Articles

Legalizing marijuana is a social justice issue

Jason Spyres

Jason Spyres was sentenced to 30 years in prison after three marijuana convictions. Police found 37 pounds of marijuana sent to him via United Parcel Service by his mother in California. His mother served six months for her crime. He…

Heidelberg case: “miscarriage of justice”

Celeste Stack

Editor’s Note: Cleve Heidelberg was found dead in his apartment Saturday morning March 24. He was released from prison 10 months ago after spending 47 years behind bars for a crime he always insisted he did not commit. In a…

Trump’s EPA won’t – or can’t – clean up some hazardous sites

radium

A year ago this month, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt, appointed by President Donald Trump, visited the USS Lead Superfund site outside Chicago. It’s still hazardous. The EPA’s Superfund program was established 38 years ago to clean up…

Cleve Heidelberg died a free man

Cleve Heidelberg

Early Saturday morning, police and property management found Cleve Heidelberg dead in his Peoria apartment after a friend failed to reach him. No foul play is suspected. “He died a free man. I don’t care what legal technicalities are pending,…

March for Our Lives Peoria

Blasts of ice and sleet from a late spring blizzard did not deter more than 350 people on Saturday protesting gun violence and demanding action at a “March for Our Lives” rally in downtown Peoria. Across the country, there were…

Clean Syringe Exchange: “I stand with them”

Hightower

Marvin Hightower, president of the Peoria NAACP, steers with a steady hand through scores of emotional and potentially contentious racial issues. During a discussion about a clinic location in Peoria to supply clean, safe syringes to addicts illegally using drugs,…

Illinois Infrastructure: C-

Kickapoo bridge

On Aug. 1, 2007, in the middle of St. Paul-Minneapolis’ rush hour, the heavily-travelled eight-lane I-35W Bridge over the Mississippi River collapsed. Thirteen people were killed. Another 145 people were injured. Roll your eyes in boredom about infrastructure, if you…

Morton Water Warriors

MortonWater

BY ANDREA ROTH When Morton resident Tiffany Cruse takes her 8-month-old daughter Tahlia, for a medical checkup, she’s asked about lead paint. “What’s concerning to me is it’s (questions) only about paint, not other sources (of lead poisoning). I know…

Circulation Problems Plague PJS

Subscribers to Peoria’s only daily newspaper go days without newspaper delivery, are treated rudely by delivery people and in one case, a female senior citizen called her carrier after four days without a paper and the response she was given…

Physician: Female, Minority, Immigrant, Muslim, Wife, Mother, Advocate, Role Model

NaAllah

Her passion is infectious – whether she is speaking at the Women’s March, at the Peoria City/County Health Department, with obstetrics residents at UnityPoint Health, with her patients or with newborn babies. For Dr. Rahmat O. Na’Allah, access to health…