Portions of Illinois and Indiana were bracing for a blizzard on Wednesday.
The National Weather Service issued blizzard warnings for select counties in those states, saying high winds and heavy snow could generate near-whiteout conditions throughout the day.
The service said 6 to 12 inches of snow were expected across the warning area, and warned of wind gusts possibly reaching 50 mph. Travel was expected to be close to impossible during the height of the storm, and the warnings encouraged people to stay off the roads when possible.
The National Weather Service said snow had already begun falling on Wednesday morning.
More than 1,000 flights to or from Chicago’s airports had already been cancelled as of mid-day, according to flight monitoring website flightaware.com.
The Indiana State Police said they had responded to at least 46 crashes in just four hours, and the Indiana Department of Transportation reported multiple roads were closed due to incidents.
Some of the roads had since reopened, but the transportation department reported driving conditions were difficult on many roads in northwest Indiana. The state Department of Homeland Security issued numerous travel watches and advisories in that part of the state.
Broader winter storm warnings and winter weather advisories were also issued in other parts of Illinois and Indiana, as well as Missouri and Michigan. Winds were not expected to be as high in those areas, but the service said 6 to 12 inches of snow were still possible in many communities.
Residents of all of the affected states are encouraged to monitor their local forecasts.
Students were sent home and three schools were closed when higher than normal amounts of Legionella, the bacteria that causes Legionnaires’ disease, were found in cooling towers.
The schools were located in the U-46 school district, located 45 miles northeast of Chicago. Officials found the high level of bacteria during an annual air quality check.
The district stated in an alert on their website: “While risk of exposure to the bacteria was low, we decided, in consultation with the Kane County Health Department, to evacuate staff and students to safe locations as a precaution.”
Reuters reported that the district was properly cleaning and sanitizing all 19 water cooling towers. So far, there have been no reports of anyone within the schools contracting Legionnaires’ disease.
Illinois has been concerned with the disease after 12 residents of a western Illinois veteran home died of Legionnaires’ last month. USA Today reports that dozens of home residents have contracted the disease. Legionnaires’ also infected 119 people and killed 12 in the New York City Outbreak earlier this year.
Legionnaires’ disease is a pneumonia-like disease that is caused by inhaling bacteria infected vapor. The vapor can come from air conditioners, showers, or hot tubs. The disease can lead to kidney failure, respiratory failure, and septic shock. Most people recover, but the CDC reports that 5% to 30% who contract the disease will die. It cannot be transmitted between people.
Illinois officials have confirmed another death from Legionnaires’ disease in the same town where seven elderly veterans have died.
The Illinois Department of Public Health says the latest victim was elderly with other health issues like the seven veterans who died from the disease. However, this woman was not in the care of the facility, just in the same town as the veteran’s home, Quincy.
Four other people are now confirmed to have been infected with Legionnaires’ who are not connected to the veteran’s home.
Illinois state public health director Dr. Nirav Shah said it’s possible more deaths will take place because of the two week incubation period of the disease.
The Centers for Disease Control rushed to the veteran’s home to help local officials deal with the outbreak and remain on site to assist the state in finding the source of the outbreak.
“[State officials] do not believe there is an increased risk of Legionnaires’ disease to the Quincy community,” Dr. Shah told reporters despite the new death and illnesses away from the veteran’s home.
Officials have also told residents of the area who are elderly or sick to avoid the veteran’s home.
Four residents of a veteran’s home in Illinois are dead after an outbreak of Legionnaires’ Disease.
At least 29 other residents of the Illinois Soldiers and Sailors Home have been infected with the deadly bacterium. Those who died allegedly had severe underlying medical conditions that compromised their immune systems and left them particularly vulnerable to the bacteria.
“The Legionella bacteria can be found anywhere, but it’s usually in small doses that won’t make you sick,” Adams County Health Department Director of Clinical and Environmental Services Shay Drummond told WGEM-TV. “But when a cluster of people get sick like this, it’s very likely there’s one source point.”
Drummond believes the outbreak has been contained to just the veteran’s home.
At San Quentin State Prison in California, six inmates have been confirmed to have the disease with another 51 under observation in the prison’s medical unit.
Prison officials say all cooking at the prison has been shut down and that prisoners are eating box meals until the source of the disease can be found.
In New York City, where 12 people died from an outbreak this summer, a school had to be shut down after the bacteria was found in a cooling tower. City officials praised the school’s quick response and also said the action showed the importance of a new city law designed to combat the disease.
“The Convent of the Sacred Heart School properly disinfected its cooling tower. Its cooling tower’s positive test result, and subsequent disinfection, underscores the importance of the new legislation the Mayor signed just two weeks ago,” the Department of Health said in a statement.
Residents in the southeastern part of Missouri were shaken after an earthquake occurred along the New Madrid Fault Line shortly before 11 p.m. CT.
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) reported that the earthquake was at 4.0 magnitude and had occurred approximately 11 miles before the surface of the Earth.
Not only did nearby residents feel the quake but reports from KFVS-TV in Cape Girardeau, Missouri stated that residents living as far as Carbondale, Illinois were able to feel the quake.
No damages or injuries have been reported.
The New Madrid Fault Line stretches along the Mississippi River from near St. Louis to Memphis, Tennessee. According to the USGS, the New Madrid Fault is “the most seismically active in North America east of the Rockies.” They also report that earthquakes in the eastern and central part of the United States “can be felt over an area as much as ten times larger than a similar magnitude earthquake on the west coast.”
The criticism of the soft-core pornographic film Fifty Shades of Grey being shown in mainstream theaters has taken a very dark, twisted turn.
A 19-year-old freshman at the University of Illinois at Chicago has been arrested on sexual assault charges. Mohammad Hossain reportedly assaulted a 19-year-old female student in a reenactment of scenes from the movie.
The judge in the case was shocked when he found out that Hossein was a part of several leadership programs at UIC and as a student ambassador to the alumni association.
“Sandra, how can someone involved in all that let a movie persuade him to do something like this?” Judge Adam Bourgeois Jr. asked Hossain’s lawyer, public defender Sandra Bennewitz.
“He would say that it was consensual,” she replied.
Police say that the couple “had previously been intimiate” but were not in a steady relationship. The report goes on to say that the woman had been willingly participating in the movie reenactment until Hossein started whipping her with a belt.
The producers of the film would not comment on the incident.
A new report shows that some of Illinois’ abortion clinics had not had an inspection from the state’s Department of Public Health in almost a decade.
The report from Illinois Right To Life says that 63 percent of the abortion clinics in the state had not received a health or sanitary inspection in three and a half years.
“The failure of the Department of Public Health to conduct regular health and sanitary inspections leaves women open to the prospect of unsterile surgical tools, dirty operating rooms, incomplete medical attention, infections, and possibly more deaths,” the group says.
The group discovered there is no inspection policy for abortion clinics regarding cleanliness or sanitation.
“It’s quite scary,” Emily Zender, the group’s executive director, says in the report. “While news reports warn of MRSA, urge flu vaccination, and praise hospital Ebola training, abortion providers are allowed to perform invasive surgical procedures in unsanitary conditions.”
The state’s five Planned Parenthood locations that perform abortions are not licensed and the state has not inspected them for sanitary conditions since 2000.
The state could not provide documentation that women who underwent abortions in the unsanitary clinics were warned about possible exposure to HIV or other infections and diseases because of dirty equipment.
An Illinois resident has been charged with plotting terrorism against Israel.
Adam Everett Livix, 30, has been charged with possession of weapons. Israeli police say that he intended to blow up various Jerusalem holy sites. Police said they have evidence that he turned down an officer from Palestinian officials to assassinate President Obama during his 2013 visit.
“He categorically denies the charges in the indictment,” Livix’s attorney Gal Wolf said. “He says it is nonsense.”
Livix reportedly had overstayed his visa in Israel for a year.
The Justice Ministry said Livix later cooperated with his roommate, a serving soldier in the Israeli military, to obtain 3 pounds of explosive material to blow up the unidentified Jerusalem holy sites. The ministry said police discovered the plot in October.
Livix had fled to Israel after facing criminal charges in Indiana.
A teenager is under arrest in Illinois after he attempted to join the Islamic terrorist group ISIS.
Mohammed Hamzah Khan, 19, was arrested Saturday at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago as he waited to board a flight to Vienna, Austria. The teen’s travel plans were to carry him to Turkey where he would cross the border into Syria and join ISIS.
The FBI’s Join Terrorism Task Force said they searched Khan’s home and found handwritten notes of support for ISIS and jihad. There was a letter he had written to his parents that they were supposed to find after he left outlining his plans.
“My dear parents, there are a number of reasons I will be going to the blessed land of Shaam [Syria] and leaving my home,” it read, according to a federal complaint. “We are all witness that the western societies are getting more immoral day by day. I do not want my kids being exposed to filth like this.”
Khan faces 15 years in prison on charges of providing material support to terrorists. He remains in custody.