Peoria Pundit

The GateHouse Media-owned Peoria Times-Observer picked up six awards from the Illinois Press Association. Kudos.

Here’s an idea: LINK to the award-winning entries, if possible.

“Closed sessions” are a fact of life for journalists who cover public meetings. And, it is in these meetings where the dirty laundry gets aired. Illinois has a strong open meetings law. But, it requires state’s attorney’s to enforce and that is almost never done. But public bodies are required to keep minutes of meetings, then release those minutes at a later date. The Peoria Journal Star mines these documents for pieces of gold.

The Word on the Street column, a weekly round of local political news, often includes fascinating bits of information about public controversies that were previously unknown to the general public. Take, for instance, the matter of a Peoria police captain who was demoted to lieutenant after being being involved in a drunk driving accident with a city-owned vehicle. The Illinois State Police report said there was open liquor in the car, and his blood alcohol content at the scene was .18 percent.

Also, former Assistant Chief of Police Mike Button was officially on duty on the night he arranged for a stripper to perform (all she did was remove her top) as part of a practical joke (the story was revealed by the Peoria Times-Observer, by the way). But the most interesting nugget was that a detective who was conducting a real interview about a real crime was told to relocate the interview because the room he was using was needed for the practical joke. Button was suspended and is now chief of the tiny Creve Coeur Police Department.

More newspapers need to use this news gathering tool.

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Yes, the story is true. If you have gone to the Peoria Times-Observer Web site recently, you have noticed that it has no new content. We decided that the cost and effort to maintain the site is not justified by the number of visitors. We will update it soon to make it more static. It will still have forms for submitting wedding info, etc.

Peoria Times Observer,media web sites

Let me explain: I write a column for the Peoria Times-Observer. The PTO covers the part of Peoria that is north of War Memorial Drive. It also covers Peoria Heights and Dunlap. Generally, I don’t write a column unless it would be of interest to these readers. I also avoid using the column for personal agendas. That’s what this forum is for. That is why I often rag on the Peoria Journal-Star in this page. Coming soon: My essay on Strippergate.

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Imitation is the greatest form of flattery, I suppose. Months after Tom Batters wrote about Jazz music in the Peoria area, the Peoria Journal-Star wote about it in this week’s Cue section. But, they followed our lead the week before, when we broke the “strippergate” story. Sometimes they don’t bother to follow up on stories the Peoria Times-Observer breaks. They completely forgot to write about the 20th anniversary of the closing of Pabst Brewery and completely missed the story about the Peoria Symphony Orchestra’s conductor considering taking a job elsewhere.

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