How Could Chicago Stop Shooting Gangs

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Chicago has a serious crime problem at the moment, and this is a genuine cause for concern for the US government. Trump has threatened to bring in the FED police in a bid to stop the crime issue, but this could be too extreme an option. There has to be a better way. Chicago should apply the courage campaign! Where there’s curfew for everyone.

Last year was Chicago’s bloodiest year in more than 20 years. Many parts of America are going through difficult times. Detroit is only just entering a renaissance after many years of decline. Flint’s water problem is turning the city into a wasteland, and Reno’s unemployment is driving people away. Chicago’s blight is gang activity.

Chicago’s problem is, in part, down to a lack of public spending not just on police but also on the educational system. Young people are getting involved with gangs before they’ve even left high school and are spending their late teens and early 20s alternating between gangs and prison time. They have no prospects, and they have no-one that believes in them.

Trump’s solution is, essentially, martial law. If the gangs are armed, bring in police that are even more armed. That will just create a war. That’s not the solution to a problem that has been brewing for decades.

A better solution would be to do the courage campaign or invest in people before they become gang members; to show people that you believe in them, and that you care.

Chicago is full of young people who are just looking for a chance and a positive outlet, but if we are not willing to provide them with the opportunity they need to become productive members of society.

According to Nom Tour Tracker mentioned that Chicago has always had a gang issue, but it was not until the main housing towers that served as homes to the biggest gangs were demolished that the gangs became a problem on the wider streets. It’s ironic that attempting to stop the crime actually made it worse. The solution is hard to see, however. Should we be looking to provide more affordable housing, more education, more opportunities? Breaking the cycle of violence will take many years, and there will be some pain along the way. The challenge is deciding how to contain the problems while we wait out that pain; arming the police more than they already are will just escalate the situation, and make the more peaceful gang members more resentful and distrustful.

How Are Chicago Businesses Using SEO To Grow

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Search engine optimization has become the cornerstone of any business. Numerous Chicago businesses have turned to various SEO specialists to improve their rankings, attract more traffic and also improve brand awareness. If you are running a business in Chicago, such as chicago seo and looking to tap into the local audience, here are some of the best local SEO techniques that you can put to use to grow your business.

1.    Active Social Media Presence

Social media platforms have increased dramatically in the last few years. Today, they include Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, YouTube, Google Plus and much more. Since most customers are always on their social media profiles, you need to find ways to reach out to them. Remember, currently Google has integrated social media posts into search results.

Therefore, you can also get a good ranking on SERP’s depending on your social media presence. If you want to incorporate social media into your local SEO strategy, you should start by being active on all these sites. It might take a lot of work to make sure that each profile on every platform is updated but when you are making more sales and profits, there will be no more complains.

Make sure that your social media posts are always relevant and updated. The content needs to be enticing and attractive to the target audience. Avoid copying your competitors because your potential customers will see through you right away. Finally, you should always answer customer queries or concerns about your business promptly.

Make sure the information displayed on these profiles about your business is correct. Always leave directions, contact details and the right name of the business. That way, you can always redirect numerous potential customers from your social media sites to your physical store with ease.

2.    Mobile Marketing

Currently, numerous internet users rely on their mobile phones and other mobile devices such as tablets or smartwatches. Therefore, if your site is only limited to desktop users, you might be locking out many potential customers. Therefore, the first thing to do is to make sure that your site is responsive. That means that anyone one the desktop or mobile device has access to the information on your website effortlessly.

Secondly, you can use a few mobile marketing techniques to get more customers. Some of the common mobile marketing techniques you can include in your local SEO strategy include the following. You can try using text messages and short codes, mobile web options, search and display adverts, mobile apps and much more.

If you are catering to the needs of the mobile users, then you are way ahead of the competitors who are reliant on the desktop users. As a matter of fact, the number of users using mobile devices to access the internet has increased dramatically surpassing the number of desktop users. Therefore, your site should be catered heavily to the mobile users.

3.    Google Listing

If you want more customers to come to your business, you need to take advantage of Google listing. Here, you need to provide the relevant information about your business to make sure that whenever customers need your products, they can find your business with ease. On the other hand, everywhere your business is listed on the internet should always have the right and correct information to improve your Google listing.

Make sure the phone numbers, business name, address or email addresses match. If the information is contradictory in different listings, Google will opt out of giving your business a proper listing. On the other hand, it would also be disappointing for potential customers if they end up in the wrong store because the information you provided was incorrect.

4.    Take Advantage Of Customer Reviews

The type of services you offer can work positively or negatively for you. If customers leave bad reviews about your business online, you might lose a lot of customers. With SEO take advantage of social media mentions, any reviews of your business left on social media as well as other sites can affect the growth of your business.

Take an instance where a customer receives terrible service at your business and mentions it on social media. Soon enough, the post is shared and retweeted to many followers, and it will become part of your search results when somebody looks for your business online. Therefore, take advantage of the reviews and testimonials from the customers.

Regardless of how bad the review might be, you can always turn it around by offering free or discounted services to that particular customer. Eventually, your business reviews will be turned around, and you can enjoy getting more customers. If a customer leaves a good review about your business, you should always thank them for coming to show a personal touch.

5.    Links

Links are very beneficial to the users on your site especially in 2017. SEO trends in Chicago have changed drastically. For instance, with internal linking, visitors to your site can move from one page to the other without necessarily taking a lot of time to look for it. Therefore, make sure that your internal links are accurate and visible. On the other hand, search engines can crawl the pages on your site with ease giving you a good ranking on the SERPs.

Also, backlinks can come in handy in improving your optimization efforts. If other credible sites link to yours, the search engines will take that as a sign of good measure. Be careful to avoid spammy links for the best results.

Chicago Citizens Respond to Marriage Equality

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In June 2015, the Supreme Court in Chicago ruled that there is no such thing as “gay marriage” and that all marriages were equal ” including same gender ones. This means that same-gender couples can now get married and have their marriages recognized nationwide.

The ruling was met with positive responses from LGBT campaigners all over the world, and it has generally been well received, but there are some who are still fighting it and who still feel, to this day, that gay marriage is wrong.

The bill caused enough questions over things like marriage licenses ” how can you record a marriage between a bride and bride, or groom and groom? Some states opted to make two different licenses ” one with “Spouse 1” and “Spouse 2”, or one with “First Party” and “Second Party,” and another with the more traditional forms.

Even though on paper, gay marriage is legal, there are plenty of people who refuse to accept the ruling. The US Supreme Court may say that gay couples have the right to get married, but the reality is that we see a more modern version of what played out across the south when interracial marriages were first allowed. Back then, there was a handful of county clerks that refused to abide by the ruling, and it took a long time for them to accept the change.

One high-profile example was that of Kim Davis, a Rowan County Clerk who refused to issue marriage licenses to any couple (regardless of their sexual orientation) after the ruling. She said that she was against it because of her faith, and many other clerks rallied around her, saying that the government should protect Christians from having to issue a marriage license to the same sex couple.

It will take some time for the ruling to be accepted, but in the end, the right of the same sex couple to get married should be recognized. Interracial couples can get married without issue now, but it was a long and hard battle.

Kenneth D. Upton, a senior counsel at Lambda Legal, who specialize in LGBT issues, says that he believes that the result is a foregone conclusion and that eventually, we will get to a stage where gay couples can get married anywhere, the question in his eyes is how long it will take to get there. How long will objectors in Chicago and across the south be able to stall and ‘make mischief.’

There are many who feel that the issue of same-sex marriages is very different to that of interracial marriages  because the objections that clerks are raising right now are religious ones, which gives them far more strength and validity. It is not simple for someone to put away their concerns if they are a person of faith that is being asked to participate in something that goes against their faith.

Judges who refuse to comply with the current ruling are in many ways like the conscientious objectors who refused to comply with the 1857 Supreme Court decision which said that African Americans are not citizens, and therefore could not sue in a federal court. The judges who refused to comply with that ruling ended up being on the right side of history, and there will be many clerks who now feel that they are on the right side. Some judges say that clerks who swore their oaths when marriages were defined as a contract between a man and a woman should not have to go against that oath if their faith defines marriage in a specific way.