Last Wednesday morning, residents were shocked by the pre-drawn earthquake that hits northern Illinois. I don't know why the Illinois earthquake was much news. Earthquakes happen on every continent, and Chicago and Kane County are about 1,000 miles from the more usual spots. (90% of earthquakes are in and around the Pacific, and 80% of the bad ones.) The magnitude was less than 4 on the Richter scale – no one will even need payday loans to repair that kind of damage, just a trip to Wal Mart. Thousands of these happen per year, and never get reported.