10+ min ago (713+ words) Dear Eric: My goddaughter is getting married in December. Her parents have experienced crushing financial loss through no fault of their own. So, I told my goddaughter I would contribute $500 to the wedding dress. She picked out a dress without consulting me that cost nearly 10 times that much and sent me a picture of the receipts. After much back and forth she "heard" that I would pay for all of the dress. Her mother got involved and it ended up a huge mess. After being pressured I sent $1,500 to the bridal shop and told the family because of the increased cost to my budget, I would not be traveling 17 hours to the wedding, staying in a hotel and sending a wedding gift. Because of this my goddaughter isn't speaking to me. When I inquired about a thank you note her…...

11+ min ago (631+ words) He did not talk much about the war as I was growing up, but he did tell me about some of the books he read when the guns were silent. It is one of the most remarkable if relatively forgotten stories of that war, but this books-in-battle tale came rushing back with the release of the latest limited edition from the ever-imaginative company called Field Notes. Four times a year or so since its founding in 2007, this local outfit has come forth with these limited editions. The previous 68 of them have featured such topics as baseball, dime novels, space flights, national parks, the Great Lakes, and on and creatively on. This new one is called "1943" and was inspired by Armed Services Editions, a series of fiction and nonfiction books published and distributed to the U.S. military from 1943-47. More than 120 million copies…...

11+ min ago (1500+ words) For nearly 16 years, Mar'a Irma P'rez Padilla set up her tamale cart at a busy intersection in Pilsen, selling the beloved Mexican dish to help support her family. The 52-year-old mother worked long days to pay for her diabetes medication and provide for her children after her husband's death two years ago. Like many older immigrants in the U.S. without legal permission, P'rez relied entirely on street vending to survive. But on a Friday morning in October, masked federal agents in an unmarked vehicle detained her as she prepared an order of tamales. Within minutes, the familiar presence who anchored the corner for more than a decade was gone. "They were just standing between her and her cart " they didn't even let her finish her job," her son, Jaime Montano, said. Despite having no criminal record, P'rez was taken to a…...

11+ min ago (687+ words) We ply our trade with words and we like to think they have weight. But the wild Donald Trump-Zohran Mamdani news conference at the White House Friday almost convinced us of the opposite. When it comes to saying what we mean, or not, America has gone totally bananas. Consider: Mamdani has often said Trump is a "despot who betrayed the country" and a fascist. Hitherto, if you were called a fascist and you were not either the person or a follower of Benito Mussolini, that generally disinclined you to invite the name-caller for a cozy chat. Consider: Trump had called Mamdani "a communist lunatic." The same disinclination would normally apply. But there the two of them were, offering up sweet nothings, the one to the other. Reporters in the room were incredulous. On social media, some people even suggested this…...

12+ min ago (745+ words) The traditional Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City on Thursday will include an Aurora connection as a brother and sister from West Aurora High School will be performing with other musicians from across the country as part of Macy's Great American Marching Band. Last winter, senior Emily Lesniak, a saxophone player, and her brother Asher Lesniak, a junior who plays trumpet, went through an application process hoping to participate in the band and learned in March that they both were accepted. At the parade, Macy's Great American Marching Band will include 180 musicians as well as 40 color guard members and dancers who will also be part of the presentation. A supporting sponsor known as Music Festivals and Tours is continuing its partnership with Macy's and noted in a press release that, once again, the group will be "honoring America's…...

12+ min ago (287+ words) A student I like turns in an essay. (She won me over because she brings "Crime and Punishment" to class, and her last name is Russian, which makes me think of the great-grandparents I never met who left Russia for the reasons many Jews left.) A few sentences into her essay, I know she didn't write it. Your student asks how you know for sure. She says she used AI to check on her sentences. She wrote them, she insists. She says she loves to vary sentences to get the reader's attention. OK, you say. She says she didn't use it for the next paragraph and you should add that in the site you used and see. So I copy and paste the first two paragraphs into the website, and the machine says it's 100% certain that the content was generated…...

12+ min ago (584+ words) This four-bedroom, five-bathroom home in Lemont recently went on the market for nearly $1.6 million. (Manor Images) Address: 11120 Tuscany Ct., Lemont Listed: Oct. 10, 2025 Listing agents: Christine Wilczek and Jason Bacza, Realty Executives Elite, 708-420-2424 and 815-260-9548 This four-bedroom home has four full bathrooms, one half-bathroom, a front porch, a balcony and modern and rustic accents. The dining room has a sliding door that leads to the front porch and the family room has a limestone fireplace and a shiplap ceiling. An office space also has sliding door access to the front porch. The chef's kitchen includes two-toned cabinets, two islands, quartz countertops, a walk-in pantry with a custom barn door and stainless steel appliances. On the second floor, the primary bedroom is carpeted and also has access to the upstairs deck. The primary bathroom features a dual vanity, walk-in shower with a bathtub…...

38+ min ago (668+ words) Casston Cross received a crash course in East Aurora boys basketball history when he arrived on campus from Iowa for this school year. Once Cross saw the Tomcats" fast-paced style of play in fall league, the junior guard quickly realized that it fit what he brings to the table. "I like the program and I love the coaches and my teammates," Cross said. "They just accepted me. I feel like we just clicked as soon as I came here. We"ve'got a good connection." That connection was on display right away Monday night. In both teams" season opener, Cross certainly looked like a veteran for the Tomcats in a 65-58 victory over St. Charles East in the Ron Johnson Thanksgiving Tournament hosted by the Saints. Cross scored a game-high 18 points in his debut for East Aurora (1-0). Ryan Robinson added 12 points, while…...

41+ min ago (355+ words) Here's a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on Nov. 25, according to the Tribune's archives. 1895: A foot of snow fell over two days in the Chicago area's worst November blizzard on record. The second-largest November snowfall dropped 11.2 inches of snow on O'Hare International Airport, the city's official recording site, in 2015. 1985: Chicago White Sox shortstop Ozzie Guill'n was named the American League's Rookie of the Year. "Guill'n, who batted .273 and set a club record for fewest errors in a season by a shortstop with 12, received 111 points, almost twice as many as Ted Higuera, a left-handed pitcher with the Milwaukee Brewers," the Tribune's Jerome Holtzman reported. Six White Sox players have won the honor, including: Luis Aparicio (1956), Gary Peters (1963), Tommie Agee (1966), Ron Kittle (1983), Guill'n and Jos' Abreu (2014). 1987: Chicago Mayor Harold Washington was stricken by a heart attack while sitting…...

47+ min ago (261+ words) La Shenzhou 22 ser" utilizada en alg'n momento de 2026 por los tres astronautas que se acoplaron en la estaci'n espacial Tiangong el 1 de noviembre. A principios de este mes, otro grupo de astronautas chinos de la misi'n Shenzhou 20 enfrent' un retraso de nueve d'as en su regreso a la Tierra despu's de que la ventana de su nave se da'ara. Finalmente regresaron utilizando la nave espacial Shenzhou 21, que acababa de llevar a la tripulaci'n de reemplazo a Tiangong. Aunque la tripulaci'n de tres personas aterriz' de manera segura en la Tierra, tres de sus compa'eros astronautas en la tripulaci'n de reemplazo quedaron temporalmente sin una forma garantizada de regresar en caso de emergencia. La nave espacial Shenzhou 20 "la da'ada, que por ahora permanece en el espacio" ser" tra'da de vuelta a la Tierra m"s tarde y evaluada, seg'n el canal…...