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…
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…
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.…
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…
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…
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…
Lisa Travis, bottom, a teacher’s aide at Glen Oak School, and Terri Berg, top, a sign language interpreter at Richwoods High School, volunteer with the Round Table Project helping students with needs ranging from a clean pair of socks to…
BY CLARE HOWARD U.S. Rep. Danny Davis imagines his grandson saying, “But Granddad, you said if I’m home, I’m OK. I’m safe. You told me to be home when it’s dark.” Rep. Davis shook his head. “It never occurred to…
BY TERRY BIBO Instead of “Pomp and Circumstance,” the Class of 2017 probably should have graduated to the tune “Sixteen Tons.” Their grandparents may have been toddlers when Tennessee Ernie Ford’s cover of a coal miner’s debt struggles topped the…
BY CLARE HOWARD Glyphosate, the most heavily used weed killer in the United States, was found in 91 percent of pregnant women tested in a recent study conducted by Dr. Paul Winchester, medical director of the neonatal intensive care unit…
