In addition to the many people driven out of their homes or stranded by flood waters in Illinois, recent storms have wreaked havoc on a piece of fast-food history, with the site of the first McDonald’s opened by Ray Kroc now underwater. [More]
ILLINOIS
Community Raises $80,000 In Attempt To Save Local Toy Store
By 3.15.13
Just a week ago, it looked like an independent Illinois toy store would be going out of business after the bank chose to not renew the store’s business loan for another year. But online efforts to raise money by today’s deadline may have saved the store. [More]
Mom Sues McDonald’s After Son Allegedly Eats Used Condom Found On Floor
By 3.14.13
Another mom is taking McDonald’s to task for the conditions of its restaurants’ play areas. But this time, it’s not about microscopic pathogens lurking on the slide; it’s about how some of a used condom allegedly ended up in a child’s stomach. [More]
Bill Would Make Illinois First State To Ban Lion Meat
By 3.11.13
Nearly three years after an exotic meat supplier in Illinois made headlines by selling lion meat to an Arizona restaurant, a lawmaker in the Land of Lincoln is introducing legislation that would make it illegal to breed, import or export from the state, or buy or sell lions for the purpose of slaughter. [via WBBM] [More]
Couple Says Clerical Screw-Up Resulted In $27,331 Fine From Tollway
By 3.6.13
An Illinois couple say that a confluence of clerical cock-ups not only resulted in one of their vehicles racking up several hundred dollars in skipped highway tolls, but having those missed tolls spiral out into more than $27,000 in fines, penalties and late fees. [More]
After 2 Fatal Megabus Accidents In A Week, Illinois Governor Wishes Feds Cared
By 8.10.12
Megabus is not having a very good week. The company settled a wrongful death lawsuit, agreeing to pay $5.1 million to the family of a man hit and killed by a Megabus in a downtown Chicago crosswalk in 2010. The day before the settlement was announced, another Megabus hit and killed another elderly pedestrian in a crosswalk just a few blocks away from where the 2010 accident occurred. Last week, a bus leaving Chicago hit an overpass, killing one passenger and injuring dozens more. Oh, and a Charlotte-bound bus caught fire in Georgia this week, too. The National Transportation Safety Board declined to investigate this week’s incidents, and Governor Pat Quinn isn’t happy about that. [More]
Illinois Judge: Law Requiring Amazon To Collect Sales Tax Is Unconstitutional
By 4.26.12
Last year, Illinois joined the ranks of states passing laws requiring Amazon and other online-only retailers to collect sales tax on purchases by that state’s residents. Yesterday afternoon, a judge in Cook County, IL, surprised a lot of people by ruling this law violates the U.S. Constitution. [More]
Mayor Calls For Boycott Of Gas Stations In His Town
By 4.25.12
It’s a common occurrence for a town’s mayor to make a public plea for residents to spend their money at local businesses, rather than driving a few miles outside of town to save a couple bucks. But one mayor in Illinois is so fed-up with the price of gas in his town that he’s asking residents to go elsewhere when it’s time to fill up their tanks. [More]
ID Now Needed To Buy Drain Cleaner In Illinois
By 1.6.12
With every new year comes a new set of laws, some of which are destined to, in the words of the great Arsenio Hall, make you go “hmmm…” One of the latest is a new regulation in Illinois that requires you to show your ID and sign a log if you purchase drain cleaner or other similarly caustic substances. [More]
Comcast Balks On Replacing Cockroach-Infested Cable Box
By 1.3.12
We’ve certainly gotten a number of complaints about Comcast cable boxes containing bugs of the electronic glitch variety, but an Illinois man received a box from Kabletown that he says was full of actual cockroaches. [More]
Judge: McDonald's Was Right To Call Cops On Angry Customer
By 10.21.11
A Chicago-area man recently attempted to sue McDonald’s, alleging that his civil rights were violated when the eatery called the cops after he became angry because he didn’t receive the free burgers he’d been promised. But the judge in the case basically said that if he didn’t want the cops called, he shouldn’t have gotten so upset over a cheeseburger. [More]
71 Drivers Cross A Defective Bridge In Chicago Every Second
By 10.20.11
A new study says that 71 drivers in Chicago cross a structurally defective bridge every second. [More]
Delicious Accident Leaves Highway Covered In Cake
By 10.13.11
We’ve written plenty of stories about delicious desserts that can do damage to your system if you overindulge, but here’s one about how these treats clogged up an entirely different kind of artery. [More]
Ensenda Still Not Doing So Well With The 'Send' Part
By 9.14.11
Chad just signed up for Amazon Prime, and the only choice for shipping in his area was regional delivery service Ensenda. He happened to be home when the package was expected, and received a text message notification that his package had been delivered. Perhaps it had, but not to Chad’s house. [More]
House Purchased For $1 Now Facing Foreclosure
By 9.8.11
With so many abandoned and unfinished properties being sold at auction, a number of home buyers have been able to pick up property at a fraction of what the previous homeowners paid. But here’s the story of an Illinois homeowner who learned that even the best of deals can sometimes have unhappy endings. [More]
County Tells Foreclosed-Upon Homeowners: We May Have Some Money For You
By 8.25.11
The typical image of a foreclosure auction involves a seized house being sold for, at best, the remaining value of the mortgage. But that’s not always so, with some auctions attracting buyers who pay above what’s owed on the home. That money usually belongs to the former owner, but it looks like many aren’t aware of this fact. [More]
Government Wants Organic Small-Batch Ice Cream Maker To Stop Making Organic Small-Batch Ice Cream
By 8.15.11
Nice Cream is a small ice cream company in Chicago that does something strange and daring in the modern food landscape: they make and sell ice cream using only ingredients with names that ordinary people can pronounce. Ingredients such as “cream,” “eggs,” and “pie.” The tiny company was a classic recession success story: a laid-off teacher experiments at home with her Cuisinart ice cream maker, and with hard work and creativity creates a delicious product that’s eventually sold at Whole Foods. But the state of Illinois doesn’t really see it that way, and Nice Cream will have to shut down or make drastic changes to its products and process in order to stay legal. They’re first, and other small-batch ice cream makers could be next. [More]
Spike In Thieves Stealing Entire Central AC Units
By 7.6.11
They work silently, leaving no trace behind. A Chicago neighborhood is on alert after the number of thefts of air conditioning units have jumped sharply in recent weeks. The robbers are after the copper inside, which they can resell for scrap, a favorite quick money-making method for drug addicts. But they’re not just cracking open the units and plundering the pipe, they’re lifting the entire central AC unit. [More]
