Over the Christmas holiday, my family and I had the chance to visit the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Mo. It was an incredible experience. The museum contained photos, memorabilia, and newspaper clippings that highlighted the talent of…
Citizenship never stops, really. It didn’t end with voting in November, and it requires participation between now and April 4. That’s when the consolidated local election — held in the spring of odd-numbered years — will pick local representatives to…
ART • On Feb. 9 the Fine Arts Society of Peoria will present Chicago artist Juarez Hawkins at the Peoria Riverfront Museum to lecture on David C. Driskell, who’s credited with using his work, writing and teaching to promote the…
Attorneys representing Peoria County in Auditor Jessica Thomas’ lawsuit filed a blistering objection to her lawyer’s Dec. 7 request for $42,087.50 in fees plus $766.64 in expenses, calling it an “exorbitant demand.” “The County never agreed to such exorbitant and…
The United Auto Workers’ current agreement with Caterpillar is scheduled to expire March 1. Likely issues include not only compensation, but attendance policies — all as the UAW international leadership could be changing and related situations such as the union’s…
Kim Blickenstaff rode into Peoria like the proverbial knight on a white horse with wads of money and a load of ideas for improving life in central Illinois. The highly successful businessman, who made a fortune in the healthcare industry,…
Local officials tidied the books to start 2023: you’ll see $750,000 in debts written off and $2.2 million in grants and bequests coming in. On Dec. 13, Peoria City Council expanded its annual legislative agenda to include public safety pension…
Boy Scout Troop 11 held an Eagle Court of Honor for Ethan Edley on Jan. 8. Ethan is the troop’s Eagle Scout No. 75 since 1943. It is an impressive number of Eagles because of all the commitment, effort, hard…
Peoria County has more than 9,000 military veterans, according to the Census, and hundreds seek help with issues ranging from disability benefits to housing. The county’s Veterans Assistance Commission advocates for them while maneuvering a new federal law providing…
By JESSICA JOHNSON Illinois Tobacco-Free Communities Coordinator for Hult Center for Healthy Living Have you ever been constantly bothered by the smoke from a neighbor’s cigarette? Chances are most people have experienced the uncomfortable effect of breathing in somebody else’s…
A barren wasteland lay in between the way I see myself and the way I am seen by others. The perception and programming of people further clouds the actual reality of that distance. I am 55 years old and at…
Upon entering the 22 VA Art Exhibit last November in the Downtown Branch of the Peoria Public Library, I immediately felt connected to a wide range of creative works. Walls were lined with paintings, photos, recycled art, quilts, writing, carvings,…
For many Floridians, melting polar glaciers means too much water, rising sea levels, and eventual relocation. For many Peruvians, melting Andes glaciers means torrential spring floods, summer water shortages, and rivers — major sources of drinking water — possibly running…
With one bellwether election barely behind us — ringing in five new Peoria County Board members — another will toll in the immediate future. Meanwhile, the nitty-gritty work of government grinds on. Peoria City Council On Nov. 8, Township Supervisor…
“Hypocrisy is a tribute that vice pays to virtue.” Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld, a seventeenth-century French writer and moralist, meant that people who disguise their less-than-worthy thoughts in their speech and writing are implicitly admitting that there is a…
BOOKS • Writer (and Community Word co-owner) Burt Raabe will be signing his poetry collection “Zen and the Art of Underground Sprinkler Maintenance” and reading selections at I Know You Like A Book on Jan. 11. • Former U.S. Attorney…
On October 16, 1854, in Peoria, Abraham Lincoln argued against expanding slavery and touched on a citizen’s role, that when he governs himself that is self-government, “but when he governs himself and also governs another, that is more than self-government.…
Peoria taxpayers are paying outside attorneys to sue the county and also to defend the county in a 13-month-old lawsuit by County Auditor Jessica Thomas, whose office was changed by the County Board in 2021 and eliminated by voters in…
If you’re reading this, then you made it to the year of our Lord, 2023. Perhaps there is light snow on the ground and a solitary robin sitting on a frosty tree limb just outside your window. If you’re lucky,…
I am starting this column with caution about streets for snow conditions this winter. All West Peoria streets are snow routes and parking on them is prohibited when there are 2 inches or more of snow. The process begins with…
