Robbers locked cashier in store room while making off with $3,550 from Bleeding Heart Bakery's Oak Park location Monday night. more ›

Oak Park wants to do something to decrease the number of people panhandling on their streets, but they don't want to be mean about it. more ›

Oak Park residents inclined to dabble in beekeeping may soon be able to do so after the village board voted 6-1 in favor of repealing a ban on the activity. more ›

Earlier this week the Oak Park Village Board of Trustees voted to allow free parking for electric cars at all meters, city parking lots and garages. Oak Park will also have two free electric car charging stations installed in a partnership between ComEd and I-Go Car Sharing. more ›

Tavi Gevinson, who runs her "Style Rookie" blog from her parents' Oak Park home, already has the attention of the New York Times and Vogue editors around the world, sits front row at Fashion Week and is feted by fashion houses like Comme des Garçons--all at the tender age of 13. Jane Pratt, who founded the pre-Internet era Sassy at the age of 24 appears to have found a kindred spirit (or at least co-conspirator) in the teenage Gevinson, though both maintain that the new magazine will be an entity all its own rather than a spin off of their personal publications. more ›

In what should come as a surprise to absolutely no one who has endured a feeding frenzy at the Pritzker Pavillion or any number of this summer’s street festivals, health officials are reporting this year’s mosquito problem as one of the worst in decades. The Tribune quotes Laura McGowan, spokeswoman for Clarke Environmental Mosquito Management of suburban Roselle as saying, "This is the worst mosquito outbreak in 20 years. The (mosquito) traps are catching three to four times the amount that's usually considered a nuisance." more ›

This past Saturday, we ventured west to Oak Park for the 36th annual Wright Plus Home Tour -- the signature event of the Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust. This year's event included tours of eight private homes designed by Wright and his contemporaries in Oak Park and River Forest as well as the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio, Unity Temple in Oak Park, and the Robie House in Hyde Park. more ›

Clear your calendar or set up your TiVo, because six short days from now Betty White is hosting Saturday Night Live. By now you probably know the backstory: after some hilarious TV appearances and a Super Bowl commercial that went viral, a Facebook campaign to draft White as host caught fire. And the powers that be at NBC actually went for it. more ›

With CTA expansion a recurring topic across the area, now it's Oak Park's turn to mull if they'd welcome a Blue Line expansion. more ›

We reported last week that LGBT activists in the city are celebrating National Freedom to Marry Day next Sunday with a picket of the Holy Name Cathedral, but we left out that others in the state are celebrating a holiday with a nearly identical name but confoundingly opposite goals. more ›

• Pvt. Francheska Velez, one of the two area soldiers killed in the Ft. Hood shooting rampage, was laid to rest today.
• The state's unemployment rate hit a new 26-year high in October at 11 percent.
• The RTA today gave the official thumbs up to the deal struck with Gov. Quinn that would avoid another CTA fare hike.

Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. and Bill Ayers paired up Sunday to lead community activists, clergy, and residents in Oak Park on an annual walk to rally for a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The two drew over 400 people to a forum before the walk held at the First United Church of Oak Park and urged a new perspective on the Mideast conflict more in line with the President’s. According to the Tribune, The Committee for a Just Peace in Israel and Palestine, the organizers of the event, said Ayers and Wright were invited for their work on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, not their political notoriety. more ›

On Saturday, the Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust held their annual Wright Plus home tour, all-day tour which included eight private residences in Oak Park as well as the Wright Home & Studio and the Unity Temple in Oak Park and Hyde Park's Robie House. more ›

Anthony Hopkins has already played a butler, Picasso and a serial killer. And now he's set to play Ernest Hemingway. more ›

• Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families of two Illinois National Guardsmen who were killed in Afghanistan by a roadside bomb this weekend.
• The saga of Daniel Fore continues in Oak Park; Fore is a homeless man attempting to get his name on the ballot for village trustee.
• More bad job news, this time from the Tribune (again).

Chicagoist loves our city's architectural history, as well as the way we Chicagoans celebrate and preserve the great structures in our presence. One of the organizations that works to preserve and promote some of the most significant local abodes is looking to recruit some new volunteers. The Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust, which maintains the Robie House in Hyde Park and Wright's Home and Studion in Oak Park, begins their next volunteer training in a few weeks. more ›

Regis, a 13-year-old mixed breed dog, is recovering from a fire that claimed the life of his owner. John Petrik, 68, died from a heart attack and smoke inhalation as a result of the fire after rescuers had to forcibly remove him from his home; Petrik refused to leave without his dog. Firefighters managed to rescue the 55-pound dog, who suffered burns to his tail and smoke inhalation. The Oak Park vet treating Regis said, "He's much better, but he's not 100 percent yet." As for Petrik, his brother Joe described his brother's dedication to the dog.

Petrik's brother, Joe, described him as a private man who never married. About 12 years ago, John Petrik rescued Regis at a Cicero intersection after watching the dog get thrown out of the car in front of him at a stop sign. He had cared for the dog ever since, rarely leaving the house because he didn't want to leave the dog alone, Joe Petrik said.

Puppy love will be in the Oak Park air this weekend as the town readies to break the world record for simultaneous dog marriages. At the "I Do, Doggone It!" mass canine wedding event going on this Saturday, pet owners hope to match more mutts than ever in holy matrimony. According to the almighty Guinness (book, not beer) the current record set in May 2007 in Littleton, Colorado stands at 178 canine weddings. In an effort to beat this number, a doggy "speed dating" event will take place first, which we imagine will include a lot of quick n' dirty butt sniffing among the dogs and plenty of giggly awkwardness among the owners. A wedding reception, photos ops and games and prizes will follow. Register here. more ›

A disabled Oak Forest man was rescued from his burning home yesterday morning but later died due to injuries suffered during the blaze. James Wheeler, 77, was rescued by firefighters and taken, unconscious, to Advocate South Suburban Hospital in Hazel Crest where he was revived. Wheeler was later transported to Loyola University Medical Center where he passed away late yesterday afternoon. A male caregiver escaped from the fire with minor injuries and Wheeler's wife wasn't home at the time of the fire. more ›

Once each year, the Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust expands beyond their stewardship of the Wright Home and Studio in Oak Park and Hyde Park's Robie House to give architecture fans a bigger taste of Oak Park architecture with their Wright Plus Tour. more ›

The Arthur Heurtley house -- just down the street from Wright's own home and studio in suburban Oak Park -- certainly fit the bill when it on the market last year, but the $2.5 million sale price was a slightly out of our budget, even if it was a relative bargain compared to the initial $5.75 million listing price. more ›

If you’re lucky, your toddler will be asleep, blissfully unaware when the last minutes of 2007 tick by. An earlier bed time doesn’t mean that he or she has to miss out on the festivities, though; a handful of places in and around Chicago are hosting New Year’s Eve parties for the little ones, with dancing, snacks and party favors at an earlier countdown. more ›

Everyone knows puberty is the #1 most awkward and mortifying stage of growing up, but what if it hit you before you were even 8 years old? According to today's Sun Times, kids as young as 4 are experiencing early-onset puberty. Precocious puberty, which is not as fun as it sounds, is more common than you'd think. According to the Oak Park-based Magic Foundation, between 1 in 5,000 and 1 in 10,000 kids become gangly... more ›

One of Chicagoist’s few lingering memories of grade school was dental hygiene films. Those things scared the bejeezus out of us. Rotten teeth loomed large in darkened rooms, while Vincent Price’s voice double warned us of the horrors of plaque. Keep that shit up long enough, we were taught, and you get zero teeth. Oddly enough, that’s what a local dental practice’s patrons ended up with, as well as mountains of debt. more ›

Middle school can be a rough time. Hormones rage, cliques form, and the general craziness of living a teenager's life in the double-naughts can close in. There are bullies to dodge, nerds to befriend, and that one goth-chick with red eyes who is never seen without her crusty duct-taped headphones on. And then one of your friends comes along, gives you a hug as you say hello, and suddenly the world is OK. more ›

Although we're not usually huge supporters of ye olde credit card companies, American Express is doing well by us in its effort to help restore historical sites in a partnership with the National Trust for Historic Preservation. From 2006 to 2011, the Partners in Preservation program will be dishing out $5 million dollars to specially selected historical sites across the country. This year, preservation efforts are focused on Chicago and four surrounding counties, where 25... more ›

As part of the old Brach's legacy was being blown up for Batman, intentionally causing a blaze, there have been several other fire related bits in the news as well. The police Bomb and Arson Section and Chicago Fire Department are conducting an ongoing investigation of a warehouse fire that started Thursday night in Bridgeport. Just before 10 p.m., a fire was reported at a building near Halsted and 36th Streets in the 3600 block... more ›

- Say hello to Cuppy's. Another coffee chain opens its first Chicago location. - Taking parenting advice from Britney Spears, a 26-year-old woman left her kids in the car with the windows up and hot air blowing while she went to Cook County Criminal Court on the south side. - Oak Park/River Forest High School alumni Charles Simic was named poet laureate by the Library of Congress. - Keep drinking your beer, Cubs fans.... more ›

In the mid 90's we were television addicts. From soaps to sitcoms, we soaked up nearly everything the tube could offer. Our collection of VHS tapes at the time was chock full of good stuff. But in some cases it was the commercials that we loved most. One of our favorites featured Judy Tenuta drinking Diet Dr. Pepper while "working out" at the gym. The moment she proclaiming "You can't get a body like mine... more ›