Is Cleve Heidelberg INNOCENT? BY CLARE HOWARD On a cold, gray Friday afternoon in mid-January, Marcella Teplitz and Andrew Hale drove east on Harmon Highway from the site of the old Bellevue Drive-In movie theater. Outside the theater ticket booth…
Distance and income leave some neighborhoods hungry for good food BY BILL KNIGHT The need is chicken-or-egg. And meat and fruit . . . . Neighborhoods need full-service groceries for consumers to shop for healthy food, but businesses need customer…
Biotechnology in agriculture is upending traditional notions of justice and liability; public policy is failing to keep up with the problem. Both chemical and organic farmers are venting frustration over harm. Lawsuit over Viptera GMO corn American farmers suffered billions…
BY TERRA BROCKMAN The Illinois Department of Agriculture has named a fifth generation central Illinois farmer, Harold Wilken, the winner of the annual R.J. Vollmer Award for Sustainable Agriculture. Wilken, together with his wife Sandy and son Ross, are the…
Susan B. Anthony, born 196 years ago this month, certainly didn’t need others to speak for her. But she had a knack for making allies from throughout the progressive movements of the late 19th and earlier 20th centuries. So when…
EXCITING NEWS It’s been vacant for a long time, but the former car dealer lot at University and War Memorial Drive will soon be alive with activity. Expect an announcement by a developer about some new businesses to be constructed…
Food Stamp spending cut nationwide but Illinois, thankfully, bucks the trend On the campaign trail in early January, presidential candidate Jeb Bush called for an end to Food Stamps, replacing the federal program with “Right to Rise” grants awarded to…
Letter to Dave Koehler, Jehan Gordon-Booth, and Chuck Weaver: I am writing to ask you to start or join a movement to advance a solution to the impasse that exists in Springfield. As you well know, people in Illinois suffer…
OpEd Flowers that express love, not exploitation By Kira Santiago If you’re like most people, when you think of Valentine’s Day you think of flowers, chocolate or maybe diamonds. People have begun to realize there is a dark side to…
Justice Is Required on the Path to Peace The police officers I know personally are all good people. They take their jobs seriously, genuinely care about the safety of the public they serve, and treat people fairly. And yet I…
Refuge under siege As I write this, a group of armed, anti-government, militants is thinking about leaving a National Wildlife Refuge they have occupied since Jan. 2. Not to give it back to the public, but rather, to go into…
February, you are a challenging, volatile month causing chaos overnight with your merciless winter weather surprises. Not sure why you insist on doing that. We know you possess some compassion tucked deep inside because for many successive days we’re freezing…
The West Peoria Residents Association thanks members for their continued support and announces that Jamie and April Silver will be in charge of the Jamboree Run again this June. WPRA has agreed to sponsor the Heart of Illinois Special Olympics…
How My Aunt Became My Grandmother My aunt, Geneva “Ginny” Nailing, was a woman with a plan. She wanted more out of life. She wanted people’s voices to be heard and their rights to be respected. She was determined to…
My family and I decided to immerse ourselves in a movie marathon a couple of weeks ago in which we certainly fed our craving for cinematic diversity. One such morsel was a film, starring two veteran actors, entitled “Walk in…
MUSIC Feb. 2: Red Sun Rising, with Drugs Delaney. 8 p.m. Limelight Eventplex. 693-1234. Feb. 5: Chris Janson. 8 p.m. Limelight Eventplex. 693-1234. Feb. 5: Judy Page & Friends. 8 p.m. Rhythm Kitchen Music Café. 676-9668. Feb. 5: The Brazilionaires…
Cornstock produced Tom Stoppard’s play “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead” at its Winter Playhouse in upper Bradley Park during the middle two weekends of January. The play has become a classic of modern theater and won a Tony and New…
Lost and Found Creativity We frequently hear people complain of not being creative because they “can’t even draw a straight line.” Creativity and rendering skills frequently coexist, but you don’t have to draw straight lines in order to enjoy being…
Journalists blast Supreme Court. In Chicago, journalists are reacting to the Supreme Court’s decision to let stand a lower court ruling letting police sue news media for disclosing officers’ physical descriptions, and the international president of the News Guild-CWA argues…
Many Generics Are No Bargain Generic drugs have been considered bargains. Unfortunately, prices of many generic drugs have skyrocketed. An example in the news is the generic medication albendazole used to treat parasitic infections. In 2008, the average cost per…
