Hours before a fund raiser at a White Sox game in U.S. Cellular Field in Chicago, busy State Sen. Dave Koehler took time to chat with the Community Word about the award he’s receiving on Sept. 21, when the Peoria…
Author Archive for Bill Knight
The Country Needs a Better Minimum Wage
by Bill Knight • • Comments Off on The Country Needs a Better Minimum Wage
Whether slinging hash at a fast-food franchise in Peoria Heights or clocking in day labor booked out of a downtown office, minimum-wage workers need better pay. The country needs a better minimum wage – and one that includes everyone who…
LaHood calls for service, civility, compromise
by Bill Knight • • Comments Off on LaHood calls for service, civility, compromise
After more than four years as U.S. Secretary of Transportation during the Obama administration and 35 years in government, Republican Ray LaHood is taking time to consider various options and opportunities and plans to decide his future in the next…
The full story on Peoria’s Betty Friedan
by Bill Knight • • Comments Off on The full story on Peoria’s Betty Friedan
This Labor Day during the 50th anniversary year of the publication of the landmark “Feminine Mystique” by Peoria native Betty Friedan, one wonders, “What if?” What if more people knew of Friedan’s background – especially her years as a labor…
Art from jobs program could still inspire
by Bill Knight • • Comments Off on Art from jobs program could still inspire
I grew up in Carthage, IL, where even in childhood visits to the Post Office were made more meaningful by a moving mural by Karl Kelp: “Pioneers – Tilling the Soil and Building Log Cabin.” The 1938 art – showing…
‘Droning’ on and on mustn’t put us to sleep
by Bill Knight • • Comments Off on ‘Droning’ on and on mustn’t put us to sleep
Will it take things like motorized aircraft or flying cameras banking over the Shoppes at Grand Prairie or Bradley University, hovering above the Par-A-Dice Hotel & Casino or Glen Oak Park, or zooming from Dunlap and the South Side to…
Nagging Feelings of Loss
by Bill Knight • • Comments Off on Nagging Feelings of Loss
The week of the Boston Marathon bombing, the workplace explosion in West, Texas, and the death of Peoria comic stalwart Royce Elliott, it was impossible not to feel guilty about a nagging sense of loss from flooding. Even there, many…
Special interests delay wastewater protections
by Bill Knight • • Comments Off on Special interests delay wastewater protections
It’s tempting to characterize opponents of the City/County Health Department’s proposed ordinance on wastewater systems to be as full of crap as the Illinois River and nearby Kickapoo Creek, both of which are considered by the state EPA, the Illinois…
Should society protect kids from football?
by Bill Knight • • Comments Off on Should society protect kids from football?
Society somehow thinks it’s sensible to check Halloween candy for drugs or poison despite overwhelming evidence that such incidents are an urban myth, but faced with real reports of serious injuries to kids playing football, people seem unperturbed. But high…
Knight Watch: Progressives Unite to Fight for Democracy
by Bill Knight • • Comments Off on Knight Watch: Progressives Unite to Fight for Democracy
In 1864, the Rev. Byron Sunderland, chaplain of the U.S. Senate, prayed before an April session, “Oh, Lord, give us that Thou wilt in Thine infinite wisdom vouchsafe to our rulers and legislators in this Congress assembled more brains. More…