have to delay their joyful reactions for a little while. The state hasn’t passed a new budget, which means that they’re unable to pay lottery winners whose prizes are $25,000 or more. That’s a total of 29 lottery winners still waiting for their money since the current fiscal year started on July 1st. [More]
ILLINOIS
Comcast Unmasks Anonymous Commenter In Defamation Case
By 8.21.15
Do online commenters have a right to remain anonymous? If their comments are possibly defamatory, should the subject of those statements have to prove the defamation before learning the identity of the writer? This are questions surrounding the story of an Illinois Comcast subscriber who, after a nearly four-year legal battle, has been identified as the writer of inflammatory comments directed at a local politician. [More]
Couple Says They Ordered A McDonald’s Double Cheeseburger, Got A Rag Instead
By 7.24.15
When placing an order at a fast food restaurant it is, unfortunately, not entirely uncommon to receive the wrong – but still edible – item. However, one Illinois couple visiting McDonald’s this week says that was not the case.
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New Law Brings Happy Hour Back To Illinois Bars — In Moderation
By 7.15.15
What time is it in Illinois? It’s Happy Hour: fans of cheap after-work drink deals will surely be rejoicing in Illinois, where the governor just signed a law making happy hour legal again in the state — to a certain point. [More]
Strip Mall Next To Dairy Queen Boots Non-Customer Cars, Angers Ice Cream Seekers
By 6.24.15
The owner of a strip mall next door to a Dairy Queen in Illinois is no longer messing around. When people who are visiting the Dairy Queen in Wilmette make the mistake of parking in the lot of a neighboring strip mall, they’re going to end up paying for a very expensive ice cream cone. The owner of the mall has cracked down on parking, and has started booting cars using the lot. [More]
Weirdly Symmetrical Tractor-Trailer Crashes Scatter Live Piglets, Cases Of Bacon Across Highways
By 6.9.15
Here at Consumerist, we have a completely understandable obsession with tractor-trailer accidents where food ends up strewn across the highway, especially when no one is seriously injured. Yet there’s a strange symmetry to two unrelated accidents in the last week that left thousands of live piglets running from the wreck in Ohio, and 70,000 pounds of bacon strewn across train tracks and a highway in Illinois. [More]
Restaurant Owner Apologizes For Asking Breastfeeding Mom To Cover Up Or Move
By 5.6.15
We support many things here at Consumerist. One of them is the right of parents to feed their infants however and wherever they choose, which includes the right to openly breastfeed in business establishments. State law in Illinois also supports this right. We also support proportionate responses when a business wrongs you. After a mother shared her grievance against a local restaurant on Facebook, the owner claims to have received threats of death and property damage. [More]
Operators Of “Free Access To Credit Scores” Scam To Return $22M To Victims
By 11.19.14
Consumers looking for a good deal might be tempted to take unknown companies up on their offer of providing credit scores for free. But those promises can often be too good to be true. Just ask consumers bilked out of millions of dollars after falling for once such “deal”. [More]
Illinois Law Allows Employers To Offer Payroll Cards In Lieu Of Paychecks, Only Limits Some Fees
By 8.6.14
UPDATE: Employees in Illinois now have the option to receive their pay through payroll cards. Governor Pat Quinn officially signed into law today a bill that allows employers to offer the popular, but scrutinized form of payment on a voluntary basis. [More]
Illinois Files Suits Against Debt Settlement Companies That Allegedly Scammed Student Loan Borrowers
By 7.14.14
We already know that some debt settlement programs provide little relief for debtors, and consumers who contributed to the $1.2 trillion student loan debt tab appear to be the top target for these companies. Today, the Illinois Attorney General announced lawsuits against a pair of debt-settlement companies that targeted, and allegedly misled, student loan borrowers. [More]
“Kmart At A Discount” Store Doesn’t Quite Live Up To Its Name
By 7.1.14
If outlet stores for mid- to high-end retailers give shoppers a way to find decent bargains, you’d think that a Kmart outlet store would have some real bottom-dollar deals on items that couldn’t be cleared from inventory at regular Kmart stores. But shoppers who visit a “Kmart at a Discount” location should enter with the caveat that saving money is a hit-or-miss proposition. [More]
Hamburglars Rob McDonald’s, Caught After Crashing Into Mayor
By 3.12.14
In a scenario that any number of Happy Meal-raised kids played out with cheap plastic McDonald’s toys on their living room carpet, a robbery attempt at an Illinois Golden Arches was thwarted when the robbers crashed into the mayor’s car. [More]
Why Do People Not Check Clothes For Thousands Of Dollars Before Donating To Goodwill?
By 3.5.14
I’m willing to bet that most of us check your clothes pockets for money and other objects before tossing things in the wash or handing stuff over to a dry cleaner. And I’m also pretty certain that for most of us, all that pocket-mining has never turned up more than an errant $20 bill or two. But time and again, people keep donating old duds to Goodwill without checking to see if there might be a few thousand dollars hidden inside. [More]
Cops Have To Shut Down Pump After $.011/Gallon Gas Glitch
By 2.11.14
For a few hours during the overnight shift, a gas station in Illinois gave away an awful lot of free fuel, as a screwed-up (or screwed-with) pump was only charging customers a penny a gallon. [More]
Cops Shoot Alleged Thanksgiving Night Shoplifter Dragging Officer With Car
By 11.29.13
Some Black Friday shoppers brawl over discounted junk, and some people aren’t interested in paying those discounted prices at all. Not because they’re staying home: don’t be ridiculous. Brown Thursday turned dangerous in Illinois when a police officer shot an accused shoplifter. For shoplifting? No, for dragging a fellow officer whose arm was stuck in his car door. [More]
When Tornado Takes Your House But Leaves Your PS4, You’ve Just Gotta Smile
By 11.18.13
It was a horrible weekend for many people in parts of the Midwest who are the victims of devastating tornadoes that destroyed homes and property… but not this guy’s spankin’ new PS4. [More]
Illinois Sues Company For Breaking Into Homes To Evict Homeowners Facing Foreclosure
By 9.11.13
When a mortgage servicer forecloses on a home, it becomes responsible for the maintenance of the property (though banks don’t always live up to that obligation), and will often hire an outside firm to determine if a property is vacant and to handle the upkeep until the building is sold. However, a lawsuit filed by the Illinois Attorney General accuses the nation’s largest foreclosed-property maintenance company of illegally evicting homeowners and tenants in that state by, among other things, breaking in and changing the locks so that the residents can’t get back in. [More]
Man Ate In Restaurants, Refused To Pay: Sentenced To 3 Years In Prison
By 6.17.13
Authorities don’t know why an Illinois man skipped out on his tabs at two restaurants. Was he broke? Was the food terrible? We don’t know. What we do know is that twice in a period of two months, he ordered a nice meal at a restaurant, then simply told waitstaff that he couldn’t pay and waited for the police to arrive. [More]
