Columns

Arts Beat

  MUSIC July 2: Bluprint. 8:30 p.m. Festival Park on Peoria’s riverfront. Produced by Alpha Media. 637-3700. July 3: Molly Hatchet, with the Outlaws. 7:30 p.m. Festival Park on Peoria’s riverfront. Produced by Alpha Media. 637-3700. July 3: Change-Up. 8…

Labor Roundup

Louisville Slugger plant is unionized. As Peoria’s Louisville Slugger Sports Complex gets busier this month, it’s interesting to note the bat company’s labor relations. Every month is baseball season for members of Steelworkers Local 1693 at the Hillerich & Bradsby…

Neighborhood Notes

Local Florist and West Bluff neighborhood resident/advocate Dan Callahan is the recipient of the 2015 West Bluff Council “Pillar of the West Bluff Award.” Callahan, who was nominated by activist and Moss-Bradley Neighborhood resident Marjorie Klise, is a long-time West…

SHOULD I USE ASPARTAME?

SHOULD I USE ASPARTAME? Most people like sweet foods. Artificial sweeteners like aspartame can sweeten foods without the extra calories and glucose-raising sugar. Is aspartame safe? Can it help you lose weight? Could it help you control your diabetes? Aspartame…

Is Rauner’s ‘turnaround’ fair play?

Gov. Bruce Rauner’s turnaround agenda could seriously hurt everyday people. And it wouldn’t be a double-whammy. It would be more like a quadruple-whammy. Squared. The Republican’s proposed cuts to human services in particular could weaken everything from health care and…

DISTRICT 150 SINGS

Anyone with a brain knows the board and administration of School District 150 is dysfunctional. Too many of their decisions are so ridiculous one has to laugh. I’m still laughing after listening to a jingle produced for the school district…

No Turning Back

On a summer collecting trip in Northern Illinois, a botanist made “a most remarkable find” near Lake Calumet in Cook County. No, it wasn’t gold or platinum . . . . It was something far more rare. A diminutive flower…