The Herald News

A 16-year-old girl died and two others teen girls were injured after the car they were in apparently blew a stop sign and was broadsided by a pickup truck Monday night near southwest suburban New Lenox.

Mayor Rick Chapman likes to compare his village to a cat poised on a tree limb. "We're going to be ready to pounce when this thing turns around," he said of the troubled economy. In Chapman's nine years as mayor, he's watched as Shorewood's home starts jumped to 412 in 2006 then fell to 103 in 2009.

The landfill rodeo may be making a return for a third year. This time, city officials appear to be taking a stance that rodeo organizers are going to need the proper zoning before they can bring the event back on top of the CDT Landfill on Mound Road. The rodeo -- mainly a horse racing spectacle -- has been held occasionally over the past two years with mixed blessings and sometimes disapproval from City Hall.

A Woodridge man arrested late Friday has been charged with the robbery of a Bolingbrook bank and is suspected in at least five others. He was arrested Friday night after the robbery of a U.S. Bank branch at 755 E. Boughton Road, in Bolingbrook.

A house was spared when a Molotov cocktail failed to ignite. A resident of the 1000 block of Oakland Avenue told police she heard noises outside between 12:30 and 1 a.m. Sunday but did not think anything of it until she woke up several hours later.

It's the University of St. Francis's 90th anniversary this year. What's the appropriate gift for a university's 90th? Shoes. TOMS Shoes to be exact.

A Bolingbrook man pleaded guilty Monday to a 2008 shooting that paralyzed a young athlete.

"It was the most terrible experience ever," Alica Leon said of the Feb. 27 earthquake that struck while she was visiting family in Chile.

Wilmington hopes to have a new gazebo installed and ready for use by the time the Illinois Route 66 Red Carpet Corridor events roll into town.

Honorable mentions: • "I am protesting him always hogging the spotlight," by Judi Kontos of Joliet. • "Yeah, pork barrel spending is OK by me," by David Creel of Carbon Hill. • "I promise to get the pork out of government," by Charles Morgan of Joliet.

A man is in custody after police said he stabbed to death another Joliet man early Monday in a domestic dispute.

When Cameron Harper learned CPR last year, he never thought he'd have to use it. But the 12-year-old Frankfort boy's training turned out to be crucial last month when he helped save the life of a 5-year-old boy who nearly drowned.

Romeoville's library would get a new owner and more public space, under plans being discussed by area library leaders. Last month, voters approved a referendum proposal in the Des Plaines Valley Public Library District, which now serves almost all of Romeoville. With that key approval, the district is looking to buy the Romeoville building, 201 W. Normantown Road, from its current owner, the Fountaindale Public Library District.

Marc Wachter, 38, of Yorkville, pleaded guilty this month to predatory criminal sexual assault of a child in both Kendall and DeKalb counties and will spend the next quarter-century in prison, according to the Kendall County state's attorney's office.

Five young men were arrested for reportedly setting off a homemade bomb Sunday at Country Glen Park. A witness said the quintet ignited a "MacGyver"-type explosive just after noon near the gazebo in the park at Country Glen and Partridge Drive

A court order forcing him to make child support payments enraged a man enough to kill the 25-year-old mother of his children in her Aurora apartment, Kane County prosecutors claim.

With 171,782 residents, according to the most recent Census Bureau estimates, Aurora beats out every town save Chicago.

Joliet got some good news from Washington in its legal case against Evergreen Terrace. The U.S. Supreme Court last month refused to hear an appeal from Evergreen Terrace owners, who have tried to block the case on constitutional grounds.

If a berm is constructed in the Lakelands subdivision, it would prevent most flood water from the DuPage River from spilling into the neighborhood lake during a massive rainstorm.

A much-discussed development set to permanently alter the rural landscape about 20 miles south of Joliet was given a nudge.