Articles

“Game changer” looms for central Illinois farmland

Winter could transition to spring this year with major change on the farm horizon. Or change could start next year, but regardless of the timing, a major economic reshuffling of ag acreage is fermenting. “A game changer” is how farm…

Renaissance along the river

A few breweries and eateries may have gotten attention for recently opening within sight of the Illinois River, but a few joints have been persevering here for years. Compared to Peoria’s past – from the heydays of Harold’s Club on…

GateHouse to Peoria Newsroom: You don’t deserve your salary

Peoria Journal Star newsroom employees are paid twice what they deserve, a representative of the paper’s owner, GateHouse Media (New Media), told the union in Springfield during negotiations there recently with journalists at the Springfield State Journal-Register. Union employees at…

Pioneering leader in liberal Christianity challenges many Biblical interpretations and will speak in Peoria about new theology

BY MICHAEL BROWN John Shelby Spong, a global and pioneering leader in liberal Christianity, is scheduled to speak at 3 p.m. Saturday April 9 at the Universalist Unitarian Church, 3000 W. Richwoods. Tickets can be purchased at the door or…

Purge Continues With the March 15 election, voters continued to make changes on the District 150 school board. Dan Walther will be seated as District 3 representative. He replaces one timer Rick Cloyd. Cloyd will be remembered for trying to…

Technology comes with benefits, but a price

A Peorian in his 60s talks about his having turned library trash into flea-market treasure by retrieving hundreds of books discarded into dumpsters during remodeling or conversion from traditional libraries to public computer labs where teens watch YouTube videos. The…

Fairbanks leaving neighborhoods active

Whether emptying street-corner trash cans or settling into an emptying office, Steve Fairbanks’ sigh and smile greet visitors like a guy with secrets he’s eager to share. This time of year has featured “States of” speeches — the Union, the…

State’s attorney declines to reopen Heidelberg case

Peoria County State’s Attorney Jerry Brady said he will not reopen a case that sent Cleve Heidelberg to prison 45 years ago despite information from a Chicago attorney and local investigator that the police investigation and prosecution of the case…

Peoria’s “revolving door of poison” — Childhood lead poisoning devastates families & communities

Flint, Mich., pushed childhood lead poisoning onto a national stage, but Peoria’s lead poisoning levels are equally “frightening” and will hurt Peoria for generations to come, one health care provider said. “We have a revolving door of poison,” said Dr.…