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…
I am pleased to report that ballet is alive and well here thanks to the efforts of the Central Illinois Ballet and its artistic director, Rebekah von Rathonyi. The company presented “Dracula, Dance on the Dark Side” conceived and choreographed…
MUSIC Nov. 3: Judas Priest, “Redeemer of Souls” tour. 7:30 p.m. Civic Center Arena. 673-3200. Nov. 3: Hard Bop Jazz Band. 7:30 p.m. ICC Lecture/Recital Hall, East Peoria. 694-5136. Nov. 5: JJ Grey & Mofro, with honeyhoney. 7 p.m. Limelight…
Just one block beyond the southern border of the Warehouse District and precisely one mile from the Peoria County Courthouse is a building that epitomizes many of the characteristics of Peoria’s emerging arts neighborhood. Part of the synergy behind art…
Inadequate offer forced East St. Louis teachers strike. Students in the East St. Louis, Ill., school district stayed home beginning in early October after its 400 union teachers rejected an inadequate settlement offer. Members of Illinois Federation of Teachers voted…
The Jackson Corners Neighborhood Association will feature two local speakers at its next meeting, at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 5 at the Child Advocacy Center, 501 E. Gift, according to president Mary Genzel. One of the neighborhood’s Peoria police officers and…
For many people struggling to lose weight, weight loss medications seem to be a simple way to “melt off” the pounds. Unfortunately, the evidence shows this is not the case. Current diet medications reduce appetite, but do not eliminate the…
By Dave Weiman It may seem an overwhelming task to find a suitable care provider for an elder, whether they are looking for home care, assisted living or skilled nursing. Many times the search is complicated by the fact decisions…
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…
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…
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…
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,…
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…
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…
As a lifelong resident of the Peoria area, I understand the importance of Caterpillar to the local economy. Caterpillar recently announced another round of layoffs. This loss of jobs will impact hundreds of Central Illinois families. Sure this round of…
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…
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…
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…
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…
