News of police violence in Ferguson, Chicago and Cincinnati hits people in Peoria with emotional force. It makes everyone wonder, what happens here on the streets of this community. Britta Johnson wanted to know. Growing up in Peoria, she did…
Peace for Peoria counters Islamophobia
Community leaders including Caterpillar CEO Doug Oberhelman, UnityPoint-Methodist president Debbie Simon, OSF Saint Francis Medical Center president Michael Cruz and Bradley University president Gary Roberts will make opening remarks at a Peace for Peoria town hall event 7 p.m. to…
Elder Care Concerns
BY DAVE WEIMAN Everyone needs a break. If you are living with a senior and are the primary caregiver, remember to take care of yourself. It’s wonderful that you are providing the means for your loved one to stay at…
“Game changer” looms for central Illinois farmland
Winter could transition to spring this year with major change on the farm horizon. Or change could start next year, but regardless of the timing, a major economic reshuffling of ag acreage is fermenting. “A game changer” is how farm…
Renaissance along the river
A few breweries and eateries may have gotten attention for recently opening within sight of the Illinois River, but a few joints have been persevering here for years. Compared to Peoria’s past – from the heydays of Harold’s Club on…
GateHouse to Peoria Newsroom: You don’t deserve your salary
Peoria Journal Star newsroom employees are paid twice what they deserve, a representative of the paper’s owner, GateHouse Media (New Media), told the union in Springfield during negotiations there recently with journalists at the Springfield State Journal-Register. Union employees at…
Pioneering leader in liberal Christianity challenges many Biblical interpretations and will speak in Peoria about new theology
BY MICHAEL BROWN John Shelby Spong, a global and pioneering leader in liberal Christianity, is scheduled to speak at 3 p.m. Saturday April 9 at the Universalist Unitarian Church, 3000 W. Richwoods. Tickets can be purchased at the door or…
Purge Continues With the March 15 election, voters continued to make changes on the District 150 school board. Dan Walther will be seated as District 3 representative. He replaces one timer Rick Cloyd. Cloyd will be remembered for trying to…
Technology comes with benefits, but a price
A Peorian in his 60s talks about his having turned library trash into flea-market treasure by retrieving hundreds of books discarded into dumpsters during remodeling or conversion from traditional libraries to public computer labs where teens watch YouTube videos. The…
Editorials
Hoosick Falls versus Bedford Falls: Guardian angel for one but not the other Greed almost ruined Bedford Falls, the idyllic fictional town in the Frank Capra classic “It’s a Wonderful Life.” When George Bailey (James Stewart) felt overwhelmed by a…
Letters
Cleve Heidelberg Trial Your retelling of the 1970 trial of Cleve Heidelberg for the murder of police officer Ray Espinoza was full of surprises—surprises about the poor police work and improper, perhaps illegal, practices of the prosecution. I was called…
OP-ED
UN 2016 International Year of Pulses: The United Nations has designated 2016 the International Year of Pulses, highlighting dried legumes in promoting global sustainability, food security and countering malnutrition. Pulses include dried beans and peas. Pulses are affordable, high in…
Ethics of Stewardship As I write about ethics of stewardship, today I am focusing on things outside our walls. Next time I will focus on use of building space. It was not until the late 19th century that grass lawns…
Snow Trillium Spring has officially blossomed! On St. Patrick’s Day, I managed to get out to a special place in the woods where some of the first flowers of spring peek through the leaf litter. It has been a mild…
Even as a young adult, I firmly believed in the likelihood of living happily ever after. Growing up in an era and environment which included many large families, though mine was not, I had naïve expectations about marriage and children.…
Landscape waste pick-up for 2016 will begin on the first Friday in April. Boy Scout Troop 11 is again selling trash bags from March 21 to April 11. Contact any Troop 11 scout or Bob DeSutter, scout leader at 674-6668.…
There are times when one needs to take a slow walk to appreciate the language of history: to understand the passion, foresight and insight of those who have gone before. Now, I am going to admit that I am neither…
“That guy pulled a real Stanislavski!” exclaimed Frank Gifford years ago during a Monday Night Football broadcast. The reference was to Constantine Stanislavski, the Russian theater director, acting teacher and founder of the Moscow Art Theater (MAT) and a punter…
Arts Beat
April 1: The Brazilionaires “Live at the Five Spot.” 5:30 p.m. Contemporary Art Center. 674-6822. April 1: The Receiver, Shannon Moore Shepherd and Moody Womb, presented by Diplomatic Relations at 8 p.m. at Pizza Works. 682-5446. April 1: Three and…
Painting a Picture Called Peoria As residents of Peoria, we are all painting a picture of our city that is going to be hung on the wall for all the world to see. What do we want that picture to…
Labor Roundup
A coalition of 200+ labor, community, civil rights, women’s, human rights and environmental groups will descend on Washington, D.C., April 11-18 to campaign for restoring U.S. democracy, the AFL-CIO announced. In a statement, the labor federation said its “Democracy Spring”…
Neighborhood Notes
Kip Strasma, president of the Downtown Living Neighborhood Association (DLNA) says, “With hundreds of people potentially moving downtown in 2016 and 2017, the DLNA is working to produce a resident ‘welcome packet.’ The idea is to provide helpful information about…