Many students graduating from high school are pretty excited to go off to college. They believe it’s finally the time that they’ll be free from their parents and life will be so much easier. What students often don’t understand is…

Harvest Supper Will Feature Local Farms

  Mika’s Bistro in Eureka and Henry’s Farm in Congerville are collaborating to host a special farm-to-table harvest supper featuring chef-prepared food from local farms. The dinner will include a five-course meal with fresh, organic ingredients from Henry’s Farm and…

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…

STUNNING SETBACK

For those who dislike, perhaps even hate, Aaron Schock and that includes the radical left wingers at the Peoria Journal, it had to be painful to accept the federal grand jury’s decision not to indict the former Congressman. Hell, the…

Hate Crime

“Sticks and stones will break your bones, but names will never hurt you,” goes the children’s rhyme. In Canton, some 40 miles southwest of Peoria, it might be said, “Names will never hurt you, but fists can.” And hate. On…

Editorials

Women, Civil Rights, Income Inequality and Abortion The recent Supreme Court ruling in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt made no poetic sweeping affirmations that women have a basic human right to reproductive choice. However, the ruling did carefully calculate that…

OP-ED

Chemical Farming Unnecessary and Dangerous   Editor’s note: Industrial agriculture is pushing back against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency after the agency issued a preliminary report reversing its earlier ruling on the safety of atrazine, an herbicide produced by Syngenta.…

Letters

Value of Robert Ingersoll Statue Roger G. Monroe’s commentary “Free Money” about “The Great Agnostic” Robert Ingersoll is itself too annoying to escape commentary. He alleges that 99 out of 100 people in Peoria have no idea who Ingersoll was.…

Recent attacks in Nice, France, the bombings that took place across the Middle East during the holy month of Ramadan and the deaths linked to police shootings show that we as humans no longer have compassion and mercy for one…

A Tale of Two Symbis…

The story goes that Alice Algae was a wonderful cook who had the special ability to take sunlight and whip up a wonderful meal. Alice had a hard time of it though, while she could feed an army, she wasn’t…

Should someone ask me whether my family traveled much when I was growing up, my initial response would be “No.” There weren’t annual vacations to a fishing cabin or sightseeing trips or visits to relatives scattered across the country. But…

The City of West Peoria and the Fourth of July parade committee thank the residents, volunteers, spectators and participants for their efforts with the annual event this year. Media sources estimated that between 8,000 and 10,000 people were in our…

William Shakespeare was a great friend to actors; not only did he provide employment through his words, he also prescribed how to play their parts through his dialogue. Take the line, “How now Horatio, you tremble and look pale”; one…

Arts Beat

MUSIC Aug. 1: Katelyn Kocher. 11:30 a.m. Brown Bag at the Courthouse. 681-0696. Aug. 3: Peoria Municipal Band, with vocalist Kristin Lelm. 7 p.m. in the Warehouse District. 681-2854. Aug. 3: Robin Akins & Jeff Steenrod. 11:30 a.m. Brown Bag…

Enough Talk Every month we talk about the value of the arts. We talk about how the arts change perceptions. We talk about how the arts benefit our children. We talk about how the arts impact our lives. But talk…

Labor Roundup

Two lawmakers seek to exempt minor-leaguers from minimum wage, overtime law. Peoria Chiefs and other minor-league baseball players would be excluded from the Fair Labor Standards Act guaranteeing a federal minimum wage and overtime pay under a measure introduced in…

How Healthy is a Gluten-Free Diet? Twenty one percent of Americans report cutting gluten from their diets. Estimated sales of gluten-free foods in the United States have increased from $3.8 billion in 2011 to $10.5 billion in 2015. Some foods…

Dedication of restored Ingersoll statue

The Peoria Park District’s Board of Trustees will dedicate the restored Robert Ingersoll statue at 10:30 a.m. Aug. 11 in lower Glen Oak Park where the statue has been located since 1911. Ingersoll was an orator, statesman, free thinker and…

Falling a major risk for Elderly

BY DAVE WEIMAN Each year, more than two million older Americans go to the emergency room because of fall-related injuries. A simple fall can cause a serious fracture of the arm, hand, ankle or hip. This is particularly troubling when…