The nurse who handed me my vaccine card after my second COVID-19 vaccination shot offered some pretty sage, and now quite prescient, advice. “Make sure to keep this in a safe place,” she said. ”You’ll probably need this in the future.” I thought putting it in an organizer on my desk at home was sufficient safekeeping. My rambunctious, yet adorable puppy Ollie had other thoughts. Less than a week after my second dose, I found my 10-month-old pandemic puppy, with half of the card in his mouth,

Two close friends, Yasemin Uyar and Jacqui Pscolka, met up with another woman at a brick-front pizza place on a Highland Park corner six years ago. They came with a warning. The man the other woman had just started dating, Tyler Rios, was dangerous. Uyar knew him well. She had been dating Rios on and off since they met in Highland Park High School four years prior and he had a history of being physically abusive toward her, according to family and friends. Uyar’s stories startled the woman, pr

As Ida raged and flood waters rose Wednesday, Caesar Dommar left his home in the Lost Valley neighborhood of Manville with his wife, Megan, and newborn to seek refuge around 7 p.m. Eventually they were able to return in the middle of the night and get their cat and move some items. Midday Thursday, they received unthinkable news from their neighbor. Their home, which they bought in 2017, had exploded and was on fire. “It doesn’t feel real to be honest,” Megan Dommar said after pointing out the

Madison Vargas spoke clearly and without crying. As the adults around her sobbed and blotted their cheeks with tissues, the 12-year-old wanted to make clear what school bus driver Hudy Muldrow Sr. took from her on May 17, 2018, when her twin sister Miranda Vargas was killed alongside teacher Jennifer Williamson in the horrific school bus crash on Interstate 80. "Mr. Devil, how dare you take my heart away from me without expecting it?” Madison Vargas asked. "Sometimes I wish I was on that bus