Moran

Dan Moran: Route 53 saga drives along

Driving south on the existing Route 53 while heading down to the Schaumburg metro area Sunday afternoon, I took a moment to savor the possibly endangered freedom of driving on that untolled expressway.

War on blood-sucking pests

John Lennon said it best: “Imagine there’s no mosquitoes/It’s easy if you try ...” I was paraphrasing there — a little — but the fact is we might be on the cusp of living in a world without the bloodsucking pests that are a fact of life for most of the civilized world. Heavy emphasis on “might,” but we’ll take what we can get.

Laundry list of good news

Who says the “If It Bleeds, It Leads” media never writes anything positive? Well, many people, and sometimes it is hard to argue with them, since their evidence is literally written in ink.

Knowing your station

It was a young Renee Zellweger as working mom Dorothy Boyd who said all we need to know about flying first class: “It used to be a better meal, now it’s a better life.”

Test riding the steel beast

By noon last Thursday, Bobby Bannon of Spring Grove was a grizzled veteran of X Flight. “This will be my 19th time,” he said, lining up for the back row during an invitation-only preview of the new alpha-dog coaster at Six Flags Great America.

Artist documents Burma trek

Over the past quarter-century, artist David Dallison has had his passport stamped so often it probably begs for mercy.

Accurately predicting forecast foibles

One of the keys to being a pundit in our 21st-century Culture of Blame is to never predict anything — just react when someone else screws up. Events will put something on the tee for you every day.

‘Avengers’ brings back daydream heroes of youth

Before I attempt a mature and intelligent review of “The Avengers” — the latest rush of adrenaline in the marriage between Marvel Comics and Hollywood — let me get something out of the way right up front: Hulk smash.

Time to break a sweat

Spring is finally re-springing a good month after March duped all our flowers into emerging far too early, and there is no shortage of opportunities for couch-bound Lake County residents to get out and break a sweat.

Seeing red in worst intersection stats

The bad news for Lake County and its many fans of safe driving is that we have a local player on the latest roster of the six-county Chicago area’s most dangerous intersections: Grand Avenue and Hunt Club Road in Gurnee, coming in at sixth with 47 accidents in the studied year of 2010.

Renovated ReStore fully stocked for grand reopening

When it comes time to improve your home, it helps if you are directly involved in the business of home improvement. That would be the case at 3545 Grand Ave. in Gurnee, where Habitat for Humanity Lake County has renovated its ReStore after six years of sporting what might be called a rough-and-ready look

Dan Moran: Some days you get it right, other days ...

As singer/songwriter/guitarist Mark Knopfler so memorably put it, sometimes you’re the windshield, sometimes you’re the bug.

Leukemia survivor ‘doing amazing’ after two-year battle

Two years ago this spring, at an American Cancer Society Relay for Life kickoff event, I met Jaime Dustan, whose son, Evan, was struggling with complications from a bone-marrow transplant as he battled acute myeloid leukemia.

Dan Moran: Twister raked county in ‘67

Forty-five years ago today, the 1967 tornado outbreak sent 44 twisters across the Midwest, including one through Lake County.

Signs point way to ‘Waukegan Arts District’

Drive down Genesee Street in Waukegan this week and you’ll see new pedestrian-crossing signs — but not the kind with the slightly stooped silhouette of a stick-figured man strolling along (with no hands or feet and a floating head, upon closer inspection).