On Thursday, July 9, the U.S. Department of Transportation released new data revealing that a stunning 73% of roads throughout Illinois are now in poor or mediocre condition.

According to WREX, this is significantly worse than the national average; across the country, approximately 65% of roads are in poor or mediocre condition.

Additionally, 16% of Illinois’ bridges are now either structurally deficient or structurally obsolete, the Department of Transportation found.

Rough roads offer more than just a bumpy ride — they can cost drivers thousands of dollars in extra vehicle repairs each year. Roads in this condition cost American drivers an additional $335 each year in repairs; for drivers in large cities, these costs reach $746.

The Department of Transportation’s research found that Illinois drivers spend $2.4 billion each year on extra vehicle repairs stemming from rough roads and potholes, or about $292 per driver.

The U.S. DOT claimed that roads in Illinois are in such poor condition because of the state taking short-term measures rather than setting up long-term funding for more substantive road repairs.

At the same time, the state of Illinois is focusing on more frivolous projects, such as the $1.5 million it spent to create “The Driving Dead,” a series of videos intended to raise awareness about the rate of fatal car crashes in Illinois.

According to the Watchdog Arena, the Illinois Department of Transportation has been creating these videos, based on the popular TV series “The Walking Dead,” with money taken directly from its road repair fund.

To raise the money needed for the road repairs themselves, the state is now considering a gas tax increase — despite the fact that Illinois residents already spend $4 billion in state, federal and local gasoline taxes per year.

“The question every taxpayer should be asking is why is IDOT using road fund money to make movies instead of using it to fix the roads,” Watchdog Arena wrote.

Chicago-based business 1871 recently announced that it’s launching a new project called the Chicago Bitcoin Center, which will aim to research the use of bitcoins in Chicago and developing secure networks for transferring bitcoins and other forms of digital currency.

According to reports from the Chicago Tribune and Inside Bitcoins, the Chicago Business Center is a “bitcoin-focused incubator” and the team will work with other tech startups to develop safer methods of transferring bitcoins, along with increased investments toward block chain technology.

The Center was announced at the Inside Bitcoins Conference in Chicago and was launched on Friday, July 10. CEO Howard A. Tullman recently told the Chicago Tribune that the use of digital currency is rising — even Citibank announced that it’s developing its own digital currency called Citicoin.

“When you have the biggest banks in the world starting to acknowledge that this is a viable currency and everybody has to be involved in it, we think it’s going to have implications for our companies,” Tullman stated.

Online consumer purchases are already driving the economy in the U.S., with around $1.2 million spent via e-commerce shopping platforms every 30 seconds, and an estimated $140 billion worth of mobile shopping sales generated by 2019.

The Center has already pulled together an impressive team of financial and tech experts, including Don Wilson, founder and CEO of DRW Trading, and Matthew Roszak, CEO of the Chicago Bitcoin Center and a founding partner at the Chicago-based Tally Capital.

Participating startups already include Glidera, which provides merchant payment processing systems for bitcoins, and Red Leaf, which is currently implementing bitcoin ATMs throughout Chicago.

According to Roszak, 1871’s unique combination of entrepreneurs from a variety of industries is exactly what makes the company so capable of building up companies that wish to focus on bitcoins; the Center’s “network of experienced technologists, marketers, advocates, investors and others” aim to transform the way businesses and consumers use digital currency.

After a triumphant season helping bring the Chicago Blackhawks to Stanley Cup victory, defenseman Duncan Keith has taken some time for himself.

The Canadian player wound up relaxing after the championship win, having played more than 700 minutes during the postseason and taking home the Conn Smythe trophy.

“For a while I think all I had was Tim Hortons and ice cappuccinos and chocolate glazed donuts,” he said in a phone interview with the Chicago Tribune. “You need to be able to relax and have that break physically and mentally.”

Yet there are other reasons why Keith may have needed a break after the busy season: namely, due to his separation with wife Kelly-Raw one year prior.

The split was the subject of several rumors in the local press, and may have led to fighting between Keith and teammate Patrick Sharpe. Although gossip columns implied that Sharpe played a role in the separation, both players addressed the issue in the spring to say that the rumors of conflict were unfounded.

Keith and Kelly-Rae, who have begun working with divorce lawyers, also has a two-year-old son, Colton.

“Kelly and I are doing our best to co-parent Colton and raise him in a loving environment whether he’s with her or with me,” he explained.

Splitting custody is a relatively new phenomenon in many divorce proceedings, and it often requires some kind of third party decision. In 2011, 11% of custody decisions were made during mediation in a divorce; 5% of such cases were decided afterwards through court order custody evaluations for one or both parents.

In addition to taking time out for himself, Keith also needed to be there for Colton, which meant missing the Blackhawks convention in Chicago this past weekend.

Did he feel like he was missing out interacting with fans and teammates? Of course, Keith said.

“Obviously, I’d really like to be there at the convention because I always enjoy meeting new fans and seeing old ones, so that’s a little frustrating not being able to celebrate with all of them,” Keith said. “But in my own situation, I am going through a divorce. I’ve been separated for over a year now.”

Keith hopes that fans will be understanding of his absence, given his personal situation. “I hope everybody can respect that and our privacy,” he stated.

The city of Chicago hasn’t been bringing in the revenue it needs to bandage up its current financial mess, but many residents and businesses in the Chicago area have begun voicing their discontent with the newest tax policy and stating that city officials have hit a new low.

Starting on September 1 of this year, the city will be starting what it calls a “cloud tax.” This tax would place a 9% fee on paid streaming services that use cloud-based platforms; services like Netflix, Hulu, and Spotify will all be required to pay an extra fee, which means that the prices of these services will certainly go up.

Business Insider and Crain’s Chicago Business report that the “city amusement tax” is actually already in place, although it currently only applies to tickets purchased for sporting events and concerts. The newer cloud tax would be considered an extension of this amusement tax.

Lawmakers also explained that the space used by cloud computing services is considered property — city property — and the businesses that offer cloud-based services are essentially “leasing” that property.

The Chicago Tribune reported that the city expects to bring in about $12 million annually just from the cloud tax alone, which will certainly help the city climb out of its black hole of debt.

But if individual businesses suffer from the tax, the extra revenue that the city brings in won’t be very helpful in terms of financial stability. Recent estimates show that about 84% of companies that switched to the cloud ended up saving money, so it’s clear that the driving force behind cloud-based services is first and foremost cost-effectiveness.

In light of the many protestation, Chicago officials are reportedly considering to place startups in a group exempt from the cloud tax — but as for the other businesses, they’ll be left to fend for themselves.

Within the next few weeks, Illinois will run out of funds to pay the state’s court reporters; however, Gov. Bruce Rauner plans to work alongside lawmakers to find a “responsible solution to the problem,” his spokeswoman said.

According to a July 3 Alton Telegraph report, the state program responsible for paying court reporters’ salaries currently faces a $14.3 million budget deficit for this fiscal year, which ended on June 30.

If the state is unable to pay its court reporters, there will be “havoc” across a legal system that so closely relies on court reporters to transcribe what is said in trials and other proceedings, Lake County Chief Judge John T. Phillips said.

While rookie Republican Gov. Rauner has said he’ll be able to avoid a seemingly imminent government shutdown and continue paying state employees on time, Democrats maintain there are strict rules on what a governor may spend from a budget that hasn’t yet been approved, WHTC reported.

And with employment of court reporters expected to rise another 10% by 2022, it’s clear that Illinois will have to do more than make up for its deficit — it will also need to find the money to pay additional court reporters over the next few years.

If the budget delays continue, Illinois risks damaging its credit rating even more, which is already one of the lowest in the nation.

“I’ve been through overtime sessions before, but this is such a different dynamic,” said Rep. Elaine Nekritz, a Democrat who has been in office since 2003. “We are fighting over things that are not budget related, so I don’t know what breaks that logjam.”

As budget talks persist, it’s looking increasingly likely that partisan squabbles will make it impossible for Illinois to keep paying the salaries of its court reporters.

Of the some 2,206 businesses in the U.S. that provide solar panel installation services, there are about 257 solar companies at work throughout the value chain in Illinois. Last year, $16 million was invested on solar installations in Illinois, and six million megawatts of solar electric capacity was installed.

And thanks to a new method, storing that energy might get even cheaper.

The École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) has developed an unconventional way to fabricate high-quality, efficient solar panels for direct solar hydrogen production at a low cost.

Storing solar energy as hydrogen can provide a way to develop comprehensive renewable energy systems. In order to do so, traditional solar panels can be used to generate electric currents that split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen, the former being considered a form of solar fuel.

However, solar panels that can split water molecules are exorbitantly expensive to produce, which is why the EPFL’s new solar panels are so exciting.

Of the many different materials that have been considered for use in direct solar-to-hydrogen conversion technologies, “2-D materials” have been the most promising, thanks to their extraordinary electronic properties. In order to produce large areas of solar panels made using expensive, 2-D materials, the EPFL found an innovative, cost-efficient method that uses the boundary between two non-mixing fluids.

Researchers injected tungsten diselenide, a highly efficient, highly stable 2-D material, in between the two non-mixing fluids. Exploiting the oil-and-water effect of the non-mixing fluids, the EPFL used the two liquids as quasi-rolling pins to force the 2-D material into a thin film. They then removed the non-mixing liquids, and transferred the film to a flexible plastic support.

The thin film was found to be more efficient than other films produced of the same material, but through different methods. It was also far more affordable to make, making it suitable to for commercial level scale.

“It is suitable for rapid and large-area roll-to-roll processing,” said Kevin Sivula of the EPFL. “Considering the stability of these materials and the comparative ease of our deposition method, this represents an important advance towards economical solar-to-fuel energy conversion.”