Peoria hospital ventures can be for-profit

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

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

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?

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…

THE END OF THE LINE!

Interim Illinois Central College president Dr. William Tammone has announced the termination of the school’s contract with Jeremy Styninger who owns the license for radio station WAZU-FM. That means all programming originating from ICC will end Wednesday, Sept. 30. And…

Fraud and corruption behind GMO Food

It’s no surprise that big food, farming and agrichemical corporations want to defeat mandatory labeling of food containing genetically modified organisms (GMOs). What is surprising and depressing is how many Democrats approved a bill in the House of Representatives that…

What happened to America?

  BY LARRY JONES What kind of country do we want to live in? Thank goodness we live in a country with a Bill of Rights, guaranteeing to all freedom from abuses by authorities. Or do we? In New York…

POLARIZING AND PEACE-MAKING

A long time ago I heard this bit of wisdom from my Southern Illinois kinfolk. “It takes 50 strong hands to build a barn and one jackass to kick it down.” Or consider this description of a person as, “Someone…

Tawny Oaks

One of the first Peoria Park District conservation areas I visited outside of Forest Park Nature Center was a large woodland off of Singing Woods Road. Access was difficult and there wasn’t even a place to park. Since that first…

My mother always insisted I could succeed at whatever I wanted to if I tried hard enough. For a very long time, I believed her because not believing her was unthinkable for me. She was knowledgeable about many subjects, strict…

October is a busy time for the volunteers of the West Peoria Fire Department. They are going door-to-door selling fund raising tickets for their annual Hog Roast scheduled for 2-6 p.m. Oct. 25 at Crusen’s on W. Farmington Road. Tickets…

Welcome to this inaugural message from Richwoods Township and Peoria Heights. The mantra has begun: “In Richwoods Township and Peoria Heights, we are eventful.” Richwoods Township, as a government entity, is building partnerships with community-based organizations including Peoria Heights Village,…

Arts Beat

MUSIC Oct. 2: Dorrann & The Soul Mystics “Live at the Five Spot. 5:30 p.m. Contemporary Art Center. 674-6822. Oct. 3: “Screen Time,” with the Peoria POPS Orchestra. 7 p.m. Five Points Washington. 444-8222. Oct. 8: Bradley University Chorale’s annual…

Eastlight Theatre opened the 1954 musical version of “Peter Pan” in the East Peoria High School auditorium on Sept. 18. The original Broadway cast starred Mary Martin as Peter, the boy who would never grow up, and Cyril Richard as…

Fixing Art’s Equality Gap

How do you tell the difference between a painting done by a man and one done by a woman? Look at the price tag. It’s no joke. Women artists are not treated equally. Statistics support that statement. It’s a fact.…

Neighborhood Notes

Benefit for East Bluff Community Center. The East Bluff Sunrise Run on Oct. 10 will be a 5K run described as traversing “the tree-lined streets in Peoria’s East Bluff neighborhood,” where it will benefit the East Bluff Community Center, 512…

Labor Roundup

Labor-backed Chicago bank using sale proceeds to expand services to workers. The Amalgamated Bank of Chicago, one of the few labor-backed U.S. financial institutions, will use the $35 million it just gained from the sale of its old headquarters to…

Doctor treats patients in office and kitchen

Artificial sweeteners are worse than sugar because of the way they affect the microbiome in the gut, Dr. John Principe told about 40 physicians and medical students recently during a day-long workshop at Spence Farm in Fairbury. Principe tells his…

Indoor Pesticides Linked to Childhood Cancers

Indoor exposure to household insecticides is linked to a significant increase in childhood leukemia and lymphoma, according to a new study from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health published in the October issue of Pediatrics, the journal of…