[Press release]
Join the Junior League of Peoria for a Victorian Christmas Celebration
The Junior League of Peoria is having a Victorian Christmas Celebration at the historic Ballance-Herschel House. The Celebration will be held December 4th – 7th and will feature home tours, Christmas teas, Cookies with Santa and a Christmas marketplace.
Home tours will run from 5:00 [...]

Ex-pat Peorian Chase Ingersoll seems some dis-similarities between Peoria and his new home, Ann Arbor, Mich.:
Cities are like adolescents in the locker room. They are always comparing “theirs” to the biggest. Perhaps because of its proximity to Detroit, Ann Arbor understands that just because you are older and “bigger” doesn’t mean that you are better. [...]

Word on the Street is especially newsworthy today, with comments abut dissatisfaction with American Water Company, candidates for the 4th District City Council and Peoria’s lack of clout in the state legislature.
Some 60-plus people got ticketed for alcohol-related violations at house near Bradley University this weekend. Most of them were BU students and many of [...]

Laura Petelle, an attorney and a member of Illinois Central College faculty, will run for the Peoria School District 150 Board of Education. She is running for the 3rd District seat being vacated by Mary Spangler.
Regular readers of this blog might know her better as “Eyebrows McGee,” the name she uses on her blog.
My two [...]

Now that Gov. Rod Blagojevich has given his permission, the Peoria County Board is going to have to decide whether to let taxpayers decide whether to tax restaurants to raise money to build the downtown museum.
My two cents: This was supposed to be built with private donations. But the people who have the money to [...]

I knew this was going to happen the night last week I drove past Main and University and saw an Illinois American work crew digging up the pavement right in front of Avanti’s on Main:
(Press release)
Due to a recent water leak at Main and University, Illinois American Water Company will need to shut down several [...]

Today’s links are via the Peoria Journal Star:

Peoria Airport Director Ken Spirito is leaving for a job at a larger airport on the East Coast
Spirito, 36, has been with the Peoria airport, now the General Wayne A. Downing Peoria International Airport , for three years. He oversaw plans for the $65 million air terminal that broke ground [...]

I used to love Red Zin. Oh, it was out of my price range, to be sure. But occasionally, there would be some political event, and I’d get invited and I’d nosh on whatever was set out. Delicious stuff.
So it broke my heart when it closed. I always thought the vacant site would be a [...]

My two cents: Peoria’s litter czar has called it quits. Steve Pierz is sick and tired, mostly tired, of the fight the city’s Historic Preservation Commisstt put him through over his wish to put vinyl siding on a house he owns. Preservationists hate aluminum siding. It violates their sense of aestetics. So, if they manage to get [...]

(Press release)
Two local poets will read from their collected work at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 12, at Venue Art & Wine, a gallery and wine bar at 112 N. Main St., Washington.
Mike Foster and Brooks McDaniel will be featured at the free performance. Both are retired Illinois Central College professors. McDaniel taught philosophy at the [...]