Hospital loses designation

The state has stripped a northern Illinois hospital of its trauma center designation.

The Illinois Department of Public Health revoked Waukegan-based Vista Medical Center’s designation as a level two trauma center over a lack of several services including anesthesia and a blood bank.

Some raised concerns that people with serious injuries will now have to go to a hospital over 20 minutes away.

Burn awareness week

The Office of the Illinois State Fire Marshal is raising awareness about the importance of safety around flammable liquids. This is National Burn Awareness Week with this year’s theme of “Flammable Liquids Burn.”

Officials said it is a window of opportunity for organizations to mobilize burn, fire and life safety educators to unite in sharing a common burn awareness and prevention message in communities.

According to the National Fire Protection Association, approximately every 60 seconds someone in the U.S. sustains a burn injury serious enough to require treatment.

Winning snowplow names

Chicago’s Department of Streets and Sanitation has announced the six winning names for the city’s annual “You Name a Snowplow” contest.

The names that received the most votes were “Skilling It,” “CTRL-SALT-DELETE,” “Casimir Plowaski,” “Ernie Snowbanks,” “Mies van der Snow,” and “Bad, Bad, Leroy Plow.”

Signage for the winning names will be installed on one snowplow in each of the city’s six snow districts.