Carbondale

In the small town of Buffalo Grove, Illinois, the Baran family has quite the head-turner in their 150-pound pig, Norbert.

If you love catfish, deer and butterflies, you need to see a tiny Illinois Airbnb next to a gorgeous lake that has all of that and much more.

Bring-your-own cannabis smoking lounges in Illinois are opening at a snail's pace, but there are a few. Now, Mundelein has given the greenlight to the first smoke-on-site business in the Chicago burbs.

For nearly 70 years, a "metro area" was defined by a population of 50,000 people or more. Now, a change would make it 100,000 people to carry that designation.

That might not be a bad slogan to use to draw fishermen (and women) to the waterways here in the Land of Lincoln to do some fishing, and spending of their tourism dollars. It doesn't hurt to have a guy in Carbondale with video proof that it happens, either.