BY SHERYL COHEN AND MARY BETH NEBEL The latest information regarding the fate of Peoria Public Radio is that the station will cease to operate on Bradley University’s campus and will be “moved” to WGLT in Bloomington. When WCBU’s facilities…
Op-Ed | Eat for your health and the health of the climate
BY HENRY BROCKMAN We live in difficult times. We are hit with a daily drumbeat of near-apocalyptic news: climate change, natural disasters, migrants fleeing violence and poverty, a dysfunctional government at home . . . the list of things to…
Reflections From The Clergy | Justice reform
As we begin a new year, many of us will dream of new beginnings and second chances. We may take another shot at last year’s failed resolution. We may commit to finally get some aspect of our life in order.…
Real Talk | How to get away with murder
Jamal Khashoggi a 59-year old journalist for the Washington Post, was a Saudi Arabian national and a U.S. resident. He also was a frequent critic of Saudi’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (M.B.S.) and the Saudi government policies. Khashoggi was…
Nature Rambles | Winter Butterflies
While January might seem a strange time to think about butterflies, it is actually a great time to look back at the past season and start the process for planning for next year. In past columns, we have touched on…
Inland Art | LJ Douglas
LJ Douglas’s work began in the eighties in Chicago before there were more than a handful of contemporary galleries on Ontario Street. It was the twilight of the Hairy Who, and the Baby-boomers were surging from the region’s schools of…
Arts Beat | January 2019
MUSIC Jan. 4: Dexter O’Neal and Funk Yard “Live at the Five Spot.” 5:30 p.m. Contemporary Art Center. 674-6822. Jan. 8, 15 and 22: Chicago Farmer “Folkin’ Tuesdays.” 8 p.m. Kenny’s West Side Pub. 676-1693. Jan. 11: “State & Water…
Serendipity | Teenagers, suddenly
Announcing the arrival of teenagers in our family! Not since 1997 when our youngest of three turned 20, have teens been part of the mix. On Dec. 27 Jules, our oldest grandchild turned 13; Emma following on Jan. 25; and…
Peoria literary magazine, Downstate Story, out with new 2018 volume
Ten new short stories by Illinois and Midwestern writers are featured in the 2018 edition of Downstate Story, Peoria’s only literary magazine for fiction. Downstate Story is now published exclusively online at www.downstatestory.com. Writers in this issue are David Seaman,…
NOW: Best and worst of 2018
The National Organization for Women has led the fight for equal rights for decades. The organization released this list for the worst offenders and top victories in 2018: Worst offenders of women’s rights Betsy DeVos, Secretary of Education, for her…
Science Brief | “Genetically Modified Children”
In this horrifying documentary, writer and director Juliette Igier travels around Argentina meeting families in agricultural communities whose lives have been upended by a sudden surge in birth defects and cancers among the children. Tobacco farmers face an impossible choice…
Corporations have no human rights — No freedom of speech
BY ELAINE HOPKINS The “Move to Amend” movement promotes a U.S. Constitutional Amendment that will strip corporations and the wealthy of their power to control elections with their money and control legislation by claiming corporate “rights.” A speaker from the…
West Peoria News | Local institution will be missed
2019 starts with some important West Peoria meetings. Neighborhood Watch will meet 6 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 9 in City Hall. Speaker to be announced. Begin 2019 with participation in your community. Plan on attending and bring a neighbor or friend…
Peoria Women’s March/Rally to be held Saturday Jan. 19
Peoria’s Women’s Rally/March, in conjunction with the national event, is scheduled for 11 a.m. Saturday Jan. 19 at the Gateway Building Park in downtown Peoria. The Peoria event will include speeches, music and more. The mission of Women’s March is…
Labor Roundup | January 2019
Senators to Verizon, subcontractor: End pregnancy discrimination. Nine U.S. Senators, led by Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, have demanded that Verizon and the subcontractor running its Memphis warehouse, XPO Logistics, answer published details about unusually high…
Facts matter — first truth; then reconciliation; then justice
American history is shrouded in stereotypes and false accounts that cripple our ability to move forward and achieve a just and equitable society. In a recent survey, 92 percent of middle school children did not know slavery was a central…
At lynching memorial, steel columns rise and hang overhead like bodies
BY PAM ADAMS The new lynching memorial in Montgomery, Ala. is a prayer and a challenge. The memorial, officially the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, is the end of a public eulogy, in stone and steel, for the long-buried…
Reconcile history or repeat injustice
Montgomery is a city of contradictions. It is known as the Cradle of the Confederacy as well as the birthplace of the Civil Rights Movement that was born from the Montgomery Bus Boycott. The city has markers throughout the town…
Change the future by confronting the past
BY PAM ADAMS The average cost of an enslaved Black man in the 1800s was about $750. At $15,000 in today’s dollars, that’s not that much less than the average annual cost per inmate at many Illinois prisons. It’s a…
Unacknowledged at home — here hang the names of lynching victims from Lacon to Decatur to Lewistown
BY PAM ADAMS He was George Stewart or S.W. Stewart or another variation. The name changed from newspaper to newspaper. He may have been part Indian, according to the newspaper in Toluca where his alleged crime occurred. Several points are…
Lynching victims in Central Illinois
BY PAM ADAMS The Equal Justice Initiative documented 56 racial terror lynchings in Illinois, the third highest number among states outside the South. Listed here are some of the lynchings in Central Illinois. Andrew Richards, 9/11/1877, Winchester, Scott County Nelson…
“You all are my therapists.” People who care.
BY PAM ADAMS “At the site where you are standing, enslaved people were imprisoned with livestock, horses, pigs and cattle.” This is the Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration. The museum site shares a trendy, brick-paved alleyway of bars…