Updated 10/1/2020

Six people were trapped in an elevator in Chicago’s former John Hancock Center for three hours after plunging 84 floors. The rescue itself took a total of two hours.

In the early hours of the morning of Friday, Nov. 16, just after midnight, a hoist rope broke in an express elevator. Guests from the Signature Room on the 95th floor who were trying to go to the lobby without incident instead had a terrifyingly fast ride to the 11th floor. The elevator was able to stop there because several other hoist ropes had remained connected and worked to halt the elevator.

Elevators are necessary for a variety of reasons. Many differently-abled individuals rely on passenger lifts when they are unable to climb stairs. Additionally, for a building with 84 floors elevators are essential when it comes to making meetings on time. Learning when to use an elevator pitch can also help out your career when you’re stuck in an elevator with someone.

Expecting everyone in the building to climb stairs is simply unrealistic. But many buildings have staircases as well since the age-old question “can you use an elevator during a fire” is a hard no.

Are you curious about how elevators work? Check out this video:

When it spans more than 84 floors elevators are frequently inspected to meet the necessary safety protocols. Elevator maintenance happens frequently to prevent any issues from happening. How much does elevator maintenance cost? It depends on the type of elevator, its height, and how much the elevator can carry. Elevator maintenance jobs can enable top workers to make almost $100,000 per year in some cases. Passenger lift maintenance is essential, but most elevators come with safety protocols, like a safety brake, to slow the elevator down in the event of an emergency like this.

According to some of the elevator passengers, no one was injured but it took some time for building security to call the firefighters. As an elevator of standard-size is just 12 to 15 square feet and a mid-size one averages 15 to 18 square feet, this delay caused the passengers to be trapped in a small space for about an hour before rescue crews even arrived.

The elevator was stuck in a blind shaft, which is a shaft in which there are not openings at every floor to free the trapped passengers. Incidentally, the 11th floor was one floor without an opening. Once the rescue crews did arrive they had to break a concrete wall in the garage area of the 11th floor in order to free them.

After they broke through the wall, the crews shored up the elevator so that it wouldn’t fall further. They then used a small ladder to free those trapped inside. Elevator rider Jaime Montemayor told local news WBBM that he thought they were all going to die when the elevator started its plunge.

According to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Consumer Product Safety Commission, escalators and elevators cause the deaths of about 30 and seriously injure about 17,000 people each year in the United States. Simply riding in an elevator is relatively low-risk, as the majority of these accidents involve workers on or near elevators.

The elevator in the Chicago skyscraper reportedly passed its annual safety inspection earlier this year. The elevator and two others are now closed as crews repair the broken hoists and investigators attempt to determine what caused the ropes to snap in the first place.

The pharmacy store chain Walgreens has opened its first store in Chicago without a pharmacy. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Walgreens recently opened a store in the West Loop that has no pharmacy, becoming one of the few Walgreens in the nation to serve only as a store. Customers in need of a pharmacy have been redirected to nearby Walgreens at Halsted and Monroe streets.

Losing the pharmacy represents a major shift for the Walgreens chain. Walgreens currently has 120 stores in Chicago alone and approximately 10,000 stores across the U.S. and Puerto Rico.

According to Walgreens’ 2017 annual report, prescription drugs and other pharmaceutical services made up 70% of sales at its stores. This may not be too surprising considering drug discovery is a multi-billion dollar industry and medicinal cures or relief for illnesses will always be in high demand.

Just last year, Walgreens filled over 1 billion monthly prescriptions worldwide. So why open a store without a pharmacy?

Walgreens spokesperson Phil Caruso says he can’t confirm that Walgreens is the first drugstore to open without a pharmacy in Chicago history, but it certainly isn’t the first Walgreens to do so. Four Walgreens in New York City listed under the Duane Reade brand don’t sell prescription medications, either.

“It is rare for one of our stores to not have a pharmacy,” Caruso said. Caruso declined to comment on other reasons why the new store has opened without a pharmacy.

One potential reason the store opened without a pharmacy is that Walgreens has come under fire for opioid sales. The state of Florida recently filed a lawsuit against Walgreens and CVS for allegedly overselling painkillers and contributing to the nation’s opioid epidemic.

In 2016 alone, up to 1,186,810 arrests were made in the U.S. for drug law violations.

But, Simon Pickard, a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, says Walgreens may simply be moving in a new direction. Retail pharmacies, Pickard says, can be more expensive to maintain and Walgreens may be looking for other ways to stay profitable in the shadow of competition from online companies such as Amazon.

“I would imagine it’s inevitable that traditional brick-and-mortar pharmacies become less prevalent,” said Pickard.

Drugstores like Walgreens have been putting a greater focus on online and mail-order pharmacies while focusing on their cosmetics and skin-care products in-store. Event marketing has also been able to generate sales for up to 79% of marketers.

Whether Walgreens is looking to change up their retail stores or they’re looking to boost other product sales, the pharmacy-less store in the West Loop will still be selling products typically found in your average Walgreens. This includes over-the-counter medication, makeup, toiletries, food, and beer.

John Bacon, author of America’s Corner Store: Walgreens’ Prescription for Success, says Walgreens may be prototyping.

“The whole business of pharmaceuticals has gotten so complicated with Medicaid and whatnot that they’re trying to see if they can probably make their life simpler without it,” said Bacon.

Bacon pointed out that Walgreens had experimented in the 1990s with removing samples from their aisles. First, they implemented the change at a few stores before implementing it everywhere.

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In a series of rallies earlier this month, President Trump restated his anti-immigration stance, specifically focusing on illegal immigration and the migrant caravan moving towards the United States from Central America.

Caravans Become The Target Of Anti-Migrant Sentiment

President Trump, in recent rallies in Indiana during early November, railed against the movement of migrant caravans headed towards the United States. He specifically used references about the migrant caravans in several attacks at Democrats, stating that Democrats want caravans “full of illegal aliens to flood into our country.”

The comments came during the president’s campaigns for the Republican party leading up to the mid-term elections, during which a large number of Democrats were elected to seats in the House. Trump centered many of his arguments around immigration policy, continuing to cite his desire to build a wall on America’s southern border.

He also emphasized his own efforts to regulate and reduce immigration to America. In recent weeks, Trump has allegedly instructed border patrol agents to respond to rocks thrown at them “as firearms,” suggesting an increasingly hardline approach to illegal immigration that could potentially more easily escalate to violence.

Response To Anti-Immigration Language Not Entirely As Hoped

Perhaps Trump’s words in his Indiana rally may not have been the most well-chosen for the audience; the American Immigration Council reports that about 10% of the people living in Indiana are either immigrants or the children of immigrants. President Trump’s reliance on anti-immigration sentiment and policy may, in fact, be alienating the exact people he is attempting to reach. In several states, Trump’s anti-immigration language has been alienating more moderate conservatives, who are pushed to more Democratic leanings by the rhetoric.

In a modern United States where immigrants make up approximately 13% of the total population, President Trump’s harsh stance on immigration may be turning people against him in ways he is not expecting. His approval rate continues to drop, and the results of the 2018 midterms suggest that perhaps this rhetoric is not gaining him quite as much support as he would hope for.

While it remains to be seen how President Trump’s statements will translate into direct policy with regards to the continuing migrant caravans, it is clear that his stance is unlikely to change. It is difficult to say what this will mean for America’s immigrant population, though it is likely that whatever policies are formed, if any, will see considerable debate and discussion as they arise.

As the political landscape continues to grow more divided in America, climate change rages on. The national and international debate surrounding the environment continues, with long strides still needing to be taken if the rate of climate change progression is ever to be stopped.

Climate Change As It Stands

Currently, the United States continues to fuel the ever-growing problem of rising temperatures globally. The rate of rising temperatures has reached dangerous levels, and without some sort of relatively immediate intervention, prospects are looking grim. According to a recent report released by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, keeping temperature increases to 1.5% by mid-century still likely won’t be enough to avoid environmental catastrophes. Already the visible effects have begun to take place, and yet little in the way of intervention has taken place within the United States.

Business As Usual, Despite Dangers

Despite the warning signs, a vast majority of industry and policy that would affect rising temperatures remains unchanged. The current global market for plastics, a known threat to the environment, still grows at a rate of roughly 5% annually. In America, some changes have gone in the reverse direction, promoting a social atmosphere that encourages harm to the environment. According to the EPA, there has been an increase in U.S. smokestacks taller than 500 feet within the last four years.

This is possibly attributed to the lack of awareness of the general public as to the true state of climate change. Overall, only 15% of Americans say they are aware that agreement on climate change severity among scientists is greater than 90%. Without public awareness of the science backing claims of climate change danger, there will be a lack of public pressure that would normally push policy change.

Hope On The Horizon?

Despite the many indications of a dark situation, there are a few glimmers of optimism for actual change in environmental policy. The U.S. Supreme Court has recently rejected a bid from the current presidential administration that would have blocked a lawsuit against the United States government. This lawsuit was filed by a collection of young activists who accused the U.S. government of ignoring the dangers of climate change back during the Obama administration.

Should this lawsuit proceed, it could, at least, provide a more thorough awareness of the realities of climate change to the general public. At most, the legal changes that would take place as a result of such a lawsuit could potentially help shape American environmental policies moving forward. However, as the lawsuit has been continually pushed back, the long-term results remain to be seen. Regardless of how this particular legal situation proceeds, the United States will need to make a decision: will it be a part of the problem of climate change, or will it be a part of the solution?

Considering the fact that employers saw around 2.7 million workers voluntarily leave their jobs at the end of June 2015, efforts to boost employee engagement have increased dramatically. Since it’s impossible for employers to make their workers enjoy their day jobs, they have been looking for other means of increasing employee happiness; sports seems to be the winner, and not necessarily in the way you might think.

When people hear employee engagement and office sports, their heads are usually filled with mandated group sporting events outside of the office, such as corporate retreats to ropes courses or soccer stadiums where they’re split into teams and encouraged to work together.

Joyce Maroney, executive director of the Workforce Institute at workforce management software company Kronos Inc., had a different idea in mind: by studying workplace issues and the best ways employers can manage their staff, she came to the realization that many employees miss or are late to work due to public sporting events — football, soccer, baseball, you name it. She claims that the best way to combat these absences (not to mention the productivity dip that occurs when people do show up, but are constantly checking their phones for updates) is to incorporate the sporting events into the workplace culture, either by displaying it on the breakroom TV or establishing an office-watch party with food provided.

“It can definitely be a tool to stimulate camaraderie, just as would be departments having gatherings during the holiday season, or doing a charity event together,” Maroney said. “All these things engage people at work and can make people feel like they’re part of something that’s a little bigger than just getting the job done.”

Apparently, she might be onto something. A study done in March of this year showed that 79% of employees believe having access to sporting events in the office “greatly improves their levels of engagement at work.” The same study also found that 73% of workers say are happy to go to work when they can participate in office sports bracket contests (like March Madness). It makes sense to Tom Gimbel, founder and CEO of Chicago-based staffing and recruiting firm LaSalle Network:

“It empowers employees because they don’t have to sneak around to participate in something they enjoy,” he said. “It also makes our clients feel valued. We want them to know we appreciate our relationships with them. It helps builds trust.”

However, this doesn’t discredit the positive impact of the most common interpretation of corporate sports events. In fact, the Royal Bank of Scotland has seen profound results in its workers after having initiated a cycling challenge for charity in 2016. That year, more than 1,200 staff made the five day, 500-mile trek from the bank’s Bishopsgate office in London to its headquarters in Edinburgh.

“We do an annual staff survey where we track engagement and we have seen our figures go up a lot,” explained RBS employee campaign manager Clódagh McAteer.
There is more pride within the organization, more engagement and our employees are more active, fitter and healthier.”

However, not everyone in the office is going to necessarily be able to tolerate that kind of physical exertion. Tennis, on the other hand, knows no age limit and is exceptionally low-impact; doubles encourages teamwork and tournaments ensure that everyone has a chance to play, while also getting their blood pumping. In fact, playing tennis for fun for half an hour can burn 169 calories in women, and 208 in men — as your staff run or jog across the court, they’ll be engaging with each other, staying healthy, and having fun.