BY BILL KNIGHT Many people worry about crime; they assume there’s cause. But much of that concern is an example of belief versus reality. That disconnect faces 44-year-old Brian Asbell as he starts his position as Peoria County’s new sheriff…
Author Archive for Bill Knight
by Bill Knight • • 0 Comments
Happy re-birthday Three years ago, some 20 Peoria-area journalists and activists came together to buy the Community Word to ensure its future as an independent, locally owned newspaper. Initially launched in 1977, the free monthly now reaches about 19,000 readers…
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The slender, soft-spoken man with salt-and-pepper hair somehow seems taller than his 6-foot, 1-inch frame, and while often serious as he points to problems in state government, he occasionally slips into a smile that seems so genuine you suspect it’s…
Ridin’ the storm out?
by Bill Knight • • 0 Comments
BY BILL KNIGHT Flooding is more frequent and more costly, and destruction like what Peoria County endured four years ago this spring might be considered bad luck. Homeowners, developers and government couldn’t foresee such dangers. Except: Maybe they could. Storms…
Hate crime: Guilty
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BY BILL KNIGHT The last of the three family members arrested in connection with a fight in Canton Memorial Day weekend last year pleaded guilty on March 13. In a complicated agreement with prosecutors, Shane Weller, 19, pleaded guilty: •…
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No less an authority than The Forager Press has pronounced the morel mushroom “May’s wild food of the month,” noting that “The true morels – morchella esculenta, elata and semilibera – are not only some of the most delicious wild…
by Bill Knight • • 0 Comments
Eighty years ago next month, theaters premiered “Walt Disney’s Academy Award Revue,” a May 19, 1937, release including the Oscar-winning shorts “Flowers and Trees,” “The Country Cousin,” “Three Little Pigs,” “The Three Orphan Kittens” and “The Tortoise and the Hare”…
Protesting factory farms
by Bill Knight • • 3 Comments
BY BILL KNIGHT Karen Hudson has had brushes with fame – and the law – but days after the 20th anniversary of her increased involvement with sustainable agriculture, the 61-year-old Peoria County resident stresses that she’s an everyday person and…
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Few people reside on their ancestral land; few live where they believe their religious faith originally preferred. If they did, more Mormons would populate Illinois, and a lot more Native Americans would demand a return of property throughout the state…
by Bill Knight • • 0 Comments
As the nation prepares to cope with a Donald Trump administration that’s nominating a Ku Klux Klan sympathizer as Attorney General (Alabama Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions), it’s wise to recall recent history so that it’s not repeated – and to…