After getting hosed twice over bogus Chicago water bill, man finally gets $5,000 refund
David Steele got the $5,000 refund he'd been wanting for months, but didn't get an explanation why the city suddenly changed its mind.
David Steele got the $5,000 refund he'd been wanting for months, but didn't get an explanation why the city suddenly changed its mind.
Glenn Jones can't sell the vacant house until he figures out the water bill issue with the city.
Through our "Getting Hosed" series on bad water bills, we have found that often communication issues between different city systems have often been the source of the headaches.
Even after David Steele won the first round in his dispute over his bogus water bill, the city figured out a way to hose him again.
The Chicago City Council Finance Committee held a hearing Tuesday with the heads of the Water Management and Finance departments.
A week-by-week log of meter readings showed zero water usage on some entries. Other times, the report came back at 6 million gallons used in a week.
The family knew they had unpaid water charges to settle before selling their three-flat in Roseland, but nothing like the amount they got.
The circumstances vary from case to case, of course, but in short, the pattern involves Chicagoans getting socked with bills for water they didn't use.
"You've got people walking around on fixed income and they can't afford to pay a $500 bill," Burns said. "I would like to see mistakes corrected and I would like to see communication. There's no communication!"
"It's just nuts to me that we have this issue that continues to be reported, on and the city departments are not doing anything about it," Villegas said.
Numerous people whose stories we've reported over the past four years have been getting hosed by bogus bills - often rising into the tens of thousands of dollars.
This did not happen until the CBS 2 Investigators got involved.
Connie Abels has been waiting five years for her hearing.
The homeowner was just being an honest guy and alerted the Chicago Department of Water Management to his unusually low bill.
"The issue with being a city employee is we are obligated to pay any city obligation," said paramedic Lisa Beard.
In Chicago when you die, ComEd shuts off your electricity, and Peoples Gas shuts off your gas. But the city does not stop your water.
Illinois' lead pipe situation is the worst in the country.
Yasser Almanaseer said he has had no luck in getting it fixed.
How does a City of Chicago water bill for $70 turn into a $10,000 tab from one bill to the next?
Getting Hosed, our exposé on Chicago's bad water billing, has saved consumers hundreds of thousands of dollars. So we wanted to know - what happens if you take on the City yourself?
"They told me to hire a good lawyer, that this is probably a billing issue with the city."
Aldermen voted against Ald. Daniel La Spata's proposal for helping low-income residents with water bills, while a competing proposal from Mayor Lori Lightfoot remains bottled up in a separate committee.
Hundreds of thousands of Chicagoans with unmetered accounts pay inflated bills – and you can't get a meter for a fair bill until you get a non-lead service line.
Rodney Andrews — a Vietnam Veteran, a Chicago cabbie, and our main protagonist — was among those "Getting Hosed" by the City until we fixed his water bill. Then, out of the blue, the City had his garage bulldozed.
The pastor of a Pilsen church says he feels like he's getting hosed - with an $11,000 water bill. And he's not alone.
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The Sky introduced No. 7 pick Reese Wednesday along with No. 13 pick Brynna Maxwell.
X-rays after the game Tuesday night were clean, but an MRI today showed the fractures.
"Your Voice" is part of a greater effort to redesign the Aurora city website, with a full rollout planned for early next year.
"It's a way for me to reconnect with that background, as well as a way for us to be really, truly connected to our food."
Guidice said he left City Hall on good terms.
Mayor Brandon Johnson denied that the Bears' shiny new dome could end up costing taxpayers a pretty penny.
Bears president Kevin Warren said the new stadium would include replacing Soldier Field with additional parks and public sports fields, while preserving the stadium's iconic colonnades, which were built as a war memorial for American veterans.
Jurors in former President Donald Trump's trial in New York heard testimony from a former media executive about his efforts to bury negative stories about Trump before the 2016 presidential election.
Regulators prohibit new noncompetes, which impede millions of U.S. workers from getting a better job.
Employees at dozens of now-closed Foxtrot Market and Dom's Kitchen stores, now jobless, wonder what comes next for them as their paychecks will soon end.
The family didn't get their cut of the estate sale, not hearing back from the salesman until CBS 2 got involved.
The Better Business Bureau warns that anyone buying an event ticket should watch out for fake ticket scams.
Financial records show Paul Croft and J.D. Frost raised about $30 million for a hydrogen plant that was supposed to be, at one point, in Indiana. It never existed, an attorney says.
Anyone with these sausages in their refrigerators should throw them away or return them to the store.
The city's measles dashboard said a total of 63 measles cases have been confirmed in Chicago this year, with one new case this week.
The department said anyone who visited the Sam's Club at 9400 S. Western Ave. in Evergreen Park one day last week may have been exposed to someone with measles.
Health officials are warning consumers not to consume Infinite Herbs basil sold at some Trader Joe's and Dierberg's stores after 12 people were sickened.
Officials said there was no known link between this case and the recent outbreak of measles at a migrant shelter in Chicago.
Health department officials said the case does not appear to be linked to new migrant arrival shelters in Chicago, and the source of infection is unknown.
Mayor Brandon Johnson denied that the Bears' shiny new dome could end up costing taxpayers a pretty penny.
Employees at dozens of now-closed Foxtrot Market and Dom's Kitchen stores, now jobless, wonder what comes next for them as their paychecks will soon end.
The company announced Tuesday that it received a stalking horse bid to purchase its operating assets.
Dozens of typewriters clutter the shelves of the 24-year-old business owner's workshop inside his parents' home in Downers Grove.
The closure affects both Dom's locations in Chicago, and all 33 Foxtrot stores in Chicago, Texas, and the Washington D.C. area.
Still, Ravinia is capitalizing on the situation with a limited-edition shirt—reading, "Ravinia Interrupta," and calling the cicada buzz the loudest song of summer.
The singer was found deceased at her home, a representative said.
Anticipation was growing at a fever pitch before Taylor Swift's latest album, "The Tortured Poets Department," dropped at midnight EDT. But it turned out it's actually a double album.
Guitar legend Dickey Betts, who co-founded the Allman Brothers Band and wrote their biggest hit, "Ramblin' Man," has died.
Colbert lived in Chicago for 11 years, performing and "cutting his comedy teeth" at the legendary Second City and attending Northwestern University. His show will broadcast from Chicago's storied Auditorium Theater Aug. 19-22 on CBS.
In point of fact, the 17-year periodical cicadas that are coming this year in the Chicago area are expected be gone before gone before opening night. CBS 2's Sara Machi reports.
CBS 2 Chief Meteorologist Albert Ramon has a look at the extended forecast.
It happened around 6 a.m. at the Women and Children First bookstore at 5233 N. Clark St. Chicago police said an unknown number of people broke the window – classifying it as criminal damage to property.
Earth Day is inspiring a week's worth of celebrations as CBS 2's Jamaica Ponder takes viewers to a greenhouse that's not filled with flowers but with delicious, fresh produce.
When asked why he left when he did, Guidice said he told Mayor Johnson he would "stick around for one year." CBS 2's Dana Kozlov talked with Guidice one-on-one.
Bears president Kevin Warren said the new stadium would include replacing Soldier Field with additional parks and public sports fields, while preserving the stadium's iconic colonnades, which were built as a war memorial for American veterans.
"As a parent because I never want to see my son go backward from where he's grown so much in this school, and it's heartbreaking to see."
The civil rights lawsuit filed by Reed's mother accuses police of using "brutally violent, militarized policing tactics" during a traffic stop on March 21.
Crime stats of those who were carjacked, robbed, shot, or killed give an overwhelming sense of a society unmoored. But the spectacle of crime can evoke fear, often overshadowing those who are truly affected: the victims.
The Sky introduced No. 7 pick Reese Wednesday along with No. 13 pick Brynna Maxwell.
Police arrived at the scene sooner than if they had waited for the first 911 call.
Anthony Robinson's attorney said his previous defense lawyer failed to present evidence that showed it was physically impossible for him to be the shooter.
The village board is working on a resolution to hire Lightfoot, a former federal prosecutor before her lone term as Chicago's mayor, to investigate claims Henyard has been misusing public funds.
DCFS Director Heidi Mueller was asked Thursday why some kids in the system are being held in psychiatric hospitals longer than medically necessary.
CBS 2 discovered the woman, Whitley Temple, was hired by the City of Chicago while awaiting trial.
The Sky introduced No. 7 pick Reese Wednesday along with No. 13 pick Brynna Maxwell.
X-rays after the game Tuesday night were clean, but an MRI today showed the fractures.
Williams is the only quarterback with whom the Bears met ahead of a draft, in which five of the first six could be QBs.
Bears president Kevin Warren said the new stadium would include replacing Soldier Field with additional parks and public sports fields, while preserving the stadium's iconic colonnades, which were built as a war memorial for American veterans.
The Sox joined Cincinnati in 2022, Detroit in 2003, the St. Louis Browns in 1936 and the Cleveland Spiders in 1899 as teams to start 3-20.
Police said the thieves used different types of force to make off with large quantities of cigarettes and bottles of alcohol in each incident.
School officials said police arrested the gunman and recovered a gun.
One of the men sprayed him in the face with pepper spray, while the other had a knife in his hand, police said. Both men beat until he fell to the ground, police said.
The task force isn't only responding to thefts on retail strips such as the Magnificent Mile or making arrests. They are working directly with businesses.
Two boys were shot as a large group of teens flooded the streets in the South Loop near Roosevelt and Canal on March 2.