Straight Talk: School/Teacher negotiations are on a need-to-know basis
The good news is the Peoria Federation of Teachers reached agreement on a new three-year contract with the Peoria School District. Unfortunately, it took months of negotiations, a federal mediator, and the threat of a strike. Once again both sides…
Arts Alerts: Mars, Keith Urban, Oak Ridge Boys, Bill Burr, Holiday Inn, Regifters
ART The 10-foot artwork “Mars,” by U.K. artist Luke Jerram, is a highlight of “Mars: The Exhibition,” continuing in November at the Riverfront Museum. The interative display will be here through Spring. MUSIC Keith Urban is set to play…
Real Talk: Parenthood is the root of it all, folks
Spending almost half of my life working in a school capacity, I have seen a lot of issues involving children. Lately it seems to have grown strikingly more serious — more aggression, more serious crimes, the anger, the hurt.…
Who’s dissing you? Be sure you’re not missing out because lawmakers are lying about the SAFE-T Act
Information is power, it’s said, but increasingly — especially with today’s sophisticated, speedy technology — so is disinformation. In elections, maybe such fearmongering was always powerful. Commentator H.L. Mencken in 1918 wrote, “Democracy tends to degenerate into a mere combat…
Ready to vote? Community Word Election primer here to help
Do Republicans have what it takes to control Congress? Will Democrats keep their hold on statewide offices? Casting an uneducated vote, political scientists say, can be worse than not voting. It’s important for the electorate to be knowledgeable of the…
Community Word Election Primer 2022
Metro Peoria’s monthly newspaper has compiled a bit of campaign information for some key races affecting central Illinois. Most media attention in campaigns for the Nov. 8 election has focused on the tops of party tickets. In Illinois, that means…
Meet the candidates running for Peoria County Board
We reached out to the candidates running for a seat on the Peoria County Board to give them the opportunity to let our readers learn something about them. District 2 CAMILLE COATES (D): “Born, raised and educated in central Illinois,…
SAFE SPACE: Jim and Laura Sniff provide special kind of fun on their farm
At press time, a few shows remain in the Blue Ridge Community Farm’s fall concert series, but there’s no end in sight for Jim and Laura Sniff’s activities — or the love behind it in Chillicothe. A self-described “farm kid”…
Op-Ed | Meritocracy: Smug up top with demoralizing bottom
By EMILY GILL Social mobility has long been the United States’s answer to inequality. Equality of opportunity should allow individuals to rise as far as their abilities and hard work can take them. In the twenty-first century, however, the promise…
Op-Ed | Ten years of reflection at Jon Buckley Memorial Garden
By YOLANDA WALLACE Have you ever been down to the Marina far east along the walking trail near the Illinois River? Sometimes I’d go walking along the trail and see the Constitution Park. That’s where people go to discuss…
Op-Ed | Protect our Constitution, prosecute insurrectionists
By JAMES WILHELM Every member of Congress of the United States of America, specifically the Senate and House of Representatives, takes a solemn oath to “… support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and…
Inland Arts | Raising Helvetica: Travis Janssen creating cyanotypes with one of the ‘finest’ fonts in the world
Helvetica: Uppercase, currently on display at the Contemporary Art Center of Peoria until Oct 22, is an exhibition of an ongoing series by the artist Travis Janssen, Associate Professor and Head of the Printmaking Program at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale.…
Referenda on the November ballot
At the top of all Illinois ballots is a Proposed Amendment to the 1970 Illinois Constitution “EXPLANATION OF (WORKER’S RIGHTS) AMENDMENT: The proposed amendment would add a new section to the Bill of Rights Article of the Illinois Constitution that…
