Biotechnology in agriculture is upending traditional notions of justice and liability; public policy is failing to keep up with the problem. Both chemical and organic farmers are venting frustration over harm. Lawsuit over Viptera GMO corn American farmers suffered billions…
Author Archive for Clare Howard
Clare Howard is the editor of the Community Word. She can be reached at communityword@yahoo.com
Central Illinois: A Cancer Cluster?
by Clare Howard • • 22 Comments
BY CLARE HOWARD Kim Crandall walks her dogs, Roo and Mia, everyday on the streets around her Morton home and in the nearby park bordering corn and soybean fields. The walk gives her time to reflect on an alarming pattern…
Treat the patient, not the cancer: Injecting compassion into med school
by Clare Howard • • 9 Comments
BY CLARE HOWARD Dr. Bento Soares knows cancer too intimately from both a personal and academic perspective. He moved here 11 months ago for his position as senior associate dean for research in cancer biology and pharmacology at the University…
Family-owned store subject of sexual discrimination lawsuit
by Clare Howard • • 1 Comment
Citing a longstanding culture of sexual discrimination, a lawsuit filed in November in U.S. District Court in Peoria is seeking damages from Sherman’s Place appliance and furniture store in excess of $2 million plus legal fees on behalf of…
National Sierra Club president: Conflating coal industry with jobs is a “false trick”
by Clare Howard • • 0 Comments
The national president of the Sierra Club said at the annual meeting of the state conference of the NAACP held in Peoria that attempting to protect the coal industry because it provides jobs is a shortsighted argument based on a…
Despite its success, Affordable Care Act still attacked
by Clare Howard • • 1 Comment
Misinformation about the Affordable Care Act is a veritable industry. Editorials like one in a local newspaper (OTHER TAKES: Health insurance mandate gets costlier) are based on ideology, not economic facts, democratic principles and truth. If polls are correct in…
Leitch to conclude 27-year career in Legislature
by Clare Howard • • 0 Comments
When State Rep. David Leitch, former Journal Star reporter, Commercial National Bank vice president and strongly pro-business Republican, announced recently he would not run again, expressions of admiration came from Democrats. Rep. Jehan Gordon-Booth, D-Peoria, and Sen. Dave Koehler, D-Peoria,…
From jail architects to jail teachers in the era of mass incarcerations
by Clare Howard • • 0 Comments
The presidential debates confirmed that reducing America’s burgeoning incarceration rate is a bipartisan goal. “Three-strikes-and-you’re-out,” tougher drug sentencing even for non-violent drug crimes and mandatory sentencing guidelines have all added to the problem. Today, as presidential candidates from both parties…
Organic farmers sustain huge losses From GMO contamination
by Clare Howard • • 4 Comments
DANFORTH, ILL. – On a warm September day on the cusp of harvest season, about 70 farmers from throughout the Midwest drove to a cavernous metal equipment barn on Harold Wilken’s organic grain farm in Iroquois County. They came to…
Fraud and corruption behind GMO Food
by Clare Howard • • 3 Comments
It’s no surprise that big food, farming and agrichemical corporations want to defeat mandatory labeling of food containing genetically modified organisms (GMOs). What is surprising and depressing is how many Democrats approved a bill in the House of Representatives that…