Pictures rattle on the walls and plates shake in the cabinets at Joann and Galen Siscoe’s home a dozen times each day when freight trains pass on the tracks about 75 feet from their front door. The couple has lived…
New York Times best-selling graphic novelist and Peoria illustrator Skottie Young might be offbeat, but he’s not off-balance. Whether work and fun, his job and his family, or words and pictures, Young is about balance, despite a visual style that’s…
Central Illinois is now a major transportation route for Canadian Tar Sands crude oil, with Enbridge Inc. sending up to 880,000 barrels a day through pipeline constructed above the Mahomet Aquifer. The Mahomet supplies ground water for residents in 14…
While debate over Keystone XL engulfs Congress and the White House, farmers in the Congerville-Goodfield area find themselves sitting atop a river of Canadian Crude Tar Sands oil that eclipses the volume projected for the controversial proposed pipeline to the…
There have been personnel changes in the township’s trustees. John Powell was appointed to replace Marsha Miller after her move to Galena that resulted in her resignation. Kelly Abraham announced that she is retiring from her position and will be…
Contraceptives are accessible to some Peoria women, not all Teen-aged girls in some areas of Peoria have more than twice the pregnancy rate as their counterparts nationwide but limited access to long-term contraceptives. Overall, the teen pregnancy rate in the…
As winter temperatures drop, homeless people may be more visible, either scrambling on the streets to find emergency shelter or seeking momentary refuge in public spaces like libraries. Homelessness and the poverty that can drive it continue. In a 2014…
Peoria County Deputy James Middlemas will become police officer for the City of West Peoria on duty Tuesday through Saturday from 6:45 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. beginning Jan. 5, 2015. We are fortunate to have a day officer on duty.…
One week before Christmas, President Barack Obama announced plans to end the U.S. embargo of Cuba. The embargo had imposed hardship on ordinary Cubans without forcing Fidel Castro out of office. But reaction to lifting the embargo has ranged from…
Ten new short stories by Illinois, Midwestern and other writers are featured in the 2014 edition of Downstate Story, Peoria’s only literary magazine for fiction. Downstate Story is now being published only on the Web at www.downstatestory.com. Writers in the…
