NORTHBROOK — More than a few giant steps backward are needed to admire the new colorful and meaningful mural at Solomon Schechter Day School in Northbrook.

NORTHBROOK — The Northbrook plan commission soon will be reviewing a project that could improve a site at the heart of the village.

NORTHBROOK — In her every day life, Stephanie Smolen may be a typical 16-year-old Glenbrook North High School junior. But when she steps out onto a dance floor, Smolen becomes a performer extraordinaire - gliding, strutting, and making quick, synchronized turns, before moving seamlessly on with her partner. And Smolen demonstrated her talents a few weeks ago during the school’s “Spartans Connect” workshop. She believes she was almost destined to dance, since she began taking ballet lessons at three years old. But it was not ballet that she chose to pursue. “I accidentally found Latin ballroom dancing at the Randhurst …

GLENVIEW — More than 85 million women will celebrate their maternal role Sunday (May 12), but achieving that role has meant overcoming a new set of hurdles. That is because modern women have a variety of things to consider that their mothers and grandmothers did not, said Dr. Eve Feinberg of the Fertility Centers of Illinois, which has an office in Glenview. Careers for women tend to get in the way of the rush to motherhood seen by previous generations. Although many woman are waiting a decade or more to have children, the biological clock has not changed in terms …

GLENCOE — As village leaders gear up to face complaints about erosion in the village’s ravines, the most diligent preservation effort in any ravine in Glencoe in recent years may have been the work of the Village of Northbrook.

NORTHBROOK — Northbrook-On-Ice skaters are preparing to wow their audiences next weekend with graceful agility, speed and athleticism. Three hundred and fifty skaters from three to 18 years old will present the Northbrook Park District’s 44th annual show titled “In the Loop.”

A 73-year-old Northbrook woman has been charged in a hit-and-run involving a 77-year-old female pedestrian in Highland Park. The arrest came after Highland Park crash investigators linked car parts from the scene to a 2007 Volvo that was in a body repair shop in Northbrook.

Former Congressman Robert Dold has not formally announced he is running again in 2014 for the 10th District, but a fundraising campaign has started.

SKOKIE — Four teens from the northwest suburbs learned this winter how to better think about the world far beyond the Chicago area.

NORTHBOOK — There are still a few shopping days left before Mother’s Day. Need a gift idea that also gives back to two great causes? Northbrook Court and Make It Better Magazine have teamed up for their second annual fundraiser, Celebrate Mom beCause.

NORTHBROOK — A cancer researcher, pioneering the cure of leukemia with umbilical cord blood transplants, is urging patients not to wait for their doctors to find out about new treatments that could help them.

GLENVIEW — Larry King, of Long Grove, a 1984 Glenbrook North High School graduate, returned to his alma mater for a special task. King, was lucky enough to be chosen to play “Tony” in the high school’s production of West Side Story when he attended.

LINCOLNSHIRE — Anyone who has ever worn braces knows that the experience can be uncomfortable, painful or annoying at times. What if someone there was a device that was proven to speed up the end result of braces? AcceleDent is a device that patients with braces bite down on for 20 minutes a day. It generates small vibrations called micropulses to gently accelerate movement of the teeth as guided by the braces. “It legitimately works,” said Dr. Neil Warshawsky, the head of Orthodontics for the Cranial Facial Center at University of Illinois Dental School. He is also the founder of …