In the summer months, it’s not unusual for Chicagoans to hear the booming sound of fireworks lighting up the skies in the neighborhood. It’s a relatively common summer pastime.

This year, the pastime has been more popular than ever. So popular, in fact, that The Chicago Sun-Times reports that fireworks complaints to Chicago’s Office of Emergency Management are up over 700 percent over last year. That’s an interesting statistic, especially since fireworks are mostly illegal in Illinois — ours is [...]