Peoria Call to Action: Save the Monarchs Bonnie Cox is an enormously busy retiree, but when the Peoria Garden Club asked her to organize a committee to save monarch butterflies, Cox recognized the urgency and agreed to take on the…
News Brief
Labor Roundup
Labor Roundup Building Trades’ McGarvey: ‘Politics is not a marriage. It’s a business.’ AFL-CIO Building Trades Department President Sean McGarvey told the 56th annual Michigan Building and Construction Trades legislative conference last month “the strength of the labor movement is…
Is Vitamin D The Wonder Vitamin?
Vitamin-D deficiency is linked to a long list of problems including bone weakness (osteoporosis), heart attacks, high blood pressure, cancer, diabetes, falls, muscle weakness, nervous system diseases including multiple sclerosis, psychiatric problems including depression, pregnancy problems. After reading this…
Aaron Schock: What Lay Beneath; What Lies Ahead
By George Hopkins Political scandals come mostly in two flavors: money and sex. Sex is more survivable than money because it’s less likely to wind up in criminal court. That’s the key to understanding the sudden downfall of Congressman Aaron…
Growing Coalition Fights to Save Public Schools in Peoria
Going door-to-door on the campaign trail, the first question people ask Ryan Spain is “What are you going to do about the schools?” Spain, a 7-year, at-large city council member up for reelection, said the wrong answer would be “I…
Government assistance or entitlement: County Board recipients see no hypocrisy
At the March meeting of the Peoria County Board, Dist. 14 Board member Brian Elsasser wore a white striped tie and light purple shirt, a natty complement to his customary two-piece black suit, attire befitting a prosperous business man;…
WE DID IT AGAIN!!!!!!!
Another scoop by “Straight Talk” and the Community Word with news that Chris Reynolds has been hired as the new Athletic Director by Bradley University. This columnist announced that Reynolds was under serious consideration over two months ago not only…
COAL: Edwards plant improves but still pollutes
The E.D. Edwards Energy Center in Bartonville along the Illinois River reduced the amount of toxins it released in the last decade, but it continues to spew dangerous chemicals and is still burning coal. Further, according to both environmental activists…
College Adjuncts Paid Below Minimum Wage: UNIONIZE
Colleges and universities are increasingly relying on adjuncts rather than full-time faculty. Adjuncts are part-time teaching staff who often have master’s or doctoral degrees. They are usually paid a set amount per course taught. Adjuncts don’t receive health insurance or…
My Freedom to Grow Food
By Anne Patterson This spring, I will walk out my door and become even more vigilant about what is happening on my small bio-diverse farm. I’m a little nervous about this upcoming growing year. Normally, I am not. Why can’t…
Letters
Trans-Pacific Partnership: Bad for Labor; Bad for the Environment The Trans-Pacific Partnership has rightly received some negative attention in recent months as the Obama Administration pushes for its ratification and implementation. Creating a race to the bottom, the provisions of…
NATURE RAMBLES
Spring Cleaning… Spring has finally arrived, and there’s a flurry of activity and updates to share. So get out and enjoy everything that this season has to offer. Fire… An ecologist once said that fire season is just like…
SERENDIPITY
Communication Writing, Com 200, at Bradley University in the fall of 1987 included about 20 young students, our professor, the late Dr. Jack Fought, and me. I was the one with apprehension written all over my face. Old enough to be the…
West Peoria News
April 25 is the West Peoria community’s Annual Clean Up Day. Clean Up drop off is open at 9 a.m. at the city garage on Hillside Avenue and can be accessed off Farmington Road or Sterling Hill. This is the…
The Magnificent Invalid
This past month, Peoria audiences were able to see performances from the great powers of the past two centuries and one from the current. The Bradley theater department produced the 2010 winner of the Olivier Award for Best New Play,…
Art – What is it Good For?
Now that Gov. Bruce Rauner has proposed slashing budgets and funding across the board attempting to make Illinois more solvent, the arts, always first to go, are slated for elimination from the Illinois educational system. So what that kids won’t…
Eight Reasons Why You Don’t Need Animal Milk
In 1943, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) started promoting dairy products as part of the 7 Basic Food Groups. It recommended adults drink 2 or more glasses of milk a day. This promotion of milk and the dairy…
Labor Roundup
Think tank defends crackdown on law-breaking contractors. In Washington, a progressive think-tank is defending President Obama’s executive order cracking down on federal contractors who break labor laws. Karla Walter of the Center for American Progress reminded a House committee of…
Freight Volume Up In Peoria More Growth Projected: Noise and Safety Issues Raised
Pictures rattle on the walls and plates shake in the cabinets at Joann and Galen Siscoe’s home a dozen times each day when freight trains pass on the tracks about 75 feet from their front door. The couple has lived…
Offbeat but not off-balance: Peoria’s NYT bestselling author/illustrator Skottie Young
New York Times best-selling graphic novelist and Peoria illustrator Skottie Young might be offbeat, but he’s not off-balance. Whether work and fun, his job and his family, or words and pictures, Young is about balance, despite a visual style that’s…