Peoria Pundit

According to the list I found at the City of Peoria Website, the Randolph-Roanoke Residential Association did not have an event to coincide with today’s National Night Out Against Crime.
So what was I to do?
I went begging for an invitation on Facebook.
(First, I’m going to apologize for not mentioning by name most of the people I met today. My memory for names is bad, and I didn’t have a notebook and pencil.)
I received several, but I ended up going to the Center Bluff Neighborhood Association event at Columbia Park, next to the McClure Branch Library. Iwas supposed to meet up with pals Rob and Angie Walker (yeah, THAT Angie Walker). They didn’t show. So, I spend time chatting with a few friends and met the very nice police officer who drives the “Armadillo,” the armored truck the Peoria Police Department uses to keep surveillance on nuisance properties. She told that [...]

Original post by Billy Dennis

If you are a fan of weather news and have a Facebook account, you ought to visit Sandy Gallant’s weather album taken from the stations’ Skywatch camera positioned at Methodist Medical Cente. The picks show the line of clouds moving in and bringing the rain and wind. I saw the weather bulletin this morning (interrupting “Live with Regis and Kelly”). Sandy was quite excited.

Original post by Billy Dennis

I guess I’m just another media Brownshirt for making fun of these people.

Original post by Billy Dennis

Here’s one man’s opinion: journalists are nothing but lazy thieves.
The Internet is also making reporters lazy. In fact, many believe there’s a lower standard for Internet journalism. Don’t believe it? The editor of Wired magazine just wrote a book about why content should be free. Come to find out he grabbed entire sections from Wikipedia. Plagiarism is now the rule, not the exception.

The rule?

Original post by Billy Dennis

His computer is still hiccuping on occasion, but Merle Widmer has managed to get two new posts up on his site, here and here.

Original post by Billy Dennis

Anyone prone to upset stomach or sudden bouts of projectile vomiting are advised to not read the following story:
Jeanne Williamson, an assistant superintendent of school operations at District 150 before she left in 2002 to become superintendent of Dunlap School District 323, was hired as a consultant. She retired from District 323 at the end of June.
Williamson’s job will be to devise a plan to reconfigure the district’s high schools, board President Debbie Wolfmeyer said.
District 150 spokeswoman Stacey Shangraw said Williamson will be “in charge of the project implementation,” referring to the district’s move to close a high school at the end of the 2009-10 school year.

And the sick-making part:
Williamson is to be paid $350 per day up to a maximum of 120 days.

That’s $42,000.
To help the district save money. Yeah.
Because none of the many, many administrators currently employed by District 150 can do this. Maybe being at Dunlap caused [...]

Original post by Billy Dennis

David Jordan reported this on Peoria Station on June 30:
PEORIA – Atlantic Southeast Airlines dba Delta Connection will drop its nonstop service between Peoria and Atlanta on September 1. The airline’s online schedules show two daily roundtrips through July, then one through August. Delta Connection had reduced Peoria service to just one daily roundtrip last fall, leading to speculation that service would soon end altogether, but then restored a second daily flight in March.

The Peoria Journal Star placed this article on it’s website today, Aug. 3, more than one month after it was broken on a BlogPeoria.com site:
Delta Airlines will cut its local service to Atlanta, Ga., at the end of this month.
“Effective in September, we will be suspending service between Atlanta and Peoria as part of our continuing effort to match capacity and demand,” company spokeswoman Susan Elliott confirmed Monday.
Since Atlanta is a major hub for air travelers, the [...]

Original post by Billy Dennis

From a press release:
Peoria, Illinois (August 3, 2009)–For the first time since 1992, Caterpillar employees and retirees who participate in the Caterpillar Preferred Provider Organization (PPO) plan will be able to choose Methodist Medical Center for their healthcare needs when Methodist joins the Caterpillar PPO network next July. A new three-year Caterpillar preferred provider contract takes effect July 1, 2010. The addition of Methodist to the Caterpillar PPO network gives Caterpillar PPO participants the opportunity to choose Methodist as a healthcare provider. It also complements the existing Health Alliance/Methodist HMO currently available to Caterpillar employees.
The agreement is consistent with the principles of healthcare reform, with performance and quality-based measures, an emphasis on transparency in healthcare pricing and promotion of employee health and wellness.
Methodist President and CEO Michael Bryant said, “Methodist is thrilled to have the opportunity to serve our friends and neighbors at Caterpillar. We have no doubt [...]

Original post by Billy Dennis

From a press release:
Peoria, Illinois (August 3, 2009)–For the first time since 1992, Caterpillar employees and retirees who participate in the Caterpillar Preferred Provider Organization (PPO) plan will be able to choose Methodist Medical Center for their healthcare needs when Methodist joins the Caterpillar PPO network next July. A new three-year Caterpillar preferred provider contract takes effect July 1, 2010. The addition of Methodist to the Caterpillar PPO network gives Caterpillar PPO participants the opportunity to choose Methodist as a healthcare provider. It also complements the existing Health Alliance/Methodist HMO currently available to Caterpillar employees.
The agreement is consistent with the principles of healthcare reform, with performance and quality-based measures, an emphasis on transparency in healthcare pricing and promotion of employee health and wellness.
Methodist President and CEO Michael Bryant said, “Methodist is thrilled to have the opportunity to serve our friends and neighbors at Caterpillar. We have no doubt [...]

Original post by Billy Dennis

Since local news organizations pretty much ignore state politics — except trials and budged crises — most Peorians probably have never heard of State Sen. James Clayborne. He’s the Illinois Senate majority leader. And he’s mulling over a run for governor.
Rich Miller predicts that Clayborn would make interesting candidate:
Sen. Clayborne is not the sort of Democrat that Chicago media types are accustomed to seeing. He’s a downstate attorney with a pretty solid pro-business voting record who is also regularly endorsed by organized labor.
He’s pro-gun, but he’s also pro-choice. He ran and lost for senate president last year, and the campaign exposed some rifts with his fellow black senators, partly over his strong rating from the National Rifle Association.
Gun owner rights are not usually very popular with Democratic primary voters, and particularly with Chicago blacks. Pro-gun southern white Glenn Poshard was able to win the Democratic nomination in 1998, although that [...]

Original post by Billy Dennis