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Jonathan Pitts, a Chicago-based performer, storyteller and teacher was four-and-a-half when his dad, Dave Pitts, was kidnapped by a hitchhiking serial killer, Larry Ranes, just outside Las Vegas. The odd thing is that Pitts didn’t find out about his father’s kidnapping until 37 years later, when he happened across a 1964 article from the Chicago Sun-Times recounting Dave Pitts’ encounter with Ranes. When he did, he did what any seasoned storyteller would do — he wrote a monologue about it.The former Oak Parker performed it onstage earlier this month in Chicago.

Last year was a banner year for local painter Ron Feley of Ronbo’s Fine Painting. As he does every year, Feley entered some of his local house-painting projects in the Chicago’s Finest Painted Ladies & Her Court paint competition. Now in its 38th year, the contest, which is sponsored by the Chicago Paint & Coatings Association, recognizes properties for their beautiful paint jobs, focusing on the craftsmanship of the paint work, as well as how well the paint complements the structure of the building.

Heather Mack, a former Oak Park resident who plead guilty to conspiring to kill her mother, is asking for a minimum sentence of 15 years in prison. Mack was convicted as an accessory to Sheila von Wiese-Mack’s murder in 2014 in Bali, Indonesia.

“Go outside.” Oak Parker Hila Ratzabi writes in her poem, How to Pray While the World Burns, “Find a patch of grass, sand, dir./Sit, kneel, place a hand or just/A finger to the soft earth/Feel it pulse back.” 

On December 26, 1923, the Oak Park Club opened on the corner of Oak Park Avenue and Ontario Street with a gala social event for its members. The sizeable building was designed by Chicago-based architects Holmes and Flynn.