Around Christmas, 2006 1996 the low temperature in Chicago was just three degrees Fahrenheit. Over the New Year there was a "heat wave", and it warmed up to a low of 26F. But, the next week it fell to a low of -2F. The next week it was even worse: a low of -7F. You don't need a Weatherman to tell you that with the wind chill in a city like Chicago it can feel much, much colder. Which brings us to this cheery holiday tale featuring Barack Obama from April 23, 2007:

For more than five weeks during the brutal winter of 1997, tenants shivered without heat in a government-subsidized apartment building on Chicago's South Side.

It was just four years after the landlords -- Antoin "Tony'' Rezko and his partner Daniel Mahru -- had rehabbed the 31-unit building in Englewood with a loan from Chicago taxpayers.

Rezko and Mahru couldn't find money to get the heat back on.

But their company, Rezmar Corp., did come up with $1,000 to give to the political campaign fund of Barack Obama, the newly elected state senator whose district included the unheated building...

The heat was turned off from December 27, 1996 to early February 1997. The city eventually stepped in and sued to get the heat turned back on (link). Seasons Greetings.