Disney songs continue playing in my head long after the music has stopped. Hours of such selections on Pandora will do that. I’m not the enthusiastic fan, although I do have some favorite selections, but my 5-year-old granddaughter loves the…
The shadow of a bullet Mother’s Day weekend in May 2000, my life drastically changed. My 20-year-old brother Michael Taylor was shot one time in the abdomen by a rookie Chicago police officer, Nail Majid. I often wonder if terrorism…
Trick-or-treat hours in West Peoria are 5-8 p.m. All trick-or-treating children should be back in their homes by 8 p.m. Kids should carry flashlights and go only to houses with porch lights turned on and not enter strange homes or…
2018 politics starts as Fight for 15, SEIU start voter engagement drive. Next year’s politics started Labor Day, as political hopefuls joined a mass walkout of fast-food and hospital workers on Sept. 4, Fight for 15 & a Union said.…
MUSIC Oct. 1: “Music in the McKenzie” with Pint & A Half. 2 p.m. Peoria Public Library North Branch. 497-2100. Oct. 1: Pierce The Veil. 7:30 p.m. Limelight Eventplex. 693-1234. Oct. 1: Faculty recital with Sarah Hansen and Mickey Chien.…
Think ice skating today and the Owens Center or the rebirth of outdoor skating with the addition of PNC Winterfest come to mind. But Peorians have had a long love with ice skating, first starting on the frozen Illinois River.…
Unconventional, thought provoking and experimental art forms exist everywhere, and Peoria is no exception. Most of Peoria’s cultural offerings, however, aren’t rigorous investigations of the current state of contemporary art, art history or theory. Unfortunately Central Illinois is risk averse…
“Glass Menagerie” opens Corn Stock’s winter season
By BILL KNIGHT When Corn Stock Theatre launches its Winter Season Oct. 27 with “The Glass Menagerie,” it will be 73 years since the premiere in Chicago of Tennessee Williams’ first successful play. Directed in Peoria by Amy Glass, the…
Heartland showcasing Bernstein “West Side Story” themes
By BILL KNIGHT Six decades after the Broadway production of Leonard Bernstein’s “West Side Story,” the Heartland Festival Orchestra this month pays musical homage to the work and to Bernstein with a musical program titled “Class Rumble” featuring accomplished timpani…
Building Middle Class
Sheriff Asbell: Despite beliefs, no crime wave
BY BILL KNIGHT Many people worry about crime; they assume there’s cause. But much of that concern is an example of belief versus reality. That disconnect faces 44-year-old Brian Asbell as he starts his position as Peoria County’s new sheriff…
NOW president: Persist, Resist, Unite
BY CLARE HOWARD Some pharmacists in Florida have taken contraceptive prescriptions from women and ripped them up. Pharmacists in other states have refused to fill prescriptions for contraceptives and abortifacients. The National Organization for Women is pushing back and ramping…
Reproductive Choice: Ask Cara
BY CLARE HOWARD Julia Sun and Celina Crisman were roommates at Cornell University. Sun graduated with a degree in engineering. Crisman went on to medical school and is now a surgeon. The two friends, supporters of Planned Parenthood, watched sweeping…
Happy Birthday Woodruff High Woodruff High School was closed in 2010 by a slim 4-3 vote of the District 150 school board. All of those board members who foolishly destroyed the high school are gone, but not the Woodruff Alumni…
Congress should listen to Sen. McCain’s wise words I had the opportunity to listen to Sen. John McCain’s speech given to all 100 senators on the U.S. Senate floor upon his return to Washington following the very bad news that…
Happy re-birthday Three years ago, some 20 Peoria-area journalists and activists came together to buy the Community Word to ensure its future as an independent, locally owned newspaper. Initially launched in 1977, the free monthly now reaches about 19,000 readers…
Legacy of the Heidelberg case There is no way to compensate for a wrongful conviction. It destroys lives and taints the entire judicial system – a key foundation of democracy. Totalitarian states don’t need or want a fair judiciary. Just…
Unjustly denied adequate medical care Thank you for the article “Healthcare in prison: ’Nonexistent’” (July, Community Word) about the lack of healthcare Cleve Heidelberg and I received in prison. We were both wrongly convicted and both of us were released…
Unions Benefit Both Members and Non-Members BY SHARON K. WILLIAMS Most people may not realize how much unions have positively affected the workplace. If you value your weekend, your health insurance, your retirement plan, your middle class income and your…
Like many of you, I am numb with tears and pain that I have from the scenes of hatred over recent days. These events started on a Friday evening in Charlottesville, Va. Once again, in the history of our country,…
Singing Woods is growing! On May 24, 2017, the Peoria Park District acquired a 9-acre parcel of woodlands. It was part of an estate that was home to the Raistrick family for a couple of generations. After the death of…