BY ELAINE HOPKINS PEORIA, IL – Quietly behind closed doors, the drama over what is commonly known as ‘shaken baby syndrome’ plays out in courtrooms across Illinois and the nation. Medical science cannot prove this diagnosis, now known as ‘abusive…
Features
Hunger, Gleaning and Clarence
by Clare Howard • • 0 Comments
SPRINGFIELD – The ancient Biblical practice of gleaning fields after harvest to collect remnants of food for the hungry is spreading from fields to markets, and a newly enhanced federal tax benefit is incentivizing the practice for farmers. In the…
‘Slinkenwolf’
by Bill Knight • • 0 Comments
Beyond a grassy ridge from a tree-covered bandshell, carnival rides twinkle and sparkle in the humid evening, calliope music tinkling softly. It could be almost any year in the last century. The louder music exploding from six Marshall amps…
Legacy of Heidelberg Trial: Loss, Death Threats, Questions
by Clare Howard • • 1 Comment
UPDATE: Judge Albert Purham orders appointment of special prosecutor to review Cleve Heidelberg case from 1970. Steve Heidelberg remembers nothing from the 1970 murder trial of his father Cleve Heidelberg, but he now sees some of the legacy that trial…
Arab-Israeli conflict can’t pierce this friendship
by Clare Howard • • 0 Comments
Stereotypes with deep historical roots damage democracies that thrive on diversity and understanding, so when a friendship evolves between a Muslim Imam and a Jewish Rabbi, the potential is powerful. But that was not the predetermined purpose of this…
Abandoned coal mines dot greater Peoria
by Bill Knight • • 1 Comment
This spring Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan demanded that Peabody Energy prove it has the funds necessary to reclaim coal mines if it shuts down, rekindling public concern over abandoned mines and the responsibility for cleaning them up. In her…
Fighting a health crisis with real (verified) food
by Clare Howard • • 0 Comments
LINCOLN – When two-thirds of the residents of Logan County are overweight or obese, it’s apparent a health crisis tsunami is crashing into the local hospital. Abraham Lincoln Memorial Hospital CEO Dolan Dalpoas clearly saw conventional treatments were not…
“The Great Agnostic” removed for restoration
by contributor • • 1 Comment
A crew from Otto Baum hoists the statue of Robert Ingersoll from its base at Glen Oak Park and loads it in a van for shipment to Philadelphia were it will be cleaned and restored. Peorian Ken Hofbauer learned about…
Power in a small package
by Bill Knight • • 0 Comments
UPS driver Carol Steffen for decades has cultivated her downtown and Main Street customers like the rhubarb she’s grown in her garden: perennial favorites. Chatting on a rainy day between deliveries at Campustown, she adjusts her glasses, fidgets with an…
Coming: Almost organic
by Community Word Staff • • 1 Comment
This label may start appearing in grocery stores soon to indicate food was grown on farmland transitioning from chemical to organic. Clarkson Grain, located about two hours southeast of Peoria, is using this ECOCERT label until the U.S. Department of…