Two men charged with two counts of first-degree murder in a November double homicide in Summit appeared in Bridgeview Court on Monday and are scheduled to return on Jan. 2, 2025, for a formal indictment, authorities said. Mariano Martinez, 31, of Midlothian, Illinois, and Nicacio Munoz, 34, of Whiting, Indiana, are accused in the fatal […]
Category: DVN New News
Posted inRegional New News
Hundreds honor fallen Illinois trooper with memorial walk-run in Palos Heights
The air was crisp and somber Sunday morning as hundreds of runners and walkers gathered in Palos Heights. They came together to honor the memory of Illinois State Trooper Clay Carns, a 35-year-old husband and father of two who was tragically struck and killed by a vehicle on Dec. 23 while clearing accident debris near […]
Posted inRegional Business
Comings & Goings: Quality Plus merges with Oak Lawn location
Quality Plus Photo Design Center closed its longtime home in Palos Heights last week. New owner Zibi Podraza, who purchased the business when founders Mike and Judi Weber retired over the summer, decided to merge the business with his photography shop in Oak Lawn. Podraza said he decided to merge the Palos Heights location with […]
Posted inRegional New News
2024 was a year of highs and lows
Last year saw more than its share of highs and lows. The year had barely started when tragedy struck when a man was killed in an apartment fire in Hickory Hills on Jan. 2. A second man was badly injured and several families were displaced by the fire in a three-story apartment building near the […]
Posted inRegional Top News
State minimum wage to hit $15 per hour in new year
While we may not want fries with that, we do know the person asking the question at local fast food restaurants will be earning more money in 2025. The minimum wage in Illinois will increase from $14 to $15 per hour on Jan. 1. Also, employees who receive tips are seeing their minimum wage increase […]
Posted inDVN New News
Aguilar congratulates Forest View on centennial
Cook County Commissioner Frank Aguilar paid a visit to the Village of Forest View’s Board of Trustees meeting on December 10 to read a special Resolution in honor of the village’s centennial. The resolution was sponsored by Aguilar, who is the Cook County Commissioner of the 16th District. It read that the village was founded […]
Posted inNew News
Developer plans townhomes and row homes at former Willow Swim Club
Townhouses and row homes, each costing around $750,000, will be built where the Willow Swim Club had been located for nearly eight decades. The former Willow Swim Club, 11300 W. 83rd Street, last saw swimmers in 2008. The site is at the northwest corner of German Church Road and Wolf Road. At the Dec. 12 […]
Posted inDVN Top News
Willow Springs mourns passing of Trustee Ernie Moon
Willow Springs Trustee Ernie Moon is being remembered as a good neighbor and someone who loved the village. Moon, 78. died Dec, 22 from complications after undergoing surgery Nov. 21 to remove a tumor from his liver. Purple and black bunting is draped in mourning at the entrance of the village hall, where the American […]
Posted inTop News
Reporter Kelly White: What I’ve learned in 2024 …
If there’s one thing I’ve learned as a reporter for Southwest Regional Publishing, it’s that every place—whether it’s a school cafeteria, a riverbank in Des Plaines, or a nursing home dance floor—has a story worth telling. This year, my assignments have taken me to corners of communities where kindness, resilience, and history shine brightest. In […]
Posted inTop News
From cleaning company to police department for Maslanka
Nicholas Maslanka traded his cleaning company business for a chance to be a police officer. Maslanka, 26, said he wants to be a police officer “mostly to serve and protect.” “(I wanted) to do something that’s more fulfilling, something bigger than myself,” he said. He and wife Anna had owned the Dirty Birds Cleaning Service […]