Dan Irving, who represents the fifth district, was arrested on suspicion of domestic battery following an altercation between him and his estranged wife at her Alta dress store. As of this writing, he was awaiting word on what charges, if any he would face.

She asked for a restraining order, and it was revealed he is not now living in Peoria, but in Hanna City, where I hear he has relatives. And as of this writing, no one on the council will discuss what that means for his eligibility to serve on the council.

And just two days before this was written, his young daughter was struck by a car. There has been no word from the family or the hospital on her condition.

My best wishes go out to the family.

And Peoria Mayor Jim Ardis was caught sending out letters on official Peoria letterhead urging recipients to donate to the campaign of John Vespa, who is running for the office of circuit court judge.

There’s been some hemming and hawing over whether this is a crime, but on the face of it, it seems to be a violation of the rules against using government resources to campaign for a candidate for office.

Trouble is, he was using a his home computer and was on his own time. Still, city property was appropriated.

I’ve read the term “tempest in a teapot” applied to this. And a case for this can be made. Certainly all of the recipients from Ardis’ personal campaign database already knew he was mayor of the city when he asked them to contribute.

But Ardis is a veteran of numerous campaigns. He is also the public face of Peoria city government. He should have known better than to make this mistake, and it’s now impossible for the city to tell ordinary employees they have to be careful about electioneering while on duty.

Sick to death of this election

The good news is that by the time you read this, the election will either be over, or it will be in a few days. The bad news is that municipal elections are a few months away. And even worse news is that the 2012 election season will be here before we have time to recover.

I do not remember an election season that was so filled with hatred and lies. And both Republicans and Democrats are guilty, with the GOP just a little bit more culpable because they spent more.

I do not recall reading, seeing or hearing one single ad that could not be described as an attack ad. None. No one wanted to discuss their ideas, just remind voters that the other guy was worse.

Disgusting and discouraging.

If you feel the same, consider voting for a third party candidate.

PJS headline about shooting is very misleading

Things like this annoy me.

The Journal Star headline reads: Group fires gunshot as police officer watches.

First, how can a “group” fire a gun? Were there multiple triggers on the thing? Did they take a group vote? How?

Second, the headline is misleading. I read it and I thought it was about a hapless officer who watched as a triggerman opened fire on someone, scornful of the cop standing nearby.

What the story actually said was that there was a shoving match, someone got knocked to the ground and the gun went off in the guy’s pant and they all scurried away.