15 For 2015: The Biggest North Shore News of the Year

News from across Chicago’s North Shore in 2015 hit all corners of the earth, and I’ve been interested everyday to see what happens next. There’s never a dull moment here, but some stories proved more compelling than others. Here are the 15 biggest news stories from the region that stretches from Evanston up to Lake Bluff on the shore, and extends a little west to include communities like Glenview, Northbrook, Skokie and Deerfield.

In no particular order:

Deerfield H.S. Grad Goes on Jeopardy!: Being a risk taker worked out well for Michael Bilow, a Highland Park native who graduated from Deerfield High School. Bilow was a three-time champion of the popular game show and totaled $97,000 in winnings in March, which was among the highest totals ever reached on the show. His risk-taking backfired a bit when he went for a fourth-straight title, ending up with a negative amount in that game.

Nearly 40 Dogs Found Covered in Feces at Glencoe Home: Hazmat crews spent a majority of a May weekend finding a hoard of dogs inside a Glencoe house. A total of 37 were found covered in feces and matted fur, including five which had to be euthanized. Jeanne Harper, owner of the home and an attorney, was charged with offenses related to the mistreatment of animals. A majority of the dogs were saved and some were even adopted thanks to a pair of local animal shelters.

Redhead Festival Makes U.S. Debut in Highwood: Gingers from as near as Highland Park and as far as New Mexico congregated on a beautiful June weekend in front of Highwood City Hall to celebrate having red hair. Organizer Jim Stoecker, owner of Alex’s Washington Gardens, based the ceremony of a yearly tradition in Holland - something he stumbled on accidentally while biking across Europe.

Red Seal Moves Forward With Dividing Golf Course: Passion and tempers have flared throughout the year as Red Seal Development has been engaged in a battle with Mission Hills homeowners groups over their plans to demolish half of the Mission Hills Golf Course in unincorporated Northbrook in order to make Provenance, a 137-home development. Despite ongoing legal battles, Red Seal has already started the demolition since both village boards in Northbrook and Glenview have given approval.

School Referendum a Divisive Issue in North Shore School District 112: Apologies to those who aren’t from Highland Park, Highwood or Fort Sheridan and won’t care for including this one. But in those areas covered by North Shore School District 112, this has been a big deal. Numerous opinion pieces have been submitted to Patch this year, some in support of a $198 million referendum on the ballot in March 2016 and others who strongly oppose it. Some say having one middle school campus will provide the best educational opportunities for students, but others claim a longer commute to school will create more problems for the majority of district families.

Assault Weapons Ban in Highland Park Will Remain: The Supreme Court of the United States decided in early December not to hear an appeal to the city of Highland Park’s ban on high-powered assault weapons. The appeal had been initiated by a Lincolnshire pediatrician and was first denied by lower appeal courts.

United Airlines Apologizes to Muslim Woman For Discrimination: Tahera Ahmad, a chaplain at Northwestern University, claimed she was discriminated against on a United Airlines flight in May when a flight attendant would not give her an unopened can of Diet Coke and a passenger told her it was because she would use it as a weapon.

Controversial Principal Hire Causes Stir at Lake Forest High School: Some parents and students at the affluent North Shore high school were outraged when the board of education hired a woman who allegedly quoted Malcolm X and made reference to “white privilege” in a now-deleted blog post. Some claimed Chala Holland, former assistant principal at Oak Park-River Forest High School, was a bad fit for a school with a high percentage of caucasian students.

Off-Duty Evanston Cop Saves Suicidal Man: Ken Carter was off-duty and exiting a downtown Evanston restaurant in May when he spotted someone atop the Maple Avenue parking garage threatening to jump. Carter called for help, but was able to make his way to the jumper and pull him away from the ledge.

Convicted Daycare Worker Fights for Freedom: Melissa Calusinski, the woman serving a 31-year prison sentence for the murder of 16-month-old Benjamin Kingan at a Lincolnshire day care in 2009, has filed a postconviction petition alleging some evidence had been withheld from her trial. That evidence, which suggests Kingan did not die from a blow to the head like prosecutors have claimed, convinced Lake County Coroner Thomas Rudd to change the manner of death from “homicide” to “undetermined.”

DeLorean From “Back to the Future Part II” Comes to Stevenson: It wasn’t just that the car made famous in the Back to the Future movie trilogy of the 1980s came to Stevenson High School. That would have been cool. But to have it there on October 21, 2015 - the date main characters Marty McFly and Doc Brown travel to in the second movie - was outstanding. A connection between a Stevenson teacher and owner of Vernon Hills-based Windy City Novelties made it happen. Although current Patriots were not even born when the movie came out in 1989, they were excited about missing part of class to take in a big piece of movie history.

Loyola Academy Rambles Through Season Undefeated; Wins State Title: Always a bridesmaid, finally a bride. The Loyola Academy Ramblers have had good football teams as of late, but often ended their seasons as the runner-up. This year, they simply could not be stopped. A perfect regular season was followed by a post-season run that included three shutouts, including a 45-0 whipping of Marist in the IHSA Class 8A State Championship Game.

Berto Center Becomes Venue One North Shore: The longtime Deerfield practice home of the Chicago Bulls is in the midst of transforming into an elegant event venue. But before construction started, members of the Deerfield Police Department and Deerfield Bannockburn Fire Department played each other in an exhibition game coached by current Bull Kirk Hinrich and three-time champion Bill Wennington, who called the place his “home” for six years.

Glenview Cop Charged With Perjury: Long before Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez faced criticism for how she handled the LaQuan McDonald case in Chicago, she was dragging her feet in an obvious case of misconduct by law enforcement officers in Glenview and Chicago. Glenview officer James Horn, one other Glenview police officer and three from the Chicago Police Department participated in the arrest of a marijuana suspect in 2013. But they didn’t search the arrestee’s vehicle before placing him into handcuffs. That was caught on video. The cops, except for the other Glenview officer, all testified in court that they had found the marijuana before he was arrested. Even though this was all on video, Alvarez waited months to charge Horn and the three Chicago officers with perjury, and only after Glenview Village President Jim Patterson demanded answers.

Lake Bluff Police Mark 50 Years Without Using a Gun: We all know Lake Bluff is an extremely safe community, but this is an amazing statistic. Police there have not had to use a gun on a person since 1965.