Two years of planning, one year of programming, and six months of meetings and campaigning have boiled down to the Peoria City Council’s decision to keep moving forward and the Library Board’s settlement on a new North branch.

In April 2007, local citizens cast a 72 percent landslide vote on behalf of a $35 million bond referendum to upgrade and expand the Peoria Public Library system. The referendum passed in every one of the city’s 93 precincts and awaited Peoria City Council approval this spring. The Library Board appeared confident. Citizens day dreamed of spending lazy Sunday afternoons sipping mocha lattes and leafing through bookshelves while students received technology-based assistance with their homework. Read the rest of this entry »

From presidential endorsements to support from House majority leaders, candidates are campaigning hard to raise money—and votes—as the election draws near.

With kids out of school and families on vacation, the November election may be a mere spark in the minds of voters. But for State Representative Aaron Schock and former WMBD Agricultural Reporter Colleen Callahan, the campaign for retiring U.S. Representative Ray LaHood’s seat is already in full swing. Candidates in the 18th District congressional race have been working hard to turn public heads toward Decision 2008, gaining support from Washington political leaders and organizing rallies and fundraisers to jump-start their campaigns for the months ahead.

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With the rising cost of fuel and energy, many people are thinking about alternative ways to harness their energy, all while lessening their carbon footprint. One popular option is to use renewable energy to power their houses and cars. Renewable energy options all come from the sun, either directly or indirectly, and will be available to us for as long as the sun is shining. This is in direct contrast to fossil fuels, which are nonrenewable and will be depleted in a couple hundred years.

Even more important than the depletion of fossil fuels is the destruction they cause the planet and environment. The burning and use of fossil fuels, such as coal and natural gas, are pollutants and the leading cause of global warming. Read the rest of this entry »

Amazing. President George Bush comes to Peoria again and the smear merchants at the Peoria Journal Star see nothing positive about his visit. It’s hard to figure why the left-leaning newspaper and their intellectually-challenged writers would find anything negative about the leader of the greatest country in the world making a return to our city. Could they be angry because his approval ratings are much higher than the 9% “enjoyed” by the Democrat Congress with such Illinois luminaries as Senators Dick Durbin and Obama?

Could they be upset because the “surge” has been successful and we’re winning the war in Iraq? (Deaths so far in Iraq for the month of July are lower than in the city of Chicago.) Could it be because this President and his administration created more jobs than at anytime in the history of this country with the lowest unemployment during any previous administration? Could it be the left is disappointed that Mr. Bush has prevented any terror attacks on America since 9/11? Could the newspaper’s smear attacks be the result of their disappointment that this President didn’t commit adultery in the Clinton Oral Office like their hero? Read the rest of this entry »

Anyone who’s seen TV’s Law & Order has seen a dramatization of the prickly relationship between police and prosecutors, so it shouldn’t be a surprise when any incumbent State’s Attorney is not endorsed by police groups.

However, there are real risks in raising crime as the main issue in the campaign between Peoria County State’s Attorney Kevin Lyons, a Democrat, and Republican challenger Darin LaHood.

First, no one besides criminals favors crime – there’s no “Go crime!” lobby to oppose real law and order – so the debate can escalate into who’s tougher – and tough means different things to different people.

For instance, is it “tougher” to torture suspects or to adhere to international law? Read the rest of this entry »

We are in the midst of that toasty torrid time of year… commonly called the dog days of summer! A time dominated by the doggone heat. You can feel so dog tired that you’re sicker than a dog. Things seem to be going to the dogs, so you just don’t feel like putting on the dog. Since heat impacts all of us, we all have a dog in this hunt, so to speak… “Dog Days” has traditionally applied to the hottest, most sultry spell of the year here in the northern hemisphere, generally it refers to August and part of July. Although this period is named for ‘man’s best friend,’ it has little to do with dogs, but a lot to do with the heavens. Sirius, the so-called Dog Star, is the brightest star in the sky, next to the sun. In July and August, it actually rises and sets with the sun.

The Romans believed it provided heat as well as light, and hence, during this time always heralded the approach of a hot, unpleasant period associated with an evil time “when the seas boiled, wine turned sour, dogs grew mad, and all creatures became languid, causing to man burning fevers, hysterics, and phrensies” (Brady’s Clavis Calendarium, 1813).

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Listen to talk radio these days, and one gets the impression that the Republican Party is the party of the working class. It is the Democratic Party that caters to the whims of the rich, liberal elites, they say.

Listen to it long enough, and you might begin to believe it.

But if you saw the spectacle in Peoria last month when President Bush stopped by to visit, all such notions vanish.
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by Dolores M. Klein, for Peoria National Organization for Women

In July of 1980 at a Rally labeled Pro-Family by the sponsoring California arm of the Moral Majority, Conservative Caucus leader Howard Phillips (still active today) railed against government policies he felt were anti-family. The major result, in his eyes, “has been the liberation of the wife from the leadership of the husband …..” He went on to say: “You know it used to be that in recognition of the family as the basic unit of society, we had one family, one vote.” He decried the idea of one person, one vote as women being liberated from the leadership of the husband politically! It’s well-known that at a Houston Women’s Rally, a group of Utah delegates were urged to call for nullifying the 19th Amendment giving women the vote.

Sobering history, though today the acceptance of Suffrage for women is undergirded by the number of women holding elective public office and a woman being a viable candidate for President. But MORE equal is not equal.

Perseverance, dedication, and commitment by men and women willing to work tirelessly for equality began in Revolutionary times, with Abigail Adams and her family. In July 1848, at the first Women’s Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, N.Y., one hundred men and women signed the Declaration of Sentiments, including anti-slavery leader, Frederick Douglas who supported the then unpopular proposal of women voting.

It is frustrating for those of us who learned to support human rights in our Christian religions; to still be told that it is God’s will that we accept inequality. I deny that Jesus came to take on maleness; he came to take on human nature. Elizabeth Cady Stanton said it well: “The great spirit of the universe is not responsible for any of these absurdities.”

At the behest of Rep. Bella Abzug in 1971, the U.S. Congress designated August 26th as Women’s Equality Day. The observance not only commemorates the 1920 passage of the 19th Amendment, granting women the right to vote but calls attention to the continuing efforts toward full equality.

When Alice Paul was asked why, after her final success gaining Suffrage, she entered the Equal Rights Amendment for Ratification in 1923; she said that when you put your hand to the plough, you don’t take it off until the end of the row. With Susan B. Anthony, the Napoleon of the Suffrage Movement, we say: “Never another season of silence.”

by Sharon Crews, West Peoria, IL

District #150 has too many “irons in the fire,” and the latest—the Wacky Wednesday plan to cut 90 minutes from the primary school day to give teachers a common prep period has been deemed “legal,” but it certainly isn’t “right” for students.

District Watch, whose efforts against the earlier 45-minute per day plan were successful, is continuing its efforts to oppose the Wednesday plan.

Superintendent Ken Hinton did not admit to being swayed by the group or public opinion. According to board minutes, he scraped the 45-minute-per-day plan “because the initial plan as brought forward and supported by the Board could cause a financial hardship for our families.” He failed to acknowledge that the old plan (and the new plan) would shortchange students educationally.

As a retired Manual teacher and a member of the District Watch group, I beg the readers to call or send e-mails to board members Gorenz, Ross, Spangler, and Wolfmeyer to ask that one of them—that’s all that’s needed, just one, to reverse the Wednesday decision—to make a motion to call for a new vote on this plan.

Even though school starts in a month, the work of implementing this plan is barely underway. Frankly, at any point between now and August 26, reverting to last year’s full-day Wednesday schedule would be far easier than implementing the new schedule. At the July 7 board meeting, Hinton implied that implementation would be carried out by principals, who are just returning to work, and by teachers, who arrive when school starts.

Hinton also indicated that individual principals would also be responsible for finding activities “to utilize the time in the most effective way to see that the students are engaged.” I don’t believe any decision has been made as to what these activities will be or whether or not these activities will be for all children ousted from school early, for just the students at Title I schools, for just students whose parents can afford to pay for afterschool programs, or for the students who are just hanging around school with no place to go.

The original shortened-day plan was to be a cost-cutting measure. The new plan is anything but a money saver especially since Hinton has announced that he has contacted and plans to hire an overseer (another highly-paid administrator) to insure the plan’s success.

Absolutely no one who has opposed the plan is against common planning time for teachers. However, Hinton has consistently made public statements that indicate that he considers an argument against a shortened day to be an argument against common planning time.

Even though Hinton has continuously touted the educational importance of lengthening both the school day and the school year, he justifies his current change of mind by saying that adding the time to the teachers’ day would cost money.

The money issue is an important one to taxpayers and to teachers. The district pays teachers at the Edison schools extra for a longer day that includes common planning time. Next year’s Manual teachers will be paid over $6,000 each for this extra time to collaborate. The same is proposed for the new Glen Oak and Harrison Schools.

Doesn’t it seem fair either to end the longer teacher day and extra pay for teachers at those schools or to extend the same time and financial benefits to the teachers at all District #150 schools? However, the issue of common planning time and compensation should be worked out during next year’s negotiations with teachers. Students should not be “caught in the crossfire” with a loss of instructional time.

Hinton has continually ignored all the offered suggestions to find time within the present school schedule for common planning time. The opposition has continually asked that efforts be made by teachers in 2008-2009 to experiment with common planning in time already available and to offer suggestions to help the central administration and board to set up a well-thought out proposal for the 2009-2010 school year. Imagine that!

Hinton has come very close to guaranteeing that this plan will result in immediate improvement in test scores, etc. What if this common planning period does not result in a significant rise in AYP scores? Will the teachers be blamed as they were at the “old” Manual? Will next year’s scores at Manual go up because its “new” teachers will be paid over $6,000 for the added collaboration time? Loucks Edison had the common prep time—not a “miracle cure,” was it?

Surely, no one believes that teachers can teach all the same material that was taught last year—while losing this large chunk of time this year (54 hours per grade level—216 total). Yet Hinton has not acknowledged that curriculum changes are needed to eliminate material or to move it from one grade level to the next. More than likely, teachers will be held accountable for the same material they taught last year.

Union leadership has been strangely quiet on this issue. Hinton has intimated that the union is pleased with this decision. Personally, I don’t believe that teachers, in general, favor the plan.

Please, those of you Peorians and West Peorians—whether you have children in District #150 schools or not, e-mail or phone Hinton and board members to let your voices be heard.