Using a pulley and standing a safe distance back, a Chicago firefighter dropped a frozen bird into a turkey fryer with too much hot oil, splashing the viscous liquid everywhere. The oil swiftly ignited, and despite a quick reaction from another firefighter wielding a hose, bright orange flames as tall and wide as a CTA bus engulfed the fryer. “Thanksgiving is one of the year’s busiest days for fire departments, with cooking-related fires leading the charge,” said Chicago Fire Department Commissioner Annette Nance-Holt Wednesday morning at the turkey-fry-gone-wrong demonstration. As families gear up for Thanksgiving gatherings stuffed with gratitude and […]
Category: Parenting and Family
How will Donald Trump’s plans for education affect Chicago Public Schools?
President-Elect Donald Trump’s plans to reshape education in America, including eliminating the Department of education and altering school curricula will impact Chicago Public Schools.
‘I wasn’t afraid to die. I was a soldier’: Veteran asks heart surgeon to save sentimental tattoo during transplant
The ink on his chest spells out a lyric from Frank Sinatra’s “My Way,” a song his father introduced him to when he was young. So while waiting on a transplant list, he asked his surgeon to make an effort to save the tattoo while saving his life.
Eisenhower Spooktacular brings students, community together for Halloween fun
Personable pythons, costumed cops and plenty of candy combined to draw a large crowd for the annual event in Blue Island.
Venezuelan refugees reunited with their cat, thanks to rescue group; ‘We couldn’t leave her as if she was a toy’
They say love comes suddenly and unexpectedly, sometimes during the most tumultuous times in life, said Carlos Salazar, a native of Venezuela who now lives in Rogers Park. He met his partner Efren Monsalve in Peru after they escaped the turmoil and economic crisis ravaging their home country. They found a home in each other, they said, now sitting on a couch in their apartment, seemingly a million miles away from friends and family. But their family wasn’t complete. They’d been missing their cat, Katzel, after they had to make the hard decision to leave her in Peru when they […]
Heidi Stevens: Saying goodbye to a childhood home that was so much more than a house
We don’t talk enough in our culture about the emotional weight of saying goodbye to a house. A house changes hands. But it becomes part of you.
Turmoil at Chicago Public Schools: What you need to know
The root of the CPS back-and-forth is a lack of money. CPS faced about a $500 million deficit for this school year as federal pandemic relief funding ran out, and is projected to face similar gaps for the next several years.
Heidi Stevens: ‘Not aspiring to be humble’ is a rallying cry for this moment, but let’s not stop there
I want to focus on a different quote from Harris, which is less pithy but no less powerful. “We have our family by blood, and then we have our family by love.”
Who are the new Board of Education members and what will their appointments mean for CPS parents and children?
Mayor Brandon Johnson’s announcement of six proposed appointees to the Chicago Board of Education at a heated news conference Monday leaves the next several months shrouded in uncertainty for the new board and the district.
Heidi Stevens: Rolling back comprehensive sex ed fails to prepare young people for the world they actually live in
Whatever words we’re cringing about our kids hearing from a certified educator, we’ll cringe into the fetal position if we see the results of those words typed into Google.