Jon Yates

It took Bob and Angie Kleinfelder several years to save up for their upcoming trip to the International Lions Club Convention in Hamburg, Germany. The Crest Hill couple, both retired and as they put it "mildly handicapped," paid extra for business class...

By her own admission, Monica Gonzalez is not what you would call a "numbers person." So for the past several years, the Hickory Hills resident has paid H&R Block to prepare and file her income taxes. "I like the convenience," she said. "They do it all...

Some of the best resolutions come after a column runs. That certainly was the case for Maggie Kent. The 25-year-old was featured in the Oct. 21 column, more than a year after she found an envelope stuffed with $200 cash on the floor of the Von Maur...

It was late in the evening of Nov. 30 when Michael Plantz realized his license plates were set to expire the next morning. Hoping to ward off a ticket, the Edgewater neighborhood resident logged on to the Illinois secretary of state website and...

It was a glorious fall day and Steve Thompson's in-laws were visiting from California, so he gathered up the family for an afternoon drive. The St. Charles family made it to Lake Geneva, Wis., before the fuel gauge on its Chevy Traverse edged toward...

The attack happened so quickly that neither Elizabeth Morrissey nor her dog, Mia, had a chance to react. The two were out for a walk near their Bridgeport home Dec. 21, 2011, when an unattended dog raced across the street and began biting and scratching...

On the wall outside her front door, Kathy Cummings proudly displays the plaque she received in 2004 for her natural garden. Accompanied by a picture of her front yard, the plaque, presented by the city of Chicago, congratulates Cummings for winning...

When you live on an acre of land, a regular lawn mower just doesn't cut it. So years ago, James O'Hara, of St. Charles, bought a 2003 Craftsman GT 5000 riding garden tractor. All was well until May 2011, when the mower began acting up. He called...

The email promised that because she was a Sears "premier" member, Cathy Graves would have access to the company's exclusive pre-Black Friday sale. It seemed almost too good to be true. The Plainfield resident had been looking for an inexpensive...

It was during a visit to his mother's home in New Mexico last summer that Timothy Reddinger found his grandmother's set of fine china. His mother was downsizing and offered to give him the extravagant dinnerware. Reddinger was thrilled. The century-...

For years, Sandra Lichtman has used a CPAP machine at night, a device designed to combat the symptoms of sleep apnea and help her breathe. When her old machine broke in January, she called her medical supplier, Wheeling-based MedSource, which promptly...

Lainie Weisman's first cross-country plane trip alone never got off the ground because of bad weather. The silver lining was that her mother, Mary Weisman, had purchased trip insurance to cover such a situation. That meant the family could recover the...