Earlier this week, lawyers for the state of Illinois accused a roofing company of swooping into storm-damaged areas, selling its services to homeowners in need and then leaving shoddy, incomplete or never-started repairs in its wake. It’s a scam that is all too common following a devastating natural disaster. Just ask the defendants, who had a warning about such bad behavior on their own website. [More]
ILLINOIS
Illinois Blue Cross To Pay $25 Million After Denying Coverage To Sick Kids In Need Of Nursing Care
By 2.24.11
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois, the largest health insurer in the Land of Lincoln, has agreed to pay $25 million to settle allegations that it denied coverage to sick kids who needed nursing care. [More]
Woman Files McLawsuit Over Glass In Her McChicken
By 2.14.11
An Illinois woman has been the latest to file a lawsuit against fast food giant McDonald’s after she claims to have injured herself biting into a “large shard of glass” in her McChicken sandwich. [More]
Judge Dismisses Hot Tea Lawsuit Against Starbucks
By 12.3.10
A judge in Illinois has thrown out a lawsuit filed against Starbucks by a customer who alleges she was burnt by some spilled hot tea. His reason: Just because tea is hot doesn’t mean you have a good reason to sue. [More]
Man Files Suit Alleging Sam's Club Ruined His Love Life
By 9.17.10
It’s not surprising to hear that a woman in Illinois has filed a lawsuit against Sam’s Club after she slipped and fell inside one of the warehouse stores. But it’s not every day we read about that woman’s husband also filing a lawsuit against the discount chain, all because he can no longer consort with his wife. [More]
McDonald's Makes Hot Chocolate Hot, Gets Sued When It Spills
By 8.26.10
Almost 16 years to the day after a jury ordered McDonald’s to pay a customer $2 million in the infamous hot coffee lawsuit, it’s deja vu all over again for the fast food giant. A Chicago-area woman has filed a lawsuit against the Golden Arches over a spilled hot beverage; the difference this time is that it’s hot chocolate. [More]
Libertyville, IL, Thinks Your Tattoos Lack Moral Fiber
By 8.13.10
The village board of Libertyville, IL, hears about tattoo parlors and apparently envisions seedy, run-down places that stay open all hours of the night to service beer-swigging bikers and their leather-clad lady friends. And in order to keep this stereotype from being shattered, they recently changed their zoning laws to smash one businessman’s dream. [More]
Illinois Sort Of Ends Pre-Employment Credit Checks, But Not Really
By 8.12.10
Some experts claim that there’s no connection between poor credit history and poor job performance. That doesn’t stop employers from evaluating applicants based on their credit reports. The governor of Illinois signed a law this week prohibiting employers from hiring on the basis of credit checks…but there are some pretty big exceptions. [More]
Illinois Town Wants To Outlaw Eye-Rolling
By 7.21.10
Next time you’re in line at the grocery store and you roll your eyes at the person with two carts full of items refusing to leave the 10-items-or-fewer line, you might be in trouble with the law — at least if you live in Elmhurst, Illinois. Officials of the Chicago suburb are looking into finding a way of putting an end to the practice by legal means. [More]
Debt-Riddled Illinois Is A Subprime Borrower
By 7.14.10
Illinois credit rating sucks, which is unfortunate for the Sucker State, because it needs to borrow millions of dollars to pay its bills. This means that the state is paying a premium for the loans, which are going to be used to improve roads, bridges and schools. As a product of Illinois’ public schools, I can honestly say that the $900 million in new bonds it is issuing will not be enough. Whether this is because we are too poorly educated to figure out how much money is actually needed, or because it really isn’t, no one can say. [More]
Countrywide Sued For Discriminating Against Black And Latino Mortgage Buyers
By 7.2.10
The Illinois AG filed a lawsuit this week against Countrywide, alleging that the now imploded mortgage lender steered blacks and Latinos into riskier subprime loans more often than whites, even when they qualified for safer mortgages. [More]
In The Land Of Chicago, The Burger With Grilled Cheese Buns Is Known As "The Blago"
By 6.23.10
Friendly’s recently made a splash on the internet with their 1500 calorie Grilled Cheese BurgerMelt, which, as we already reported, is not an entirely original creation. It is perhaps, the first time we ever had to look at actual nutritional information for the thing, however. Anyway, our friends at Chicagoist point out that there’s a local place that was serving this burger, with the touching addition of a mustard dollar sign on the bun, about a year and a half ago. They call it “The Blago” burger, after disgraced former governor Rod Blagojevich. [More]
BBQ Safety Begins When You Don't Commit Assault With A Scraper
By 6.3.10
As an addendum to our recent BBQ safety post and, of course, a shout-out to my hometown of Elgin, IL, we ask that you not assault your fellow grillers with a BBQ scraper. [More]
Illinois Couple Married At Taco Bell
By 5.10.10
Some people love Taco Bell, and then there’s some people that love Taco Bell so much they’ll say their wedding vows inside one. Just ask the pair of Newlyweds from Normal, IL, who recently walked down the fast food aisle together. [More]
Should "Legal Pot" Be Made Illegal?
By 4.20.10
For several years, it’s been completely legal for just about anyone in the U.S. to get their hands on K2, a so-called “herbal incense” which also happens to be sprayed with cannabinoids, meaning you should get a similar experience from smoking K2 as you would marijuana. However, it’s recently been banned in Kansas and the state of Illinois is looking into the legality of K2. [More]
Chase Hassles Woman For $45K In Payments For Home She No Longer Owns
By 3.26.10
In Oct. 2008, a mother of four in Illinois needed to unload her house or face foreclosure. So she worked with Chase Home Financial and got them to agree to a short sale. Unfortunately, more than a year later not everyone at Chase knows the house was sold, because they’re telling the former homeowner she owes almost $45,000 in late payments. [More]
Credit Card Company Takes Seven Months To Notice You Moved To Illinois
By 3.19.10
Mike tells Consumerist that one of his recent purchases triggered a fraud alert on his credit card account. It’s nice to know that your card issuer is looking out for you, right? This alert was location-based, since he was using his card in Illinois, and the main billing address for the card is in Iowa, where Mike used to live. What he finds confusing about this situation is that he moved to Illinois seven months ago. [More]
Chicago-Area Subway Now Being Blamed For 78 Illnesses
By 3.18.10
Yesterday, we wrote about a Chicago-area Subway that was the target of lawsuits after being tied to 21 separate cases of Shigellosis, an infectious disease caused by the food-borne Shigella bacteria. Well, that number has increased, just a little bit, to 78 confirmed cases. [More]
