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…
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,…
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…
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.…
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-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…
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 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…
Dave Weiman, founder of Care Compass, will write a series of columns for people navigating through the difficult and emotional process of caring for an elder spouse, family member or friend. The columns will be posted on our website. (See…
Critical “tipping point” between unions and so-called “right to work” BY CLARE HOWARD As the nation celebrates Labor Day with parades and picnics, an “apocalyptic” moment is brewing in the United States with Illinois widely viewed as a critical pivotal…
BY GEORGE HOPKINS The late Texas oil billionaire Sid Richardson (1891-1959) famously said: “Money is like manure—unless it’s spread around it stinks!” Which brings up the current hot topic in contemporary politics: the rich getting richer; the poor getting…
By BILL KNIGHT As Peoria’s City-County Citizen Leadership Academy starts this month with help from neighborhood activists, two recent studies seem to indicate a struggling Peoria and the need for strong neighborhoods to be the backbones of cities. The new…
