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After more than two years of legal and community battles, the giant stadium bleachers at Crystal Lake South High School are starting to come back down. According to the McHenry County-area newspaper NWHerald.com, a crew of workers started the take-down process at the end of October. Now the only question left to be answered is if they're going to reduce the size of the outdoor seating structure or demolish the bleachers completely. Both the Community High School District 155 Board and neighboring property owners that initiated the legal proceedings against the school district over the obtrusive bleachers had previously agreed upon lowering it to the ninth row, but attorneys for both sides aren't ready to say the plan is finalized yet. The Illinois Supreme Court decided at the end of ...

As the real estate market has continued to heal since the financial crisis in 2008, homes on average have begun to increase in sales price due to higher demand. One demographic in particular that has experienced a substantial rise in price and popularity are luxury homes. According to dnainfo.com, one of the largest hubs of people in the world, New York City, has seen an increase in the cutoff of what is considered to be a luxury home. StreetEasy's new luxury price tier metric from their third quarter report found that one in every five Manhattan and Brooklyn homes on the market is considered to be a luxury property. The luxury tier cutoff price is derived from a 12-month average of the recorded sales price of the top 10% of properties in the area. In Manhattan, the current price ...

People say drinking and driving is bad, but it turns out, so is drinking and riding. A driver for the popular ride-sharing app Uber uploaded a video of a drunken passenger attacking him to YouTube last week, where it quickly went viral. The driver had recorded the video using his GPS. The passenger in the video was identified by police as Benjamin Golden, a 32-year-old from Newport Beach, CA. Golden was seen in the video as being too drunk to give proper directions and then refusing to leave the vehicle when the driver, 23-year-old Edward Caban, asked. Golden then repeatedly hit Caban in the face while cursing at him. Caban defended himself with pepper spray, which finally got Golden to exit the car and, presumably, either walk home or find another ride. But the troubles for...

The American Dream is evolving, and many people are rejecting the white picket fences of yesteryear. In 2015, there are more Americans renting their primary residence than at any other time in U.S. history. While the number of renting households rises year after year, homeownership rates fell from 69.2% in 2004 to 63.4% in 2015. Homeownership rates haven't been that low since 1967. That data comes from a joint report by researchers at Harvard University and Enterprise Community Partners. The researchers also projected that a majority of new households will rent over the next decade, leading to higher demand for apartments for rent. In big coastal cities, many renters are living paycheck-to-paycheck because the majority of their income goes toward that monthly rent check. A new survey...

A recent Supreme Court ruling on church signs in Gilbert, AZ, is having unintended consequences across the nation. The ruling even had an effect in nearby Colorado, which is one state facing increased legal difficulties over efforts to reduce panhandling in downtown and tourist areas, according to the business news source BusinessInsider.com. At least three separate judges in different states have cited the high court's ruling from this past June as precedent to overturn, or send back for lower court review, anti-panhandling laws. Except, the case these judges are citing had nothing to do with panhandling or asking for money at all. The case the Supreme Court ruled on in June had to do with the size of church signs and something known as content discrimination. The judges ruled that ...

Two new measuring technologies have been introduced in the last two weeks. One is from Noliac and the other comes from HBM, Inc. The technology launched from Noliac is a strain gauge for piezoelectric actuators. Strain gauge technology, which is used in most load cells, has been around for 40 years and is well established and proven. Noliac's technology is actually an add-on which will help linearization of displacement response and compensate for creep and hysteresis. The add-on can fit to plate and ring actuators, with a bender version to follow soon. The technology will help to keep things level and accurate, which will be essential to nano and micropositioning. It can be used in several different applications to ensure accuracy. Add-ons are fit to each individual plate. Cedri...

The U.S. might be the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave, but not in cyberspace. America's Internet freedom is in a terrifying decline, according to research from Freedom House. The advocacy group's annual study tracks international digital rights, and scores countries' digital rights on a scale of zero to 100, with zero being the most free and 100 being the least. Between 2011 and 2015, the U.S. fell from a score of 13 to a score of 19. In 2011 and 2012, the U.S. ranked second out of 65 countries assessed, but slipped to fourth in 2013. Last year, it fell to sixth, where it stayed this year. U.S. News and World Report writes that such controversies as the United States' broad government surveillance calls by law enforcement to limit consumer data encryption have displaced ...

The argument over electromagnetic sensitivity is continuing with more statements speaking against the condition. Now a new claim states that Wi-Fi isn't the thing that is making people sick, but rather, a "nocebo effect." Starting with one claim, it begins with a misconception. Wi-Fi isn't actually new technology; it's just a reinterpretation of old technology. We have had radio frequency for more than a century, in fact. There is a ton of literature in the world claiming that electromagnetic sensitivity isn't real, citing the idea that we have been exposed to different concentrations of radiation during all times of human history. This latest study explores the "nocebo effect," which essentially states that the sicknesses may be real, but it's due to a psychological thing rather tha...

According to TripAdvisor's 2013 Air Travel Survey, 25% of respondents would choose one airline over another if it offered wifi. Though you might not associate fire-sale prices with private aircrafts, new research from Gama Aviation shows that one in eight of Great Britain's nearly 600 private jets are for sale, and for good prices, too. The average asking price of the some 78 jets, which range between "entry-level" planes that seat just four passengers to small airliners, is £3.2 million (about $4.94 million USD). That may not sound like a "bargain," but according to Gama Aviation's chief marketing officer, it becomes a buyer's market when one in 10 private planes are up for sale. So with one in eight up for grabs, savvy negotiators should be able to snap up a bargain price for an aircr...

A China-based company, Forsentek Co., had introduced new load cell technology that will give the industry even more applications. Most load cells use strain gauge technology, which is well established and has been for 40 years, but this latest technology involves micro load cells. Forsentek designed and developed the compact load cells, which have numerous applications in weighing systems used across many industries. These micro load cells will be able to be used within limited spaces, giving precise compression force and weight measurements. The Forsentek spokesperson says that the cells will be able to be used within most industrial facilities. They are made from stainless steel that has been heat-treated, which helps them to ensure accuracy and stability. The cells are also sea...