Articles
Criminal justice reform
by Clare Howard • • 0 Comments
Michelle Alexander has called some uses of electronic ankle monitors the newest Jim Crow and “e-carceration.” The cost of some monitors can be $300 a month, and people ordered to wear a monitor can easily fall into arrears and face…
Toxins in our neighborhood
by Bill Knight • • 1 Comment
Five years ago, a fire at a fertilizer plant in West, Texas, resulted in an explosion that created a 93-foot crater; destroyed more than 150 buildings, including an apartment building and school; killed 15 people; and injured 160 others. In…
Cleve’s triumph
by Clare Howard • • 0 Comments
After 47 years in prison for a murder conviction that was vacated, Cleve Heidelberg lived just 306 days as a free man in Peoria before he died of heart failure, but his ultimate triumph remains his challenge to society to…
Invisible barriers to GED
by Clare Howard • • 0 Comments
Darryl Townsend felt a strange sense of alarm as he walked into the Peoria County Courthouse, through security, past armed guards. He was there for his GED test, but it was not test anxiety he was experiencing. It was knowledge…
Paul Robeson defied racism in Peoria
by Bill Knight • • 1 Comment
Sixty-seven years ago this month, the NAACP’s Crisis Magazine published a harsh denunciation of world-renowned African-American entertainer and activist Paul Robeson, and a new book rekindles memories of Robeson’s travails – including the 1947 Peoria incident that some say was…
Bread: Living flour, airborne yeast, explosive flavor
by Clare Howard • • 0 Comments
In France, bread is still baked daily and consumed with every meal. The list of ingredients numbers three. In America, the culture of real bread baking died long ago. Now, bread is manufactured by Wall Street corporations. It has a…
City stalls over fine for dumping raw sewage
by Clare Howard • • 0 Comments
Peoria city officials are attempting to negotiate a civil penalty imposed by the U.S. Department of Justice for failure to adequately redress the combined sewer overflow problem that results in raw sewage flushing into the Illinois River. This has been…
$1 million more for Illinois farmers markets
by Clare Howard • • 0 Comments
For state Rep. Tim Butler, access to wholesome food is part of the fabric of American society. Or it should be. Butler grew up in Peoria, worked for then-U.S. Congressman Ray LaHood, and later Congressman Rodney Davis. He worked at…
“Peoria War” changed history
by Bill Knight • • 0 Comments
Two hundred six years ago this month, a nearly forgotten series of small skirmishes that became known as the “Peoria War” made up a big part of the elimination of Native Americans in Illinois. According to local historical societies and…