Health care’s high costs, inferior coverage and lack of inexpensive options aren’t news, but within 72 hours early last month, a few things sparked renewed interest in the increasingly feasible Medicare for All – news about price hikes for various…
Health care costs burden the country
Central Illinois is familiar with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, which for decades has treated children with leukemia. But few realize the cost associated with one of the most effective medicines used to treat chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML): Gleevec. Manufactured…
Views & Perspectives | Trump administration turmoil
Thirty five who have left very important, substantial positions with the Trump Administration in two years: Three chiefs of staff, three national security advisors, a secretary of defense, two secretaries of state, two department of homeland security secretaries, two veteran…
Straight Talk | Raising eyebrows
Peoria Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Sharon Desmoulin-Kherat got a pat on the back and a healthy salary increase from board members. Not much was shared by adoring supporters about her accomplishments, but everyone agrees she’s a vast improvement over Dr.…
Bill Knight | Farm subsidies
Somewhat overlooked during the holidays’ government shutdown caused by President Trump’s demand for $5 billion to partly fund a border wall that Democrats don’t support was the delay of some farm subsidies and other payments to farmers. That sparked a…
Editorial | Diversity in Congress
Here’s a tally of the number of women in the U.S. House. In 1989: 16 were Democrats; 13 were Republicans In 2019: 89 are Democrats; 13 are Republicans Why is that of any significance? Because diversity matters. History has proven…
Letter to the Editor | A constitutional republic: Tyranny of an entitled minority
Is the U.S. the “greatest democracy in the world” as is often claimed? As any conservative will correctly remind you, the founders were wary of too much democracy and established the country not as a democracy but as a constitutional…
Letter to the Editor | Peoria Public Radio: What Will Happen?
Will Bradley University’s vital NPR radio station, WCBU-FM, survive as it is, or is it ultimately doomed to morph into a second WGLT or worse? That’s the question, but there are no clear answers yet. WCBU, branded as Peoria Public…
Op-Ed | Good community journalism scrutinizes American slavery and its evolution to today
BY DECKLE McLEAN Behind every great fortune lies a great crime, French early 19th century novelist Honore de Balzac advised. Less flamboyantly phrased, Balzac’s message was that some fortunes start with a crime or two. If America’s wealth can be…
Real Talk | Mirrors and distorted images
In the current stages of the #metoo movement, I often question if women of color have a voice or if being in the background and accepting inappropriate advances have caused a rift in how women of color view themselves and…
Serendipity | ‘That kind of music just soothes the soul’
Music appreciation was not particularly emphasized in the grade school I attended. We were introduced to seemingly complicated “facts” about music, none of which resonated with me, as evidenced by my grade. Like most Catholic schools during the ’50s and…
Nature Rambles | Observations from the 119th Christmas Bird Count
Each year, bird enthusiasts look forward to taking part in the longest running “Citizen Scientist” event in existence –– the National Audubon Society’s Christmas Bird Count. This last CBC marked the 119th year that birders have been involved in documenting…
Inland Art | Michiko Itatani
Early in Michiko Itatani’s career she coaxed viewers into unpredictable formal paths in painting and installation discretely probing relationships between radical pictorial composition and societal and geological boundaries. All of her work coincided with the contemplative legacies of reductivism and…
Art Inc.
Join us as we embark on the journey of turning the old Greeley school building into a vibrant community arts center for all to enjoy. As we all know, it takes a village to make this happen, and we welcome…
Arts Beat | February 2019
MUSIC Feb. 1: The Tempest “Live at the Five Spot.” 5:30-7:30 p.m., Contemporary Art Center. 674-6822. Feb. 3: Concordia String Trio concert, featuring Marcia Henry Liebenow on violin, Chee Hyeon Choi on viola and Karen Becker on cello. 3 p.m.…
Reflections From A Hindu Perspective | Discrimination
Recently, I was fortunate enough to be on a panel discussion about anti-Semitism at B’Nai B’Rith senior housing apartment. As I heard the speakers voice their opposition to anti-Semitism and support for the people of the Jewish faith, the words…
Reflections From The Clergy | Race, Mutuality and the Vision of God
In 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. wrote these words: “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” They are from his now-famous Letter from a…
West Peoria News | Street parking and snow
Daniel Kerns was installed as Troop 11’s 70th Eagle Scout on Nov. 13. He is the son of Dan and Barb Kerns, has two older sisters and is a senior at Notre Dame High School. His Eagle project was landscaping…
Labor Roundup | February 2019
Both the number and the rate of job injuries that killed workers declined by 1 percent in 2017, compared to the year before, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. Some 5,147 workers died that year, a BLS survey calculated, or…
Learn our history to change our future
More than a dozen majestic oaks still stand in Hall Woods near Hall Cemetery just east of Lacon, witness to a lynching in 1898. The exact site of the lynching, reportedly by a mob of 100 men from Toluca, is…
New generation of Peoria policing embraces “one with community”
Peoria Police Officer Daniel Duncan is driving 700 miles to Montgomery, Ala., looking for answers and looking for hope. His destination is the Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice. It may…
Water debate continues
Agreed: Water and its safety are important to Central Illinois. Agreed: Water is a key piece of the economic puzzle as the City of Peoria faces huge financial strains. Agreed: Water’s place in that puzzle is determined by the Peoria…