Patch Flash: Chicago Dentist to Pay Kids for Excess Halloween Candy

Want to make sure your child doesn't eat too much candy this Halloween? Consider giving them a financial incentive. That is what one Chicago dental office is doing by paying kids for their "excess" Halloween candy.  Westend Dental, located in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood, will pay trick-or-treaters $1 per pound of Halloween candy.

The U.S. Department of Education announced more than $4 million in grants Monday that will be distributed to select charter schools across the country. Twenty-three schools received funding to strengthen their programming, and three were awarded large grants that came with an endorsement -- funding earmarked to help them prepare their successful curricula for dissemination to other charters across the country.  Chicago-based charter program Perspectives, which operates five schools across the city, received the largest award offered in this category and stands to get $400,000 in federal funding over the next two years. Their program, called "A Disciplined Life," focuses on social and emotional learning inside and outside of the classroom.

For Lou Lang, Governor Pat Quinn’s counterproposal on gaming legislation is pretty much a non starter, but that does not necessarily mean the veteran representative will stop his two decade long effort to expand gambling in Illinois. On Monday, that dramatically cut back on the legislation that barely squeaked through both Springfield chambers this Spring, with Lang guiding it through the House.

which means combining the electrical loads of each community, with the league acting as a broker to try to secure the best rate for residents. New Lenox and Crest Hill recently teamed up to aggregate their electric loads, securing what officials said will be a 25 percent savings for customers.

Mayor Kathleen Weaver said the city would consider putting the referendum back on the ballot during the March 2012 primaries. Residents voted against the referendum in April by a measure of 51.39 percent to 48.61 percent. But some residents — several of whom weren’t aware of the first referendum — are now approaching the city asking it to get lower electric rates for residents.

for passenger vehicles starting Jan. 1. 

The $607 million for capital projects includes $241 million for the first year of the agency’s new 15-year capital program Move Illinois: The Illinois Tollway Driving the Future, designed to improve mobility, relieve congestion, reduce pollution, create 120,000 jobs and link economies across the Midwest.

According to the McHenry County Sheriff's Office, James R. Henson, 44, of 5010 W. Bromley Drive in McHenry was arrested Wednesday night for criminal trespass to real property, burglary, possession of burglary tools and criminal damage to property after a trespassing complaint was made in the 4000 block of Terra Cotta Road in Crystal Lake.

The juvenile, 15-year-old Renee Zubko, was last seen Oct. 11 at a friend’s apartment in Westmont. Zubko is a 5'7" white female who weighs 130 lbs. and has blonde hair and brown eyes. She was last seen wearing a gray Chicago Bears hoodie, blue jeans, leggings, and gray moccasins.