I notice things. Sometimes. I mean, I was shocked, I tell you SHOCKED when I read on Wikipedia that Paul Lynde and Charles Nelson Reilly were gay. Really? I could not tell that by watching “Hollywood Squares” and “Match Game”…

Read more →

I’ve spent most of the snowstorm in the city’s chronically neglected South Side, so maybe I don’t have a good grasp of the work done elsewhere in the city yet. I know that Western is pretty well covered in snow.…

Read more →

February may be a short month, but it’s a very transitional one. After the groundhog searches for his shadow, signs of spring start to show up… owls are nesting, American woodcock begin returning from their wintering grounds in the south,…

Read more →

He seems to be doing a good job in Congress … as long as he is working behind the scenes with as little direct contact with the public — and the media — as possible. But as soon as he…

Read more →

Imagine a United Stated where it is illegal to own or buy a gun. Paradise, right? Well, you would have to set aside the premise that one of the things that keep our government honest is that so many of…

Read more →

Whatever it is, it’s not about the public’s right to know city business. The chief of Peoria’s Police Department got quoted in the Journal Star saying that he is going to use city resources to track down the identity of…

Read more →

Umm … exactly how did Peoria’s ‘Don’t Shoot’ PR campaign have anything as all to do with federal indictments of Bomb Squad members? So, 12 members of a rather ordinary street gang that most Peorians have never heard of get…

Read more →

I was deeply involved in covering the 2005 city council/mayoral elections. At the time, I strongly opposed Dave Ransburg, and I did back Jim Ardis. I liked his strong anti-crime message. I was critical of the Journal Star for accusing Mayor Ardis of…

Read more →

First, my Uncle Joe Binder died after a long illness. Uncle Joe was born in Hungary, but escaped to the United States in the 1950s to avoid having to serve in the Army. He met my Aunt Barbara in a bar in Peoria. He…

Read more →

DeWayne Bartels is dead. He died the way he wanted to, working on a story. His wife found him sitting on the floor of their home, hunched over his laptop. DeWayne was a former co-worker of mine at the Peoria Times-Observer.…

Read more →