People don’t know much about waste management and sewer systems. A recent Angie’s list poll reported that 78% of respondents weren’t aware of what trenchless sewer technology does — even though it’s one of the most commonly utilized plumbing technologies around today. But when it affects their yearly utility bill, homeowners are much more apt to pay attention.

Rising Sewage Rates Around Chicago
In East Chicago, the city council recently approved an ordinance that will effectively increase sewer rates for residents, as well as for commercial and industrial ratepayers.

The rise in rates reflects a need for more funding in order to prepare for and develop a sewer overflow long-term control plan.

“When we get major storm events, it can overwhelm our collection system and then that’s when you get these illicit discharges of sewage into the Grand Calumet River,” said Greg Crowley, utilities director of Chicago. “And so our implementation of the control plan really works to mitigate those discharges so we don’t get those in the future.”

The waste management plan is in two phases, and will cost around $12 million — resulting in an 87-cent increase on water bills across the board.

Residents in Elmhurst can expect similar changes in their water and water maintenance/sewer rates, of about $7 a month for a four-person household.

Elmhurst’s changes reflect a recent 5% increase in the rates that the DuPage Water Commission charges the city for water. The increase is planned to take effect in May of 2016, but is certainly subject to change.

“Should we get something different from the DuPage Water Commission, either up or down, we’ll get it back to committee,” said Finance Committee Chairman Kevin York.

When questioned by the committee, the rate recommendation was unanimous with all members voting for the increase. If the Elmhurst rate increase is approved by the full city council, the new rates will apply to use billed on or after January 4.

Embattled Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is facing yet another controversy as Latinos make a call for more subsidized housing options throughout the city.

According to Medill Reports Chicago, local minority leaders are looking to the Chicago Housing Authority to alleviate displacement and gentrification pressures on Latino neighborhoods, which often leaves families without affordable housing options.

“It’s a big shock for families in a neighborhood that’s been low-income for so long,” said Byron Sigcho, a member of the community activist group Pilsen Alliance.

Almost a quarter of the Latino community in Chicago is income-eligible for CHA public housing, yet low participation rates in the program are still being reported. Surveys suggest that a lack of knowledge about the CHA is primarily to blame for this confusing trend.

“It’s not that they don’t want to live in public housing, but that they don’t know” about the services, said Savannah Clement, the housing manager at the Latino Policy Forum. “It speaks to CHA’s poor outreach strategy.”

The average American moves about 12 times in their life, and that number is even higher for low-income families of minority descent. While it is reported that 25% of Chicago’s Latinos were eligible for public housing in 2014, they comprised only 10% of the population in these units.

“Latinos are participating at less than half the rate they should be based on income,” Clement added. “Without the consent decree there is no accountability.”

The public housing crisis is yet another issue that Mayor Emanuel must deal with on the heels of the Laquan McDonald shooting. According to New Republic, construction of low-income housing has decreased substantially since Emanuel took office in 2011.

Between 2007 and 2010, the CHA rebuilt approximately 900 units per year. In 2011, the number of rebuilt units plummeted to 424, and only 49 units were constructed in 2014.

The widespread concern with access to public housing has grown to the point where the Pilsen Alliance has threatened legal action against the CHA. In 1996, the CHA settled a class-action lawsuit, filed by Latinos United, which alleged unequal access to public housing services for Latinos.

To compound their troubles, the CHA dropped its long-standing development contract with the Hispanic Housing Development Corporation (HHDC) in August, puzzling the Latino community.

“We were flabbergasted,” said Paul Roldan, president and chief executive officer of the HHDC. He added that it was a “huge mistake on the part of the city and the CHA.”

Despite the controversy, the CHA has made some progress in their efforts to provide affordable housing to Latinos. Yahaira Battiata, an employee of a local organization that serves low-income Latinos, notes that the CHA now offers translation and language services in their programs.

Clement also said she has seen progress, adding that “that’s what’s so strange about all this.” It seems as if there is still much to be figured out between the Latino community in Chicago and the CHA.

It’s been a terrible year for Mayor Rahm Emanuel, and a local politician has introduced a bill that could make it even worse, by potentially leading to his removal from office.

According to MSNBC, La Shawn Ford, a Democrat who represents Illinois in the House of Representatives, has proposed legislation that would provide a conceivable path for voters to recall the mayor.

Last week, the bill was co-sponsored by State Rep. Mary Flowers. As of 2015, there is no Illinois law that could lead to a mayor being recalled, but Ford’s legislation would create “a procedure for an election to recall the Mayor of Chicago” that would be “effective immediately.”

If passed, the legislation would amend a 1941 law that prohibits Illinois mayors from being recalled. While there have only been a total of 27 Constitutional amendments to date, legislative changes on the state level are much more common and easier to pass.

The proposed bill comes on the heels of intense criticism being directed towards the mayor for his response to the police shooting death of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald in 2014.

A dashcam video of the incident was released this year, sparking widespread protests that led to Emanuel firing his police superintendent. Last week, the U.S. Justice Department announced a federal investigation into the Chicago Police Department.

Unfortunately, the Laquan McDonald controversy is just one of many problems that has plagued Emanuel since his reelection in April. According to Mother Jones, the Chicago Teachers Union recently announced that 96% of its members have voted to strike.

The union is displeased with the limited resources they have compared to neighboring districts, as well as excessive standardized testing and other unnecessary paperwork that makes their jobs more difficult.

Emanuel has drawn the ire of the union for several years, and the potential strike is no surprise to the community. In 2013, the mayor closed 50 schools throughout Chicago, citing their poor performance on standardized tests.

Earlier this year, the Chicago public school district laid off 1,500 staffers, which gave the Chicago Teachers Union another reason to oppose Emanuel. In fact, the layoffs and school closings nearly caused Emanuel to be unseated in 2014 when he ran against Jesse “Chuy” Garcia, a candidate supported by the union.

In response to Rep. Ford’s proposal to recall him from office, Emanuel insisted that he will not be stepping down.

“I am the mayor. As I said the other day, I own it. I take responsibility for what happened, because it happened on my watch,” Emanuel said in a speech to the Chicago City Council.

There is no timetable for the legislation to be approved or rejected, but the court of public opinion seems to have already made a ruling on Emanuel’s fate in office.

Following the Nov. 13 terrorist attacks in Paris, Muslim communities all over the world have reported instances of Islamophobia, blatant discrimination, and even violence toward innocent members of their communities.

In Chicago, prominent leaders and community members decided to take action and promote peace in the city.

As the Chicago Sun Times reported, the Council of Religious Leaders of Metropolitan Chicago convened on Wednesday, Nov. 25, in order to speak out against the “wave of anti-Muslim discrimination sweeping across the country.”

“We urge everyone in metropolitan Chicago to oppose discriminatory actions and behavior against all members of religious communities, and particularly, at this time in our history, against Muslims,” the Council stated.

The Council specifically called on American media groups and political leaders to “desist from inflammatory rhetoric” when talking about Muslim groups. Presidential candidates Donald Trump and Ben Carson, in particular, have already garnered plenty of media attention for their anti-Muslim remarks, and many people in the Muslim community fear that these remarks are creating widespread anti-Muslim sentiments in the United States.

Although Illinois mosques have not experienced the same number of hate crimes as mosques in other states, according to the Chicago Tribune, members of the community have been working tirelessly to keep Muslim residents safe, whether they’re walking down the street or praying in a mosque.

Around 100 Muslim men recently marched through Chicago’s Loop, ABC News 7 reported, to commemorate the death of the seventh century revolutionary leader and prophet Hussain. Those who organized and participated in the march said that Hussain’s teachings of peace and equality have never been more important to commemorate.

Islamophobic sentiments were present in the U.S. after the Sept. 11 attacks, yet many people believe that anti-Muslim sentiments are even more prevalent after the attacks on Paris, which killed 129 civilians and injured more than 350.

Refugees from ISIS-controlled territories, especially Syria and Iraq, have been fleeing their home countries and settling temporarily in European refugee camps throughout Greece, Germany, and France.

Ironically, just as France was celebrating its 226th anniversary of independence on July 14 this past summer, media outlets began reporting that the French people were less than welcoming toward the foreigners who sought refuge in the French town of Calais.

Although French President Francois Hollande announced that the country would officially welcome at least 30,000 Syrian refugees into its country over the next two years — especially after the atrocities that ISIS had planned in an attempt to derail refugee resettlement — the U.S. has yet to follow suit.

UnitedHealth Group recently announced that it might leave the Affordable Care Act exchanges in 2017, and the Chicago community could be in trouble if this happens.

As the largest insurer in the country, UnitedHealth Group announced that it would very likely see significant losses on its individual healthcare plans during 2015 and 2016, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Just a month ago, the company had “expressed optimism about its exchange-related business” during 2016, the Tribune reported.

UnitedHealthcare, a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group, even expanded individual policy products from one Illinois county in 2015 to 27 counties in 2016.

However, UnitedHealth Group recently updated its national forecast and, according to Forbes, it is simply losing too much money because younger — and healthier — Americans haven’t been too keen on signing up for Obamacare. Without this population’s contributions, the insurer has been operating at a loss in 34 states across the country.

CEO Stephen Hemsley stated that the insurer is considering pulling out of the exchange because it now expects to lose at least $700 million by the end of 2015, and all because it has covered more than 500,000 through the ACA exchange.

“We cannot sustain these losses,” Hemsley said. “We can’t really subsidize a marketplace that doesn’t appear at the moment to be sustaining itself.”

Already, insurers have begun increasing premiums and deductibles in an attempt to cover the missing funds — and this is making ACA even more unpopular.

As Forbes reported, a family of four in Illinois can face premiums of $1,200 per month, plus an annual deductible of $12,700. In many cases, younger and healthier people are choosing to pay the tax penalty of $325 (or 2% of household income) instead of paying thousands of dollars for a plan.

If UnitedHealth Group does fold, it would put Obamacare in serious hot water.

With women’s healthcare in Illinois, for example, the shuttering of Obamacare could be disastrous. Illinois is currently one of 15 states with a law that makes it mandatory for insurers to cover infertility treatment and procedures, which is pretty significant considering that around 90% of all infertility cases are treated with (very expensive) drug therapy or surgical procedures.

Furthermore, as HealthDay recently reported, since ACA went into effect, more young women have received cervical cancer diagnoses in earlier stage.

Without ACA and its mandatory coverage policies, women may not be able to afford these basic — and often preventative — diagnoses and procedures.

Only time will tell if UnitedHealth Group can pull through and make it past 2017 — but if it can’t, then Obamacare may be forced to close its marketplace doors, too.

Chicago and Paris. Two very different cities, located halfway across the world from each other, but inexplicably tied together after the recent terrorist attacks in France.

Chicagoans visiting Paris were “ordered… not to leave the city and confined to their apartments and hotels” on Nov. 14, according to the Chicago Tribune, while Parisians in Chicago visited the French consulate on Michigan Avenue, “anxious for answers,” only to find it closed.

Both situations were a result of the Friday, Nov. 13 gun and suicide bombing attacks throughout Paris which left over 120 dead and over 300 injured. The Islamic State (ISIS) claimed responsibility for the coordinated attacks shortly after the streets of Paris were closed off and residents were told to stay inside.

Some Parisians in Chicago are college students who traveled overseas for a semester abroad; others have been living in the city for years but still consider Paris to be “home.”

On Saturday evening, Parisians and Chicagoans alike came together at the Michigan Ave. embassy to light candles and hold an informal vigil. More vigils followed, as ABC News 7 reported, and the Notre Dame de Chicago on the West Side of the city became a gathering spot for hundreds.

Other Americans worried about their friends and family members who had been visiting Paris at the time of the attacks; although France sees over 300 million visitors each year, there is no city quite like Paris and no better time to visit than during the holiday season.

But Chicagoans showed even more compassion by opening up their homes to stranded Parisians who were unable to find flights back to France after the attack. Using the hashtag #StrandedinUS, local residents were able to get in touch with travelers who needed a place to stay until France opened up its borders.

While this hospitality couldn’t provide the same amount of comfort as being home with one’s loved ones, Chicagoans proved yet again that the city is one of great compassion and understanding.

Several parents of Chicago Public School (CPS) students filed separate lawsuits on Nov. 12 regarding a carbon monoxide leak that occurred two weeks earlier at Prussing Elementary School in the Jefferson Park neighborhood.

According to the Chicago Sun Times, there are currently six separate lawsuits which allege negligence of CPS for the leak, which occurred on Oct. 30.

The incident quickly made national headlines because it didn’t just involve a small carbon monoxide leak; as CNN and NBC News both reported, 71 elementary school students and eight adults were hospitalized for carbon monoxide poisoning.

Local fire department officials stated that the levels of carbon monoxide were “abnormally high,” but that’s putting it pretty lightly. According to NBC, several young students complained of feeling ill and one student even passed out before school officials placed an emergency call for an ambulance.

When fire officials and an ambulance arrived at the scene, their carbon monoxide alarms went off; additional assistance was called in while the building was evacuated. Fire department workers responded to the call, which had become a “level one Hazmat situation,” and 12 ambulances in total transported students and adults to seven different hospitals in the Chicago metro area.

While the remaining staff and students were taken to another elementary school, the local fire department brought in a mobile AC repair unit to increase ventilation in the school.

Although it is still not entirely clear how high the carbon monoxide levels were, school officials confirmed that the gas leak was caused by the school’s boiler.

Each of the six lawsuits filed against CPS includes two or more counts of negligence on behalf of the students, and two mothers who were helping out with classroom activities at the time of the leak also sued for personal injury damages totaling $700,000.

CPS has not commented on the lawsuits yet. Each lawsuit also names the Chicago Board of Education, School District 229, and the Public Building Commission of Chicago as defendants.

Luckily, it seems that each individual who was treated for carbon monoxide poisoning is recovering — but parents of CPS students are saying that the school’s negligence could have caused irreparable damage.

“Carbon monoxide (CO) is a poisonous gas that is produced when various fuels are not burned completely,” says Stephanie Mischke, Vice President, Total Air, Inc. “Many products we use in our daily life can produce carbon monoxide if they are malfunctioning. It seems the boiler at this Chicago Public School malfunctioned somehow. In our homes, we can safeguard our families by installing a CO alarm that meets the requirements of the current UL 2034 safety standard. A CO alarm can provide some added protection, but it is no substitute for proper use and upkeep of appliances that can produce CO, so make sure to check your appliances for proper operation and have an HVAC company routinely check your furnace and ventilation system.”

Illinois became the first state in the country to make significant changes to rules regarding individual retirement savings plans (IRAs) for small business workers. The policy changes are expected to have a positive impact on the saving capabilities of the everyday employee, while also protecting companies and states from getting sued, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Currently, about half of U.S. states are considering adopting similar legislation, which at its core will simply make it easier for small businesses to help their employees save for retirement without a great deal of paperwork and formalities. Right now there approximately 68 million workers without access to employee run retirement plans, such as a 401(k).

U.S. Secretary of Labor, Thomas Perez, applauded the state’s efforts as well as the corresponding proposed rule change the Department of Labor itself released at a conference in Chicago on Monday, Nov. 16, according to the investment and financial news source ThinkAdvisor.com.

“Too many people are on the pathway to poverty because they will be solely reliant on Social Security,” Perez said.

Perez also called the changes, “another plank in the economic security platform that President Obama and this administration have been building to help create new savings options, ensure workers are getting sound retirement advice, and bolster bedrock programs such as Social Security.”

The issue is not really relevant to big corporations as most offer extensive, and often lucrative, retirement options. Unfortunately, about 50% of workers in the private sector are employed by one of the nearly 28 million small businesses in the U.S., according to the U.S. Small Business Administration. Many of these smaller companies don’t have the means or incentives to offer such services.

These changes mark a turn as states have been reluctant to attempt any changes for fear of being sued through the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, which puts the U.S. Department of Labor in charge of regulating retirement plans.

Under the new changes employers will be allowed to automatically enroll employees in IRA plans, so long as they are voluntary and have the option to opt out.

While the entire world is on high-alert in light of recent terrorist attacks in Paris, a misunderstanding at a Chicago airport has left many wondering where the line should be drawn between security and discrimination.

According to the Daily Mail, two Palestinian men were waiting to board a flight from Chicago to Philadelphia in Midway International Airport on Wednesday when fellow passengers overheard them speaking Arabic.

The two men, Maher Khalil and Anas Ayyad, were simply a pizza shop owner from Philadelphia and his friend who were conversing in their native language. A gate agent informed the friends that they would not be allowed on the Southwest flight because passengers feared for their safety.

Khalil immediately called airport security himself to rectify the situation, and after the two were questioned by police, they were finally allowed on the plane.

Unfortunately, the incident didn’t end there. Passengers made Khalil show them the contents of a white box he was holding as he boarded the plane. The box held only some delicious Greek desserts.

“So I shared my baklava with them,” said Khalil.

Similar incidents occur on a regular basis, but the recent tragedy in Paris has left many to assume the worst in airports. An average of eight million people fly every single day, and the likelihood of some passengers speaking Arabic or other Middle Eastern languages is extremely high, which makes detaining every single one of them a questionable tactic.

According to Yahoo! News, there have been several instances of discrimination in airports since the Paris attacks. Midway Airport was the site of another misunderstanding in which six men identified by fellow passengers as Middle Eastern were removed from a Southwest flight after they asked to switch seats, which caused widespread panic and commotion.

In another incident, a Spirit Airlines flight en route to Minneapolis was diverted after a young passenger “heard what she believed to be a conversation during which the subject made a remark about blowing up the plane,” which was later found to be a false claim.

As for the misunderstanding involving Khalil and Ayyad, Southwest Airlines said in a statement that the flight departed after airline employees “completed conversations with customers who approached us during the boarding process.” The company provided no further details on the incident.