This spring Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan demanded that Peabody Energy prove it has the funds necessary to reclaim coal mines if it shuts down, rekindling public concern over abandoned mines and the responsibility for cleaning them up. In her…
Author Archive for Bill Knight
by Bill Knight • • 0 Comments
Central Illinois native Dick Stolley’s politeness was key to his getting one of the scoops of the century when he bought the 8mm home movie of the assassination of President Kennedy, he told Terry Bibo when she interviewed him for…
Power in a small package
by Bill Knight • • 0 Comments
UPS driver Carol Steffen for decades has cultivated her downtown and Main Street customers like the rhubarb she’s grown in her garden: perennial favorites. Chatting on a rainy day between deliveries at Campustown, she adjusts her glasses, fidgets with an…
by Bill Knight • • 0 Comments
It’s past time for political prioritization. At a time when the state of Illinois has been unable or unwilling to meet its financial obligations to social-service providers because of the lack of a state budget for 10 months, the state…
Renaissance along the river
by Bill Knight • • 0 Comments
A few breweries and eateries may have gotten attention for recently opening within sight of the Illinois River, but a few joints have been persevering here for years. Compared to Peoria’s past – from the heydays of Harold’s Club on…
Technology comes with benefits, but a price
by Bill Knight • • 0 Comments
A Peorian in his 60s talks about his having turned library trash into flea-market treasure by retrieving hundreds of books discarded into dumpsters during remodeling or conversion from traditional libraries to public computer labs where teens watch YouTube videos. The…
Fairbanks leaving neighborhoods active
by Bill Knight • • 0 Comments
Whether emptying street-corner trash cans or settling into an emptying office, Steve Fairbanks’ sigh and smile greet visitors like a guy with secrets he’s eager to share. This time of year has featured “States of” speeches — the Union, the…
by Bill Knight • • 0 Comments
Five years after the publication of Peorian John Kelly’s “The Other Law of Moses,” the 250-page paperback seems as relevant as ever. Progressive populist Bernie Sanders talks about income inequality and college debt; conservative populist Donald Trump rails about overpriced…
Food deserts
by Bill Knight • • 0 Comments
Distance and income leave some neighborhoods hungry for good food BY BILL KNIGHT The need is chicken-or-egg. And meat and fruit . . . . Neighborhoods need full-service groceries for consumers to shop for healthy food, but businesses need customer…
by Bill Knight • • 0 Comments
Susan B. Anthony, born 196 years ago this month, certainly didn’t need others to speak for her. But she had a knack for making allies from throughout the progressive movements of the late 19th and earlier 20th centuries. So when…