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I've never seen this sort of thing in real life, and after looking at some videos of the garbage truck explosion and aftermath, I'm really glad I haven't.

Sure, you've got lots of things going on in your life right now because it's the holiday season, but try to take a moment this week to catch the peak viewing time of the first of two meteor showers we'll be able to see before the month is over.

If you're going to pick a favorite, you'd better spend some time checking out a whole bunch of eateries first. Well, Guy Fieri and the gang at Diners, Drive-Ins, & DIves have certainly done that, having covered Illinois nearly from top to bottom. Here's what stands above the rest.

If you're someone who hates Christmas/Holiday music with a red-hot passion, this list is definitely not for you...because you don't care what Christmas songs Illinois and Wisconsin residents love the most, However, if you're someone who's totally into the holiday tunes, read on to see what songs our two states really want to hear each year at Christmas time.

Maybe you're someone who deeply cares about having a White Christmas, maybe you're a snow-hater who never wants snow (you picked the wrong state), or maybe you're someone who just doesn't care about Christmas weather at all because you're all about the family, food, and presents. Regardless, polling information says that 72% of us want our Christmases to be snowy.

Time to start guessing. Not one person I asked to guess which suburb we're talking about got the answer right this morning, so let's see if you can do better. Name that burb!

A motor vehicle inspection stop by Illinois State Police 150 miles from Chicago ended up turning into a $40 million cocaine bust last Friday afternoon.

Not one, but two meteor showers that have the potential to be really spectacular are going to be highlighting the skies over Illinois for almost the entire month of December, and we'll get pretty good looks at Venus and Saturn, too.

The Puppy Scam isn't back---because sadly, it's never gone away since scam artists figured out that they can bilk people out of their money year after year. This year, the Puppy Scam is taking more money than ever before, and leaving sadness and anger in its place.

If you're looking for a picturesque Illinois town that really goes all in on holiday decorating and the Christmas spirit, you don't have very far to travel to get there.