thru Dec 17 – Candlelight Walks – Recurring weekly on Fri. & Sat. at Luthy Botanical Gardens. thru Dec 31st – Conklin’s Barn II Dinner Theatre presents “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.” Recurring weekly on Sun., Thurs.,…
Free Events for Kids and Families in December at Peoria Public Library
PreSchool Friday, December 2, 9, 16, 23, & 30 – Fun Time Storytime – North Branch – 10:15-10:45 a.m. – Fun stories and songs for children ages 3-6. 497-2100 FREE Wed., December 7 – Fun Time Storytime – Main Library,…
Newsbriefs
Gordon Votes to Close Pension Loopholes Working to reform the state’s broken pension system, state Rep. Jehan Gordon (D-Peoria) recently supported two measures aimed at closing loopholes & preventing abuses of state pension benefits. House Bill 3815 prevents an employee…
Tazewell County Jaycees October Trunk-Or-Treat: Community Service for Families This Halloween
The Tazewell County Jaycees annual Trunk-Or-Treat event in Fondulac Plaza in East Peoria, Illinois was another hit this year with families living in the area wanting to celebrate Halloween with their children. Additionally, the Trunk-Or-Treat event showcases area businesses ability…
Dungeon of Darkness: Pekin’s Premiere Haunt Scares Up Great Business in 2011
Dungeon of Darkness, Pekin, Illinois’ longest running haunt, had a great Halloween season this year with the integration of new rooms and new scares. The haunted attraction, ran by Matt Ruder, his wife Beth Ruder, and Dennis Shea as well…
OccupyPeoria makes a splash
It was a surprisingly large rally, by Peoria standards. I hung out at the Occupy Peoria rally on Oct. 15. What you have to understand is no one really occupied anything. The rally was held at the corner of West…
Pathways of Faith
Love is a basic tenet of Christianity and Reverend Steve Barch has devoted his life to sharing God’s love with others. The paths of such a vocation have been varied, but the journey continues to offer him many opportunities to…
City Leaders Seek Input on Cumulative Voting System
Peoria may change the way it elects City Council members provided city residents are unhappy with the outcome. Bradley University’s Institute for Principled Leadership in Public Service (IPL) is leading an initiative to give Peoria citizens a chance to weigh…
The reason for the season
The Importance of Being Haddad’s Market
By Greg Speck Mark Wrhel, owner of Haddad’s Market knew that many people were devastated by the fire and the destruction of the Haddad’s Market, in January of this year. He knew his customers had really depended on the store…
Poor reporting
Pam Adams has written a couple of recent articles in the Journal about changes at Methodist Medical Center. I’m not sure where she’s getting her information, but too many of her statements are false and some are just plainly offensive. Factually,…
Health insurers gouging patients?
Greater Peoria is a medical Mecca, and it also has a significant presence of insurance companies, so one wonders whether there’ll come a time when central Illinois will be Ground Zero for a battle between health providers and health insurers.…
November: Month of the Turkey
My brother in law, John, described a collision with a wild turkey as “cartoon like.” It was an explosion of feathers. The car concealing cloud of plumage may have looked like something from Loony Tunes, but it was far from…
City Beat
I had a little bit of a confrontation. Call it a discussion, if you like. For the past four weeks or so, I’ve been collecting information from daily police reports from the Peoria Police Department and including them in blotter…
Bullying? Sexual Harassment?
by Dolores M. Klein, Peoria, IL On C-Span recently, I watched Anita Hill being honored at an event commemorating the 20th anniversary of her testimony against Clarence Thomas’ appointment to the Supreme Court. It was a valuable afternoon of insights…
Let Us Prey
By Ed Klein, Peoria, IL h I hold no brief for Mormonism, and I’m not particularly fond of Mitt Romney. But when Christian leaders call it a cult, I find it appropriate to cite Hanlon’s Razor: “Never attribute to malice…
The Un-lived Life of Russell Stone a novelette, part eleven
Rachel lingers on the bench outside the Afterglow Journey Center. She pulls Mrs. Stone’s book of poetry out of her briefcase and reads the next poem. It’s 10:20 AM. We sit on the couch an inch apart, a sea between…
Serendipity: Travel can be transforming
Interest in travel was introduced to me by my mother. My father was supportive, but not keen on seeing the world and didn’t understand the appeal. My mother was more of an armchair traveler although she did visit my sister…
West Peoria News for November 2011
Isn’t it fun to go past Haddad’s and see the progress being made? I know that I always get a little boost every time I pass the new building. Take the opportunity to buy one of the good neighbor candy…
Musings for November 2011
Another month and more trauma. I believe sometimes that I operate from one to another, but maybe that’s just because I don’t have a lot of adventure in my life, so everything takes on such significance. It really wasn’t so…
Shop Talk: Small businesses highlighted
Haddad’s Downtown – a new family-owned restaurant The owners of this new restaurant, Haddad’s Downtown are Andy Speck and Rita Haddad Speck. This writer has been following their story since it opened, which was in March 2011. You may know…
Thanksgiving’s Harvest: Local organizations give to the needy this holiday
This Thanksgiving season, organizations such as the Salvation Army and South Side Mission, are giving away meals to those who need them. Signs of giving during this Thanksgiving holiday time are abundantly clear throughout great businesses and organizations in the…