Just the other day, I was watching ESPN when a sports news story came on about one of the most prominent NCAA football coaches in NCAA history, Nick Saban, who had accused another high-profile coach, Jimbo Fisher, of “buying every…
Columns
Art Alerts | June 2022
by Bill Knight • • Comments Off on Art Alerts | June 2022
The title of the history of a generation of creators subverting comic books says it all: “Dirty Pictures: How an Underground Network of Nerds, Feminists, Misfits, Geniuses, Bikers, Potheads, Printers, Intellectuals, and Art School Rebels Revolutionized Art and Invented Comix,”…
The Watch | Politicians can run, but they can’t hide from the League of Women Voters
by Terry Bibo • • Comments Off on The Watch | Politicians can run, but they can’t hide from the League of Women Voters
Summer kicks off with classic good news/bad news. The good news is the League of Women Voters of Greater Peoria was able to add coverage to include Peoria Public Schools District 150. With professional reporters ever-scarcer, volunteers who attend government…
Heat Waves — In Red and Black | Emergency Management hiding behind wall of voodoo statistics
by William Rau • • Comments Off on Heat Waves — In Red and Black | Emergency Management hiding behind wall of voodoo statistics
My last column finds the Illinois Emergency Management Agency whitewashing heatwave risk by aggregating a misleading measure into just one score for a county. Thus, Cook County’s 136 diverse municipalities, and strikingly diverse 1,332 census tracts, are all labeled as…
Serendipity | Thanks, Dad, for making me, and everyone, smile
by Sandra Dempsey Post • • Comments Off on Serendipity | Thanks, Dad, for making me, and everyone, smile
Some sixty years ago, I remember walking home from grade school with friends, which was a daily adventure. My memory of anything that happened so long ago could not be used as evidence in a court of law, but I…
West Peoria News | Remember our veterans, celebrate our nation
by Sharon McBride • • Comments Off on West Peoria News | Remember our veterans, celebrate our nation
This June issue of The Community Word will be available yet in May and will share information of our ongoing Memorial Day celebration that is planned for 10 a.m. Saturday, May 28th at Franciscan Park. This time slot allows those…
Bill Knight | AM-1290 regrettably WIRLs over to the right
by Bill Knight • • Comments Off on Bill Knight | AM-1290 regrettably WIRLs over to the right
When I turned on the kitchen radio, I was startled: Opposite Day? Bizarro world? A Russian hack? Expecting reliable WIRL-AM 1290’s enjoyable, pleasantly distracting classic tunes, I heard Sean Hannity. Days before, the oldies station had quietly become another conservative…
The Lion’s Den | Look where he brought me from: A musical journey
by Daniel McCloud • • Comments Off on The Lion’s Den | Look where he brought me from: A musical journey
When seeking to discuss and describe the developments of Black music during slavery and the subsequent Civil War, one must first trace the origins of Black music before it arrived in America. To do that, one must examine the history…
Straight Talk | These tragic child deaths need more investigating
by Roger Monroe • • Comments Off on Straight Talk | These tragic child deaths need more investigating
For the second time, the Peoria area lost another child to physical and mental abuse. For the second time, I fear the deaths will die from lack of attention and meaningful response. While 35-year-old Leslie Jett will die as an…
Nature Rambles | How to tame Garlic Mustard invasion?
by Mike Miller • • Comments Off on Nature Rambles | How to tame Garlic Mustard invasion?
From beneath the melting snow, it can be seen. Shriveled, green rosettes of leaves, awaiting the warmth of spring. Each of these rosettes represents a plant that has found a toe-hold along our wooded paths in central Illinois. Each is…