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Classrooms in Chicago city schools are going to get more comfortable soon. Air conditioning has been installed in 57 out of 681 public schools, and 29 more will receive air conditioning units by October's end. According to officials, 154 schools total have received air conditioning over the past two years. The air conditioning comes after several years of complaints from parents, teachers, and students alike. Both parents and teachers say that the high temperatures in the classroom make it difficult for students to actually learn. In Chicago, temperatures in the mid to high 80s persist from May until the end of September. The Chicago Public School system serves approximately 400,000 students, elementary to high school. The air conditioning installations are part of a larger, five yea...

Clean up crews are working around the clock to clear debris from parts of Michigan that were devastated by recent heavy rains and flooding. In many neighborhoods, piles of water-damaged furniture, carpets and other house hold items that could not be salvaged line the streets. As trucks attempt to clear the tons of garbage left in front of homes, many reinforcements have been called in. The city of Warren has already spent $100,000 in overtime costs to deal with the damage left by the storm. Many basements experienced severe flood damage, with some that had water up to the ceiling. As a place that doesn't typically receive this kind of rain or flooding, many residents were not prepared for the amount of water that invaded their homes, and many are facing thousands of dollars in repair...

Education has often been a hot topic, whether it's in regard to the latest budget cuts, the newest testing requirements, or the confusing nature of the Common Core. One issue that is often under-addressed, though, is the problem of buses not having any air conditioning, especially in Southern states where temperatures can soar to head indexes above 100 degrees Fahrenheit. In Lake County School District -- near Orlando, Florida -- several buses in the district still lack air conditioning. Now that school is starting back up, many students are stuck sitting for up to an hour in hot temperatures. According to the district's spokesman, Chris Patton, 47 out of 330 buses lack air conditioning in the district. The issue is that, while new buses have air conditioning, older ones don't -- and th...

This month, a plastic surgeon may have learned to think twice about how he advertises his services after his billboard was vandalized in Jackson, Michigan.Earlier this summer, a billboard sign went up for Ann Arbor Plastic Surgery. The billboard showed two muffins wearing jeans and read, "Friends don't let friends muffin top" -- muffin top is a phrase describing when a person's belly overhangs their pants waistband.As it happened, though, many people in the local area took offense to the sign, which they saw as being critical of women's bodies and relying on shame to promote plastic surgery. As a result, someone spray-painted smiley faces onto the muffins, added a giant "X" over the slogan, and wrote "You're beautiful!" at the top. Dr. Pramit Malhorta, the clinic's director, reported be...

Every year, about 36 million Americans pack their worldly possessions into the back of a car or a u-haul and make their trek to a new home. What many people studying the migration paths of Americans notice, though, is that moving is hardly a state of equilibrium. More people are moving to certain areas than others -- and collectively, these moving paths can have a big influence on the fate of city economies.Right now, there is an overall shift taking place from coastal cities to inland cities. As difficulties with securing mortgages and high property costs persist in states like California and New York -- among others -- more people are moving inward, toward urban centers that promise an easier and more affordable lifestyle. Oklahoma City is an example of a city that is benefiting from ...

The caste system penetrates all aspects of life in India, and for grade school children, this can mean an unnurturing and even unsafe learning environment. Even though it is illegal, discrimination is ever present in the Indian government school system, with lower caste children often being separated and teased by students of a higher caste and teachers alike. The work of Gary Becker, a Nobel Prize winning economist, that combined economics and sociology, could provide the country with a solution. Becker's application of economics to discrimination shows that discrimination increases when there is no cost involved. Government school teachers will be paid the same regardless of how they treat their students. The actions of a for--profit private school teacher, however, can impact enrollm...

Illinois researchers are still searching for the reason for the many sudden holes forming in the dunes at Mount Baldy. The area of the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore was shut down for public visitation on when six-year-old Nathan Woessner was swallowed by a large hole in the dune. Though he recovered from the accident, he was buried in 11 feet of sand for 3½ hours before rescuers were able to get him out. The incident sparked an ongoing research effort to discover the reason that holes are suddenly forming in the 126-foot-tall dune. Three of the effort's primary researchers met in the cordoned-off area on Thursday to discuss recent findings. A new wave of research that began Monday includes geological probes and ground-penetrating radar to build on radar data that the Environmen...

Being able to navigate city sidewalks isn't something that most city residents and visitors have to worry about, but as a new lawsuit points out, disabled pedestrians often find the streets of New York City to be largely inaccessible.The advocate group Disability Rights Advocates recently filed a lawsuit against the city, noting that visually impaired pedestrians and residents struggling with mobility have an unreasonably difficult time navigating the city's sidewalks -- if the sidewalks are accessible at all for the disabled -- and that this is a fundamental violation of federal disability laws. The dangers that too many pedestrians encounter on a daily basis include steep curbs without ramps at crossings, raised concrete barriers, and broken surfaces on paved streets which make mobility ...

In Phoenix, Arizona, police continue to diligently search for the suspect behind a recent string of residential burglaries. Three victims have already been identified by investigators after locating an abandoned vehicle loaded with stolen property. A suspicious vehicle was reported by a resident, who stated the driver might be breaking into other vehicles and into garages. The suspect fled when officers attempted to stop him. However, police later located the suspect's vehicle less than 2.5 miles north of where the suspicious activity was first recorded. Officers found nearly 50 items of stolen property and at least six garage door openers while searching the suspect's vehicle.Police believe the suspect stole the remotes from unlocked vehicles parked in driveways, using them to...

According to a recent alert from the Better Business Bureau of Northwest North Carolina, consumers should be on the lookout for scams thanks to an uptick in the number of suspicious roof repair businesses. Several weeks of stormy weather and heavy rainfall has led to both weeds and scams popping up left and right. The BBB of Northwest North Carolina specifically warns against door-to-door home repair salespeople. They often promise amazing deals on services, such as installing a free roof through the homeowner's existing insurance policy. Jamie Williams of Winston-Salem was nearly a victim of such a scam, saying that the offer did seem a little too good to be true, but she took the paperwork and the agent's card anyway. However, after going through the paperwork, she couldn't underst...