City Beat

And if by “labor problem,” you mean a “management-is-trying-to-screw-workers-around” problem, you’re right. WMBD 31 electrical workers recently put out an informational picket describing how WMBD 31 management — actually Nexstar — has them working without a contract. So, WMBD 31 joins WEEK/WHOI in the not-treating-their-workers-right camp. And then you have the Journal Star, which is...
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It’s amazing. A couple of years ago, the Peoria County State’s Attorney had some cops arrested and changed with police brutality. The arrest was based on a YouTube video taken immediately after a nighttime race through Peoria’s streets. The convicted drug dealer suspect claimed he was horribly beaten by Peoria police who were trying...
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I had a little bit of a confrontation. Call it a discussion, if you like. For the past four weeks or so, I’ve been collecting information from daily police reports from the Peoria Police Department and including them in blotter reports I’ve been running on Blogger News Net. This online-only news organization operates at tellpeoria.com/news. No big...
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On Sept. 11, 2001, I awoke at about 9:00 a.m. local time. I was living with my brother on Samuel Street in the Heights. I stretched, wandered over by my computer and went to a Usenet newsgroup I visited regularly. Not much in the way of daily messages. I found a...
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The Journal Star reports that newly-appointed circuit court judge, Kevin Lyons, has been appointed to a position in the Tazewell County Court House. So, it’s official. He’s Pekin’s problem now. The Peoria Journal Star announced he will be handling one of Pekin’s civil courtrooms. The move is effective Aug. 1st....
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What do you call it when black teenagers leave a party? A riot. I’m sure you’ve heard about it. At about 11:00 p.m. on June 24, a group of teenagers were vacating a house in the neighborhood of West Thrush Avenue. These kids wandered in the streets for a time, walked into...
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Where do you live? If you live in the heart of Peoria, you’ve voting for someone new in 2012. The Democratic Party has released a map of the state’s U.S. Congressional Districts. The good news is that the districts are tighter and less, well, obviously gerrymandered. The bad news (or “good,” depending on...
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I did some scanner blogging (I listen to the scanner and post updates to my blog) earlier this month. There was a police chase in which some armed robbery suspects tossed a rifle out of their car. There was a homeless guy wearing goggles who walked behind the counter at a restaurant and walked...
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Steve Tarter’s column in the Feb. 26 Journal Star was about a woman who was so upset that public radio station WBCU shifted from classical music with some news to all news all the time, she dashed to the phone to complain. Unfortunately, she fell and broke her hip in the process. Which, I guess,...
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Peoria City Clerk Mary Haynes used her official city email address to forward a racially insensitive email to a Florida official. The Coastal Star, a newspaper with an online community-based Web site, reported that a Highland Beach town clerk was suspended for sending “sexually oriented or defamatory” emails, one referring...
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