Singing or thinking about “Over the river and through the woods to Grandmother’s house we go,” creates nostalgic feelings and good will regardless of some or no river or woods on the way to Grandma. Interesting to consider if decades…
Soon after the first hard frost of the fall season, the West Peoria Beautification Committee will be clearing flowers from community planters and businesses. Then they will be hanging the garlands and lights for the holiday season. The West Peoria…
What the heck do we have to lose? Trying to wrap my brain around the audacity of Donald Trump is more than a notion; it’s the visceral reaction I had in regard to his alleged outreach for the African-American vote.…
Jeff Sloter, who directed the hit production “The Foreigner” for Cornstock with Peoria native now Broadway actor, Steve Vinovich, has turned his sights on a musical. Mr. Sloter said he first met the playwright/composer Derek Childs 30 years ago during…
Arts Beat
MUSIC Nov. 1: Reel Big Fish, with Masked Intruder, Stacked Like Pancakes. 7 p.m. Limelight Eventplex. 693-1234. Nov. 4: Dexter O’Neal & Funk Yard Live at the Five Spot, 5:30 p.m. Contemporary Art Center. 674-6877. Nov. 4: Derel Monteith. 8…
A Midwestern Mecca When Rocco Landesman, chairman of the National Endowment of the Arts (NEA), came to Peoria in 2009 to kick off his national campaign “Art Works,” he was giving the citizens of central Illinois the possibility of becoming…
AFL-CIO adds opposition to xenophobia to campaign issues. Racist xenophobia isn’t exactly a workplace issue, but the country’s top labor federation has added it to campaign issues this election. AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Tefere Gebre (himself a political refugee, at…
How well do EpiPens work? Last month’s column discussed Heather Bresch, CEO of Mylan Pharmaceuticals, and her plan to maximize corporate profits with a 620 percent EpiPen price increase over nine years to $610 for two pens. This month’s column…
Poetry of Hiroshima memories and the happiness of Central Illinois dirt
When Aozora “Zoe” Brockman’s first book, “The Happiness of Dirt,” was published in 2011, this is what Illinois Poet Laureate Kevin Stein wrote: “In an era when most stand sorely distanced from the planting, tending, and harvesting of our food,…
Elder Care Concern: Boredom
BY DAVE WEIMAN Last month I wrote about loneliness, one of the three plagues that affect the well-being of elders. This month I want to address one of the other plagues, boredom. Next month I’ll discuss the third plague, helplessness.…
Health damage from exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals much greater in U.S. than E.U.
Exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals is costing the United States more than $340 billion a year in treatment compared with $163 billion a year in the European Union, according to a new study by researchers at New York University…
Free specialty clinic in Peoria is fulfillment of 20-year dream
When Lutfun Nessa pushed her walker slowly through the doors of the Cordoba Healthcare clinic in Peoria, she had no idea she represented the goal of an idea born 20 years ago in the mind of a young medical student…
Nuclear Accident: Is an accidental apocalypse inevitable?
Since the 1950s Cold War era, when “duck and cover” drills were common in schools, nuclear weaponry has become abstract, if not ignored outright by most Americans. But with belligerent rhetoric – whether Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump or North…
First-hand account: Car buyers beware
BY ELAINE HOPKINS If you bought a new vehicle recently, here’s a word of advice: check to see whether it has a spare tire. Many new car models now lack a spare tire, and some don’t even offer one as…
NO COMPETITION Mayor Jim Ardis has announced he will seek another term. He made it official, by the way, on our morning radio show, “Breakfast with Roger and Friends,” on WAZU-FM 90.7. His announcement included a list of Democrat and…
The popularity of “Sesame Street” isn’t debatable. Still, when Bradley University’s former debate coach writes about the long-running program, one might expect persuasion, syllogistic reasoning, and rhetoric. Instead, Gary Dreibelbis in the new “Gospel According to Sesame Street” focuses on…
Voter Restrictions: The New Jim Crow “Selma: The Bridge to the Ballot” is a new documentary produced by the Southern Poverty Law Center with financial support from Terry Matthews, one of the co-owners of Community Word. Terry is passionate about…
Letters
Your Right As a Patient vs. Your Medical Providers’ Religious Beliefs It is basically dishonest to characterize Illinois Senate Bill 1564 Health Care Right of Conscience Act as invalidating the First Amendment right to freedom of religion. The legislation, effective…
OP-ED
Nutrition, Politics, and the Destruction of Scientific Integrity By T. Colin Campbell, PhD Reprinted with permission from the September issue of The T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies newsletter, http://nutritionstudies.org. On Aug. 1, it was 60 years since I…
170 Years of Service: Ward Chapel AME Church The African Methodist Episcopal Church grew out of the Free African Society, an organization started by Absalom Jones, Richard Allen, and others in Philadelphia in 1787. The Free African Society formed after…
Sulphur Butterflies Along the sandy roads in Mason County grows the Partridge Pea. A member of the bean family, its feather-like leaves are familiar to many. The leaves of Partridge Pea have the interesting habit of folding up in the…