Memorial Day is the unofficial start of the grilling season in Chicago. This year, let your imagination run wild by infusing fresh flavors — and taking a modern approach — when grilling grub.

Like a Hollywood star, Coronado’s 1.5 mile-long beach literally sparkles, thanks to the mineral mica glinting in its sand.

ANAHEIM, Calif. — It’s going to cost more to visit the Happiest Place on Earth. Disneyland has raised its ticket prices as much as 30 percent. The cost of a single-day pass for either Disneyland or its neighboring California Adventure Park jumped this weekend from $80 to $87, an increase of nearly 9 percent. The cost of a year-round pass now runs $649 — a 30-percent hike. The Orange County Register says Disneyland has boosted prices every summer in recent years. It now costs $21 more to visit the park for a single day than it did four years ago. …

Read any good sunscreen labels lately? If so, you may have noticed something: Many still carry the words "waterproof" or "sunblock" — even though the Food and Drug Administration declared years ago that those terms were misleading and promised to ban them by this summer.

More than anything, your No. 1 priority is your child’s safety. Here is some safety wisdom that covers a little of this and a little of that.

Award-winning author Toni Morrison wanted to bring the truth about war and racism to the standard narrative of the time in her latest novel, Home.

DR. LAURA BERMAN: A woman’s exposure to violence has a negative impact on her sexual behavior, a troubling new study discovers.

Dear Abby: Would you please remind your many readers that the greatest gift we can give to America’s fallen is the gift of remembrance? The legacy of those who have died for our freedom — from the Revolutionary War to the present — is something that strengthens and unites Americans. I would like every child to say, "I know why I am free, and I know who died for my freedom." Since 1997, Major League Baseball has stopped all games in progress at 3 p.m. on Memorial Day to observe the National Moment of Remembrance. The umpire steps out from …

Jo-Ann Golec, an outspoken and active advocate for Parkinson’s Disease since being diagnosed 16 years ago, approaches her disease the same as she approaches life: "I think the glass is always half full, and I don’t deviate from that."

We recently heard from Not My Son-In-Law. She was the mother who was upset because her 32-year-old daughter was about to make "a terrible mistake."

Long before Anne Patel and Corinne "Corky" Richman teamed up to co-chair the Boys & Girls Clubs of Chicago’s annual summer gala, their husbands had forged a similar partnership: Anne’s husband Homi is the retired chairman and CEO of Hartmarx, where he frequently did business with Corky’s husband Larry, the CEO of the Private Bank.

As Memorial Day weekend approaches, gasoline prices will continue to put less of a hurt on your wallet thanks to the continuing plunge in oil prices, which dropped below $90 a barrel for the first time in seven months Wednesday. But travelers will pay more for hotels and airfares this holiday weekend.

Dear Abby: My sister "Ruth" and I spent most holidays dining out together after our families grew up and left home. Ruth died last year, and her daughter "Lara" began inviting me for holidays "so I wouldn’t be alone." I have tried to decline, but she persists. She insists that I should be with her instead of with friends, although her plans are always tentative and  often change at the last minute. Last Christmas, she invited me to a community holiday dinner at 2 p.m. with her friends. At the last minute she called to say we’d be dining at …

Those of you who wiggle out of family camping trips by claiming you’re just not into roughing it will have to find another excuse. A range of camping options and innovations have made it far more comfortable to eat, sleep and otherwise spend time in the Great Outdoors.

Marine Lance Cpl. Mark Scott of Naperville won an online contest to be the prom date for LPGA golfer Lexi Thompson.

Chicago ranks fifth among the 50 most bike-friendly cities in the country and has jumped five rungs from its last ranking, according to Bicycling magazine’s 2012 list.