Peoria Pundit

As is usual on a Saturday, there’s not much news in the Journal Star.
That doesn’t keep them from charging a $1 for a single copy.

• Ewert’s plan to save Peoria’s Fire Station

  In his last official act as interim city manager, Bern Ewert displayed, once again, his unwillingness to follow the explicit instructions of the majority of the council when the instructions conflict with the wished of the pro-economic development crowd. He was asked to investigate the benefits of selling the Gateway building. But the pro-economic development crowd didn’t like that idea, so he developed a plan in which the city continued to own it.

  If the city can make money by selling the building and ridding itself of the costs of operating the convention center, then it must do so, because providing a services for convention goers is not an essential city service. Protecting residents lives and property is.

  I am at a loss to explain why so many people think Ewert was God’s gift to city government.

  Bah. Perhaps the new city manager will follow instructions better.

• Sharon Elms takes $20,000 hit

  I’ve visited this nursing home. I’d rather send my parents to live in a box in the alley than send them to this place.

• Woodruff passes up East Peoria

  My beloved Warriors whup the Red Raiders to capture the Silver Horseshoe.

Her name is Virginia Gerst, and she resigned from the Hollinger-owned
Suburban Chicago Pioneer Press
when management allowed
their marketing director to write a positive restaurant review after the
restauranteur complained about an earlier review. You can find her
resignation letter at the Poynter
site, posted on Aug. 28, 2003.

Good luck finding work in a lousy economy, Virginia. It took guts to
quit, but it’s the right thing to do.

Why is this important? Because readers have a right to expect that a
review is an honest and not written to appease advertisers. There’s
supposed to be a wall between advertising and editorial. I’ve never
worked at a newspaper in which no one ever climbed over the wall. If
someone from advertizing had a good news tip, I used it. I also told
them when I wouldn’t be following up on their suggestion .. like the ad
rep who suggested a story about her new client — a palm reader.

He once wrote funny column that had unflattering things to say about the
food at the local Hooter’s restaurant
. I found out later
than someone who worked at the paper was a co-owner. Oops.

… You want to slap the next person who says, “Must be nice to work 8
to 3:20 and have summers free.”

… You believe the playground should be equipped with a Ritalin salt lick.

Funny stuff from The Braden Files
, and good info to have on hand as
I try to start a new career as a substitute teacher/student teacher.

Link via some Canajun chick I know
.

I took another look at the /Journal Star/ and found several other otems
of interest.

? Football bonds hard to break for quintet

Phil Luciano writes about a bunch of geezers who meet at a bar every
week to relive their glory days. It’s an incredibly sappy little story
and I loved every word of it.

? Madigan awards victims’ aid grants

It’s been pork city in Peoria for the past few days. Every politician
and his daughter has been town spreading the love.

On the editorial page, the JS takes the positions that federal funding
for the Heartland
clinic is a good thing, and hopes that there aren’t any more cutbacks
at Keystone Steel
and Wire. Someone alert the Pulitzer committee. They usually reserve
such editorial excellence for attacks on politicians whose support for
downtown museums, bike trails, strip malls they consider lacking.

And Pam Adams has a thought-provoking column about a Bible-based tax
reform proposal that has
raised hackles in Alabama. But this time, the Republicans are crying foul.

I get a kick out of Christian conservatives because the Christ in the
New Testament was a pretty liberal-minded guy.

When World Church of the Creator member Benjamin Smith resigned from the group in writing, then went on a multi-state killing spree, it followed a strategy available on many hate groups’ Web sites. These sites urge racists who believe it is necessary to take violent action to first protect their groups from criminal charges and financial liability by resigning. This is exactly what Hale did.

To date, the Peoria Times-Observer, which I edited at the time, is the only newspaper to cover this angle of the Smith shooting spree.

The Peoria Times-Observer opined that that the people needed to realize that the WCOTC was not just a hate group, they were terrorists, as is any other group advocating violence whose members
commit acts of violence.

Today, the Journal Star carries a report that the feds taped WCOTC leader Matt Hale urging his father to lie to a federal grand jury investigating Hale’s involvement in Smith’s shooting spree.

It’s the first official word that Hall may face charges in connection
with the murders.

For those who do not know, Hale is a neighbor of mine, of sorts. Hale
lived with his parents in East Peoria. His father is a former cop, yet he allowed his son to run the WCOTC from the basement of his home and fly white supremacist flags from his porch. I’ve seen Hale wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with Smith’s photo, calling the murderer a “hero.”

Hale has been in jail since January, when he was arrested and charged
with asking WCOTC member — who had become a federal informant — to
murder a federal judge.

Hale allegedly advised his father to testify he saw him become
emotional and break down during a CNN interview about Benjamin
Smith. Four summers ago, the Hale disciple went on a shooting spree
in Illinois and Indiana that left two minorities dead and several
wounded before he killed himself with police closing in.
Hale denied any connection, but federal prosecutors have
increasingly injected Smith into Hale’s murder-solicitation case.

The indictment says the grand jury continues to examine whether Hale
“ordered or encouraged” Smith’s actions.

Hale knew “his reaction to Benjamin Smith’s death was material to
the grand jury investigation,” the document said.

*UPDATE:* The <a href=”Associated Press version of this story is more clear.

The Sun-Times also has a brief story.

Stupid Angry Canajun has
declared me a “closet canajun.”

I am honored. SAC (I do know which gender of pronoun to use) also sent
me the following e-mail: “I may not understand everything you wrote but
I know what I love, and I love it.” Thanks! (I think)

Sarah Okeson has posted a letter on Romenesko
about the difficulties of being a
mother and working as a /Journal Star/ police reporter. An excerpt:

I won’t say that my bosses have always been supportive – I was
yelled at for coming in late to work after an ultrasound – but I’ve
been able to continue at a job that I love and spend time with my
children. I spend my mornings going to playgroups, doing housework,
volunteering at my daughter’s school and doing things like visiting
the local orchard and then head into work at 2:30 p.m. My husband
does all the laundry, takes the kids to the library and is a whiz at
changing diapers. Right after we have a new baby, I take care of the
front end and he takes care of the back end.

I don’t have a wonderful career at a great paper, but I do have a
life I like most of the time at work and at home.

“I don’t have a wonderful career at a great paper … ” Classic.

Poynter apparently doesn’t like deep linking, because there are no
permalinks to individual letters. So look for one dated Aug. 28, 2003.
It’s one of several on the subject, including some from single and
childless reporters who resent picking up the slack when newspapers make
accommodations for parents.

The /Journal Star/ keeps track of some nutty behavior from our elected
officials.

/*JS:*/ Amended bill exempts Peoria County

DeWayne Bartels wrote about this issue back when I edited the Peoria
Times-Observer. Now that the Zeller Mental Health Center is closed,
deputies are now being used to drive back and forth across the state
looking for places to treat former Zeller Mental Health Center patients.
Only part of the problem is the taking deputies off the streets for what
should be the duty of ambulance drivers. Another problem is the utter
lack of resources for mentally ill people in Peoria, which has three
major hospitals. IT’s also degrading to mental patients themselves,
because only a small minority are a threat to anybody of themselves.

/*JS:*/ Keystone fires 35; layoffs to follow

Keystone was on the brink of closing last year before it received a
$10 million state loan that enabled it to restructure its $100
million debt.

This January, the company reached a settlement with Peoria County
that slashed the plant’s taxable value in half. Keystone’s fair
market value dropped to $6 million, which company representatives
said was vital to its ongoing rebuilding and survival. The village
of Bartonville and its schools, however, lost somewhere around
$70,000 in tax money

from Keystone, Journal Star archives show.

Good thing the government decided to prop up the free market, isn’t it?

I’ll give them a month before they come begging for more tax breaks or
an extension on their loan.

/*JS:*/ Heartland officials applaud new federal grant

Someone asked why I post links to news stories on Peoria media websites,
and why I do not bother to offer commentary on many of them. Here is
why: There are no Peoria media Websites. The /Journal Star/, WMBD 1470FM
and CBS-31 all have offices in Peoria. But much of their news — as well
as reports from Tazewell County-based WHOI and WEEK — is about other
cities.

I don’t mind news from Tazewell, Woodford of even Fulton counties. All
three are close enough to matter. But I resent excessive coverage from
Bloomington/Normal and other cities that are an hour or two hours away
by car. They do this because they they want to attract viewers, shall we
say, less diverse communities. If they can show advertisers that their
viewership and readership are affluent suburbanites and white-flighters,
and not too urban, they can charge more.

Every day, I survey Peoria news sites to get an idea of how much Peoria
news they covered that day, compared to news from far flung areas. It
also lets me compare the quality of their Peoria coverage. I link to any
Peoria news I find. Believe me, there are days when /none/ of them have
news that originates out of Peoria, the city where the majority of their
viewers and and readers are located.

In the end, all I’m doing is that journalists do: Get a problem out in
the open where it cannot be denied.

For someone so vocal about the need for objectivity in the media, this
doesn’t sound very objective. I’m not /trying/ to be a reporter. If I
were, I’d call this page “The Peoria Reporter.” I’m being a pundit,
hence the title.

OK, I bit the bullet and waded through Peoria’s media Websites and
scrounged up some news links. *CBS 31:*

? Joseph Nichols Found In Arkansas Living Under Alias

? Norwood Elementary Students Learning From NASA

? Keystone Steel And Wire To Cut 46 More Jobs

? Two New Illinois Meth Laws Go Into Effect

Yeah, well, that ought to solve the problem.

? City Council Still Focusing On Finding City Manager

What else is new?

? City Council Still Focusing On Finding City Manager

There is a school of thought that says that the harder the government
tries to keep alcohol out of the hands of those under 18, the more
attractive drinking becomes to them. We’ve made binge drinking a rite of
passage. The media demonizes those who buy liquor for kids, but in
Europe, it’s considered quite normal to let teens drink under supervision.

*WEEK:*

? Valuable trash

? Treasurer Retires

? Gas Price Questions

Yeah, that will really get to the bottom of things.

? Tip leads to arrest

? Returning home

? Health care costs

Rep. Ray LaHood discusses pending legislation and a huge grant for a
local clinic.
*
WHOI:*

? More medical aid for Peoria

? Groups Partner to Boost Economy

? Sick Puppies

A local pet store apparently has a serious problems: The puppies it
sells die soon after. Kudos to WHOI for breaking this story.

? Senior’s Skyscraper Scrapped

The /Journal Star/ had much more on this story, but they never posted a
link on its site.

? The Unfriendly Skies?

Why is it that pilots and airplane mechanics can be employed by private
businesses with no apparent problems. but the idea of privatizing air
traffic controllers is considered unsafe?