Author Archive for Roger Monroe

Of Royce and Jonathan

LOSING MY FRIEND JONATHAN WINTERS It was a stunning loss, especially the way I learned it. I was driving home listening to the news on WOAM when the reporter announced Jonathan Winters had died. I couldn’t believe it. We had…

Straight Talk for April

STUNNING! The recent announcement that Proctor Hospital had sold all of its Prompt Care offices to OSF St. Francis Medical Center was a stunning surprise, especially to officials at Methodist Medical Center, past and present. Truth is, historically, Methodist and…

Straight Talk for March

Harry Caray was considered by many as the greatest play-by-play announcer in the history of baseball. Fans of Mel Allen of the Yankees and Vin Scully of the Dodgers would disagree, but to those of us in the mid-west, Caray…

Much ado about … nothing

The office building of our main WiredTree support offices will be undergoing fire safety system upgrades and the main power to our building is going to be shut off to undergo this planned maintenance. As a result, our support offices…

Straight Talk for December 2012

POST ELECTION NOTES Congratulations to the winners and losers in last month’s elections. The losers deserve special praise because it’s not easy to spend money, work hard, and wind up losing. No one enjoys losing. I congratulate you for trying.…

Chiefs welcome Cards

The old saying, “When you’re handed a lemon, make lemonade,” sure applies to the Peoria Chiefs. After Chicago Cub management unceremoniously dropped the Peoria Chiefs as one of their minor league teams, it took Chief officials two days to turn a…

Don’t shoot

Under the leadership of Mayor Jim Ardis, Peoria County State’s Attorney, Jerry Brady, Sheriff Mike McCoy and several others, Peoria is implementing a new program to combat youth violence. Badly needed in our city, it’s called “Don’t Shoot.” It was…

A raise for Lathan? Not surprising

To those who’ve watched the board of Peoria’s School District 150, it wasn’t a surprise when members approved an unusually lengthy and wealthy package for Superintendent Grenita Lathan. Despite a “no confidence vote” by teachers, financial problems, poor classroom performance, challenges with bus…