Beyond a grassy ridge from a tree-covered bandshell, carnival rides twinkle and sparkle in the humid evening, calliope music tinkling softly. It could be almost any year in the last century. The louder music exploding from six Marshall amps…
“Sticks and stones will break your bones, but names will never hurt you,” goes the children’s rhyme. In Canton, some 40 miles southwest of Peoria, it might be said, “Names will never hurt you, but fists can.” And hate. On…
As Major League Baseball’s top players compete in July 12’s annual All-Star Game in San Diego, fans are sure to marvel at the talent on display, and might reminisce about pickup games on city sandlots or rural pastures in their…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
