Sunday Cartoon: Better to Give Than Receive

'Tis also the season for charity.

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How Early is Too Early for Christmas Shopping?

It used to be Black Friday was for the earliest of early shoppers. Not anymore. Look around. The stores are ready now.

Look around the Chicago area and you'll see all the signs: The early birds no longer wait until Black Friday to do their Christmas shopping. This year, Black Friday is on Nov. 23, but big retailers and mail-order companies are starting well in advance. Amazon, for example, is beginning its Black Friday on Nov. 14. Crazy or crazy smart? Just how early is too early to shop for Christmas 2012 gifts? Take our poll.

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Patch Poll: Should Possession of Small Amounts of Marijuana be Legal?

Americans’ views on legalizing marijuana are changing and some governmental bodies are enacting or trying to enact laws to decriminalize possession of small amounts of the drug.

Fifty percent of Americans—the largest portion ever recorded—now favor legalizing marijuana, according to an October Gallup poll. That total is up from 46 percent last year. The Evanston City Council last month passed an ordinance amending the city’s marijuana laws so that any individual found in possession of 10 grams or less of marijuana will not be arrested. Instead, violators will be issued a notice to appear for a hearing, fined between $50 and $500 and possibly ordered to seek drug counseling, Evanston Patch reported. On the state level, State Rep. La Shawn Ford introduced a bill earlier this year that would lower the penalties for marijuana possession statewide. Rather than facing an arrest and potential jail time, anyone caught …

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Jeff Ward: Downtown Geneva Needs a Bigger Slice of That $11.4 Billion Black Friday Pie

I finally succumbed to the lure of Black Friday, but it took Tom Petty to get me out the door!

It’s true! Despite my previous assertions which included a bold statement that it would never happen to me, I finally succumbed to the lure of Black Friday, or, as it’s better known at Kiss The Sky and every other independent record store, “Black Vinyl Friday.” Yes! It took an exclusive Tom Petty live album, some unreleased Wilco songs, a 1972 live Grateful Dead triple LP, and a Kings of Leon box set complete with new material to get me out of the house on what might be the most contrived day since they invented New Year's Eve. But let me make one thing perfectly clear. I wasn’t exactly standing out in the cold, waiting in a long line to get into some Randall Road big box store at 2 in the morning while perfecting my pepper-spray …

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Terry Flanagan

8:09 pm on Monday, November 28, 2011

Jeff, It's taken you a lot of years to finally break down and finally venture out into the Black Friday morass. I'm still holding out and don't see myself camping out in front of any big box store hoping to get a deal on appliances. Just like you won't find me in line in front of an Apple store waiting for the first iWhatever device. Black Friday is now starting on Thanksgiving Day, which means …   more ›

What's the Best Deal You've Found on Black Friday?

Calling all citizen journalists and shoppers! What's the best deal you got today? What are the good deals still out there?

Are you "out there" today? Did you hit the stores at midnight or rise at the crack of dawn for a deal? If so, let us know your success story! What's the best deal you've landed? Where are there still good deals to be had? My neighbor was out this morning and got a nice Nikkon camera at Super Target in St. Charles for $99. She said there were a lot of nice cameras still in stock. If you're shopping in the Tri-Cities area, or if you're a store owner who's got a good deal going this weekend, let us know in the comments field. Patch doesn't have an army of reporters, but with an army of citizen journalists, we can help get the word out. Let your friends and neighbors know what's up, and help them find the best deals for the 2011 holiday season!

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