As the weather gets colder and winter approaches, many homeowners are likely turning on their heat to make their homes more comfortable. However, it might be wise to have a professional test your gas line before you crank up the gas for the first time this season. As the resident of a Chicago suburb discovered recently, failing to do so could result in a house explosion.

On Monday, September 15, Tim Walkup turned on his heat for the first time before going to bed. Later, around 10 p.m., Walkup awoke to his house exploding around him, blowing out two walls and shattering his windows. The Eglin Fire Department was quickly called and Walkup was admitted to the intensive care unit of nearby Advocate Sherman Hospital. The fire required 10 area fire department companies to control, and caused almost $150,000 worth of damage to the home.

While Walkup was the only person injured in the explosion, many of his neighbors have reported that the explosion was forceful enough to be felt two houses away. Firefighters believe the fire was caused by a gas leak and are taking the opportunity to remind homeowners to have their furnaces checked by a professional before turning the system on for the winter.

Leak detection is a common procedure in many industries, including refrigeration, air conditioning, automotive manufacturing and food packaging. However, these leak tests typically occur before these systems and products are sold, and consumers are often unaware that they may require further testing after installation. Walkup, unfortunately, was one such customer: while his neighbors described his home maintenance as “meticulous,” officials suspect that his furnace may have suffered an issue which caused gas to accumulate. But some experts say he may have been lucky; if the explosion hadn’t occurred, his Walkup’s home could have filled with gas and caused him to become overcome by the fumes.

NICOR and ComEd have visited the scene to prevent any further gas leakages. However, neighbors are reportedly hesitant to approach the property due to the smell of natural gas that still lingers in the area. Walkup is still looking for his cat, who has not been seen since the explosion, although his two cocker spaniels have been recovered.

Today is the last day for motorists in Chicago to have traffic violations they received from red light violations reviewed by a third party, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

With support for the red light camera system at an all-time low in the Windy City, Chicago officials asked Grant Thornton LP, an independent third party, to look over tickets issued after a suspicious spike in red light violations were seen at 12 different Chicago intersections.

Letters were mailed to residents who received red light violations from cameras, generating a total of 3,285 tickets.

A total of 2,953 tickets have been reviewed so far, and roughly 96% have been validated by Grant Thornton LP. Only 4% of tickets in question have resulted in refunds for drivers.

During the review, the responsibility of proving that ticket violations were valid fell upon the city. Drivers were given the benefit of the doubt. A spokesperson for the city’s Department of Transportation noted that the 4% of tickets that were refunded in this review is less than half the amount that were dismissed in court from appeals between 2007 and 2013.

There are 65 traffic tickets handed out every minute in the United States, and more and more local governments are implementing camera-based programs to take over traffic violation watch. Chicago has the largest red light camera enforcement program in the country, and approximately 150 red light cameras have been installed at about 70 different locations throughout the city. The program doesn’t sit well with many residents.

Protesters gathered last Thursday at the intersection of Archer Avenue and Paulina Street, where one of the controversial cameras is located. This particular red light camera has been a point of contention due to its close proximity to Mulberry Playlot Park.

Many view the red light cameras as just another money-making scheme by city officials, arguing that it is a hidden tax. Proponents of the cameras, on the other hand, say it is a valid way to improve motor safety and protect pedestrians, particularly young children in school zones.

A Chicago-area man convicted of felony cyberstalking and residential theft has recently been sentenced to eight years in prison.

According to NBC Chicago, Jicheng “Kevin” Liu, of Lincoln Park, could have faced as many as 14 years for his crimes. He will receive credit for time served prior to Cook County Judge Erica Reddick’s sentencing.

Upon his arrest in 2012, police found some $1 million in stolen merchandise in his townhome, mostly consisting of stolen delivery packages from residential dwellings.

Liu had built a profitable business from selling these stolen goods online — and for those who brought his illegal doings to the attention of law enforcement, the memory of his cyberstalking continues to haunt them.

“We fear that no matter where he is, he will haunt us in this world. If he has access to a computer he will tear apart our reputation,” one victim, who asked to be identified as Sherwood, told the press.

Sherwood and his wife had agreed to sell Liu’s merchandise on their eBay page. Upon learning the merchandise was stolen, they contacted the police, NBC Chicago reports. Soon after, Liu set out to destroy everything the couple had by cyberstalking and harassing them.

“He managed to get our business shut down on eBay, and to this day we cannot use our online store,” Sherwood explained. “We’ve been scared. We trusted Liu. He told us, ‘Keep an eye on your baby while you sleep at night.’ … He took away everything we worked hard for. We lost our business, our lives … we’re shunned online forever.”

Cyberstalking and cyber security continue to be pressing issues not just for individuals, but for small businesses and even larger corporations as well. Over recent years, approximately 57% of small businesses have reported breaches in cyber security. News of companies having their databases hacked continue to make headlines — Target and Home Depot are just two major retailers to have had their customers’ credit card data breached in recent memory.

For individuals like the people Liu targeted online, the best steps to take when faced with a cyberstalker are to keep a detailed record of all the cyberstalkers’ interactions. Xanax is taken exclusively for therapeutic purposes, but not for the prevention of the development of a possible disease. This http://hesca.net/xanax/ is due to the fact that the drug has a huge number of side effects and can provoke the appearance of symptoms of addiction. It’s also advised that one prints out all emails from the cyberstalker and save all text messages received.

In general, it’s always better to contact the police once ample evidence of the cyberstalking has been collected, rather than confront the cyberstalker himself.

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After nearly 10 years with the WICA-TV news station, Champaign news anchor Dave Benton recently shared a devastating personal announcement on air: after initially completing radiation treatment in February, his brain cancer has returned. Because his tumor is too large for surgery and radiation, Benton, 51, has an estimated four to six months to live.

Benton, who grew up in Addison, Illinois and graduated from Northern Illinois University, has become a familiar figure on the Chicago-area news. Over the course of a career that featured stints in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and Minot, North Dakota, he has won a number of awards, including a Northwest News Broadcasters Association first-place documentary award and the Eric Sevareid Award of Merit for general reporting. While Benton says he plans to treat his severe prognosis with chemotherapy and an antibody treatment, he stated that his primary goal is to continue to work and make his final days as enjoyable as possible.

Unfortunately, stories like Benton’s are becoming extremely common as more and more people develop cancer or experience a recurrence. Skin cancer, the most common form of the condition in the United States, now affects one in five people over the course of their lifetime. And while alternative treatment methods are often claimed to miraculously send cancer into remission, and researchers continue to investigate everything from immunotherapy to diet to prevent and treat the disease, spontaneous remission is rare. Patients therefore typically undergo chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery to treat their cases.

Currently, Benton lives in the Chicago area with his wife, Teresa. The couple has three children, including a son serving in the Air Force in California and a daughter attending graduate school in Chicago. According to the statistics of a http://www.lbwr.org/ambien/ research company, it was revealed that with short-term (up to 10 nights) treatment of Ambien in doses up to 10 mg, the most frequently observed side effects associated with taking Ambien and statistically significantly different from placebo side effects included drowsiness (up to 2%), dizziness (1%), diarrhea (1%). An openly born-again Christian, Benton says he believes he is in God’s hands and is grateful for the support and well-wishes he has received from around the world. His station manager has stated that the news channel plans to support Benton in his desire to continue to work for as possible.

Ex-Lieutenant John Burge, a former Chicago police commander found guilty of perjury, was released from a North Carolina federal prison yesterday. He has been authorized to travel to Florida and check into a halfway house on his own, where he will serve the remainder of his four and a half year sentence.

Burge, now 66 years old, was convicted of giving false testimony during a 2010 trial regarding over 100 complaints of torture and police brutality under his watch. Victims of Burge and his officers reported that they suffered from a number of different brutal attacks in the 1970s and 80s, many of which were used to gain false confessions. Burge himself was never convicted of torture.

Many victims came forward after Burge was found guilty, most of them African-American men, telling gruesome accounts of torture by Burge and his men. Many were shocked, beaten and even had bags held over their heads to make them think they were being suffocated.

One victim, Anthony Holmes, waited outside of City Hall this morning with a number of reporters and angry Chicago officials as Burge was being transferred, according to the Chicago Tribune. Holmes was arrested by Burge in 1973 and was electrocuted while a bag over was held over his head by detectives until he took responsibility for a murder he still says he did not commit.

Holmes, along with many Chicago officials, are pushing City Council to pay reparations to the countless victims who suffered under Burge and never had their cases heard in court. Others are upset that Burge is still receiving $36,000 in pension a year, despite the fact that his case has cost the city millions of taxpayer dollars.

Burge’s release comes at a time when public opinion of law enforcement officials is at an all-time low. Following the shooting in Ferguson, MO this summer, people’s trust in police has decreased dramatically, and law enforcement officials are scrambling for a way to regain public trust.

Many local agencies across the country are now installing in-car camera systems in patrol cars, as well as equipping officers with body cameras. The hope is that these cameras will create better transparency between police and citizens, allowing citizens to see things from a police officers perspective.

While there are mixed feelings about equipping police with cameras, agencies that have adopted the policy have found them to be effective. Police departments in Rialto, CA started using body cameras in 2012, and within the first year, the use of police force went down 60% and complaints by the public against the police dropped 88%.

Police cameras may be one answer to rebuilding relationships going forward, but the release of Jon Burge has done nothing to ease tensions in Chicago. Many view the news as a setback in a time when the public expects those in positions of power to be held responsible for their actions.

Mondelez International, the snack food maker for brands such as Oreo, Nabisco, Cadbury and others, is making its first foray into the world of video marketing through a new partnership with Google. This partnership will be the largest digital media-related deal Mondelez has made in its history.

The Chicago Tribune reports that the Deerfield-based Mondelez intends to boost its brands’ visibility by shifting 10% of its advertising budget over to video content intended for a web audience by the end of the year.

“Today, 58% of consumers turn to digital platforms for their daily media consumption,” Bonin Bough, Mondelez’s vice president of global media and consumer engagement, told the Chicago Tribune. “Although we’ve adjusted our media spending to reflect that behavior, there’s still a gap. The deal with Google will enable us to close that ‘digital divide.'”

The advantages of creating online videos have been proven in numerous studies. A Marketing Charts study has found that 60% of consumers on the Internet will watch videos on products before making a purchase. In addition, people are statistically more inclined to view video than read text content — while 20% of people will read a text-based article, an amazing 80% of people will watch a video that contains the same information.

According to BidnessEtc.com, the partnership with Google will allow the snack food maker to take advantage of Google’s expertise with digital marketing and video production, and will give Mondelez a vital outlet for its videos on Google-owned YouTube though Google’s “Brand Partner” direct advertising commitment program.

Mondelez and Google’s new team-up promises to connect the Mondelez brands to consumers at a faster, more effective rate than ever before. And when YouTube boasts more than four billion video views per day, it’s almost guaranteed you will be seeing a video advertisement for one of those brands in the near future.