It’s jarring when reality thumps wishful thinking. But “if wishes were horses, beggars would ride,” as it’s said. (Maybe the central Illinois equivalent is, “If wishes were caterpillars, butterflies would come.”) Anyway, the Peoria economy seems to be crying, “My…
Articles
The Myths of Immigration
by Community Word Staff • • 0 Comments
Robert Reich, Secretary of Labor under Bill Clinton and professor at University of California, Berkeley, has tackled “The 4 Big Lies about Immigrants – and the Truth” in a recent piece on his blog. Debunking these myths gives an important…
DIRTY POLITICS?
by Community Word Staff • • 2 Comments
Steve Shearer is well-known by folks who follow politics. He’s been a part of Aaron Schock’s political life almost from day one. At one time he was Schock’s chief of staff. Like Schock, Shearer has been questioned by the F.B.I.…
Clergy, laity pray for justice for Cassidy
by Community Word Staff • • 1 Comment
Hundreds of Central Illinoisans for years watched Father Terry Cassidy mimic a fish that’s unaware it’s surrounded by water. It’s been his light-hearted effort to show how people often don’t realize they’re surrounded – by grace. But Cassidy, 64, now…
by Community Word Staff • • 0 Comments
Due to an error, the West Peoria News column was inadvertently duplicated under Heights News by Roger Larson in the October issue. Please go to our online edition at www.thecommunityword.com or go directly to http://thecommunityword.com/online/blog/2015/09/30/heights-news/ to read the October Heights…
Organic farmers sustain huge losses From GMO contamination
by Clare Howard • • 4 Comments
DANFORTH, ILL. – On a warm September day on the cusp of harvest season, about 70 farmers from throughout the Midwest drove to a cavernous metal equipment barn on Harold Wilken’s organic grain farm in Iroquois County. They came to…
Peoria hospital ventures can be for-profit
by Bill Knight • • 0 Comments
Taxpayers who feel they already underwrite hotels, retailers or private development through publicly funded incentives or financing may lump in hospitals as businesses at the trough. Although hospitals are appreciated and respected institutions that provide communities with health care and…
Kindred heals, discharges patients
by Bill Knight • • 0 Comments
Hospitals soothe pain and save lives, which is advertised by Peoria’s well-known medical centers. A less familiar facility is Kindred Hospital on Romeo B. Garrett Avenue, the community’s only for-profit hospital, which some may mistakenly think is where seriously ill…
Teplitz confirmed as ambassador to Nepal
by Community Word Staff • • 0 Comments
Alaina Teplitz, a career Foreign Service officer and daughter of long-time Peoria residents Marcella and Jack Teplitz, is the new U.S. ambassador to Nepal. Teplitz has served at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, and had previous postings in Bangladesh,…
Is Illinois torturing its inmates?
by Bill Knight • • 7 Comments
Imagine sitting in your bathroom. Now imagine staying there. For more than a year. That’s how long some 30 percent of Illinois inmates are in solitary confinement, concedes the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC). Another 10 percent suffers such isolation…