Mark your calendar for the Great Highwood Pumpkin Festival, Harmony Fest Featuring the Taste of Arlington Heights, the Morton Arboretum’s Cider and Ale Festival, Oktoberfests, Night of 1,000 Jack-o’-Lanterns at Chicago Botanic Garden and more.

Mark your calendar for the Long Grove Apple Fest, Jack O’Lantern World, Huntley Fall Fest, Celebración de los Árboles at Morton Arboretum, Oktoberfests across the suburbs, Pumpkin Fest at Cosley Zoo and more happening this week.

Buffalo Grove officials said the village is aware of reports of dead ducks in Pritchett Pond behind Pritchett Elementary School, as well as concerns about avian botulism.

Mark your calendar for Oktoberfests in Libertyville, Arlington Heights, Elk Grove Village, Palatine and Highland Park; Tacos and Tequila Festival in Geneva; Naperville Irish Fest; Cantigny Car Show and more happening this week.

Mark your calendar for Des Plaines Fall Fest, Fright Fest at Six Flags Great America, St. Charles Jazz Weekend, West Dundee Heritage Fest, Glow in the Park Lantern Walk, Revolutionary War Reenactment at Cantigny and more happening this week.

An evening honoring the late East Leyden and Leyden boys basketball coach Norm Goodman will be held Tuesday in Rosemont.

Mark your calendar for Platzkonzert Germanfest in Hoffman Estates, Taste of Chicago, Winfield Good Old Days, Bloomingdale Septemberfest, South Elgin Scandinavian Day Festival and more happening this week.

It was the darkest hour for Fox Lake, a town of 10,000 suddenly caught in the relentless glare of the national spotlight. Fox Lake Mayor Donny Schmit and crisis communications consultant David Bayless helped guide the village through an unprecedented crisis management odyssey.

A Deer Park man faces a reckless homicide charge stemming from a March crash that killed an 89-year-old Palatine woman in Barrington.