Claire O'Brien

Football fandom is split between the Bears and the Packers in the McHenry County area, which has some official Packer bars.

Trump and Truth Store owner Lisa Fleischmann hopes to reopen her store in a few weeks in Crystal Lake.

A nonprofit that provides housing in Woodstock said it was cooperating with law enforcement after a man who said he lived in their housing was accused of attacking a woman and attempting to blow up a gas station.

Parts of the Woodstock Walmart reopened Tuesday after a fire on New Year’s Eve that authorities said was intentionally set and caused millions of dollars in damage.

According to the McHenry County Department of Health’s respiratory illness surveillance report, respiratory illness as a whole and flu, COVID and RSV are all at peak levels.

A Woodstock woman has been accused of arson in a fire that broke out at the local Walmart on New Year’s Eve.

A DUI charge has been filed in a New Year’s Day car crash into a home in Johnsburg that injured two people, according to Johnsburg police.

A driver was killed in a single-vehicle crash near Harvard Wednesday, authorities said.

Demolition has begun on Crystal Lake's Academy Building, one of the oldest structures in town. Preservationists' efforts to save it were unsuccessful, but they were able to document the building before its demise.

A baby born into a Crystal Lake family on Thursday was the first baby born in 2026 at Advocate Sherman Hospital in Elgin

A home was left uninhabitable after a fire in the Marengo area late on New Year’s Eve

Two people were hospitalized after a car crashed into a house in Johnsburg on Thursday morning

A fire Wednesday evening at Walmart in Woodstock prompted the store to be evacuated and to remain closed for the evening.

From the deaths of prominent citizens to the far-reaching impacts of the first year of President Trump's second term, here is a look at some of the biggest stories that happened in the McHenry County area in 2025.

Food Shed Co-op in Woodstock opened in 2024 after a decade in the making. But a year and a half later, it's at risk of closing its doors.