Dumped? 6 Ways to Save Face on Facebook

When you're in love, social media is very good to you. Every encounter -- date night, food fight, and strolls in the park -- becomes a selfie photo shoot, and you just can't wait to upload those images to your page. There you are, the Facebook Couple of the Day, and you're so cute and loving and full of promise. The Like gods rain down on your every post.



Your Facebook life is good.



But when you're dumped, social media can be a really, really bad place.



There you are, sitting in your cotton jammies, feeding on your cookies and ice cream when your ex-boo and the new chick invade your Facebook timeline.



You're hypnotized by the endless updates: There they are, checking in at the movies. There they are, hanging out with friends -- your former friends -- at the basketball game. There he is rocking that shirt you bought him; there she is rocking that new pack of hair extensions.

Finally, there it is -- his relationship status update that confirms your worst nightmare -- he's now claiming her on Facebook. It's official, he's moved on.

What. The. Hell?



Dumped? 6 Ways to Save Face on Facebook



1. Don't disappear from your social network. After a breakup, it's normal to want to unplug, run and hide. Being suddenly single doesn't make you less of a woman. Making up and breaking up are just facts of life, and although you can't control the course of love, you can control how your breakup plays itself out online.



If you've built your identity into being a couple, reclaiming yourself as a single person may take more time, but it still can be done.



2. Update your relationship status. After the breakup, change your status to reflect that you're now single. This simple change will alert your followers of your life change and it will kick-start the healing process. Announcing the breakup first also helps you to save face when/if your ex posts pictures with his new chick.



The announcement also avoids the disaster of mutual friends tagging and emailing you about your ex's "infidelity" because they don't know that the two of you are no longer together.



3. Lead the conversation. This is your breakup; no one should be authorized to speak on your behalf about it but you. If friends post "you're better without him," or "keep your head up," delete it immediately. Thank your friends for the post in a direct message and politely tell them not to post such sentiments on your wall again because this chapter of your life is painful and you don't want things to get ugly.



4. Take new photos for Facebook. Update your profile pic with a spanking new makeover or take funny pictures with your children, pets or friends. Your pictures should reflect the truth about falling in and out of love: Life goes on. Warning: Don't post lingerie or booty pics to make your ex jealous, it can backfire and make you appear to be desperate for attention.



5. Remove the cutesy couple photos gradually. Remove the cutesy couple pictures (within 72 hours) that are no longer relevant. Hastily erasing the person, say, within 15 minutes of the breakup, signals that the breakup was an emotional affair for you and that you're hurt or overreacting. Besides, your NEW photos will generate the majority of the buzz and the couple pics won't be missed as much.



6. If all else fails, block your ex-lover and his loudest cheerleaders. Don't invite the opportunity for others to rub your nose your ex's brand new life. Also, if your ex is posting nasty comments or racy photos about you, report it to Facebook immediately and the offensive posts will be removed. In extreme cases, his/her page can be disabled. If the ex harasses you online, you have options to press charges or to sue for defamation. Never engage in an offensive exchange online. Remember, your posts are forever, even if you delete them. (Likely, someone will save a screen shot of the drama.)



Also, install privacy controls so that any posts made about you must be approved by you before they appear on your timeline.



Polite society says that you should remain online friends with your ex; we're all adults, right?

However, only you know if that's the truth. If it pains you to know about what he's up to now that you're no longer together, please just un-friend the guy. Don't put your mind and heart through the pain of seeing his new life without you.



Shift your focus to the new fish in the sea.



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Illinois Libertarians Lodge Criminal Complaints Over Armed Intimidation

The Libertarian Party of Illinois lodged complaints on Thursday with both the Office of Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan and the Office of Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez over intimidation tactics employed in an attempt to prevent the Libertarian's slate of statewide candidates from appearing on the November ballot.



We, as well as the Chicago Sun-Times, have recently reported on Bruce Rauner's and the Illinois Republican Party's direct connections to those alleged intimidation tactics. See here, here, and here.



The use of openly armed investigators in the petition process represents a new low in Illinois politics.



In addition to the potential abuse of constitutional rights, section 29-4 of the Illinois Election Code (10 ILCS 5/29-4) makes it a Class 4 felony to use force, intimidation, threat or deception intended to impede the petitioning process.



"The Illinois Republican Party's actions, by hiring a private investigation firm such as Morrison Security Corporation to engage in deceptive and coercive tactics against the Libertarian Party's petition gatherers and signers, are beyond outrageous," said Ben Koyl, Libertarian Party candidate for Illinois Attorney General. "The actions by the Republicans are calculated to deprive registered voters of Illinois of their right to free and open elections. These coercive and deceptive tactics have a chilling effect in that they discourage people from signing petitions and are in violation not only of Illinois election law, but also of our First Amendment rights," added Koyl.



More soon on this developing story.



--



Doug Ibendahl is a Chicago Attorney and a former General Counsel of the Illinois Republican Party.



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Airport's Incredibly Cute Lawn-Trimmers Are Back On The Job

Guess who's baaa-ck?



The Chicago Department of Aviation announced Thursday that it has once again "hired" several dozen goats, sheep, burros and llamas to graze on the grounds of O'Hare International Airport.



The airport first introduced the low-tech, eco-friendly initiative in 2013. The animals, all obtained from a suburban rescue shelter, focus on areas of the grounds that are typically difficult to maintain using traditional equipment.



The furry crew of almost 40 has been back on the clock since this July and was responsible for eating up five acres of dense, overgrown vegetation between July and November last year. The animals' diet even includes poison ivy, which is safe for them to consume and "they seem to find delicious," according to the city.



Airport officials told WTTW's "Chicago Tonight" the animals -- which spend their days simply eating around the clock -- are probably the airport's happiest employees.



Eating wasn't the only thing going on last year among the all-you-can-eat crew. A male lamb was born there last August, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.



At least three other airports -- in San Francisco, Seattle and Atlanta -- also rely on four-legged grazers for weed control.



Here are the animals on the job last year:





(MIRA OBERMAN/AFP/Getty Images)






(AP Photo/Jason Keyser)






(AP Photo/Jason Keyser)






(MIRA OBERMAN/AFP/Getty Images)






(MIRA OBERMAN/AFP/Getty Images)






(Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)






(MIRA OBERMAN/AFP/Getty Images)






(Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)






(Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)








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Feds Are Increasing Their Marijuana Growth Because Of Cannabinoid Research

The federal government is currently growing a lot more marijuana than it has in the past because it expects higher demand from researchers for cannabidiol, or CBD, a non-psychoactive compound in marijuana that has shown tremendous promise for medical use.



The National Institute on Drug Abuse, which "oversees the cultivation, production and distribution of research-grade marijuana on behalf of the United States government" and made the initial request for more research-grade cannabis, told The Huffington Post on Friday that the agency is growing marijuana with varying concentrations of CBD and THC. THC, the psychoactive ingredient that produces the "high" sensation, is used along with CBD in medical research and medical marijuana.



"We are targeting concentrations that are low in CBD, equal concentrations 50/50 CBD/THC, and high CBD," NIDA explained. "We will know the final THC/CBD concentrations once the marijuana is harvested this fall and analyzed."



The feds earlier this year requested a massive increase in their marijuana production quota -- more than 1,000 pounds, from the originally planned 46 pounds -- to be used for medical marijuana, and the Drug Enforcement Administration ratified the increase in marijuana for research purposes just this week.



"The projection of increased demand is due in part to the recent increased interest in the possible therapeutic uses of marijuana," according to NIDA.



NIDA added that it has marijuana of "various THC content already in its inventory," but that if current or upcoming research needs cannabis with custom levels of THC and CBD, and those strains are not already available, they would need to be grown. Because marijuana takes some time to grow and cultivate, NIDA says it "has to predict future research interest so that a customized order is ready once a researcher has obtained all the proper approvals" from all the federal agencies involved.



In recent years, strains of marijuana high in CBD and low in THC, most well know by the name "Charlotte's Web," have been used effectively to treat epilepsy in children.



A growing body of research suggests CBD may also be effective in reducing inflammation brought on by multiple sclerosis, stopping metastasis in many kinds of aggressive cancer, killing cancerous cells found in people with leukemia and serving as an alternative antipsychotic treatment.



A bipartisan bill calling for the legalization of CBD was even introduced in the House of Representatives just last month. The House also recently voted to block the DEA from targeting medical marijuana operations that are legal under state laws.



Eleven states have legalized CBD for limited medical use or research, and 23 other states have more broadly legalized marijuana for medical purposes. But because federal law considers all forms of marijuana illegal, people who use, possess, sell or grow marijuana for medical use -- even in states where it's legal -- face potential federal charges.



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Illinois Issues Long-Awaited Fracking Rules For Oil And Gas Companies

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — The Illinois Department of Natural Resources released a long-awaited plan Friday to regulate high-volume oil and gas drilling that supporters hope could bring an economic boost to southern Illinois but environmentalists fear may be too lenient.

The lengthy report follows months of delays and complaints over the process to draft rules governing hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in Illinois. Industry officials say southern Illinois has rich deposits of natural gas, but a final draft of the rules — initially touted as a national model of both sides working together — has taken months for the agency to produce as industry groups warned the state was losing business.

A 150-page report was given to the 12-member Joint Committee on Administrative Rules, which has 45 days to act, or the rules can take effect. Environmental groups, industry experts and lawmakers also got their first look at the report Friday, and some said they expect to spend hours, possibly days, combing through the details.

"These are highly technical rules that will require a really close look at the details," Josh Mogerman, spokesman for the Natural Resources Defense Council, said earlier Friday. "Our experts are going to be spending their holiday weekend going through these rules with a fine tooth comb."

The new rules would require companies awarded drilling permits to submit lists, some of them redacted, of the chemicals used in fracking. The redacted list would be made available to the public by department and be submitted to the public health department. The industry says releasing the full list would expose trade secrets.

In issuing drilling permits, the department would be required to determine within one day whether an applicant had fully completed the necessary forms. The department would then have 60 days to approve or reject an application.

Hydraulic fracturing uses a mixture of water, chemicals and sand to crack open rock formations thousands of feet underground to release trapped oil and gas. Opponents fear it will pollute and deplete groundwater or cause health problems, while the industry insists the method is safe and will cause the same economic surge that oil booms have created in other states.

Illinois was praised last year for passing legislation seen as a compromise between industry and environmentalists on how to regulate the practice, while other states have declared moratoriums or adopted less comprehensive regulations. But the implementing rules proposed by the DNR were criticized by environmentalists as weakening the agreed-on provisions. Industry officials, in turn, said they would stall permits.

"Our hope is that the rules implement the law that was negotiated in all sides in good faith," Mark Denzler, chief operating officer of the Illinois Manufacturer's Association, said ahead of the report's release Friday.

Agency officials spent months pouring over the more than 30,000 comments in response to the first draft, at the same time coming under increasing criticism by fracking supporters who had hoped that drilling would begin this summer. Backers say allowing more drilling could bring thousands of jobs to the rural area.

The panel reviewing the rules is made up of a bipartisan group of lawmakers from the Chicago area and central Illinois tasked with evaluating state agencies' rules. It has 45 days to sign off on the suggested rules, change them or prohibit their filing. It is also allowed to ask for a 45-day extension in making its recommendations.

The department faces a Nov. 15 deadline for the rules to be established.

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WATCH: These Mind-Controlling Parasites Are Freaky, And Apparently There Are A Lot Of Them

How do you explain suicidal crickets and zombie caterpillars? One word: parasites. Science writer Ed Yong shows us how these tiny creatures force insects and animals to do their bidding, and asks: Are parasites manipulating humans, too?



We want to know what you think. Join the discussion by posting a comment below or tweeting #TEDWeekends. Interested in blogging for a future edition of TED Weekends? Email us at tedweekends@huffingtonpost.com.





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The 21 Best Breakfast Spots In America

According to doctors and the backs of cereal boxes, breakfast is the most important meal of the day. And because we always agree with whatever they say on Lucky Charms boxes, we spent months eating those breakfasts at places all around the country, and then going back for more biscuits and gravy... just to make sure.



At the end of it all, these 21 spots offered up our favorite breakfasts in the nation (and no, we're not talking about places that exclusively serve that made-up weekend meal of brunch -- these places do breakfast all the time). If you disagree, or think we omitted something, or just want to tell us an unrelated anecdote because you need someone to talk to on the Internet, drop it below in the comments. But for now, just come in and sit down. Breakfast is served:






Credit: Matt Houska




11-WORTH CAFE

Omaha, NE

What you're getting: Country Potato Casserole with two eggs and toast



Most VIP Clubs require you to be a high roller, or, at the very least, be highly invested in wearing tight black T-shirts and sunglasses at night, but all it takes to get into the 11-Worth Cafe VIP Club is filling out a member form when you go to eat at the legendary Omaha joint run by Tony Caniglia and his family. And when you go, you better be hungry, especially if you opt for our move, and get the #18, aka the Country Potato Casserole, aka hash browns sautéed with onion, tomato, pepper, mushroom, American & Swiss, plus chicken-fried steak, all topped with their infamous country gravy. You can get two eggs and toast on the side as well for an extra $1.50... or cheaper if you happen to know any Very Important People.






Credit: Michael Giberson




A 1 DINER

Gardiner, ME

What you're getting: Blueberry pancakes



Brief history lesson: Back in the early 1900s, a man named Philip Duprey started the Worcester Lunch Car Company, which had the peculiar gig of just building "lunch cars" or diners. The company lasted 51 years, making over 600 in that time, including one that, since 1946, has sat in Gardiner, Maine. As you may've guessed from every other clue, that is now A 1, and though the scene inside does feel a bit like a time capsule, the food is very much up-to-date, and delicious (what other diners are regularly whipping up Korean vegetable pancakes with spicy green beans, huh?!?), though -- being that it is Maine -- we prefer to keep it simple with their light, crispy local blueberry pancakes. Luckily, the nostalgia comes free.





Credit: Flickr/Peter Merholz (Edited)




AL'S BREAKFAST

Minneapolis, MN

What you're getting: Bacon waffle



The Dinkytown diner is only 10ft-wide, a planked shack that would look just as at home on a weathered beachside strip as it does propped up by two buildings in the narrow alleyway where it's been wedged since 1950. Come early -- a line before the 6am opening is completely normal -- and plan to wait with stalwart regulars for one of the 14 stools. While hash browns -- cooked on a griddle so well-seasoned that Southern cast-iron skillet-wielding grandmas would be jealous -- and blueberry pancakes are also winners, trust us on the bacon waffle. Rather than wimpy bits of crisp pork, huge chucks of salty porcine goodness are layered through this fluffy monster. Pour on syrup for a sweet-savory breakfast that's basically a side and main baked into one.





Credit: Ann Sather




ANN SATHER

Chicago, IL

What you're getting: Swedish breakfast sampler & free cinnamon rolls



The Chicago morning institution offers plenty of your standard breakfast fare, but you'll want to give a nod to their Swedish roots with their sampler (technically listed as a special but always available), consisting of one of their Swedish pancakes with lingonberry jam, a juicy potato sausage, a Swedish meatball (weirdly tasty at breakfast time), and an egg in whatever your preferred egg-consumption method is. Normally it'd be a fairly easy breakfast to tackle, but since you will have already mowed through their icing-laden cinnamon rolls that they lay down on the table before the main course, you're walking out of here stuffed.







BEACHSIDE COFFEE BAR & KITCHEN

San Francisco, CA

What you're getting: Chicken and Bacon Waffle



If you knew nothing of San Francisco, and just spent an entire day in the Ocean Beach neighborhood, you would come away thinking that SF is not all that different from its more beach-focused Southern counterparts. The hood (which obviously sits right across the Great Highway from the actual Ocean Beach) is more of a surfer's enclave, more laid back and less bustling than the rest of the city, and offers some (relatively) undiscovered gems, Java Beach owners' Patrick and Buffy Maguire's Beachside Coffee Bar being one of them. Though they keep the same exacting standards with the coffee that they do at Java Beach, it's the food here that shines, from the fantastic Irish Breakfast Sandwich, to our personal favorite, the fried chicken and waffle, with their bacon-in-the-batter waffle substituted in.





Credit: The Busy Bee Cafe




THE BUSY BEE CAFE

Buffalo, WY

What you're getting: Occidental French Toast with a side of bacon



Smack in the middle of the picturesque mountain town of Buffalo, the Busy Bee is a tiny, charming cafe housed on the end of the town's centerpiece, the historic Occidental Hotel, which also houses a saloon that hosted everyone from Buffalo Bill to Teddy Roosevelt. The modern-ish cafe specializes in huge, cowboy-tranquilizing breakfasts ranging from overstuffed breakfast burritos to baked goods and locally farmed chicken-fried steaks. But nothing is quite as insane as the Occidental French Toast, which is actually a gigantic cinnamon roll dipped in French toast batter, fried, and soaked in maple syrup. Pair it with a side of bacon and maybe book a room in the hotel. You're not getting up for a while.



There's still plenty more of the best breakfast spots in America to go -- check out ones from Georgia, Texas, New Hampshire, Iowa, Michigan, Arizona, and more!



More from Thrillist:



The world's best breakfast: which country's morning meal is tops?



6 things you should absolutely not eat while hungover



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The Courage to Disarm

The Ferguson tragedy, like all those that preceded it and all that will follow -- involving the trivial and panicky use of lethal force, by the police or anyone else -- stirs up questions the social status quo doesn't dare face.



My sister, Sue Melcher, put it this way:

"I find myself also nauseated that another issue never seems to enter the discussion: the issue that a highly trained officer could make such a mistake with a gun demonstrates that just having the weapon present increased the danger of the situation. Had the citizens been armed, how many more casualties could there have been? None of us is 'healthy' enough to be trusted to use lethal force wisely -- and is that even possible?"

The "wise" use of lethal force...



We've wrapped our global civilization around the certainty that we understand and revere life in all its vastness and mystery so completely that we know when to cut it short, indeed, that we -- those of us who are officially sanctioned good guys -- have a right to cut it short in, it would seem, an ever-widening array of circumstances. In so doing, we allegedly make life better for the social whole. This is called militarism. To keep this profitable lie going, we refuse to look deeply at its consequences.



When we inflict death on distant cultures, at the sterile remove that modern weapons grant us, we can avoid all but the most cursory awareness of the consequences of our actions. But when we do it at home, it's not always so easy.



Ferguson, Ferguson. A community -- and a nation -- erupted in agony at the hellish absurdity of Michael Brown's killing. One of the deeper, darker questions concealed in the maelstrom of rage and grief of Ferguson is this one: What if Officer Darren Wilson had not been armed when he told the two teenagers to get out of the street? What if the police force that employed him knew of, and practiced, effective, nonlethal forms of keeping order in the community (and did not regard the people it was "protecting" as the enemy)? This is not a simple question, but it has a simple answer. Michael Brown would be alive and Darren Wilson would not be in hiding.



But no one is asking it because the popular imagination doesn't even entertain the possibility that such methods exist -- or can be created.



I ask this question now not to toss a superficial answer or two at the national and global violence epidemic we're caught in but to establish, first of all, the idea that violence has consequences and, furthermore, that having lethal force at one's fingertips also has consequences. "None of us is 'healthy' enough to be trusted to use lethal force wisely," Sue wrote. This is true if only because such power can always be wrested away from us, and knowing this is bound to bring an intensified level of panic into someone's decision-making process -- even a trained professional's.



The demand for police accountability that the Ferguson tragedy has unleashed is a demand for public scrutiny of an officer's state of mind when he makes the decision to use lethal force. At present, such accountability is murky, contained as it is within the police and legal community. Most likely, these communities will protect their own and cut officers slack for acting out of panic.



Consider what Michael Bell learned during his campaign for police accountability. Bell, a retired lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force whose 21-year-old son was killed by a police officer in Kenosha, Wis., in 2004, eventually won a wrongful death lawsuit in the incident and used the $1.75 million settlement to pursue a campaign for stricter police accountability in Wisconsin.



Writing recently in Politico, Bell noted the results of the campaign's research: "In 129 years since police and fire commissions were created in the state of Wisconsin, we could not find a single ruling by a police department, an inquest or a police commission that a shooting was unjustified."



What concerns me about this isn't so much the protection of police officers who use lethal force unnecessarily as the protection of lethal force itself. This is what gets off scot-free time and again, in shooting after shooting, and therefore remains unquestioned as a necessary part of social order. If the consequences of lethal force were subjected to objective scrutiny, I believe we'd be looking for alternatives with far more seriousness.



Bell's son, for instance, was killed in the course of a routine traffic stop. According to the police report, one officer screamed that his gun had been grabbed and a second officer shot the young man in the head, "sticking the gun so close against his temple that he left a muzzle imprint."



Because the Bell family hired a private investigator, they learned details of their son's killing independently of the legal system, e.g., "that the officer who thought his gun was being grabbed in fact had caught it on a broken car mirror," Bell wrote. In other words, a minor misperception escalated instantly into a fatal shooting, ending a young man's life and inflicting a lifetime of grief on those who loved him. Not only that, it shattered the life of at least one of the officers involved. The officer who screamed that his gun had been grabbed committed suicide six years later.



Violence explodes in every direction. According to the Badge of Life website, U.S. police officers commit suicide at a rate of 17 per 100,000 officers, well above the rate of the general public and close to that of the U.S. military. It's also well above the rate of officers who are killed in the line of duty.



"Particularly startling in the study was the finding that not a single suicide in 2008 (or 2009) was ever attributed to police work," the site notes. "While police departments announce that law enforcement is a 'highly stressful, traumatic job,' they prefer to place the blame for a suicide on the family or on the officer for having some kind of 'personal problem.'"



Lethal force gets off scot-free.



As militarization of the police escalates and our brutal wars for profit come home to haunt us, the time has come to face the violence we bring on one another in the name of social order. The time has come to find the courage to disarm.



- - -

Robert Koehler is an award-winning, Chicago-based journalist and nationally syndicated writer. His book, Courage Grows Strong at the Wound (Xenos Press), is still available. Contact him at koehlercw@gmail.com or visit his website at commonwonders.com.



© 2014 TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY, INC.



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Will Bruce Rauner's real thoughts on the minimum wage please stand up?

Raising the minimum wage has been a hot topic lately at all levels of government. President Obama wants it to increase for the whole country. Rahm Emanuel wants $13 an hour. And Gov. Pat Quinn has made a $10 minimum wage a pillar of his re-election campaign.



Back in December at a candidate forum in the Quad Cities during the Republican primary race, Quinn's gubernatorial opponent Bruce Rauner said he favored reducing Illinois' $8.25-an-hour minimum wage to the federally mandated $7.25 minimum.



No sooner did those remarks become public -- generating swift backlash from nearly all sides -- than Rauner backtracked. His campaign first said Rauner would favor increasing the state minimum wage if the federal minimum wage also went up. Now he says he would support raising the Illinois minimum wage if business reforms were passed to go along with it.



But a new Quinn campaign ad says Rauner wants to lower the minimum wage.



Rauner spoke about his new thoughts on the minimum wage at the Municipal Planning Council lunch Thursday, made just as the new ad began to be broadcast. The verdict? He does not want to cut the minimum wage. See the video of Rauner speaking about the minimum wage in Illinois Thursday at Reboot Illinois.



Quinn also is facing election woes over dealing with a union after layoffs of Illinois Department of Transportation employees, a situation that State Journal-Register columnist Bernard Schoenburg compares to a time when now-jailed-for-corruption Gov. Rod Blagojevich also laid off state workers en masse, a comparison that could be very concerning for Quinn. What does it mean that the same lawyers who represented those workers 10 years ago are now representing these?







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At Least 14 Injured In Shuttle Bus Crash Outside Chicago Airport

At least 14 people were injured when a shuttle bus traveling to Chicago O'Hare International Airport slammed into a concrete barrier Friday.



A firefighter on his way to work at the O'Hare fire station happened to be just two cars behind the crash, which occurred at about 6:30 a.m. local time, NBC Chicago reports. He and another firefighter immediately helped passengers and rescued the shuttle bus driver who had been pinned in by the wreckage, the outlet notes.

At least 13 injured after shuttle bus crash at O'Hare http://t.co/F85M1Rmcub #chicago http://ift.tt/1wO9TUr

— Chicago News Now (@chicagonewsnow) August 29, 2014

Some of the injured passengers were seen lying on the sidewalk as they received treatment, according to WGN. Of the at least 14 people injured, four were listed in serious-to-critical condition.



"People were thrown around the bus," Chicago Fire Chief Timothy Sampey told NBC Chicago. "Some were more critical than others."



ABC Chicago reports 16 ambulances were called to the scene while emergency crews hurried to clear the debris from the bus crash during what travel officials expected to be the busiest travel day of the Labor Day holiday weekend.



With the crash blocking the entrance to O'Hare, cars piled up on Interstate 190, prompting passengers to bail from cars and walk to the terminals in hopes of catching their flights.

Walking to terminal. Entrance to #ORD blocked by crash. @BreakingNews @nbcchicago http://ift.tt/1C9myl1

— BJ Lutz (@bjlutz) August 29, 2014

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Catcalling Comic Illustrates Street Harassment From The Very Beginning

Sometimes it's hard for even the most empathetic of men to understand the level of street harassment most women face. So if you ever need to explain it to someone, this comic may come in handy.



Ursa Eyer, an artist based in New Orleans, was inspired to create a piece about catcalling after she had a particularly frustrating exchange with a male peer.







"I made this comic in response to a conversation with a young man I met at a party," Eyer told The Huffington Post in an email. "We ended up having the same conversation I've had a hundred times over, part of which includes the detriment of catcalling... I was inspired to illustrate my personal history of catcalling to show what it actually looks and feels like to someone who may have never experienced it before."



While some people may think catcalling is acceptable behavior (see: Fox News hosts, men's rights activists and Doree Lewak), the fact remains that men say some truly sickening things to women on the street.



The comic shows the types of unsolicited comments about their appearance women receive from strangers throughout their lives, starting from "she's so cute!" as young children and escalating to sexually suggestive and aggressive comments in adulthood.



"At a relatively young age we have to learn, often by ourselves, how to deal with really frustrating and sometimes scary situations," Eyer told HuffPost. "We deal with it so often that it just becomes a part of our daily lives. We don't even mention it, because it's the norm."



Check out her incredible comic below.



















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Teachers' Salaries in Illinois' 10 Biggest School Districts

Illinois teachers' salaries aren't the highest in the country, but our teachers do the important work of educating our children and setting up the next generation for success.



Since there are 866 public school districts in Illinois, we only examined the 25 largest based on student enrollment and calculated the average annual salary for teachers with one year of experience in all subjects (with a bachelor's degree) according to 2012 data from the Family Taxpayers Foundation. Student enrollment numbers were taken from Illinoisreportcard.com.



[Note: Salary data for 2013 is still unavailable due to problems collecting information from school districts, according to the Illinois State Board of Education. State law mandates the publication of annual district report cards no later than Oct. 31, though it's unlikely last year's data will be released in time. The Daily Herald's Jake Griffin has more on this.]



Township HSD 214: $55,103



Township HSD 211: $53,352



Valley View CUSD 365U: $49,897



Chicago Public Schools: $46,136



St. Charles CUSD 303: $45,404



Indian Prairie CUSD 204: $44,330



Aurora West USD 129: $44,121



Cicero SD 99: $43,884



Palatine CCSD 15: $42,783



Naperville CUSD 203: $42,625



Check out the average teachers' salaries at 15 other large Illinois school districts, plus the average salaries for teachers with master's degrees in the 25 biggest districts at Reboot Illinois.











NEXT ARTICLE: 15 college life hacks to make your 2014-15 school year easier

25 highest-salaried school administrators in Illinois

Top 50 school district superintendents with the fattest Illinois pensions

Guest: Low-performing public schools not limited to low-income areas

Use our Sound Off tool to demand equal school funding for every child in the state



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Why Dreaming About Failure Is Actually A Good Omen

Despite the stress and dread they can cause, dreams about failure could actually be a good omen -- especially if you have a big test coming up.



That’s according to a new study by researchers at Sorbonne University and the Hôpital Pitié-Salpêtrière in Paris, France.



Researchers, led by neurologist Isabelle Arnulf, M.D., Ph.D., queried 719 medical school hopefuls about their sleep on the night before the big entrance exam. They found that 60.4 percent of those students had dreamt about the exam, and the majority of those dreams did not go well. Seventy-eight percent of dreamers dreamt that they were late to the test, and/or forgot the answers. In other words, they were nightmares.



After getting the test results, researchers compared them to the students' questionnaire results and found that dreams about the exam on the night before the test were linked with better performance on the test. Multiple dreams about the exam leading up to the day also predicted proportionally higher scores. According to the researchers, the study suggests that “negative anticipation of a stressful event in dreams is common, and that this episodic simulation provides a cognitive gain."



In a blog for Psychology Today, Dr. Dennis Rosen, M.D. discussed the study and noted that there’s a “certain logic” to dreaming about failure.



“… the more preoccupied (and nervous!) you are about not succeeding at something, the harder you will work at it in order to prevent the bad outcome you fear,” he writes. "Conversely, if you aren’t worried enough, that’s likely to be reflected both in your preparations and in your dreams, which will be focused upon the things that you are.”



This isn’t the first intriguing dream study published by Arnulf. In 2009, she found that people who are sleepwalkers or who have sleep terrors may actually be acting out parts of a bad dream. The finding was a surprise because at the time, it was widely believed that dreams didn’t occur during sleep waking or sleep terrors. Arnulf chalked it up to the fact that most of the research before her report studied children who suffered from the two sleep conditions, not adults.



Arnulf also found in 2011 that dreams could also contain experiences that a person has never experienced in real life. Study participants who had never walked (people with born with some kind of paraplegia) had dreams that included feelings of walking, running, dancing, biking and playing sports. Of course, anyone who has had a flying dream could have told her that. But Arnulf suggested that mirror neurons, which are neurons that are activated when you observe someone else doing an action, could be reactivated during sleep.



The finding intersects with another of her studies that year, which found evidence that human beings re-enact the things they learned earlier that day in their dreams.



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You Only Live Once, So Do It Warren Buffett's Way

"You'd get very rich if you thought of yourself as having a card with only twenty punches in a lifetime, and every financial decision used up one punch. You'd resist the temptation to dabble. You'd make more good decisions and you'd make more big decisions."

--Warren Buffett , quoted in The Snowball by Alice Schroeder



This week Warren Buffett celebrates his 84th birthday.



Those of you who follow my blogs know I have a bit of a man crush on Buffett, not just because of his investing acumen but because he has always seemed to me endowed with a kind of uber-common sense -- an ability to cut to the heart of a situation or an issue and capture it in a few words, understandable to experts and common folk alike.



Lists of his "10 greatest" or "18 greatest" (or however many greatest) sayings pop up everywhere in online searches. But the Buffettism that's stayed with me is the one at the top of this blog post -- namely the notion of a punch card (a quaintly antiquated thing you don't run across very often these days).



Buffett used his punch-card analogy in an investment context. It's consistent with his belief that really profitable investment decisions are few and far between. His counsel to individual investors has always been to "wait for the fat pitch." (See "Bored Investors Beware.")



But I think the punch-card analogy applies equally well to life, and to the decisions that define and shape our lives over the five, six, seven or eight decades most of us are on Earth. For someone graduating from high school, I think the number 20 is just about right. For someone like me, in middle age, the number of unpunched punches on the card is a lot smaller. There might be only two or three left.



The point is that, whether it's two or 20, the number of inflection points in our lives is a lot smaller than it often seems. The trick is having the wisdom, or the instinct, to recognize "fat pitches" at the time they show up, which is always easier in hindsight. Then we need to make our big decisions count.



Getting married. Having children (or not). Making a career change. Starting or investing in a business. Those are obvious hole punches.



By contrast, the last two times I punched my card, it had less to do with me, personally, than with the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of others.



The first of these was agreeing to chair Wall Street's advocacy group -- the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association -- in the wake of the financial crisis. I did so because I never wanted our clients, the investing public, to again have to go through the trauma and disruption they experienced in their financial and personal lives during that unprecedented and volatile period.



My second recent hole punch was deciding to help lead, in 2011 and 2012, a campaign to defeat a constitutional amendment that would have banned same-sex marriage in my home state of Minnesota. I got a lot of advice and counsel against getting involved, as a business leader, in what became known as the "Vote No" campaign. But every bone in my body told me this was a once-in-a-lifetime chance to make a difference in the lives of tens of thousands of LGBT residents in a state long known for its progressive brand, inclusive culture and values of respect and tolerance.



As it turned out, the support of the business community was critical to not only defeating the amendment but, six months later, legalizing same-sex marriage in Minnesota.



That was last year. Just this month two gay friends who had lived together for 34 years before getting married last year at Minneapolis' City Hall thanked me, with tears in their eyes, for being able to celebrate their first-ever wedding anniversary.



I wish someone had told me about Buffett's punch-card analogy when I was a lot younger. However, I'm glad I have the opportunity to use it now to recognize and lean into the few remaining "big decisions" in my life. I pass it on here as a birthday gift to others -- not from me but from Warren Buffett, who, by the simple arithmetic of his own analogy, has made a big decision once in every four of his 84 years.



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We Went to IKEA

My daughter needed a mattress, so we went to IKEA. Neither of us had been to an IKEA before.



We took I-90 from her apartment in Irving Park to Schaumburg. It was a long drive, riddled with construction. We got off at the Arlington Heights exit, missed a turn on Algonquin, recalibrated. After two days of intense city driving and a summer of negotiating the highways of Toronto and Montreal, the turf-covered, man-made slopes of a suburban landscape presented a different set of rules, and I found it difficult to adjust.



The Schaumberg IKEA is visible from the highway, but there's no easy way to get there. It's on McConnor Parkway, a long, curving slash between verdant lawns that surround hotels, chain restaurants and office buildings. It's a destination store. People staying nearby can take a fancy trolley to go shopping there.



The parking lot is huge. Two shirtless guys were playing Frisbee golf in one of the outermost areas. We drove beyond them for another tenth of a mile, found a spot, and joined the throngs heading for the entrance.



Cavernous and sunlit, the lobby may not be what the first-time visitor expects. It features signage, seating and plants; bathrooms; an escalator and a greeter to herd you up it. There are no products for sale or on display, just a little stand that holds tri-fold maps of the facility, along with free souvenirs: little IKEA pencils and ribbon-y plastic tape measures.



The escalator lifted us from the soaring, white calm of the entrance into the visual overload of the second floor, where thousands of well-designed things are displayed in ways that made us want to own all of them. We found ourselves exactly where we wanted to be, in the bedroom section.



At my urging, EJ repeatedly flung herself down on the mattresses we were most likely to purchase. Plastic sheeting covered the lower third of each floor sample's surface, so she didn't have to remove her Doc Martens.



Unable to make a decision at the time, we went to lunch on the third floor, where there was another herder. "Just point to the picture of what you want," he said, motioning us forward. I pointed to a Southwestern chicken wrap, my daughter pointed to marinated salmon. Both were good, and we paid less than $14 for entrées and beverages. "If there was a place like this in my neighborhood, I'd go there all the time," said EJ.



After lunch we did a quick tour of furniture, cabinetry, textiles, cooking equipment and dishes. Everything was beautiful, nicely priced and familiar. I was tempted, but I'm entering the downsizing phase of my life. I don't need to buy the same 12-oz. glasses that were in the cupboards of the break room at my former place of employment, even if they're lovely, cost two bucks each, and remind me of simpler times.



We returned, decisive, to the mattress department and talked to a woman in an orange IKEA shirt. My issue was portability: would we, a college student and a sexagenarian, be able to haul a full-sized coil mattress up the back stairs of a third-floor walk-up? She looked me up and down and nodded. "It's rolled," she said. "You can handle it." She directed us to Aisle 31 on Level One.



The lower level of IKEA has the same lighting and aura of limitlessness as the storage facility at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark, combined with the DIY accessibility of the lumber department at Home Depot. We found the mattress, put it on a cart, and went to checkout, where, it being an ordinary Monday afternoon in mid-August, there were long lines. Parents (like me) were outfitting their college kids; families were making IKEA a stop on their vacation itineraries. Shelving on both sides offered a range of impulse buys, from popsicle-making sets (99¢) to doormats ($6.99). My impulse buy? Three blue IKEA bags of reinforced plastic, 58¢ each. They are huge and strong. I considered putting my daughter in one and hoisting her out to the parking lot on my shoulder, but I knew I needed to conserve my strength for lugging the mattress. (I also remembered that she is 20 years old.)



When you exit IKEA, you have two options: carry your purchases to your car, or bring your car to a loading dock. As we steered our cart outside, we heard a loud crash. It sounded like a number of heavy, unassembled cabinets with glass fronts had landed on top of a dozen fragile, reasonably priced wedding gifts. Naturally, because we share behavioral genes with poultry and sheep, we peered around the corner of the building to see what had happened.



A woman had lost control of her car on the approach to the loading dock. Fender, grill and headlights were smashed and in fragments on the pavement; radiator fluid, engine oil and gasoline were gushing next to the foundations of the IKEA building; a boy, eight or nine years old, who'd probably been told to wait there with a cart of merchandise while his mother went to get the vehicle, was screaming.



I do not like being near fossil fuels and flammable chemicals that are directly under a hot, possibly sparking engine, so EJ and I tried pushing our cart through the wheelchair-accessible gate to the parking lot. A teenager in an orange vest stopped us. "No carts outside of the loading dock," he said.



My daughter stayed with her new mattress, sufficiently around the corner of the building so that if there were an explosion at the scene of the accident, she would most likely survive and have a good story to tell, while I sprinted across the parking lot to our distant car. I thought I heard sirens on the way, but I was wrong.



This, according to EJ, is the conversation she overheard while I was getting our vehicle.



Teenaged IKEA employee #1 (the guy who'd prevented us from taking the cart into the parking lot): This is bad.

Teenaged IKEA employee #2: Yeah.

Teenaged IKEA employee #1: Should we call Security?

Teenaged IKEA employee #2: Yeah.

Teenaged IKEA employee #1, talking to Security person (recently teenaged): Hey.

Security person: Maybe we should get some fire extinguishers or something?



By this point, I was inexpertly backing into the loading dock, so my daughter didn't hear what came next. The boy had stopped screaming, but other customers, nervous about the whole situation and needing to relax, were lighting cigarettes as the gasoline fumes drifted around them.



I had come to IKEA expecting to have a European experience. It was, instead, an affirmation of so much of what we take for granted as Americans: low prices, lots of choices, great customer service, an automobile-dependent economy, and mindless indulgence in the face of potential safety hazards.



We shoved the mattress into the car and drove away. Forty-five minutes later we were wrestling it up the steps to EJ's apartment, a task that wasn't nearly as bad as we had imagined. Or maybe we were stronger than we realized.



She cut the last of the plastic wrapping from the long, cushy, tube. The mattress uncoiled, almost knocking her over. We put it on top of her futon, slumped ourselves down on it, and had a good cry, about so many more things than I can explain here.



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Illinois Women Arrested After Meth Lab Found In Church

It may not be one of the Ten Commandments, but it kind of goes without saying that thou shalt not cook meth in a house of worship.



But two women were accused of cooking meth inside a rural southern Illinois church on Wednesday, the Associated Press reports.



Judith Hemken, 53, and Tiffany Burton, 26, were arrested near Hillsboro after a Waveland Hillsboro Presbyterian Church member "noticed activity" in the building on a Tuesday night when it was supposed to be empty, Montgomery County Undersheriff Rick Robbins told the The State Journal-Register. The church member reportedly spotted one woman outside the church and another in its basement, with what appeared to be parts of a meth lab.



The women fled in a car, but were pulled over by police. Officers found a clandestine lab in the church basement and had to extinguish a small fire that started due to the lithium and moisture from a sink drain, the Journal-News reports.



Meth labs have cropped up in other unusual locations, like retirement communities, Walmart and a golf course porta-potty. Robbins told the State Journal-Register he'd never seen a meth cooked in a church before, but he had seen a meth lab at a cemetery.



Neither woman was affiliated with Waveland, Robbins said. Since the alleged lab was inside a church, the women could face enhanced sentences of up to 40 years in prison.



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5 Reasons Why Black Lives Matter

Stacia L. Brown wears a lot of hats. The Baltimore-based single mother of a 4-year-old serves as Colorlines’ Community Engagement Fellow, teaches writing at a local college, runs Beyond Baby Mamas and Bellow, and still finds the time and energy to write—beautifully. Over the past couple of weeks, sparked by the police killing of Michael Brown, she has been writing essays about the slain teen, police brutality, parenting and black vulnerability. Brown posted what became a five-essay series on her personal website, stacialbrown.com.



Here, we share excerpts with you:



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As the election grows nearer, education makes its way into the Illinois governor's race

Illinois education funding has become one of the main battlefields in the race for governor between Gov. Pat Quinn and challenger Bruce Rauner.



Here's the company line from each campaign:



From the Quinn campaign: Bruce Rauner's tax plan will gut education funding by cutting the state income tax from 5 percent to 3 percent. If Rauner becomes governor, K-12 education funding will be 60 percent lower statewide than under Quinn's plan. Here are the specifics of who would lose what:



From the Rauner campaign: "The truth is Pat Quinn raised taxes by 67% and still gutted education spending by $500 million. Unlike Pat Quinn whose education cuts led to teacher layoffs and larger class sizes, Bruce will make education a top priority and fully fund our schools.."



That statement is a variation on a similar response the campaign has issued throughout the summer as Vallas has warned of education cuts at campaign stops around the state.



Whose version of the education funding scenario should you believe?



Read the rest at Reboot Illinois.



Quinn and Rauner made their voices heard Thursday, with each of them publishing an essay in the Daily Herald, outlining their economic plans and explaining why each thought the other's plan was inferior.



Each candidates also tries to discredit his opponent. (Rauner: "Unlike Pat Quinn, I'll actually live in Springfield...And unlike Pat Quinn, I'm not running just to keep my job; I'm running to make sure you can always find one." Quinn: "For all of his millions of dollars he's poured into the campaign, he hasn't bought a dime's worth of good ideas.")







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Chicago Police Commander Relieved Of Duties After Allegedly Sticking Gun In Suspect's Mouth

A department-lauded Chicago police veteran has been stripped of his authority and charged with aggravated battery and official misconduct for allegedly sticking his gun into the mouth of a suspect.



Commander Glenn Evans, who oversaw the city's West Side Harrison District and has frequently been praised by Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy, appeared in court Thursday to face the charges, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.



The alleged incident happened in January 2013, when Evans and other officers saw a man named Rickey J. Williams holding a handgun in the street and gave chase, according to the Sun-Times. When they restrained and arrested Williams in a vacant home nearby, Evans allegedly put the barrel of his gun into Williams' mouth. Police did not recover a handgun during the incident, and Williams' misdemeanor reckless conduct charge was ultimately dropped.



Prosecutors also alleged in court that, although there was no indication in police accounts of the incident that Williams had resisted arrest, Evens threatened to kill him and pushed a Taser against Williams' groin, according to CBS Chicago.



WBEZ reported that the Independent Police Review Authority, which investigates claims of excessive force against CPD officers, recommended that Evans be relieved of his police powers and referred his case to the State's Attorney's office after a lab test of material taken from Evans' weapon matched Williams' DNA profile.



McCarthy as recently as Monday defended Evans. But in response to the charges being filed Wednesday, he said in a statement that "the alleged actions, if true, are unacceptable to both the residents we serve and to the men and women of this department." McCarthy emphasized the department would cooperate with Evans' prosecutors, according to the Chicago Tribune.



WBEZ reports Evans was the subject of more excessive-force complaints between 1988 and 2008 than any other officer included in a recent report released by the Chicago Police Department, with at least 45 citizen complaints on file over the 20-year period. Only two of those complaints led to disciplinary action, according to the Sun-Times.



The charges against Evans come at a difficult time for the Chicago Police Department, which has faced community protests of its use of force on the heels of two police-involved fatal shootings over the weekend.



After appearing in court, Evans was released on his own recognizance.





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Privileged White Guys On Fox News Agree: There's No Such Thing As White Privilege

Some of the most prominent hosts on Fox News are pretty sure the term "white privilege" refers to a mythical concept, like Bigfoot, Santa Claus or (if you're Fox News) climate change.



Sure, other people say white privilege exists, claiming to have witnessed it and even providing clear-cut examples of this reality, but these wealthy, white, conservative males know better. They refuse to believe that the color of one's skin has any bearing on their life experiences or successes. Character, work ethic and a strong family dynamic are the determining factors in everyone's life, they insist, and the amount of melanin one possesses can't overshadow them.



The Fox News hosts are correct that these characteristics are incredibly important, and that many people won't succeed without them, no matter their race or accompanying privilege. But to admit this isn't to deny the distinct benefits that accompany whiteness in nearly every facet of society, from employment to health care. Nor is it denying that the "check your privilege" movement can have its excesses, just like anything else.



On Fox News, however, legitimate debate about white privilege and the way we see it today is largely replaced by something less nuanced: complete denial.

Bill O'Reilly

O'Reilly just doesn't believe in white privilege:





(Screenshot via Buzzfeed)



Following a debate with fellow host Megyn Kelly -- who earlier this week offered him a variety of statistics demonstrating the massive inequality between black and white Americans in terms of opportunity, unemployment, poverty, the criminal justice system, quality of education, economic mobility and treatment by law enforcement -- O'Reilly returned the next day to again reject white privilege, without anyone to counter him this time.



In his segment, O'Reilly "white-splained" how it was that "African-Americans have a much harder time succeeding in our society than whites do," even when, according to him, engrained racial privilege doesn't exist. It's the fault of black America and its leaders, O'Reilly said.



“Instead of preaching a cultural revolution, the leadership provides excuses for failure. The race hustlers blame white privilege, an unfair society, a terrible country," he said. "So the message is, it’s not your fault if you abandon your children, if you become a substance abuser, if you are a criminal. No, it’s not your fault; it’s society’s fault. That is the big lie that is keeping some African-Americans from reaching their full potential. Until personal responsibility and a cultural change takes place, millions of African-Americans will struggle.”



New York Times columnist Charles Blow responded to this and O'Reilly's other claims in an article on Thursday, charging that the Fox News host's "underlying logic is that blacks are possessed of some form of racial pathology or self-destructive racial impulses, that personal responsibility and systemic inequity are separate issues and not intersecting ones."



Watch O'Reilly's entire segment here .

Sean Hannity

(Photo via Associated Press)



Hannity appeared completely oblivious to the concept of white privilege earlier this month while explaining how he conducts himself during interactions with police. He seemed to suggest that if everyone acted like him, they would necessarily receive the same treatment, regardless of their skin color.



"When a cop pulls me over, I put my hands outside of the car. If I’m carrying a weapon, which I’m licensed to carry in New York, the first thing I tell the police officer is, ‘Officer, I want you to know I have a legal firearm in the car,’" he said. "First thing I say to the officer. He’ll ask, ‘Where is it?’ I’ll say, ‘It’s in my holster.’ And he says, ‘Alright, just keep your hands outside.’ That’s usually the protocol. And then ‘Can I have your license and registration, please? Move slowly.’ And I often would even step out of the car, lift my shirt up so he can see where the gun is. ‘Yes, sir,’ ‘No, sir,’ writes me a ticket.’ Thank you, sir,’ and that’s it. You battle the issue in court."



Reaching for your waist after telling a police officer you're armed is a terrible idea no matter your race, but doing so while black is likely more dangerous. All in all, however, Hannity's casual and simplistic explanation of his dealings with law enforcement demonstrates a complete ignorance of the differing ways in which white people and people of color are often treated by cops. Reports across the country regularly report racial bias in traffic stops, searches and arrests (especially for drugs).



Many activists claim there are additional biases evident in use of force and police killings, though these are harder to measure due to insufficient data and tracking of these encounters, which lead to less accountability for cops.



Listen to Hannity's entire segment here, via Mediaite .

Tucker Carlson

In May, Carlson brought on a guest to back up his contention that it's "racist" to claim that white people experience a distinct privilege. His guest was Kurt Schlichter, who at the time had recently written a column boiling down the concept of white privilege to “me being better than you.”



“All of us have worked, all of us have achieved something,” Schlichter claimed, arguing that he had become a partner at a law firm due to his hard work, not his skin color. “That is how we measure character, that’s how we measure what the value of a person is, not some arbitrary category imposed by some ponytailed grad students who have taken too many gender study seminars.”



In their interview, Carlson and Schlichter both appear to misunderstand the concept of white privilege. White people are not expected to feel guilty about their privilege or apologize for it, nor are they expected to credit it as the sole or even most important factor in one's personal successes. But it's outrageous to pretend that race (or class, gender, sexual orientation, etc., for that matter) doesn't play a factor in every person's experience, and that society doesn't offer particular privilege to those who more closely resemble the nation's mostly white power-brokers. Apparently, these Fox News anchors have no problem playing make believe.



Watch the whole segment here, via Raw Story .



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Who Is Renting and Who Is Buying in Illinois?

Buying a house is a huge lifetime commitment, and the decision is often fraught with questions upon questions and one pro/con list after another. How can you really know what the best choice is? Who are the people who choose to buy and who are the people who choose to rent?



According to Forbes, in March, buying was 38 percent cheaper than renting nationally, and as much as 66 percent cheaper in Detroit, but as little as 5 percent in Honolulu. The New York Times has an application to show the specifics of buying vs renting based on particular circumstances.



After so much research, sometimes you just need to know what other people in your circumstances facing the same question did. Get a peek into other people's decisions by seeing the median incomes of those who chose to buy versus those who chose to rent compared to the median income in general in10 biggest cities in Illinois, from Area Vibes and the percent of people living in their own homes versus the percent of people living in rented homes, based on U.S. Census Bureau data according to Home Facts.



For comparison, the median household income in Illinois according to Area Vibes is $57,848, the median household income of homeowners is $66,093 and the median household income for renters is $36,332. Nationally, the median household income is $52,328, the median household income for homeowners is $63,664 and the median household income for renters is $35,685.



In every one of Illinois 15 biggest cities, median household income of people who owned homes was higher than the median household income for the city in general, which was in turn higher than the median household income for people who chose to rent, even though renting is actually more expensive than buying in the long run, according to Forbes. Accumulating the cash for a down payment, however, would generally be more expensive than renting.



Chicago realtor Emily Sachs Wong, owner and broker of Emily Sachs Wong, Inc. within @Properties, said there are several factors to consider whether to buy or rent. Ask yourself: Do you have the time to put into maintenance of a house? Do you plan on staying in a house long enough to build equity? She said even if buying a house might be a bit more expensive, it can be better to own as an investment and to customize a home. But it all comes down to money in the end:



"If they have a down payment is the number one decision maker," she said.



Based on these numbers, is your household income closer to those who buy or rent in your area? Does that match with what you have chosen to do for your living arrangements?



Renting vs buying information in five of Illinois' biggest cities:



Cicero



Owner-occupied housing units: 48.4 percent



Renter-occupied housing units: 51.6 percent



Median household income: $43,799



Median household income of homeowners: $55,106



Median household income of renters: $34,254



Waukegan



Owner-occupied housing units: 49.9 percent



Renter-occupied housing units: 50.1 percent



Median household income: $47,987



Median household income of homeowners: $67,117



Median household income of renters: $35,914



Elgin



Owner-occupied housing units: 65.7 percent



Renter-occupied housing units: 34.3 percent



Median household income: $57,216



Median household income of homeowners: $73,049



Median household income of renters: $40,818



Peoria



Owner-occupied housing units: 90.3 percent



Renter-occupied housing units: 54.9 percent



Median household income: $45,863



Median household income of homeowners: $60,312



Median household income of renters: $25,104



Springfield



Owner-occupied housing units: 63.9 percent



Renter-occupied housing units: 36.1 percent



Median household income: $47,209



Median household income of homeowners: $61,259



Median household income of renters: $30,174



See how many people are renting vs buying for Illinois' five biggest cities, including Rockford and Chicago, at Reboot Illinois.









NEXT ARTICLE: Checking the state of housing in Illinois' biggest counties

Key to Quinn victory: Get out the vote

Cartoon: Chicago unites over the Jackie Robinson West Little League team

Watch: Illinois politicians participate in the #ALSIceBucketChallenge

Five ways Illinois fails its disabled citizens



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My Family Has Been Racially Profiled Everywhere from Harvard to Our Own Home

Explosion At BP's Largest Oil Refinery In The U.S. Rattles Indiana

WHITING, Ind. (AP) — An explosion at BP oil refinery in northwestern Indiana along Lake Michigan rattled nearby homes and sparked a fire that was later extinguished, but it didn't cause any major injuries or halt production at the facility, a company official said Thursday.

The explosion Wednesday night at the Whiting refinery, which is just east of Chicago, was caused by "an operational incident" on a processing unit, BP America spokesman Scott Dean said. It happened about 9 p.m. and was extinguished by the plant's fire department within a couple of hours.

One employee was taken to a hospital as a precaution, but was later released, Dean said. Refinery operations were "minimally" affected by the fire, he said.

Dean said the cause of the explosion was under investigation and that he didn't immediately know whether it caused any chemical releases from the refinery that has a residential neighborhood running along its western border.

Dan Goldblatt, a spokesman for the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, said Thursday that he didn't know if any air quality problems had been reported because of the explosion.

A Whiting Fire Department spokesman said the blast could be heard clearly several blocks from the plant. However, when fire commanders called plant officials to see whether assistance was needed, they were told only to stand by.

The explosion follows a malfunction at the refinery in March that the company said spilled up to 1,600 gallons of oil into Lake Michigan. Crews spent several days cleaning up oil along the shoreline.

The refinery covers about 1,400 acres along the lake's shoreline.

BP completed work in late 2013 on a $4.2 billion expansion and upgrade of the refinery that will make it a top processor of heavy crude oil extracted from Canada's tar sand deposits.

Wednesday's explosion came on the anniversary of a 1955 blast at the refinery that threw debris onto nearby neighborhoods, killing a 3-year-old boy as he slept and causing fires that burned for eight days, according to the Whiting Public Library's website.

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This Is What Everyone Talks About At America's Favorite Music Festivals

Diving into the conversation surrounding the 2013-2014 music festival season, Eventbrite teamed up with social media research company Mashwork to put together a thorough examination of what it is that attendees have been buzzing about during the time period.



Analyzing 20 million social media conversations, it was discovered that 89 percent of the chatter occurred before (54 percent) and after (29 percent) the event (the remaining 17 percent occurring during the actual festival). Digging deeper, it was revealed that the lineup in totality (as opposed to specific artists) and the general/specific festival experience were the two main conversation drivers.







A surprising find was the significant number of posts (roughly five million, or 25 percent) by those who were not attending the festival, but participating through live streams. Also noted was the lack of branded hashtags, only 19 percent of the conversations from the top 10 most talked about festivals containing such a hashtag.







Eventbrite even ranked the most buzzed about music fests:



1. South by Southwest (Music)

2. iHeartRadio

3. TomorrowWorld

4. Lollapalooza

5. Coachella

6. Sun City

7. Mysteryland

8. Pitchfork

9. Electric Daisy Carnival

10. Bonnaroo

11. Electric Zoo

12. Warped Tour

13. Gathering of the Juggalos

14. Buku Music + Art Project

15. HARD Summer

16. Burning Man

17. Hangout

18. Forecastle

19. Governors Ball

20. Ultra

21. Spring Awakening

22. SunFest

23. Moogfest

24. Gulf Coast Jam

25. Brooklyn Hip Hop



To read much more about the details of the research, head over to Eventbrite's page and download the PDF.





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7 Reasons Why I'm Not Celebrating This Labor Day

4 Reasons Not to Use Your Debit Card at a Bar

You've watched enough Tarantino to know you should only bring a knife to a gunfight if you're Uma Thurman. Bringing a debit card to a bar is like the proverbial knife at a gunfight: a shoot-ready script for getting killed by the bill.



Bar = party, but you don't want to run up debt and wreck your credit, so you make a conscious effort to use a debit card. For most of us, cash and debit cards are pretty synonymous. Maybe your phone case doubles as a wallet. Even a modest amount of cash is bulky for today's skinny jeans pockets, and if it falls out it's gone for good. Want a free drink from that tattoo-sleeved bartender? It's not going to happen if you hand him or her sweat-damp legal tender that's been stored in your sock.



But if you think you're protected from losing cash by using a debit card, perhaps you need to rethink your definition of protection. Debit cards get scammed the same as credit cards, but that's where the similarity ends.



A credit card is borrowed money, so when a fraudster runs up a big bill, other than dealing with a few hassles, the financial hit isn't as immediate as it would be with your bank account - especially if you report it ASAP. Yeah, you have to call the bank and get a new card (don't forget to notify other creditors that your billing information has changed), but you're only liable for up to $50 associated with whatever fraudulent use occurs, and most companies have adopted a zero liability policy. With debit cards, the story's a little different: Fail to report fraudulent activity on your debit card (or cash disappearing from your bank account) within 48 hours and you're liable for up to $50, but miss it entirely during a 60-day period, and you could be on the hook for $500 (or maybe the entire missing amount).



If your debit card gets hit, there goes much, if not all, of your available cash. Say goodbye to your decaf double cap.



While banks are typically required to get your money back to you within 10 days of a fraudulent attack on your bank account, and some companies like Visa and Mastercard have a policy of getting it back to you in five days, that's not going to do you much good if you're not accustomed to carrying large amounts of cash and someone empties out your checking account. Landlords won't understand. Grocery stores don't care. No Powerball tickets for you. So the best course of action here is to leave the debit card in your wallet.



Not convinced? Here are some more reasons to leave that debit card out of your adventures in bar-land:



1. A Dishonest Bartender



That bartender may not be working at a bar to pay for seminary training. In fact, he or she, or the bar back, may be a criminal. If you open a tab, your debit card (aka your checking account) will be out of your purse or wallet -- and in their custody -- for hours. It will reside by the cash register where there are pens and paper and plenty of time for some mean-spirited thief to write down your card information in preparation for a late-night shopping spree.



2. ATM Fees



Even if you decide to forgo the use of your debit card to open a tab at the bar, you may decide to use the ATM machine conveniently located in that dark corner of the bar. I suggest you do this early in the evening when you will be more likely to notice the $3-$4 convenience fee. Get some cash at your bank before you go, and save that money for a can of PBR.



3. Skimmers



Another reason to forgo those bar ATMs is the dreaded skimmer -- a magnetic strip reader that criminals use to record your card information. You often won't see a skimmer device even in the light of day (if the fraudsters know what they're doing), but you definitely aren't going to see anything is amiss in a dark bar. Repeat after me: "I am going to a bank."



4. No Points



In today's swipe fee-limited environment, almost no debit cards offer rewards anymore, and the few that do have plans that are nowhere near as robust as the ones associated with most credit cards. Credit can be the same as cash, as long as you think of it as an advance on a payment to be made at the end of the month -- and a possible flight somewhere warm this winter.



Losing your line of credit or your available funds to a fraudster can set off a nightmarish chain reaction in your finances -- the sooner you can resolve the problem, the better. One of your best lines of defense upfront, whether it's your debit card or credit card, is checking your statements -- daily. If giving your statements a quick once-over every day sounds like too big of a commitment, consider the fact that trying to undo the damage from a criminal is way more tedious.



Your credit standing is also at risk -- from maxed-out limits, to missing payments because your bank account is empty -- so that's all the more reason to keep an eagle eye on things. Checking your credit reports for signs of fraud -- like accounts that don't belong to you -- and monitoring your credit scores for big, unexpected changes, also need to be a regular part of your routine. You're entitled to your credit reports for free every year, and you can monitor your credit scores every month for free through Credit.com.



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Scientific Proof That You Need A Vacation Right Now

It's a fact now that most American workers aren't taking any vacations. Last week we reported that about 40 percent of Americans don't plan on using all of their paid time off this year. And you're probably one of them. You hoard up your precious vacation days and keep saying you'll use them, but something gets in the way. Maybe it's your workload, or, maybe, like others, you're totally scared that you're going to lose your job. The most common reason why people weren't taking vacation was because they possess what researchers call a "martyr" complex, in which they believe that no one else can do their job as well as they can. Yet more than 20 percent of people who don't take vacations say they skip out because they are afraid they feel they are easily replaceable.



Whichever is the case, we're here to tell you to please, please take a vacation. We know you're afraid. But after you read these reasons why taking a vacation will do amazing things for your wellbeing and your mind, you may reconsider. And more importantly: Taking a vacation could make you even better at your job. Yes, it's true. Read on, and start booking your next flight or planning a staycation.



Your body is literally telling you to take a break. But you keep ignoring it.







Giving employees significant time to take a break will help them be renewed and come back to work even stronger, says Tony Schwartz, the chief executive officer of The Energy Project, in an op-ed in The New York Times. His company offers employees four weeks of vacation starting in their first year. He does this because he believes that "the importance of restoration is rooted in our physiology." He credits a study done by researchers at Florida State University in which they looked at the performance of elite athletes, musicians and chess players, and found that the best performers practiced in intervals of 90 minutes. They often took breaks between sessions and hardly ever worked more than four and half hours a day. That's how you properly recover.





Because when your brain is completely relaxed, it’s still working on improving the skills you have learned.







This all goes back to the science of sleep. Many studies have shown that when the brain is relaxed, it focuses itself on boring but essential tasks, like etching in and memorizing the new skills you may have learned at the office during the week before. So, if you're struggling to keep up with the new software your company just introduced, right now might be the best time to take a vacation. Let your brain take some time to process the new information, and you might return in tip-top shape!





It's been proven that allowing your brain to day-dream allows you to better solve problems and be more creative.







Your brain operates on two levels: One side is task-focused and the other side is focused on letting your mind wander and daydream. As you can imagine, a hard worker like you is pretty much always in the task-focused mode, overworking your brian to stay engaged on something you must finish for work, all the while taking in an overload of information (a 2011 study claims everyday we process 174 newspapers' worth of info!).



As we mentioned above, taking a break is good for your brain. Because you have got to let your brain daydream. Daniel J. Levitin, the director of the Laboratory for Music, Cognition and Expertise at McGill University and the author of "The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload," told the New York Times that giving our brains time to wind down and think about nothing at all can provide "our moments of greatest creativity and insight."





Fact: The more (shorter) vacations you take, the happier you'll be.







As far as vacations go, the more the merrier. A study done at Erasmus University in Rotterdam found that among about 1,500 Dutch adults in which 974 of them took a vacation, those who took time off were happier than those who did not, mostly because they were excited in anticipation for their vacation. They also showed signs of slightly increased happiness for two weeks after they returned from vacation. So, the trick for success, says the study's leader, Jeroen Nawijn, seems to be taking two or more short breaks spread out in the year rather than one massive vacation. Spread out that happiness!





In fact, you should try to take a vacation day every single week (if you can).







Some researchers have argued that instead of offering employees a couple of long vacations every year, they should start providing employees with the option of taking a vacation every single week. A Harvard Business School study tracked employees for four years at a consulting group. Every year, the bosses insisted the employees take consistent time off. Those who took the time off committed to taking a break from work one day of the workweek, usually consisting of one full day off or a one night of uninterrupted personal time. After only five months, those who took the regular breaks from work reported being happier with their jobs and much prouder of the work they did at their job.





Your performance review this year could be higher if you just go take your vacation.







All that happiness could pay off for you in major ways. An internal study done by the Ernst & Young accounting firm found that for each additional 10 hours that an employee took for vacation, his or her performance review was 8 percent higher the next year. Who knew that some rest and relaxation could get your your next raise?





Bosses who take vacations return to work as more focused business leaders.







A survey by job recruiters at Korn/Ferry International discovered that 84 percent of over 250 executives have canceled a vacation due to pressures at work. That's shocking. If you're the head honcho, don't think it's impossible for you take a vacation. We know it's hard to break yourself away from your work, but you make the rules, after all, and it's proven that you'll be better and enforcing those rules if you give yourself a little break.



Jennifer Deal, a researcher at the Center for Creative Leadership who has examined the way executives deal with taking vacations, told The Wall Street Journal that when bosses take time off they come back more creative and able to think about the long run future of the company better. If they don't take a break, she says it's extremely difficult for them to "see outside of the immediate whirlwind."





Immersing yourself in new cultures and cuisines will give you a whole new array of ideas you can bring back to work.







Think of your vacation as a very relaxing and stress-free way to get some more work done. A study published in the US National Library of Medicine concludes that multicultural experiences help foster creativity and help generate ideas. However, this shouldn't be working abroad. The study emphasizes that the experience will only promote creativity when the situation doesn't call for "firm answers or existential concerns."





You might even get paid for taking time off.







If you're still afraid, consider this: Some companies are paying their employees to get out of the office or they are removing restrictions to how much vacation time they can take off. The Wall Street Journal reports that FullContact, an advertising firm in Boston, began enticing its employees with a $7,500 incentive a year to help fund a nonworking vacation. Also, there's no limit on how long their vacation can be. And HubSpot, a marketing software company in Cambridge, Mass., has ordered a two week paid vacation minimum for its employees. Now that's a great work-life balance.



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