UPDATED 10/22/20

Welding tools are finding more uses than connecting metal parts to each other this month, as more and more consumers purchase welding glasses to enjoy the total solar eclipse.

Welding shades, specifically “Shade 14,” have become the item to have for people that wanted to observe the solar eclipse without cooking their retinas in the process. Just before the eclipse, many stores increased the price of their protective eyewear. According to WSVN, some listings of “eclipse glasses” rose as high as $129.95.

However, according to Susan Barnette, the Director at Buehler Planetarium and Observatory, there were a lot cheaper options.

“These are so strong that they will block out the same amount as these solar filters,” said Barnette, talking about welder’s glasses.

There are more than 500,000 welders employed in the U.S. today, according to the American Welding Society. And that means that these glasses are very, very common. Especially when one considers that many homeowners with workshops might weld as a hobby.

One doesn’t even need to purchase actual protective gear, according to Barnette. They just need to purchase the glass panel.

“All I did with this is took the piece of glass, and I taped a little shield around it,” Barnette said, “so that I would make sure people would be safe. You don’t wanna risk seeing the surface of the sun.”

And Barnette was not the only one to take advantage of this fact, hundreds of consumers across the nation have as well. Welding shops all over were also taking advantage of the trend.

Like Dressel Welding Supply and Roberts Oxygen, in Hagerstown, Maryland.

“We’ve been getting calls left and right about it… We had a few calls (earlier), but this week it’s been kind of nuts,” Roberts store Manager Jerry Jacobson said.

The extra dark lenses, such as shade 14, can be used to see the eclipse safely, according to the NASA website:

“Experts suggests that one widely available filter for safe solar viewing is welders glass of sufficiently high number. The only ones that are safe for direct viewing of the Sun with your eyes are those of shade 12 or higher. These are much darker than the filters used for most kinds of welding. If you have an old welder’s helmet around the house and are thinking of using it to view the Sun, make sure you know the filter’s shade number. If it’s less than 12 (and it probably is), don’t even think about using it to look at the Sun. Many people find the Sun too bright even in a Shade 12 filter, and some find the Sun too dim in a shade 14 filter — but shade 13 filters are uncommon and can be hard to find.”

There has been such a demand for these lenses that stores across the nation have sold out and created back orders, with some even creating waiting lists as long as 22 people. Unfortunately, not everyone got their lenses in time for the eclipse, leaving some unlucky eclipse viewers with welding glass they can’t actually use.

Considering that most welding helmets come with a shade 10 lens, not a shade 14, there was never really much need for something so dark. In fact, most welding suppliers don’t keep a large amount in stock.

There are lots of useful tools available today. A customer who is looking for a welder and compressor might specifically decide to get a welder air compressor and compressor welding machine. These sorts of devices are able to serve multiple functions at once. People will have the chance to use fewer devices overall when they decide to use products as versatile as a gas powered air compressor generator. 

The simple act of storing a lot of different tools can be difficult for a lot of people, especially if they work on a lot of complex home improvement projects. Units that have more than one different function can help people avoid making multiple purchases in the first place. They’ll be much less likely to run out of space in their workshops or garages when they decide to rely on these kinds of sophisticated units instead.

Some individuals enjoy collecting tools, and might want to own a very broad range of devices. These people still might want to get devices like these, which are valuable to own. The people who are specifically interested in the capabilities of these devices will be even more interested in units that give them the chance to save money. 

Putting a halt on legislative back-and-forth, Illinois lawmakers have voted to approve a new state budget. But some critics point out that the plan has ignored workers’ compensation reform. The Chicago Tribune reports that the vote was instated to override Gov. Bruce Rauner’s veto on the budget.

In 2013 alone, there were 917,100 occupational injuries that resulted in an average of eight days missed work per person. This makes workers’ compensation an ever-present part of state legislation — though it may be taking a back seat in Illinois.

According to Chicago Tribune, the final budget came out to $36.1 billion and increased the corporate income tax to 7% and the personal rate to 4.95%. Toff Maisch, CEO of the Illinois Chamber of Commerce, told Chicago Tribune that it’s problematic for the budget to skip over rising property taxes and increased workers’ compensation insurance costs.

“The fact that there are no reforms at all is an incredible missed opportunity,” he said.

Robert Reed echoed this thought in his recent Chicago Tribune column, stating that this decision undermines a long-standing battle for better workers’ compensation policies in Illinois.

“The business withdrawal is another lost opportunity to sensibly revamp this complex, publicly backed structure that needs to bring costs down while still properly serving those who are legitimately injured on the job,” he said. “While workers’ compensation changes never come easy in the Illinois General Assembly, there was hope earlier this year that pro-business Republicans and pro-labor Democrats would lay the groundwork for bipartisan compromise.”

According to Chicago Tribune, Gov. Rauner is a supporter of workers’ comp rights and other business policies, making him a favorable candidate for CEOs and small business owners. While the budget did not include new workers’ compensation provisions, Chicago Tribune reports that two workers’ comp bills passed the General Assembly this legislative session. One of the bills designates $10 million for a government-funded insurance company to compete with private insurance companies. The bills are moving on to Gov. Rauner.

However, business interest groups say these bills don’t go far enough in reducing insurance costs for business owners. When someone is injured driving a company car, for example, their company can face steep costs. The three most common causes of car accidents are distracted driving, drunk driving, and speeding, carrying great risk for any commercial driver — and potentially a great financial burden.

As for a solution going forward, Reed suggests a more realist approach.

“Illinois should not have to gut workers’ rights to remain competitive with neighboring Indiana or other Midwest states,” he writes. “At the same time, realistic safeguards against negligent employers and systemic abuse, along with more checks and balances on who gets workers’ compensation, and for how long, are instrumental to the state’s economic health.”

Working at a municipal water department isn’t always easy. There are hazards when working in the confined spaces, and the occasional loud noises reaching over 85 decibels can cause permanent hearing damage. But employees at the Chicago Water Department faced a different type of danger in recent years.

This month, seven employees at the Chicago Water Department filed a class action lawsuit against the department over workplace harassment. In the suit, the plaintiffs claim they had been denied promotions, subjected to racist remarks, and sexually harassed on the basis of their race.

“In 2017, many black people at the Water Department still cannot go to work and make a living without being subject to a hostile work environment,” Derrick Edmond, one of the plaintiffs and an engineer with the department, said to CBS Chicago. “I feel less than the man that I am when I’m talked to disrespectfully.”

That disrespect, according to the lawsuit, included use of the N-word and terms like you people. And when Edmond spoke out, the lawsuit alleges, he faced harsh discipline.

While there are around 16,000 municipal wastewater treatment facilities operating in the United States today, few have faced more scandal than those under the Chicago Water Department, which saw its Commissioner, Barrett Murphy, forced to resign in May.

Murphy’s resignation came after an investigation into the department turned up racist and sexist emails. Two other resignations followed closely after; William Bresnahan, the agency’s managing deputy commissioner, and Paul Hansen, a district superintendent of water distribution.

A spokesperson for Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel speaking to the Chicago Tribune said at the time, “We were made aware of an IG investigation into the culture at the water department. The mayor acted quickly and decisively, asking for the commissioner’s resignation and appointing a new commissioner to lead the department forward and change the department’s culture.”

Unfortunately for the city, the action did not come soon enough. Of the plaintiffs in the class action lawsuit, two are women and five are men. While the number of plaintiffs is relatively small so far, attorneys have said there are at least 30 others employees with similar claims

“This lawsuit falls on the heels of our mayor of our city having to acknowledge that the culture of the Water Department is indeed hostile and abusive,” William C. Martin, a lawyer representing the plaintiffs, told CBS Chicago. “This is the next step in this admission process.”

Another day, another example of police brutality. In this case, the victim lived to tell the tale and will even get a settlement from the city of Chicago. In an incident from 2014, Patassa Johnson alleged Sgt. George Granias beat her while she was handcuffed at the 11th District police station. Johnson and her lawyers filed a federal lawsuit, an act which subsequently revealed that Granias was the owner of several websites with racist and offensive domain names.

According to an FBI report, there was a 3.9% increase in the estimated number of violent crimes in the U.S. in 2015, and over the last few years, the nation’s eyes have been fixed on violent events between police departments and people of color.

For many, Johnson’s story is all too familiar. The suit alleges that Johnson was pulled over on suspicion of a DUI. Although she denied the charges (and they were later dropped), Johnson was handcuffed, put in the back of a squad car, and driven to the police station. It was there, Johnson’s lawyers say, that Granias grabbed her and brought her inside the station. Then, “Defendant Granias beat [Johnson] while [Johnson] was in handcuffs.” Johnson required medical attention for the injuries she sustained during this time.

“She was beat up at the police station by a Chicago police sergeant because she was a vocal black woman,” said Brendan Shiller, Johnson’s lead attorney, to The Root.

While Johnson’s legal team was preparing for the case, they found something curious: a site called n**gadown.com, purchased by Granias.

“We came across that URL and said what the hell is this?” Shiller told The Daily Beast. Each month, over 100 billion global web searches are conducted, and many people wrongly assume they can operate anonymously online.

Although the site was blank, because it showed up in Google search results, this suggested to Shiller that Granias actually launched a website after buying the domain name.

“He made it live and accessible to the public,” said Shiller. “You can create a website, but Google wouldn’t know about it unless you make it live and accessible.”

The team subsequently found other domain named owned by Granias, including n**gaguns.com, murdertech.com, deathcomescalling.com, necroarmy.com, supremegirl.com, naomiscarlet.com, conditionaldating.com, patquinnsucks.com (a dig at former Illinois governor Pat Quinn), and several others.

On the day CBS Chicago reported the discovery, an individual who identified himself as George Granias requested that n**gadown.com remove the page that listed him as the owner of the site.

“Please remove my info from n**gadown.com,” read the post. “I haven’t owned it in years and your information is false.”

The website is no longer active, but Granias’ registration is. It will not expire until the end of 2017.

In the meantime, Johnson and her legal team reached a settlement with the city, according to Shiller. The amount is still pending approval from the City Council, but the city is expected to pay $185,000 to Johnson. However, she says the compensation isn’t the same as justice.

“He needs to be fired,” Johnson said. “If he’s fired, then I’m happy because I know he will not be able to do it to anyone else.”

While the Chicago PD has reportedly launched an internal investigation into the websites, Granias is still employed as a full-time officer with the department.

Residents of Chicago’s Bronzeville district will now have easier access to fresh produce and other goods thanks to a new community shopping center. But this commercial hub isn’t like other stores in Chicago.

It’s made out of shipping containers.

Chicago Magazine reports that the shopping center, called “Boxville,” opened this week and is home to a grocery center called Produce Box, a small boutique, and a bike repair shop. The project was created by developer Bernard Loyd, who has worked to bring local investment to Bronzeville.

“The idea was always to have a community plaza with vending opportunities, something informal,” Loyd said in a statement to Chicago Magazine. “We’re trying to create a progression of spaces.”

The shipping containers look like “four giant metal Lego pieces,” according to Chicago Magazine. These structures are highly durable, lasting an average of 25 years and requiring minimal maintenance. These properties have made them a popular option in recent years for popup commercial centers.

Mashable reports that Produce Box is funded by Chicago non-profit Green City Market, bringing affordable produce and Italian ice to local residents. Previously, Bronzeville’s produce choices were greatly limited, Green City Market’s operations manager, Kathleen Williams, said in a statement to Mashable.

“Produce Box will impact the community by providing a space for neighborhood residents to gather around food,” she said. “Parts of the Bronzeville community have not had access to produce in two generations and Green City Market will work to change this by bringing produce on a weekly basis in addition to food demos.”

Commerce isn’t the only industry using shipping containers to spark affordable community development. These containers are mainly made out of steel, and four of the most common metals used in the construction industry are carbon steel, aluminum steel, copper, and stainless steel. With the construction durability of these products, they have become a key resource for new affordable housing projects around the county.

In Chicago specifically, Boxville is building off of another $9 million developmnent effort headed by Loyd, who was once a Bronzeville resident. This project, called Bronzeville Cookin’, is a dining center and business incubator, according to Chicago Magazine. Lloyd said in a statement that the city of Chicago has pledged $3 million to the project.

Michelle E.L. Merritt, owner of Aplomb, Boxville’s boutique, said in a statement to <emthat Loyd’s projects are not being implemented as top-down efforts for capital gain. Rather, he is meeting the community where they are to build up one of Chicago’s main cultural hubs.

“He’s not landing on the community, but really engaging the community in the effort,” she said.

IBM is credited with paving the way for corporations to embrace teleworking options. For decades, the corporation allowed large segments of its employees to telecommute. These days, 65% of professionals say they allow their employees to work remotely, likely thanks — at least in part — to IBM’s efforts.
But now, IBM is calling its employees back into the office. And for those who currently work remotely or work at an office that isn’t in one of the company’s main six locations, being able to keep their jobs relies on making either a long commute or a big move.

John Simons, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, told Texas Standard that IBM used to be an industry leader insofar as teleworking. Not only did IBM develop software and services that made it easier for their own employees and clients to work from home, but they allowed workers in a variety of roles, ranging from coding to marketing, to do so.

“Now the company has decided that it wants to go a different direction, they want to group people together in really small, agile teams in sort of face-to-face situations in offices around the country,” says Simons. “They think that that’s a better way to have teams react in real time to market changes and changes in the desires of their clients.”

But some aren’t convinced that’s the real motivation behind the shift. Employees suspect that it may be a way for the company to cut costs by eliminating older, more settled remote workers in less profitable operations centers around the nation. Current employees who telecommute will have to relocate to one of IBM’s designated main offices in New York, San Francisco, Austin, Atlanta, Raleigh, or Cambridge if they don’t want to find themselves suddenly unemployed.

“Many of these employees who are kind of angry that they made decisions like purchasing homes and relocating to far-flung areas are … saying that this is a way to do layoffs in disguise,” explains Simons.

The decision comes at a curious time, given how many millennials are seeking out flexible employment opportunities. Surveys have found that 85% of millennials want positions that allow for total telecommuting, with 50% saying they would change jobs just to be in a flexible work environment that allows for the option of off-site full time work. And since less than one-third of Americans are engaged in their jobs during any given year, the move seems a bit backwards from such a forward-thinking company.

It’s not just employees who stand to benefit from remote work, either. Research suggests that employees are more productive when they’re able to have flexibility in their work schedules.

And Harry West, SVP of Appirio, an IT consulting firm, notes, “We haven’t found that remote working environments result in a loss of productivity or communication hiccups. In fact, remote working environments actually increase transparency, collaboration, and communication with internal teams.”

It’s interesting, then, that IBM has cited the new policy as a means to improve collaboration and communication within its teams. But IBM isn’t the only corporation to shift away from telework for this reason. Meg Whitman, CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise, has stated similar sentiments: “If your business is up and to the right, people can telework all year long. When you are in the middle of a turnaround, you need to come into an office.”

Since 2013, HP has backtracked on its former teleworking allowance and has asked employees to be present in the office during working hours. Ironically, both HP and IBM are seen as technological innovators whose tools can allow remote workers to succeed even in non-traditional office environments.

While large corporations may be moving away from telework, there are still emerging opportunities for those in the Chicago workforce who are seeking flexibility in their jobs. There’s currently a proposal for a shared office space geared towards millennial workers and telecommuters, offering services like internet, printing, desk space, and coffee for freelancers and entrepreneurs who don’t need a lot of space but require access to office necessities.

While some aspects of the proposal have given officials pause, the co-working concept would be a welcome one for suburban Chicago neighborhoods. These areas are seeing a rise in millennial populations that want good schools, big backyards, and better employment opportunities.

And while big corporations may be fighting against the teleworking trend they initially set, if millennials have any say in it, the option for flexible work won’t be going anywhere soon.

“As the trend for remote employees continues to rise, and as the workforce shifts to predominantly millennials, companies … who want to remain innovative need to be accommodating,” notes Andy Baker, VP of Talent and Culture at Nerdio, a Chicago-based IT-as-a-service provider, to The VarGuy. “If not, you’ll risk losing top talent due to your lack of flexibility. We’ve discovered that our remote policy has been one of the greatest perks for our younger workforce.”

Jewish war survivors who haven’t been able to celebrate coming of age ceremonies in their faith are finally getting a chance to do so.

In Jewish culture, a bar and bat mitzvah is a coming of age celebration for boys and girls to transition into adulthood. These celebrations are typically large and elaborate, with the average bar or bat mitzvah budget across the nation between $15,000 to $30,000. However, many Jewish survivors of World War II did not get the chance to partake in this incredibly important religious and cultural ceremony in their native countries.

That is, until now.

Harold Katz lives in the North Side of Chicago and has quite the life story to tell. Now 89-years-old, he emigrated to the United States after fleeing from the Holocaust. After being rounded up by Nazis in his hometown of Tarn, Czechoslovakia, he lived on the streets of Poland with his family until a Hungarian woman smuggled him to Budapest. During the war Katz was taken prisoner three different times while his parents, three brothers, and four sisters were all murdered at Auschwitz. Katz was only 13 when his family died; only one brother survived.

Throughout all this sadness and devastation, Katz’s scheduled bar mitzvah came and went. He eventually found a previously-emigrated family in the Chicago area, moved with his brother, and found a stable job in the construction industry. He started his own family, but he still never got the bar mitzvah he wanted.

Last year, Katz’s family threw him a big birthday party after he had just come home from a trip to Hungary with his daughter Lila. It was the first time he returned to Europe since the war and was inspired to get something back that was taken away from him with no regard.

So Katz decided to finally have his bar mitzvah, which happened in the North Side area the weekend of Memorial Day. The celebration went off as planned with a reading from a completed Torah scroll, but he added something a little different. In typical bar mitzvahs, the ceremony ends with the newly anointed man or woman writing letters for loved ones.

Instead, Katz wrote in memory of all the people who made it possible for him to stand in Chicago, at 89, finally getting his bar mitzvah. Who did he include in his letters? His murdered parents and siblings who gave up their place and allowed him to be smuggled into Budapest, the woman who sheltered him in Hungary, members of the Hungarian underground who forged the papers that helped him escape to the U.S., the Holocaust survivor who delivered his ad to the paper that got his aunt and uncle’s attention in Chicago, and his family who sponsored his trip to come start a new life in America.

In the case of Harold Katz, while his bar mitzvah may be 76 years late, it is evidently true that the best things come to those who wait.

The average American family has an incredible 300,000 items in their home, and if they live in a big city like Chicago, it can be a hassle to keep that many possessions under one roof.

But thankfully there are storage solutions for those families. Nearly 50,000 storage facilities exist in the United States today, and more are being built every year. Here in Chicago, developers are reusing old spaces to create new storage spaces for Chicagoland residents who have run out of room at home.

As of June 2, real estate developer Martin Taradejna purchased a former Lincoln Logs factory in Chicago and stated his intention to convert it into a self-storage facility. It was purchased at a price of $2.2 million.

The storage industry has been growing quickly since the Great Recession ended as Americans increasingly choose to rent their homes. And according to a market research report from Marcus and Millichap, Americans are simply buying more stuff than they used to.

“To date, the robust performance of self-storage properties is primarily driven by growing space demand,” reads the report. “After hunkering down during the recession, U.S. consumers are clearly back in an accumulation phase, buying new things that will inevitably relegate older possessions to self-storage spaces around the country.”

The property includes more than 1 acre, a 45,834-square-foot building, and an attached 23,380-square-foot warehouse.

According to the plans that Taradejna provided, the facility will be comprised of 600 units and will offer both outdoor and indoor parking. It’s expected to be fully renovated and opened early next year, in 2018.

Taradejna expressed excitement at the location and hopes that the fact that it is near the 606 means it could bring in a lot of local business.

“Being on The 606 is an attractive thing and [also] having the YMCA as a neighbor. It’s a nice dense population there, and not a lot of self-storage.”

The 606 is a part of a larger project, which is comprised of a system of parks and access points. The property itself is on the west end of the Bloomingdale Trail, a 2.7-mile elevated park and trail.

The factory itself is the former home of Playskool Manufacturing Co., which used it to produce Lincoln Logs from the 1940s to 1960s. It was purchased from Don Glisovich by Taradejna and a business partner.

Gilsovich was the sole owner of the property and purchased it in 2015 with the intent of turning it into a location to fit a brewery, cafe, and theater.