Single-issue activism can be ineffective, and it’s particular noteworthy in April, when people commemorate both Earth Day and Workers Memorial Day, when people urge prevention as the best action against trouble, on global and personal scales. For labor, if the…
Author Archive for Bill Knight
NCAA Hardly ‘Squeaky’ Clean: BU Guest Speaker
by Bill Knight • • Comments Off on NCAA Hardly ‘Squeaky’ Clean: BU Guest Speaker
When Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Taylor Branch comes to Peoria this month, he’s returning to “the scene of the crime.” But the crime wasn’t the 1951 indictment of Bradley University players like Gene “Squeaky” Melchiorre, caught up in the scheme to fix basketball games. The crime…
Some baseball history to think about as Spring Training begins
by Bill Knight • • Comments Off on Some baseball history to think about as Spring Training begins
Major League Baseball’s pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training this month, when everything’s fresh and new (if cold and dormant). Everyone has an equal chance (depending on off-season personnel moves and injuries). And the possibilities are endless (at least…
Local Red Cross administrators and civic leaders should reassert control of Peoria operations
by Bill Knight • • Comments Off on Local Red Cross administrators and civic leaders should reassert control of Peoria operations
The heavy hands of out-of-state attorneys and a dominating national headquarters seem to be getting in the way of a settlement in the long-delayed unionization of Peoria’s Heart of America Red Cross Blood Services division. Local Red Cross administrators and…
Health insurers gouging patients?
by Bill Knight • • Comments Off on Health insurers gouging patients?
Greater Peoria is a medical Mecca, and it also has a significant presence of insurance companies, so one wonders whether there’ll come a time when central Illinois will be Ground Zero for a battle between health providers and health insurers.…
Some Drinking Water Quality Suspect, According to GAO, USGS
by Bill Knight • • Comments Off on Some Drinking Water Quality Suspect, According to GAO, USGS
One consequence of conservatives’ insatiable hunger to starve government could jeopardize people’s health by letting drinking water become contaminated and go unreported, according to a report from the non-partisan Government Accounting Office (GAO). For now, people can still track local…
Progressive – and proud of it!
by Bill Knight • • Comments Off on Progressive – and proud of it!
Patience is a virtue, it’s said, and that might be especially true when reform is sought. If progress seems slow, impatience can lead to frustration and worse.Patience is particularly important when conventional wisdom, stereotypes, etc. become obstacles to change. For…
Boycott WEEK advertisers
by Bill Knight • • Comments Off on Boycott WEEK advertisers
I’m going to watch a lot of WEEK-TV 25 in the next few weeks. I’m going to watch to see which companies advertise there, because I won’t patronize companies who, with their commercials, enrich a New York corporation that devalues…
Smoke & Mirrors: Casinos, State want the moola, no matter who’s hurt
by Bill Knight • • Comments Off on Smoke & Mirrors: Casinos, State want the moola, no matter who’s hurt
I’ve had friends and family who worked at metro Peoria’s Par-A-Dice casino, so I appreciate that it provides jobs and revenue to government, but the legislature’s debate about changing the smoking ban to exclusively benefit gaming interests either oversimplifies or…
What would a Tea Party-type budget reform mean for Peoria?
by Bill Knight • • Comments Off on What would a Tea Party-type budget reform mean for Peoria?
In mid-April the Peoria Journal Star ran a story about a Tea Party rally that, from the looks of the crowd pictured, barely had more people than the journalists covering it. That’s OK, but there had been mostly silence about a…