Illinois became the ninth state in the country to pass an assault-style weapons ban. On Tuesday, Govenor Pritzker signed the bill and noted, “We got this done for all the victims. The spouses, the children, parents, friends, and loved ones who are no longer with us, and for those who have survived mass shootings.”

Owners of such guns can keep them, but they must register them with state police by Jan 1. Failure to do so is a misdemeanor and then a possible felony for subsequent offenses. The sale of large-capacity ammunition magazines, more than 10 rounds for long guns and 15 rounds for handguns, are banned. 

For those unfamiliar with the Indianapolis night life, there’s currently two restaurants in the news. There’s Jordan’s Fish & Chicken, an upstanding restaurant offering an outstanding selection of both fish and chicken. Then there’s Jordan’s Fish & Chiken Corporation (note the misspelling of “chiken”, a copycat restaurant that has recently come under fire for their horrific kitchen conditions.

The copycat restaurant now has a suspended license, but that hasn’t stopped the owner of Jordan’s Fish & Chicken from sweating over the fact that a single person might confuse their establishments. He said, “I was really upset. I was very mad, very upset — to even think for a second, this specific location has our sign up. Since we see these couple of videos, we take some serious action, we call our attorneys to move forward and do the right things.”

A great prank call? Definitely. The greatest prank call of all-time? Quite Possibly. Please enjoy what happens when someone dials two pizza locations at the same time.

Our friends at WalletHub sat down recently and put together a list of the best states to raise a family in. Despite what cable news naysayers might think, Illinois polled tremendously well in these results. The state finished as the 13th best place to raise a family. Even more surprising, according to WalletHub, is the 11th most affordable state in the country.

Other categories included family fun (4th), education and childcare (25th), and health and safety (29th). Indiana finished 34th overall.

Oscar Mayer is now hiring its next class of drivers for the humble Wienermobile. The company is looking for 12 graduating college seniors to step up to the sausage and drive the Wienermobile around for a year. Selected applicants will travel more than 200,000 miles across the country.

According to the job posting, being a driver comes with a good salary and benefits, which makes me wonder what the hell I’m doing with my life.

More info can be found here.

$402 million. That’s the price hike that Peoples Gas has circled. Chicago residents could see their monthly natural gas bills rise by an average of $11.83 starting next year if state regulators approve rate hikes totaling $402 million as requested Friday by Peoples Gas. Peoples is asking for permission to raise rates by $195 million while also merging an additional $207 million into delivery costs to offset a $15-per-month surcharge slated to expire at the end of the year.

The commerce commission has the rest of this year to decide on Peoples’ request, but that agency has a full docket of other rate hike requests covering most of the state.

Chicago police have teamed up with auto shops in an effort to halt the speed of catalytic converter thefts. Andy Bizurp, who owns Midwest Performance on West Fulton, worked with officers to design a sticker that will be able to track these converters. “This has an acid etching in it,” Bizub said. “Once you apply the sticker, the acid will etch the numbers into the catalytic converter. Those numbers will remain and it will still be traceable.”

Others are expected to follow suit, depending on funds made available by each alderman’s office.

Obvious Shirts, a Chicago-based t-shirt company and premier destination for Cubs fans who are looking for something a little different, have joined the parade of supporting Damar Hamlin and his foundation. Company founder Joe Johnson obviously wanted to help Hamlin given his highly public situation, but for him, it was also personal. Johnson suffered from Kawasaki Syndrome at ages three and five and had to wear a heart guard while playing youth sports.

Their shirt can be found here.

Damar Hamlin tweeted from his hospital bed on Sunday afternoon that he has created his own shirt with proceeds going to first responders and the UC Trauma Center.

That shirt can be purchased here.