BY LESTER B. MASON My eyes have witnessed many changes throughout the nearly 40 years of being incarcerated in the Illinois prison system. My name is Lester Mason inmate #64349 at Pontiac Prison Facility. I have been granted an opportunity…
Articles
Food during the COVID-19 pandemic
by Community Word Staff • • 0 Comments
BY HENRY BROCKMAN We are in completely uncharted waters as this novel coronavirus sweeps across the globe sickening millions and killing thousands. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations warns that this pandemic has disrupted agriculture and food…
Government overstep
by Bill Knight • • 0 Comments
Leaders can use crises to push political agendas, some unrelated to the emergency cited, and executive power can expand substantially. That’s true historically, when unilateral changes might have been somewhat logical but still disturbing, from Lincoln’s suspension of habeas corpus…
Peorian Betty Friedan and TV “Mrs. America”
by Community Word Staff • • 0 Comments
BY ELAINE HOPKINS A new television series, “Mrs. America,” explores the people involved in the fight for the Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, a battle that continues to this day. The series streams on Wednesdays on Hulu. The…
Voting in jails
by Clare Howard • • 0 Comments
Detainees at the Peoria County Jail cast absentee ballots for the statewide primary in March. They will vote again in the upcoming presidential elections. Peoria County Jail Superintendent Ronda Guyton coordinated with Peoria County Board of Elections director Tom Bride…
Geriatric prisoners and “three strikes” — it’s taxpayers who strike out
by Clare Howard • • 0 Comments
Research and nearly half a century of precedent have widely disproven the value of three-strikes-and-you’re-out, but change may be too slow in coming for Lester Mason. The three-strikes legislation was supposed to act as a deterrent to violent crime. Instead,…
COVID-19 Briefs
by Clare Howard • • 0 Comments
As the world hunkers down under quarantines and business closings, here are some facts on this latest “novel” virus. COVID-19 is a new coronavirus that was initially identified in Wuhan, China, and linked to a seafood and live animal “wet…
Study: toxins pervasive in drinking water
by Bill Knight • • 0 Comments
Illinois may not have the worst contamination of PFAS “forever chemicals,” according to a new study by the Environmental Working Group, but the toxic compounds are present in water systems and groundwater in Peoria, Galesburg, Bloomington and the Quad Cities. Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul and the legislature recognize the danger, and some are pressing for reforms.
Peoria lost $540 million in Census 2010; Now recapture the loss
by Community Word Staff • • 0 Comments
The census 2010 undercount in Peoria County cost $54 million a year in lost revenues, according to Robin Grantham, community development & engagement manager with PCCEO.
Lester Mason: justice or “archaic” penalty?
by Clare Howard • • 0 Comments
Lester Bobby Mason chopped cotton in Mississippi as a youth along with 11 brothers and sisters. But when 14-year-old Emmett Till was brutally beaten to death in 1955 for allegedly whistling at a white woman, Mason’s mother decided in order…