Author Archive for contributor
OpEd | Reflections on Dwight: The logic of the savior
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BY ZACHARY GITTRICH On March 11, the Board of Trustees for the Village of Dwight voted 5-2 in favor of the construction of a privately-run, for-profit immigrant prison operated by Immigration Centers of America (ICA). While over 90 percent of…
OpEd | School solutions need teacher input, not just top-down directives
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BY SHARON L. CREWS Companies marketing their computer programs have targeted public schools with Title I money to spend. These companies were encouraged by the enthusiasm for change spawned by the “No Child Left Behind” program that promised miraculous educational…
Labor Roundup | April 2019
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Bernie Sanders presidential campaign staff votes to unionize. The move marks the first time a major political party presidential campaign in U.S. history unionized. The United Food and Commercial Workers Local 400 will represent staffers. Women’s groups and unions back…
The voting rights lawsuit and cumulative voting
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Editor’s Note: Joyce Banks was lead plaintiff in a 1987 lawsuit against the city of Peoria, Peoria Public Schools and Peoria Park District to get fair representation for African Americans in elected government positions. Cumulative voting helps ensure this goal.…
Letter to the Editor | Medicare for All looking better every day
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I am a healthy person (knock on wood!), but the U.S. healthcare system is not working for me, or for most of us in the 99 percent. Let me give you a brief example. In August of 2018, after spending…
Letter to the Editor | The CAFO loophole
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A CAFO (concentrated animal feeding operation) is threatening the entire town of Princeville, and politicians are helpless to stop it. That’s because of a sneaky loophole in the law. Nearby county boards have recently approved resolutions opposing proposed CAFOs in…
Letter to the Editor | A constitutional republic: Tyranny of an entitled minority
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Is the U.S. the “greatest democracy in the world” as is often claimed? As any conservative will correctly remind you, the founders were wary of too much democracy and established the country not as a democracy but as a constitutional…
Letter to the Editor | Peoria Public Radio: What Will Happen?
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Will Bradley University’s vital NPR radio station, WCBU-FM, survive as it is, or is it ultimately doomed to morph into a second WGLT or worse? That’s the question, but there are no clear answers yet. WCBU, branded as Peoria Public…
Op-Ed | Good community journalism scrutinizes American slavery and its evolution to today
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BY DECKLE McLEAN Behind every great fortune lies a great crime, French early 19th century novelist Honore de Balzac advised. Less flamboyantly phrased, Balzac’s message was that some fortunes start with a crime or two. If America’s wealth can be…