Category: News
Area residents developing pet owners app: ‘A forum to reduce the social isolation of people and pets’
Mundelein resident Anna LaRocco Masi experienced a sense of isolation during and after the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown.
The 29-year-old wanted to socialize with other pet owners, specifically those who have huskies just like her pet, 5-year-old Helsinki. But she found it difficult to connect.
That’s when she decided it was time for an idea that had been percolating in her mind to finally become reality.
“I had this vision to create an app where like-minded individuals can connect,” LaRocco Masi said. “A forum to reduce the social isolation of people and pets.”
So, with the help of her friend Samar Shah, a software engineer from Kane County, the two confounded Petwrk.
Available on both iOS and Android, the app aims to enable users to find nearby playdates by breed, size, and location, and foster ongoing engagement through photo sharing, therapy meetups and community features.
According to an October Forbes magazine article on pet ownership statistics, as of 2024, 66% of U.S. households have a pet. That’s nearly 87 million homes. And of those pet owners, half reported they consider their pets to be as much a part of their family as a human family member.
The app’s co-founders hope to tap into that group.
The Petwrk beta website went live in September, during an event where around 50, mostly strangers, and 15 dogs gathered, played, ate snacks and sang karaoke at a forest preserve. There, the attendees got to experience that connection the app promises, and learned more about it.
“I like this idea,” Michelle Loren of Grayslake said.
At the website launch party with her 11-year-old daughter Kaylee Padilla, boyfriend Tristan Mangune and their three dogs — ranging in age from 6 months to 9 years — the couple said the app might be what allows them to find a community similar to that of the city of Seattle, Washington, where they said they enjoyed a very dog-friendly lifestyle.
“In Seattle, people take their dogs everywhere, to restaurants and stores,” Loren said.
The couple is looking forward to finding out what the Petwrk app provides their dog-loving family.
“I think what we have is really unique, and I hope people can see that and get involved,” LaRocco Masi said. “We have a real problem with isolation, and so many apps are driven with algorithms to make people more lonely, keeping them inside and increasing their use of technology. This app is designed to get them out in their local community.”
The team said the primary features of the Petwrk app, once launched, will be pet playdate matching, a forum and a blog for pet stories and expert advice.
The goal is to have a fully functional social network for pets and their owners. They also plan to foster partnerships with local businesses and shelters. And the team already has two: The Dog Stop in Mundelein, a boarding, daycare and grooming business, and the Heartland Animal Shelter in Wheeling.
LaRocco Masi and Shah are hoping to launch the Petwrk app in the spring with what they’re learning from the beta testers on the Petwrk website at beta.petwrk.app, and with funding from a Kickstarter campaign that runs through Dec. 12.
LaRocco Masi said the community they’re hoping to build will be wide, as it’s not just for dog owners but also those with other types of animals, such as cats, horses and other critters.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/18/dog-owners-application/
Review: Patti Smith’s ‘Horses,’ live and powerful at 50
“Jesus died for somebody’s sins, but not mine.”
Has there ever been a gutsier opening salvo in rock n’ roll? That’s how Patti Smith began her show Monday night at the Chicago Theater, the line coming out slow and sinewy, and it’s how she started her career 50 years ago this fall. Those bracing first words on “Horses,” her debut album, released Nov. 10, 1975, never did sound like a lyric. It was a declaration of intent, or as Smith writes in her new memoir, “Bread of Angels,” a way of “signaling accountability for my choices in life and art.”
Whatever it was, it was iconic.
We should all be cringing these days at the overuse of “iconic” to describe anything merely good, yet it’s hard to overstate how actually iconic everything about “Horses” became after 1975. Robert Mapplethorpe’s black-and-white cover. Smith’s androgynous appearance. The way she raises her chin on that album cover, as if daring her listeners. Those soft creeping pianos. The shambolic Beat-like impulsiveness of the songs. Iconic, iconic, iconic. Maybe even totemic. It represented not just the arrival of a new band but a startling approach to life itself. It was the first commercial LP from the fledgling punk scene at CBGB’s in New York, soon to deliver the Ramones, Television, Talking Heads and Blondie. At the Chicago Theater, Smith and her band — which still has two veterans from those days, longtime guitarist Lenny Kaye and drummer Jay Dee Daugherty — tore into “Horses” from top to bottom, and 50 years on, it’s still alternately vivid and elliptical.
Smith turns 79 next month.
Her famously raven hair is now a frizzy flood of white. Her voice is still scratchy and bellowing and strong. Her stage uniform hasn’t changed much: white shirt, black jeans, dark coat, dark boots. A half century ago, in the cryptic liner notes for “Horses,” Smith called for “new risks etched forever in a cold system of wax,” and added: “As for me, I am totally ready to go.” All these years later, she also sounds just as ready to go, as if she never tired of the challenge she built for herself. She seems eager to suggest new depths in “Horses,” particularly showing it off as a door from the last gasp of ‘60s psychedelia to early literary punk. Introducing “Break It Up,” she explained how its inspiration was a dream about Jim Morrison. For the mournful “Elegie,” she described being cornered once by Jimi Hendrix, who told her a sweet, nonsensical tale of music creating world peace. She later recorded “Horses” at Hendrix’s Electric Lady Studios, making “Elgie” a memorial.
Smith comes across now, well, more hippie than punk.
Not that it’s a distinction with a lot of cultural currency these days. Besides, Smith was only ever really a punk in the sense that she was once young and performatively abrasive and pushed against gender norms. After all, what do you call “Birdland”? When she recreates its long poetry break in “Horses,” she reads verses from a book, finally dropping it to the stage and continuing from memory, her voice and anger surging higher and snapping.
It’s more of an incantation than a song.
Singer Patti Smith performs at the Chicago Theatre on Nov. 17, 2025. (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune)
Patti Smith performs at the Chicago Theatre on Nov. 17, 2025. (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune)
She wants to honor the riskiness of 1975 without becoming a nostalgia act in 2025. The closest the show came to sentimental was when she left the stage for a breather and Kaye & Co. played a poignant medley of songs by Television, their CBGB cousins. She’s closer to Neil Young in that way, or Bruce Springsteen, who gifted her biggest hit, “Because the Night.” Unlike them, however, you can hear the DNA of “Horses” all over several generations of indie acts; a number of its songs on Monday night — the ferocious gallop of “Land,“ the howl of “Free Money” — sounded ageless.
At the same time, to hear “Horses” performed live now is to be reminded that Patti Smith was cherrypicking the glam and beat and attitude of rock performance to find a new framework for poetry itself. Bob Dylan brought poetry to rock, but Patti Smith stayed a poet. In fact, it’s such an odd career for a benchmark rock star, it’s no stretch to say her music may be less remembered one day than her terrific books, especially “Just Kids,” her 2010 National Book Award-winning memoir about her friendship with Mapplethorpe.
At the Chicago Theater, she complicated that picture further.
She reminded us that this New York hipster legend is really a born Chicagoan, a “sickly little girl” who lived for a time in Logan Square and was born in a blizzard, her father dangling out of a taxi to help the driver avoid oncoming cars and reach the hospital in a whiteout. She explained this, then, because she’s Patti Smith, she dedicated “Pissing in a River” to Lake Michigan. Just because.
cborrelli@chicagotribune.com
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/18/review-patti-smith/
Sen. Graham Touts Movement On New Russian Sanctions Bill ‘With Trump’s Blessing’
Sen. Graham Touts Movement On New Russian Sanctions Bill ‘With Trump’s Blessing’
Sen. Lindsey Graham announced Monday the Senate is taking up legislation that would sanction Russia’s trading partners, in order to ramp up the pressure on Moscow to end the war with Ukraine.
The announcement came after President Donald Trump told reporters Sunday night the proposed legislation would be “OK with me” – which marked his strongest signal yet that he’s planning on signing off on it.
Graham, a Russia hawk (and pretty much hawkish on all other conflicts and official US ‘enemies’ in the world) unveiled the move forward on the legislation “with President Trump’s blessing.”
He described the necessity of yet more sanctions in order to “continue the momentum to end this war honorably, justly and once and for all.”
“This legislation is designed to give President Trump more flexibility and power to push Putin to the peace table by going after both Putin and countries like Iran that support him,” Graham wrote. “I appreciate the strong bipartisan support for this legislation in both the House of Representatives and the Senate.”
“The Senate will move soon on a tough sanctions bill — not only against Russia — but also against countries like China and India that buy Russian energy products that finance Putin’s war machine,” Graham additionally stated. “The Senate bill has a presidential waiver to give President Trump maximum leverage.”
“When it comes to Putin and those who support his war machine, it is time to change the game,” he continued. Further, Graham again verified that Trump “is looking at [the bill] very strongly.” But Trump wants the ultimate final say-so:
Graham and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), a co-sponsor of the bill, worked to include the presidential waiver to satisfy a White House request to give Trump more options, according to Politico.
US media is framing this as part of Trump “losing patience” with Putin over ending the war; however, the reality remains that Kiev and its Western backers have been unwilling to offer territorial concessions. Finally ceding Crimea hasn’t even been on the table.
“We get a lot of bullshit thrown at us by Putin, if you want to know the truth,” Trump recently told reporters. “He’s very nice all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless.” And Graham responded to Trump’s words by saying the president “is spot on about the games Putin is playing.”
Lately, amid a ‘civil war’ in MAGA-land in the wake of the Tucker Carlson and Nick Fuentes interview, many of Trump’s supporters have vehemently complained that Trump is too much in neocon Lindsey Graham’s corner on foreign policy. His administration certainly didn’t start off like that.
Tyler Durden
Tue, 11/18/2025 – 11:45
Juez aprueba plan de Purdue Pharma, fabricante del OxyContin, tras crisis de opioides en EEUU
Por GEOFF MULVIHILL
Un juez de bancarrotas aprobó formalmente el martes el plan de Purdue Pharma, el fabricante de OxyContin, para resolver miles de demandas sobre los daños causados por los opioides en Estados Unidos.
El juez federal Sean Lane, dio sus razones el martes para aprobar el plan, que requiere que los miembros de la familia Sackler, propietarios de la empresa, contribuyan con hasta 7.000 millones de dólares durante 15 años. La mayor parte del dinero se destinará a entidades gubernamentales para combatir la crisis de opioides que está vinculada a 900.000 muertes en Estados Unidos desde 1999.
Una parte del dinero se distribuirá el próximo año a personas a quienes les recetaron OxyContin.
“Mi corazón está con todos aquellos que han sufrido tanto dolor”, expresó Lane.
El acuerdo reemplaza uno que la Corte Suprema de Estados Unidos rechazó el año pasado, al considerar que habría protegido indebidamente a los miembros de la familia contra futuras demandas. Bajo el acuerdo actual, las entidades que no opten por los pagos aún pueden demandar a los miembros de la familia.
El arreglo es uno de los más grandes en una serie de acuerdos sobre opioides presentados por gobiernos estatales y locales contra fabricantes de medicamentos, mayoristas y farmacias, que sumaron alrededor de 50.000 millones de dólares.
El dinero se destinará a gobiernos y algunas personas
Miembros de la familia Sackler acordaron pagar hasta 7.000 millones de dólares durante 15 años, proporcionando la mayor parte del efectivo involucrado en el acuerdo.
Los fondos distribuidos a estados, gobiernos locales y nativos se utilizarán principalmente para abordar la crisis de opioides, como ha sido el caso con otros acuerdos sobre opioides.
Alrededor de 850 millones de dólares de esa cantidad se destinarán a víctimas individuales, incluidos niños nacidos con síndrome de abstinencia de opioides.
Las personas con adicción y los sobrevivientes de aquellos que murieron deben demostrar que se les recetó OxyContin para participar. Aquellos que lo hagan podrían recibir pagos de 8.000 a 16.000 dólares, dependiendo de cuánto tiempo recibieron el medicamento y cuántas otras personas califiquen. El dinero para las víctimas individuales se distribuirá el próximo año.
No solo está en juego el dinero
Los miembros de la familia Sackler están de acuerdo en renunciar a la propiedad de Purdue.
Para ellos, eso no será un gran cambio, ya que nadie de la familia ha estado en la junta de Purdue ni ha recibido dinero de la empresa desde 2018. El plan establece que Purdue será reemplazada por la nueva farmacéutica Knoa Pharma, que será controlada por una junta designada por los estados y con la misión de beneficiar al público.
La familia Sackler tampoco podrá poner su nombre en instituciones a cambio de contribuciones, algo que han hecho a menudo en el pasado, aunque muchas instituciones han cortado lazos con ellos.
La empresa también aceptó hacer públicos una gran cantidad de documentos internos que podrían arrojar más luz sobre cómo la empresa promovió y monitoreó los opioides.
Una característica que no se repetirá bajo este nuevo acuerdo y que estaba en uno anterior: obligar a los miembros de la familia Sackler a escuchar directamente a las personas perjudicadas por OxyContin.
Una larga saga legal podría estar llegando a su fin
Purdue solicitó protección por bancarrota en 2019 cuando enfrentaba miles de demandas relacionadas con opioides de gobiernos estatales y locales y otros.
Un juez aprobó un acuerdo dos años después. Pero la Corte Suprema de Estados Unidos rechazó ese plan porque otorgaba a la familia Sackler protección contra demandas sobre opioides, aunque no se estaban declarando bancarrota personalmente.
El último plan permite demandas contra los Sackler por parte de aquellos que no opten por el acuerdo. Ese cambio fue clave para obtener la aprobación de la nueva versión tras el fallo del tribunal superior.
Esta vez, pocas partes se opusieron al acuerdo, aunque algunas personas que se representaron a sí mismas y que eran adictas a los opioides, o tenían seres queridos que lo eran, expresaron preocupaciones durante la audiencia de confirmación de tres días la semana pasada.
Una de esas personas que se representó a sí misma le dijo al juez Lane durante la audiencia virtual el martes que planeaba apelar.
_____
Esta historia fue traducida del inglés por un editor de AP con la ayuda de una herramienta de inteligencia artificial generativa.
Portage parent complains about book accessed from teacher by fifth grader
A fifth grader’s mother complained to the Portage Township School Board Monday about a book he took home from his teacher’s personal library.
The book, “Looking for Alaska,” wasn’t age-appropriate, she believes.
PEN America, an anti-censorship group, lists the book by author John Green as the second most-banned book during the 2023-24 school year. It won the 2006 Michael L. Printz Award presented by the American Library Association. Amazon’s listing for the book says it’s appropriate for grades 9-12.
“What happened in this instance is a serious lapse in judgment and oversight, one that has impacted many families in our school community,” parent Michelle Drummond said.
Drummond questioned what process or resource teachers use to check reading levels and content of books brought into classrooms and whether they’re appropriate for kids that age. Fifth graders are typically 10 or 11 years old.
Myers Elementary School Principal Jon Evers issued a statement, but it didn’t include an apology to parents, she said. No one else in the district had apologized, she said.
Drummond said she went to her son’s school twice, returning the book her son borrowed and wanting answers. “He knew it was inappropriate, and he wanted something to be done,” Drummond said.
“Because this book was freely accessible, many of us parents were forced into a conversation with our 11-year-old children that we were not prepared to have,” she said. “Conversations – and pardon me – about explicit sexual acts, about oral sex, about adult sexual positions because those scenes are in this book.”
“Our kids cannot unread what they read. Their innocence was taken from them literally forever because an adult did not take one moment to see if this book was age-appropriate,” Drummond said.
“We cannot rely on assumptions, personal judgment, or hope that this will be fine,” she said, so other parents don’t have to go through what she and other parents went through this past weekend.
“We do apologize, and we’re all mortified by what happened. We will take the necessary steps to make sure this doesn’t happen again,” board President Andy Maletta said.
Maletta asked Superintendent Amanda Alaniz to investigate the issue and report back to the board.
Doug Ross is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
Lake Forest High School alum finishes third in the 2025 MLB National League Rookie of the Year vote
Lake Forest High School alum Caleb Durbin finished third in National League Rookie of the Year voting after playing a key role in helping the Milwaukee Brewers reach the National League Championship Series.
Durbin, a member of the LFHS Class of 2018, wrapped up his rookie season with 11 home runs, 53 RBIs and a .256 batting average. He finished with 69 points in the Baseball Writers’ Association of America’s Rookie of the Year voting, trailing winner Drake Baldwin of the Atlanta Braves (183 points) and Chicago Cubs pitcher Cade Horton (139).
Traded to Milwaukee from the New York Yankees last December, Durbin made his major league debut on April 18, collecting two hits against the Athletics, who played their 2025 home games in Sacramento. After a slow start that saw his average drop to .169 by May 20, Durbin—nicknamed “Happy” by manager Pat Murphy—rebounded and hit .278 the rest of the way as he settled in as the Brewers’ regular third baseman.
He led all National League rookies with 18 stolen bases, ranked second with 60 runs scored and finished third with 25 doubles. Durbin, 25, also led the NL with 24 hit-by-pitches.
Among his individual highlights were a walk-off home run on June 7 against the San Diego Padres and scoring the winning run on Sept. 13 against the St. Louis Cardinals.
The Brewers won the National League Central and advanced past the Cubs in the Division Series. Durbin went 4-for-16 with a stolen base in the five-game set, including a 2-for-2 performance with a walk in the decisive Game 5.
Although Milwaukee was swept by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLCS, Durbin went 4-for-13 in the series and recorded a double and a stolen base in Game 4 against Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani.
Durbin told MLB.com that he underwent arthroscopic surgery after the season to address a bone spur in his right elbow but expects to be ready for the start of the 2026 campaign.
Daniel I. Dorfman is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/18/lake-forest-high-school-caleb-durbin/
AI “Circle Jerk” Rages On: Microsoft, Nvidia Invest $15 Billion In Anthropic
AI “Circle Jerk” Rages On: Microsoft, Nvidia Invest $15 Billion In Anthropic
Two months ago, when nobody was talking about the coming AI debt tsunami needed to bankroll trillions in data-center capex, and nobody was paying attention to Oracle’s CDS quietly blow out, and well ahead of the Bank of England’s AI valuation warning, we published “The Stunning Math Behind The AI Vendor Financing “Circle Jerk,” essentially laying out all the weakest links in the swelling global AI bubble.
In the report, we laid out the ridiculous circle-jerk vendor financing schemes concocted by the handful of top players to pretend their revenue is growing at a rapid pace. We also called it an “infinite money glitch”…
Most notably, the players.
Fast-forward to Tuesday: the AI bubble keeps deflating, hyperscalers are under pressure, Bitcoin trading in the $92k range, and Microsoft and Amazon were just downgraded to neutral by Rothschild & Co. and Redburn’s Alexander Haissl. Now comes fresh news from Microsoft and Nvidia, attempting to revive the AI hype with yet another round of circle-jerking.
Bloomberg reports Microsoft and Nvidia will invest up to $15 billion in Anthropic. As part of the agreement, Anthropic will purchase $30 billion of compute from Microsoft’s Azure, which only confirms more circle-jerking.
“We are increasingly going to be customers of each other — we will use Anthropic models, they will use our infrastructure, and we will go to market together,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella stated in a video, adding, “Of course, this all builds on the partnership we have with OpenAI, which remains a critical partner for Microsoft.”
Satya Nadella explains how the circle jerk works: “We are increasingly going to be customers of each other — we will use Anthropic models, they will use our infrastructure, and we will go to market together”
And the US taxpayer will bail out everyone.
The end. https://t.co/WIHEzmZOlz
— zerohedge (@zerohedge) November 18, 2025
To support the AI-infrastructure buildout, Anthropic plans to spend $50 billion building AI data centers across multiple states. The AI company is simultaneously partnered with Google, which agreed in October to supply up to 1 million AI chips.
Earlier, analyst Haissl warned that the bullish case around generative AI is no longer clear and hyperscalers should be approached with caution.
He noted the industry’s “trust us – Gen-AI is just like early cloud 1.0” pitch is flawed and that the underlying economics are far weaker than assumed.
Building on Haissl’s warning, we’ve been very early in covering Oracle’s CDS blowout, even offering warnings about AI debt and valuations well before the Bank of England.
Bad news for the AI stocks.
With all free cash flow going into chatbot data center capex, there is nothing left for buybacks and dividends. pic.twitter.com/RcqzDhHLv6
— zerohedge (@zerohedge) October 3, 2025
As we’ve previously joked.
at this rate tomorrow morning we will get this headline
*OPENAI SIGNS DEAL WITH OPENAI TO BUY AND SELL $100 TRILLION WORTH OF STUFF TO AND FROM ITSELF
— zerohedge (@zerohedge) November 4, 2025
Morgan Stanley analysts need to add Anthropic to the circle jerking.
Harris Kupperman, CIO of Praetorian Capital, posted the following on X,
Love how shareholders look at this deal, realize that this guarantees big losses for years into the future, and sell them like they’re shale shit-cos promising to raise production in a $50 oil environment. Welcome to 2016 tech bros. The multiple compression is only just starting…
Rihard Jarc, co-founder and CIO of New Era Funds, pointed out that multiple narratives are converging in the Microsoft-Nvidia-Anthropic partnership:
So many narratives are at play here in the Microsoft-Nvidia-Anthropic partnership:
Nvidia saw Anthropic do a deal with Google’s TPUs and Amazon’s Trainium, so it had to ensure Anthropic stays committed to Nvidia hardware.
Microsoft is signaling that its future isn’t dependent on OpenAI alone.
Anthropic is showing investors it can line up splashy partnerships and meaningful letter-of-intent orders.
And all of them timed this announcement to land on the same day as Google’s Gemini 3.0 release – because if Google wins the frontier-model race decisively, all three would feel the pressure.
So many narratives are at play here at the $MSFT & $NVDA & Anthropic partnership IMO:
1. $NVDA saw Anthropic do a deal with $GOOGL TPUs, & $AMZN Trainium so it had to make sure Anthropic will use $NVDA
2. $MSFT showing that its fate is not dependent on OpenAI.
3. Anthropic is… https://t.co/QhoYPqyK4F
— Rihard Jarc (@RihardJarc) November 18, 2025
How does all this end? Trump’s AI advisor, David Sacks may have offered a clue: “There will be no federal bailout for AI. The U.S. has at least five major frontier-model companies. If one fails, others will take its place.”
Tyler Durden
Tue, 11/18/2025 – 11:30
https://www.zerohedge.com/ai/ai-circle-jerk-rages-microsoft-nvidia-invest-15-billion-anthropic
Lake Bluff trustees may vote on policy changes outlining the village’s response to actions by ICE and CBP agents
The Lake Bluff village board could vote later this month on policies outlining how the village will respond to actions by the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) within its boundaries.
At a Nov. 10 Committee of the Whole meeting, trustees reviewed a draft ordinance addressing the village’s interactions with ICE amid concerns tied to the federal government’s Operation Midway Blitz.
“We are also projecting a message of respect and dignity for people,” Village President Regis Charlot said.
Charlot initiated the push for policy changes after raising concerns at the board’s Oct. 27 meeting about immigration enforcement activities occurring in nearby communities.
Trustee Susan Rider agreed on Nov. 10. “Those videos we are seeing from other communities are chilling,” she said.
Under the proposed ordinance, immigration officials would be prohibited from using village-owned property, such as parking lots or garages, as staging areas, processing locations, or operational bases for civil immigration enforcement.
“We believe the village can prohibit them from utilizing village property for staging areas, processing centers, or an operations base because that would violate the anti-commandeering doctrine of the 10th Amendment,” Village Attorney Peter Friedman said after the meeting.
Friedman told the board the village must comply with both the Illinois Trust Act, enacted in 2017 to bar local law enforcement from participating in civil immigration enforcement, and the 10th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which prevents the federal government from requiring state or local governments to allocate resources to federal operations.
Trustees also discussed additional provisions that may be included in the final ordinance. These could extend the requirements of the Illinois Trust Act to all village employees, ensure no village resources are used for federal civil immigration enforcement efforts, and require reporting ICE activity to the Illinois Accountability Board.
Despite these proposed restrictions, Friedman emphasized that the village cannot stop ICE officers from operating in Lake Bluff. “Local governments don’t have the right to prevent the federal government — including ICE — from operating on the streets or sidewalks,” he said.
Charlot acknowledged those limitations, noting he did not want residents to believe the ordinance would offer complete protection from federal operations. “I don’t think we are going to change the world,” he said.
Police Chief Matt Smizinski said he was not aware of any recent ICE activity in the village.
Only one resident, Peter White, addressed the board on the topic. White said he supported adopting an ordinance but preferred something “simple and straightforward.”
“This is not a social issue,” White added. “I think it is a political statement that is being attempted to be made.”
Village Administrator Drew Irvin said it was possible the ordinance would appear on the agenda for the Nov. 24 board meeting.
Daniel I. Dorfman is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/18/lake-bluff-village-board-ice-cbp/
Santa makes an early appearance at Deer Park event: ‘It sets the tone for a season filled with joy’
In all of the years that Stacey Crossman of Kildeer has been attending Santa’s Arrival and Fireworks event in Deer Park, never has the weather been so balmy that her children and friends could sit on top of a car to watch the fireworks as if it were the Fourth of July.
“This is the warmest that it’s ever been,” said Crossman, who attended with friends and family. “But we bring lots of blankets and hot chocolate.”
The evening weather on Saturday was clear and almost 60 degrees. Still, it was breezy and sometimes felt cold, but the event seemed more crowded than usual, perhaps due to the milder weather for what is maybe Lake County’s first major Santa Claus and tree lighting event of the holiday season.
This year’s event at Deer Park Town Center also included a Stuff a Squad Car feature through which new, unwrapped toys were collected for a Toys for Tots drive.
Children could receive free magical reindeer food for Christmas Eve. Photos with Santa Claus had a long line, but it was also swift. Families from many Lake and Cook County towns attended, including Arlington Heights and Buffalo Grove.
“Santa’s Arrival and Fireworks continues to be a signature holiday moment and one our community looks forward to each year,” Deer Park Town Center marketing manager Angelika Fejklowicz said. “It sets the tone for a season filled with joy, and helps bring our neighbors together.”
On the top of a car, from left, Cam Crossman, 7, a first-grader of Kildeer and Walton Burns, 8, a second-grader from Lake Zurich, experience the grand finale of the fireworks show at the Santa’s Arrival and Fireworks event on Nov. 15, 2025 in Deer Park at Deer Park Town Center. (Karie Angell Luc/Lake County News Sun)
Riding in a Lake Zurich fire engine, decorated with holiday lights, was Avery Bruno, 7, of Lake Zurich, who won the event’s annual contest to ride with Santa.
Avery got to flip an oversized red switch to illuminate the holiday tree with Santa. He told the audience that it felt, “amazing” to have the opportunity.
“I’m super proud. So proud. Very excited,” Avery’s father, Anthony Bruno, said.
Rob and Lauren Scaramella of Mundelein waited for Santa Claus near the tree with their children, Eva, 6, and Isla, 3.
In purple lighting, from right, Steve Denton of Lake Zurich holds daughter Maddie, almost 2, as they wait for Santa Claus at the Santa’s Arrival and Fireworks event on Nov. 15, 2025 in Deer Park at Deer Park Town Center. (Karie Angell Luc/Lake County News Sun)
Eva hopes Santa Claus will bring her “Elsa LEGOs,” based on the popular “Frozen” animated brand series.
“I love the movie,” she said.
Isla would like Santa to bring “super kitties.”
Fireworks concluded the event to honor Veterans Day and military members in the wake of Veterans Day on Nov. 11.
The switch has just been flipped by Santa Claus and Avery Bruno, 7, a second-grader from Lake Zurich at the Santa’s Arrival and Fireworks event on Nov. 15, 2025 in Deer Park at Deer Park Town Center. (Karie Angell Luc/Lake County News Sun)
Ron and Sabina Sershon of Palatine attended with family.
“Thank you for your service,” Sabina Sershon said to veterans and military members.
“We appreciate everything that they do for this country,” Ron Sershon added.
Stacey Crossman said to those serving or who have served the United States, “We appreciate the work that they do and what they’ve done for our country. It’s amazing all of the things that they have sacrificed so we can have the freedoms we have today.”
Santa Claus says hello to Eva Scaramella, 6, a first-grader of Mundelein, and her sibling Isla, 3, and their parents Rob and Lauren Scaramella at the Santa’s Arrival and Fireworks event on Nov. 15, 2025 in Deer Park at Deer Park Town Center. (Karie Angell Luc/Lake County News Sun)
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/18/santa-arrival-deer-park/
Naperville’s Lexi Van Eekeren is next ‘great player’ in family. With Benet transfer, Nazareth is great again.
Nazareth girls volleyball coach Esai Velez was thrilled when he learned junior setter Lexi Van Eekeren had transferred to the school from Benet.
Velez didn’t know Van Eekeren personally, but her reputation preceded her.
“The Van Eekerens are a great family, so I was pretty excited to have one of them on my roster,” Velez said. “I was very happy to have that addition.
“When she transferred, I was like, ‘Great.’ She’s a great player. She can do a lot of things on the court, so I was excited for her personally and her background.”
That background includes Van Eekeren’s mother, Amy, a former All-American middle hitter at Illinois who coached the Naperville Central boys volleyball team to the 1998 state title and later started the Benet boys volleyball team, which went 32-1 record in its first season. Van Eekeren is the youngest of four siblings who have excelled in sports and attended Benet.
Her sister Ally is a former setter who led Benet to third place in Class 4A in 2018 and later played at Creighton, High Point and Penn State. Van Eekeren’s brother Jackson played on Hawaii’s 2021 national championship team, and her brother Tyler played basketball at Washington University. Van Eekeren’s cousin Taylor also played volleyball at Benet and continued her career at West Florida.
Van Eekeren seemed destined to play volleyball, too, while attending her siblings’ matches. But that didn’t happen right away.
Her first sport was gymnastics. She competed for six years, reaching level 8 of the club level before a serious back injury forced her to stop.
“I did club basketball for a while and then school basketball and volleyball,” Van Eekeren said. “Those were the next two sports I had.
“But there was something about volleyball. I don’t know if it was just because it was in the family, but I truly found a passion and love for it.”
Just three years after playing volleyball for the first time, Van Eekeren was the starting setter on Benet’s junior varsity team as a sophomore. She probably would not have seen much playing time this season on Benet’s varsity team, which finished second in Class 4A with Northwestern-bound senior Ellie Stiernagle doing the setting.
Van Eekeren decided to transfer to Nazareth, although she said volleyball wasn’t the impetus.
“Volleyball wasn’t even a factor when it came to switching schools,” she said. “There were a lot of different reasons, but I’m not looking back anymore.”
Leaving Benet was a difficult decision for Van Eekeren, whose father, Alex, played basketball at Benet, and all of his siblings attended the school too.
“My parents and siblings are my biggest support system,” Van Eekeren said. “They always are. They wanted whatever I wanted, whatever makes me happy, and being at Nazareth makes me happy.”
The feeling is mutual, and not just because Van Eekeren helped the Roadrunners overcome a losing record in the regular season to make a stunning run to the Class 3A state championship match.
“She’s been great,” Nazareth senior middle hitter Grace Gravante said. “She’s a great setter, great on defense, blocking, hitting, all over.
“But also she’s being really positive. Coming in, she wanted to be friends with all of us right away. She was super comfortable around us. Now we’re the best of friends. She’s confident in her play, and she’s just an amazing person to have on the team.”
Nazareth’s Lexi Van Eekeren (7) has fun with teammates during the Class 3A state championship match against Normal U-High at CEFCU Arena in Normal on Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025. (Rob Dicker / Pioneer Press)
While Van Eekeren’s transition looks easy in hindsight, that wasn’t guaranteed, especially on the court. The Roadrunners had gone from winning three state trophies, including the 2021 state title, to going 3-31 in 2024.
“I didn’t know what the volleyball was going to be because obviously last season was very different compared to this season,” Van Eekeren said. “I only knew two people on the team coming in, but I was really excited to meet the team.
“I had heard nothing but great things about them, and all the great things turned out to be true. Everyone was welcoming.”
Indeed, the Roadrunners (21-19) quickly jelled into a cohesive group, if not a juggernaut team.
“We all feel like a family,” Gravante said. “We all just pick each other up like sisters.”
The Roadrunners, who had competed in 4A the past two seasons, were moved back down to 3A this season. They set their sights high.
“We knew we didn’t want this same season we had last year, and our goal this season was to go to state,” Van Eekeren said. “We weren’t expected to, but we all made it a goal for our seniors, and I think it was really special that we even made it down here, let alone to the championship.”
Nazareth’s Lexi Van Eekeren (7) sets the ball during a Class 3A state semifinal against Providence at CEFCU Arena in Normal on Friday, Nov. 14, 2025. (Rob Dicker / Pioneer Press)
Indeed, the Roadrunners, who were seeded fourth in their sectional, pulled off a series of upsets to reach the state semifinals at CEFCU Arena in Normal.
Senior middle hitter Jane Manecke and senior outside hitter Beth Surowiec were the only Roadrunners to have previously played at CEFCU. They saw limited action as freshmen when Nazareth lost to St. Francis in the 2022 state championship match.
But Van Eekeren has actually won a state championship at CEFCU — in club gymnastics. She did her best to do the same with the Roadrunners, who stunned Providence 25-16, 25-17 in the state semifinals on Nov. 14.
Van Eekeren had 10 assists, eight digs and a kill against the Celtics, playing mostly setter.
But Velez moved Van Eekeren to right-side hitter in the state championship match against Normal U-High. She responded with a team-high five kills to go with eight digs and three assists, but the Pioneers won 25-20, 25-20.
“I started with her at setter, but then she brings a lot of power as a right-side,” Velez said. “I was always trying to figure out how to run a right-side, and she brings that, so that’s why she played there the whole time today.
“She was always a great fit. I’m very proud of her.”
Nazareth’s Lexi Van Eekeren (7) spikes the ball against Normal U-High during the Class 3A state championship match at CEFCU Arena in Normal on Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025. (Rob Dicker / Pioneer Press)
Van Eekeren is proud of how she has adjusted at her new school and what the Roadrunners accomplished.
“I’m just so happy that I came to Naz,” she said. “No regrets at all. I love these girls so much, and I’m so thankful.”
Van Eekeren has one more season with the Roadrunners. After that, she wants to continue her family tradition.
“My goal is to go DI like the rest of my family, but I want to create my own path,” she said. “I want to play in college, and I want to have a great time. I’m not ready to be done with the sport.”
Matt Le Cren is a freelance reporter.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/18/volleyball-3a-state-final-nazareth-lexi-van-eekeren/
