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After playing four seasons at Northwestern, Ella Hase decided it was time for a new adventure, looking for a different destination to attend graduate school and play her final season of college soccer. Hase, a Sandburg graduate, had no idea where that would be. Then she got a message that seemed too good to be…

A $20 million grant for NWI Thrive will help build out the Marquette Greenway and connect communities throughout Northwest Indiana. The Lilly Endowment offered the grant to the four community foundations in Lake, Porter and LaPorte counties. Proposed projects include improved signage along trailheads, improved trail maintenance, development of new trails and educational campaigns and…

An Indiana man convicted in the 2017 killings of two teenage girls who vanished during a winter hike was sentenced to a maximum of 130 years in prison Friday in the case that’s long cast a shadow over the teens’ small hometown of Delphi. A special judge sentenced Richard Allen during a hearing that began…

Holiday music concert Saturday at Elgin’s Rakow library Cabaret-style performers Matt and Cynthia Gruel will present “Under the Mistletoe,” a collection of seasonal holiday favorites, at 1 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 21, at the Rakow Branch of the Gail Borden Public Library, 2751 W. Bowes Road, Elgin. Numbers will include “Jingle Bells,” “Let It Snow,” “White…

Morton moves up a spot, Munster returns to the rankings and Highland’s Jordan Steele is the player of the week. TOP 10 With records through Wednesday and previous rankings in parentheses. 1. Valparaiso 7-4 (1) Cadynce Clark scores 16 points in the Vikings’ win against McCutcheon. 2. Hammond Central 9-1 (2) Valencia Miller posts 24…

California officials have declared a state of emergency over the spread of bird flu, which is tearing through dairy cows in that state and causing sporadic illnesses in people in the U.S. That raises new questions about the virus, which has spread for years in wild birds, commercial poultry and many mammal species. The virus,…

Ahead of looming budget cuts Evanston/Skokie School District 65 will need to make, the district’s administration held three listening sessions with community members and parents. Superintendent Angel Turner led a Dec. 9 meeting at Chute Middle School with about 30 attendees. Turner presented information on why budget cuts are necessary, and the participants were asked…

Senior point guard Quentin Albert is one of several South Elgin players getting his first chance this season at serious varsity minutes. Albert has a bigger workload than many of his teammates, however. As the navigator of the offense for new coach Ryan Storm, he’s involved in far more than the average starter. “It’s everything,”…

Freshman forward Brooklyn Schilb arrived at St. Charles East with much fanfare. The 6-foot Schilb was expected to immediately enter the Saints’ lineup and make a difference. Her first test was Waubonsie Valley, which finished fourth last season in Class 4A. All Schilb did was score a team-high 17 points in a 77-61 loss, showing…

Portage Police said weather conditions, excessive speed and alcohol consumption appear to have played a role in a crash late Saturday night in which a car struck a gas station before rolling over and landing on its side on the lawn in front of City Hall, seriously injuring the driver. Around 11:40 p.m. on Dec.…

Advocate Health Care plans to spend $1 billion overhauling how it provides health care on the South Side of Chicago – replacing Advocate Trinity Hospital with a smaller facility with far fewer beds, while expanding access to primary and specialty care. It’s a plan that Advocate leaders say will address the health disparities that have…

Region Air show lovers can brace themselves for the Danger Zone this summer: The Thunderbirds are coming back to Gary. The South Shore Convention and Visitors Authority at its December 12 meeting announced it signed the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds to perform at the Gary Air Show. The event has been set for August 9-10…

In the 20 years since the Historic Genesee Theatre has been reborn, the venue has hosted scores of acts, but none as off-the-wall as one set to take the downtown Waukegan stage on Jan. 11, “The Folsom Prison Experience.” The show, apparently well-received in other sites across the Midwest, is a tribute production based on…

A 36-year-old Elgin man was sentenced to 49 years in prison after a jury convicted him of sexually assaulting and abusing a child younger than 13 for nearly two years, according to the Kane County State’s Attorney’s Office. Ernesto Velasquez-Jimenez was found guilty in October of three counts of predatory criminal sexual assault of a…

Two women are dead following a car collision on the Northwest Side early Sunday morning. A red sedan driven by a 29-year-old man struck a black SUV occupied by three women during what appeared to be an attempted turn on the 8700 block of West Irving Park Road at about 12:16 a.m., according to Chicago…

DAMASCUS — At Damascus’ international airport, the new head of security — one of the rebels who marched across Syria to the capital — arrived with his team. The few maintenance workers who showed up for work huddled around Maj Hamza al-Ahmed, eager to learn what will happen next. They quickly unloaded all the complaints…

SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea’s opposition leader offered Sunday to work with the government to ease the political tumult as officials sought to reassure allies and markets, a day after the opposition-controlled parliament voted to impeach conservative President Yoon Suk Yeol over a short-lived attempt to impose martial law. Liberal Democratic Party leader Lee…

Last year, when Lauren Haydel began her first sober holiday season, she wondered how difficult it would be to avoid alcohol at family parties and celebrations with friends. She owns a boutique, Fleurty Girl, in New Orleans’ French Quarter, a neighborhood synonymous with drinking. But few people questioned her choice. “Instead of them asking me…

SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea’s parliament on Saturday voted to impeach embattled President Yoon Suk Yeol over his short-lived martial law decree this month, a shocking stunt that paralyzed the country’s politics, halted foreign policy and spooked financial markets. His suspension from power comes almost eight years after the impeachment of Seoul’s last conservative…

As the sale was closing on one of Crown Point’s oldest standing churches, plans were halted when the Crown Point Board of Works deemed the structure an unsafe building. The decision came when the Board of Works met on Dec. 4 to discuss the state of the 138-year-old Trinity Lutheran Church and schoolhouse located at…