Reacting to a high rate of positive tests for the coronavirus in the village of Lyons, the superintendent of Lyons-Brookfield School District 103 has changed gears and decided to start school remotely next month.

For more than 30 years there's been no dispute that the most powerful political force in North Riverside has been the Voter's Improvement Party, or VIP, for short.

Class rank could soon be a relic of the past at Riverside-Brookfield High School. At its Aug. 11 meeting, the District 208 Board of Education will consider whether to eliminate class rank, following a growing trend among high schools.

Mirroring a trend that's playing out statewide since the beginning of the month, local communities are seeing new cases of COVID-19 in numbers not seen for two months.

The federal investigation into a years' long bribery scheme involving Commonwealth Edison and Mike Madigan, the powerful Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives and chairman of the Illinois Democratic Party, has hit uncomfortably close to home for one Riverside couple. 

Brookfield took a swing at expanded al fresco dining in its downtown last weekend, and it received a warm welcome from restaurants and bars in the 3700 block of Grand Boulevard, almost all of whom participated in the program.