Features

Diversity key to community healthcare

A diverse student body in medical programs is essential to the future of medical care in this country, and diversity is a key goal Kim Johnston, president of Methodist College, has pursued through a variety of wide-ranging programs since she…

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…

FBI: Breakfast Program Threatened Nation

Hungry people start walking toward Ward Chapel AME Church before dawn on Saturday mornings. They walk to receive a hearty breakfast. They walk for the acceptance and respect they receive at the church. For some, it’s their only meal of…

Water: The New Oil

BY TERRY BIBO Central Illinois may well be the Saudi Arabia of water. “There’s extreme value in the water,” says Bryan Stubbs, executive director of the Cleveland Water Alliance. “It is the new oil.” It is safe to say most…

Bogus Science Destroys Families

BY ELAINE HOPKINS PEORIA, IL – Quietly behind closed doors, the drama over what is commonly known as ‘shaken baby syndrome’ plays out in courtrooms across Illinois and the nation. Medical science cannot prove this diagnosis, now known as ‘abusive…

Hunger, Gleaning and Clarence

SPRINGFIELD – The ancient Biblical practice of gleaning fields after harvest to collect remnants of food for the hungry is spreading from fields to markets, and a newly enhanced federal tax benefit is incentivizing the practice for farmers. In the…

‘Slinkenwolf’

  Beyond a grassy ridge from a tree-covered bandshell, carnival rides twinkle and sparkle in the humid evening, calliope music tinkling softly. It could be almost any year in the last century. The louder music exploding from six Marshall amps…

Legacy of Heidelberg Trial: Loss, Death Threats, Questions

UPDATE: Judge Albert Purham orders appointment of special prosecutor to review Cleve Heidelberg case from 1970. Steve Heidelberg remembers nothing from the 1970 murder trial of his father Cleve Heidelberg, but he now sees some of the legacy that trial…