Opinion

by Ed Klein, Peoria, IL I’d like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to the Republican party for doing what few – if any – have been able to do before. What, you may well ask, is that? That, it may surprise you to learn, are the sacrifices the GOP is making...
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January 22nd Marks 38th Anniversary of Roe v Wade by Debbie Adlof, Editor/Owner Community Word, Peoria, IL   It’s no secret that our great country of America has always sought and/or fought to grant freedom to its people. In the beginning, “freedom” was only available to a select few: white male landowners.  From there our country has evolved...
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By Delores Klein, Peoria, IL District 150 has renewed the debate about prayer in schools by talk of re-instating a “Moment of Silence.” Public discussion always seems to be phrased as if only Jewish and Muslim citizens or atheists would object. A “real” religious education is needed by our students and...
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It’s election time again. We’re all getting more than just a little tired of the TV commercials and billboards and mailers, and various ads. People moan and declare that they’re all crooks or that they have their own ego-driven agendas. Some decide that it doesn’t really matter who we elect...
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By C.E. Gauf, Peoria Heights, IL The question is, whether or not downtown Peoria is ready for a museum (Sear’s block) of this magnitude. With only one half of one per cent of the population in the Greater Peoria area projected to attend museum functions, tax payers will be obligated...
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by Ed Klein, Peoria, IL What are your thoughts – or concerns – about the government playing a role in health care reform? Republican spokespersons and other conservative pundits attempt to shock us with horror stories about “socialized” medicine. “Government,” they say, “can’t possibly do for Americans what the marketplace can.” Cal Thomas...
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Waterboarding has always been a war crime by Ed Klein, Peoria, IL  A debate has arisen about something which is not debatable: the rule of law, and the floor beneath which we must not go if we are to be the country we claim to be.  Waterboarding has been punished for being...
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PPD Up to Old Tricks! by Merle Widmer, Peoria County Board Member and local blogger On April 17, 2009, JS reporter Catherine Schaidle, Bonnie Noble and the Peoria Park District combined in a “pull the wool” over a naive and sometime apathetic Peoria citizenry. Schaidle wrote “East Bluff land catches Park District’s Eye”. This property...
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by Merle Widmer, Peoria County Board Member and local blogger In April of 1999, Caterpillar stock closed at $32 and change. Recently, ten years later, Cat stock closed at $31.94. More layoffs are being considered. Caterpillar suppliers locally have cut their workforces drastically and some face an uncertain future. In the year 2002, Caterpillar...
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by Dolores Klein, co-editor, Peoria National Organization for Women Our progress on the road to equality has depended on both activism to change discrimination against women which has been enforced legally and through intimidating violence, and on individual citizens. I think of the woman who walked by the Clothesline Project on display at the...
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