BY CLARE HOWARD Julia Sun and Celina Crisman were roommates at Cornell University. Sun graduated with a degree in engineering. Crisman went on to medical school and is now a surgeon. The two friends, supporters of Planned Parenthood, watched sweeping…
Articles
Unions drive economy
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BY DAN SILVERTHORN Retired executive director West Central Illinois Building and Construction Trades Council Labor unions and the workers they represent helped secure the largest middle class in American history. It’s no coincidence that union membership is declining at the…
Living grains: From local fields to local flour
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BY CLARE HOWARD Warthog Wheat stretched to the horizon and chattered in a breeze as storm clouds banked in the distance. Harold Wilken and his son Ross were anxious to get out into the field to start harvesting their organic…
Bill Nolden: “Indomitable. Indomitable. Indomitable.”
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BY TERRY BIBO Assuming life is a banquet, as Auntie Mame famously said, virtually every Peorian with an appetite for theater has had a chance to feast on the artistry of Bill Nolden. Now 90, Nolden has graced local stages,…
CW & BU host anti-hate speaker
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An upswing in hate and extremism is sweeping America, targeting immigrants, African Americans, Muslims and LGBT groups, but another significant victim is the American democratic ideal of social decency. Southern Poverty Law Center has been fighting hate since its formation…
Needed: Women in Leadership
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Beth Crider Derry was a kindergarten teacher for 17 years before she became Peoria County’s Democratic Regional Superintendent of Schools. Derry insists there is nothing remarkable about her, save one decision she made to enroll in Illinois Women’s Institute for…
Deep canyon from “upstream” development
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BY CLARE HOWARD Mike Miller stood at the bottom of a ravine 25 feet deep off High Point Terrace and shook his head. The crevasse was growing with every rainfall and ripping out trees, vegetation and rocks in its path.…
Healthcare in prison: “nonexistent”
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BY CLARE HOWARD Released after almost half a century in prison on a vacated conviction, Cleve Heidelberg waited in the shade of a tree near the parking lot at a free specialty health clinic on Peoria’s south side on a…
Cordoba Clinic founder earns humanism award
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Dr. Wasim Ellahi, a gastroenterologist at Illinois Gastroenterology Institute and a faculty member at University of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria, has received the Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award for establishing Cordoba Healthcare clinic, Peoria’s only free specialty…
PJS business strategy
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Several recent reports on Journal Star corporate owner GateHouse Media (New Media Investment Group) explain the company’s aggressive newspaper acquisition strategy as a marketing plan to beef up revenues while cutting journalism. Ken Doctor writes in Nieman Lab, Nieman Foundation…