An effort to improve the quality of school meals for lower-income and minority students is making its way through the Illinois General Assembly. The Better School Lunches Act has moved on to the Senate after passing unanimously through the Statehouse…
Features
Peoria Women’s March/Rally to be held Saturday Jan. 19
by Community Word Staff • • Comments Off on Peoria Women’s March/Rally to be held Saturday Jan. 19
Peoria’s Women’s Rally/March, in conjunction with the national event, is scheduled for 11 a.m. Saturday Jan. 19 at the Gateway Building Park in downtown Peoria. The Peoria event will include speeches, music and more. The mission of Women’s March is…
Invisible barriers to GED
by Clare Howard • • Comments Off on Invisible barriers to GED
Darryl Townsend felt a strange sense of alarm as he walked into the Peoria County Courthouse, through security, past armed guards. He was there for his GED test, but it was not test anxiety he was experiencing. It was knowledge…
NOW president: Persist, Resist, Unite
by Clare Howard • • Comments Off on 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…
Two men, 200 miles apart, two rivers, one mission
by Clare Howard • • Comments Off on Two men, 200 miles apart, two rivers, one mission
BY CLARE HOWARD Donald Hey and Bud Grieves are focused on re-establishing the ancient “flood pulse” of rivers. The flood pulse is the lifeblood of rivers, the ebb and flow of seasonal cycles of gentle floods and droughts established over…
Trump victory de-coded
by George Hopkins • • Comments Off on Trump victory de-coded
News Analysis BY GEORGE HOPKINS Democracy is not for the faint-hearted. Disappointing stuff happens. Neither our Founding Fathers nor the Greeks had much use for democracy. An old Greek joke described democracy as a process by which two wolves and…
ACLU questions Heartland Clinic about religious restrictions
by Clare Howard • • Comments Off on ACLU questions Heartland Clinic about religious restrictions
BY CLARE HOWARD Federally funded health care clinics cannot operate under rules that are religiously based, however, some of the lease agreements between Heartland Health Services and OSF Saint Francis Medical Center have restrictions that limit counseling and access to…
Cautious optimism following election
by Terry Bibo • • Comments Off on Cautious optimism following election
News Analysis: BY TERRY BIBO Scanning headlines in 2016 could make you fearful, anxious, maybe crazy — even when you weren’t looking at the presidential race. On Dec. 14, “Dow nears 20,000” and the Federal Reserve raised interest rates because…
First-hand account: From Anger to Amazement at National Museum of African American History & Culture
by Sherry Cannon • • Comments Off on First-hand account: From Anger to Amazement at National Museum of African American History & Culture
Editor’s note: From opening day in September, the new Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture has had record attendance. Admission is booked until April, but Community Word and correspondent Sherry Cannon were able to secure a press…
Oil gas pipelines already criss-cross central Illinois
by Bill Knight • • Comments Off on Oil gas pipelines already criss-cross central Illinois
After Community Word editor Clare Howard wrote about Enbridge’s oil pipeline through Tazewell and Woodford Counties almost two years ago, the issue has continued to percolate, like tar pits belching bubbles of air, from the cancelled Keystone XL Pipeline to…