Kira Santiago understands the complexities of expressing love on Valentine’s Day. She wants to remind people that when thinking about love, extend thoughts to local, sustainable and organic. Organic matters for flowers as well as food! Santiago is an organic…
While furloughed federal employees are assured they will get back pay following the government’s temporary shutdown, contract workers have no such assurances. There are about 35 independent contract workers at the National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research in Peoria. Requesting…
Health care’s high costs, inferior coverage and lack of inexpensive options aren’t news, but within 72 hours early last month, a few things sparked renewed interest in the increasingly feasible Medicare for All – news about price hikes for various…
Central Illinois is familiar with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, which for decades has treated children with leukemia. But few realize the cost associated with one of the most effective medicines used to treat chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML): Gleevec. Manufactured…
Thirty five who have left very important, substantial positions with the Trump Administration in two years: Three chiefs of staff, three national security advisors, a secretary of defense, two secretaries of state, two department of homeland security secretaries, two veteran…
Peoria Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Sharon Desmoulin-Kherat got a pat on the back and a healthy salary increase from board members. Not much was shared by adoring supporters about her accomplishments, but everyone agrees she’s a vast improvement over Dr.…
Somewhat overlooked during the holidays’ government shutdown caused by President Trump’s demand for $5 billion to partly fund a border wall that Democrats don’t support was the delay of some farm subsidies and other payments to farmers. That sparked a…
Here’s a tally of the number of women in the U.S. House. In 1989: 16 were Democrats; 13 were Republicans In 2019: 89 are Democrats; 13 are Republicans Why is that of any significance? Because diversity matters. History has proven…
Is the U.S. the “greatest democracy in the world” as is often claimed? As any conservative will correctly remind you, the founders were wary of too much democracy and established the country not as a democracy but as a constitutional…
Will Bradley University’s vital NPR radio station, WCBU-FM, survive as it is, or is it ultimately doomed to morph into a second WGLT or worse? That’s the question, but there are no clear answers yet. WCBU, branded as Peoria Public…
BY DECKLE McLEAN Behind every great fortune lies a great crime, French early 19th century novelist Honore de Balzac advised. Less flamboyantly phrased, Balzac’s message was that some fortunes start with a crime or two. If America’s wealth can be…
In the current stages of the #metoo movement, I often question if women of color have a voice or if being in the background and accepting inappropriate advances have caused a rift in how women of color view themselves and…
Music appreciation was not particularly emphasized in the grade school I attended. We were introduced to seemingly complicated “facts” about music, none of which resonated with me, as evidenced by my grade. Like most Catholic schools during the ’50s and…
Each year, bird enthusiasts look forward to taking part in the longest running “Citizen Scientist” event in existence –– the National Audubon Society’s Christmas Bird Count. This last CBC marked the 119th year that birders have been involved in documenting…
Early in Michiko Itatani’s career she coaxed viewers into unpredictable formal paths in painting and installation discretely probing relationships between radical pictorial composition and societal and geological boundaries. All of her work coincided with the contemplative legacies of reductivism and…
Join us as we embark on the journey of turning the old Greeley school building into a vibrant community arts center for all to enjoy. As we all know, it takes a village to make this happen, and we welcome…
MUSIC Feb. 1: The Tempest “Live at the Five Spot.” 5:30-7:30 p.m., Contemporary Art Center. 674-6822. Feb. 3: Concordia String Trio concert, featuring Marcia Henry Liebenow on violin, Chee Hyeon Choi on viola and Karen Becker on cello. 3 p.m.…
Recently, I was fortunate enough to be on a panel discussion about anti-Semitism at B’Nai B’Rith senior housing apartment. As I heard the speakers voice their opposition to anti-Semitism and support for the people of the Jewish faith, the words…
In 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. wrote these words: “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” They are from his now-famous Letter from a…
Daniel Kerns was installed as Troop 11’s 70th Eagle Scout on Nov. 13. He is the son of Dan and Barb Kerns, has two older sisters and is a senior at Notre Dame High School. His Eagle project was landscaping…
Both the number and the rate of job injuries that killed workers declined by 1 percent in 2017, compared to the year before, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. Some 5,147 workers died that year, a BLS survey calculated, or…
More than a dozen majestic oaks still stand in Hall Woods near Hall Cemetery just east of Lacon, witness to a lynching in 1898. The exact site of the lynching, reportedly by a mob of 100 men from Toluca, is…
