As Americans get excited or annoyed by the latest Oval Office tweets or other outrages from President Trump, a dozen troublesome issues bubble through Capitol Hill like an attack of irritable bowel syndrome. Maybe we need a “National Narrator” to…
Nationwide “Shootout” with Concealed Carry Guns The gun debate in America became more phantasmagorical with a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives in December approving the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2017 (HR 38). This legislation is jaw-droppingly horrifying.…
Halt corporate mining industries from destroying sacred native lands President Trump lashed out at America’s conservation history and the growing movement for Native American tribal sovereignty with his pair of “repeal and replace” proclamations revoking the Bears Ears and Grand…
Soil: Last Great Hope to Mitigate Climate Change BY DAVE BISHOP Dave Bishop farms organically in Central Illinois on PrairiErth Farm, a multi-generational, 480-acre operation that follows “regenerative farming” practices. Developing regenerative farming systems has been the mission at PrairiErth…
The Greatest Arts Community in America — Part 9
Bob Emser’s body of public works are at ease in prescribed settings like urban plazas and sculpture gardens. The contours of his work are clear, adaptive and organic. He’s situated his sculpture on concrete and on soil, riffed on constructivist…
MUSIC Jan. 6: Sunshine Daydream Grateful Dead tribute band. 10 p.m. Kenny’s Westside Pub. 676-1693. Jan. 6: “New Year’s Greeting – That’s Amore!” Heartland Festival Orchestra, with guest vocalists Sarah Jane McMahon and Sal Viviano. 7:30 p.m. Five Points Washington.…
Trumpeter Swans return With a wingspan of over 7 feet and weighing close to 30 pounds, the Trumpeter Swan is considered the largest native waterfowl species in North America. It is a bird that once nested across the upper United…
Reflections From A Secular Humanist
A Humanist View of Religion’s Role in Environmental Protection BY HARRY ELGER According to NASA, greenhouse gas emissions and mass extinctions are making the Earth less inhabitable. As role models of ethics and morality, shouldn’t religions be stronger supporters of…
Members of Seniors on the Go donated food items for the Stuff-a-Bus food drive during their December meeting. Stuff-a-Bus collected more than 10 tons of food during the 30th annual food drive for Peoria Friendship House. Peoria Friendship House then…
Family holiday celebrations always included a birthday cake for my paternal grandmother who was born on Dec. 25. She often seemed somewhat surprised that we remembered. I wondered if maybe her birthday as a child was overlooked. I hope not.…
Lawmakers hit secret VA scheme to partially privatize health care. Five congressional Democrats, all military veterans, have warned the Department of Veterans Affairs against its reported scheme to partially privatize VA health care by merging part of its system with…
Blacks as Amnesia Victims My grandmother has begun to age, and it is the norm that her memory is beginning to phase out. Maybe the stress of losing her daughter at the young age of 50 or burying two sisters…
Memorialized on postcards and souvenir vases after opening in 1910, the Jefferson Building (Fulton and Jefferson streets) towered over the Peoria skyline symbolizing the city’s move into the modern age. Shortly before, local civic leaders William Hull and Edward Leisy…
Following decade of no pay raises journalists see tiny salary boost
After nearly a decade with no pay raises and constant increases in their share of health insurance premiums, employees at Peoria’s only daily newspaper may see a small increase in pay and a commitment to freeze their share of health…
Salting our roads — and water and fields
There are always trade-offs, it seems. In “Inherit the Wind,” the Henry Drummond character (Spencer Tracy in the film version) sums it up: “Progress has never been a bargain; you have to pay for it. Sometimes I think there’s a…
Mark Clark’s body in morgue unclaimed; family never notified
BY LAWRENCE J. MAUSHARD Editor’s Note: Peorian Mark Clark was 22 and a member of the Peoria NAACP and leader of the Peoria Chapter of the Illinois Black Panther Party. He was running a BPP free breakfast program for children…
Medicaid expansion helps more women
For those who consider access to safe, legal abortion a basic human right, there was a sense of justice when Gov. Bruce Rauner defied many in his base and signed House Bill 40 into law. The legislation, effective Jan. 1,…
December is for Reflection and Celebrating the Season of Joy As I write my last column of 2017, I reflect on the extraordinary public service careers of three outstanding Central Illinois citizens. My mentor and friend, former Congressman Bob Michel, passed…
Just before Christmas 1946, Dorothy Day permanently left Maryfarm in Pennsylvania, one of dozens of Houses of Hospitality her group, Catholic Worker, started setting up in the 1930s. This Christmastime, Day remains an impressive figure. Her granddaughter Kate Hennessy has…