Peoria Pundit

The following Blog Peoria Network blogs updated on Monday:

• Peoria Pundit
• It’s Billy’s Blog
• The American Guesser
• Peoria Illinoisan
• A Dark And Quiet Room
• Askewed News
• Morton Malaise
• Angie’s Drama

Peoria Pundit received some incoming link love from Secret Server, Drying Ink, Marathon Pundit and Capitol Fax.

From a press release:

The ice storm of Friday, December 19 and the cancellation of collection on the following Friday, December 26 due to iced roadways, resulted in delay in collecting a portion of the Friday routes on Saturday, December 27. Waste Management crews and trucks will begin the work day Monday, December 29 collecting the remaining Friday waste. The Friday routes will be completed before collection of the regularly scheduled Monday services. Patience is requested as collection will be later than normally experienced on the Monday routes.

Two different sources — who asked to not be named — tell me that’s the rumor going around Peoria. These sources belong to different parties and don’t run in the same circle of friends.

Here’s what one tells me:Â If Shadid does run, the motivation will be political payback and an attempt to relieve boredom.

• He’s mad at Mayor Jim Ardis for endorsing Ernie Russell over Dave Koehler for State Senate back in 2006, and considers it a betrayal.
• He’s bored with retirement and wants to be in the center of the action.
• He’s mad at Ardis for backing Darin LaHood over Kevin Lyons, and Shadid was co-chair of Lyons’ campaign.

One source tells me that a lot of this is ego on Shadid’s part. Shadid is taking too much credit for Ardis winning the mayoral election in 2005. Shadid’s endorsement came after a four-man primary election, instead of before, when it would have done Ardis the most good.

I’m guessing Shadid, a Democrat, also took some grief for endorsing a Republican like Ardis, and might think that this entitles him to expect that Ardis would not back someone Shadid opposed. That’s a little unrealistic, considering they are in two different parties. But then, Shadid places a premium on loyalty.

Another source, while not confirming having heard the Shadid rumor, said it makes sense. He heard that Steve Shearer, who managed Aaron Schock’s successful campaign for Congress, is no longer looking for a candidate to run against Adris (which would have been payback to Ardis for endorsing Jim McConoughey in the primary). The next logical source of opposition is State’s Attorney Kevin Lyons and the Democrats.

And Ardis might not even run for re-election. Ardis has many admirers, but he also has his detractors. He’s not happy with how the council has, of late, become more acrimonious. If friends and allies Bob Manning and Bill Spears decide against running, Ardis probably will not run for re-election.

If Ardis doesn’t run, look for George Jacob to do so. General Parker, husband of city employee/School District 150 member Rachel Parker, is planning a run. He’s supposedly bought street signs already.

I’ll try to have a more complete list of potential Peoria City Council candidates later today.

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I tend to get a lot of email from folks wanting to know where they can go on the Web to find information.

I am tempted to reply: “Um … Google?” I mean, who do they think I am, “Mr. Know-it-All?”

So, here is one such link I’ve passed along, as well as some that already were in my inbox.

peoriavotes.com

I looked for this for two days, and I finally got Tom Bride to point me here.

Wanna vote on which new log Peoria ought to use, you can go here. If you want to take a look at the city’s preliminary budget, you can go here.

And the Community Word online edition is updates and available for viewing.

C.J. has already posted about a report 1 in 4 city employees don’t live in the city. There’s already been a ton of comments.

I’ve posted about this topic before (here , here and here, among other times).

This issue drives me insane. Does the city have NO say in this matter? The way its been explained to me is that in exchange for police officers giving up the right to strike, the city has agreed to binding arbitration. And arbitrators say the city has no right to make residency an employment requirement.

I love police officers. In fact, I love them so much I want them to live next door to me. I grew up in the East Bluff where one cop who lived across the street and another who lived just down the block. Knuckleheads soon learned that anti-social behavior drew a quick and decisive response. Most chose the path of least resistance and took their stupidity elsewhere.

Of course, the son of one of these cops ended up in more than one fight with some knucklehead who took exception with his dad’s occupation.

But the thing that’s been explained to me more than once is that the main reason police officers don’t want to live in Peoria is that they do NOT want to send their kids to District 150 Schools. Can you blame them, considering that we often get school officials who side with the gun toting lawbreakers?

It’s like we’re living in a loop. Police officers don’t want to live here because of the schools. Crime gets worse because the cops don’t live here anymore. People get frightened by crime and move to the suburbs. Schools get worse because there’s no tax base. And even more cops fly to the burbs with everyone else.

I have the feeling that is we took a firehose and flushed out the criminals and their supporters from the schools, we’d see more police officers move back. Hell, we’d see a lot of law-abiding middle-class people moving back, and bringing their school-supporting tax dollars with them.

But as long as the City of Peoria has no control whatsoever over the quality of schools, we’re kidding ourselves if we expect the City of Peoria to fix the problems affecting the city of Peoria. The entity known as the Peoria School District Board of Education needs to fix these problems, but all they can come up with is that they need to build new buildings and cut the amount of time teachers have to teach.

Maybe a city takeover of the schools will become an issue in the upcoming elections. Here’s hoping.

Until that happens, I’d to see someone (*cough* state legislature *cough*) reign in the ability of arbitrators to set city policy. There is nothing unreasonable about a city making residency a requirement for employment. But I don’t see a Democrat-controlled legislature actually doing anything about it.

(Press release from Peoria City Hall)

NEWS RELEASE

Date: September 19, 2008
Released by: Alma Brown, Communications Manager, 494-8554
Subject: SIGNS IN RIGHT-OF-WAY
17-10 – a./8 of the City Ordinance

All private signs in the public right of way are prohibited. As a reminder, any private advertisement in the public right of way is prohibited. The signs are subject to be removed and disposed of.

PeoriaIllinoisan has the scoop.

From the Journal Star:

• I am shocked, shocked I tell you, that there’s flooding in Spring Bay.
• When Alicia Butler ran for re-election to the Peoria District 150 school board, the Journal Star could not write about her without mentioning the discrepancies between what the degrees she claimed to have, and what they were being told by their many sources. Today, Word on the Street twice mentions the race between Joan Krupa and Jehan Gordon for the 92nd District seat in the Illinois House of representative. There is no mention of Gordon having claimed to have a degree she didn’t have, nor any mention of her conviction for shoplifting.
• A grown woman gets sucked into a three-foot-wide storm drainage pipe outside her home. Gee. No need for infrastructure improvements in Peoria. Guess we better build a museum. Or a new library in north Peoria.

The following is the agenda for Tuesday’s meeting of the Peoria City Council. The annotated version is available here.

Read more »

Via PRNewswire:

Regent Communications, Inc. (Nasdaq: RGCI) announced today that on August 11, 2008, it received a letter from The Nasdaq Stock Market, Inc. (”Nasdaq”) notifying the Company that for the 30 consecutive trading days preceding the date of the letter, the bid price of the Company’s common stock had closed below the $1.00 per share minimum required for continued inclusion on the Nasdaq Global Market pursuant to Nasdaq Marketplace Rule 4450(a)(5).

The letter further notified the Company that, in accordance with Nasdaq Marketplace Rule 4450(e)(2), the Company will be provided 180 calendar days, or until February 9, 2009, to regain compliance with the minimum bid price requirement. Compliance will be achieved if the bid price per share of the Company’s common stock closes at $1.00 per share or greater for a minimum of ten consecutive trading days prior to February 9, 2009.

If the Company does not achieve compliance within the required period, the Nasdaq staff will provide written notification that the Company’s securities will be delisted. In that event and at that time, the Company may appeal the Nasdaq staff delisting determination to a Nasdaq Listing Qualifications Panel. Alternatively, the Company can apply to transfer its securities to The Nasdaq Capital Market if it satisfies the requirements for initial inclusion set forth in Marketplace Rule 4310(c), other than the bid price requirement, either during the first 180 day period or after February 9, 2009. If the Company’s application is approved, the Company will be afforded the remainder of a second 180 calendar day compliance period in order to regain compliance with the Minimum Bid Price Rule.

Regent operates in Peoria at 120 Eaton St., the funny-looking building you can see to your left as you cross the Illinois River on the Murray-Baker Bridge.

They operate a bunch of local stations I don’t listen to (no offense, but it’s true). They include 95.5 GLO, 97.3 River Country, AM 1140 WVEL, 105.7 The X Rocks and Power 92.3.

Here’s why I haven’t been as concerned about Regent’s troubles than I have been GateHouse Media. It’s a matter of numbers. More people work for the Journal Star, one of GateHouse’s newspapers, than all of Regent’s local radio station’s combined. Radio stations are licensed. SOMONE will buy up those licenses if Regent collapses. And all that means is the company pumping canned music into our ears will be owned by a different soulless out of state corporation than the one with it’s hands on the dials now.

And frankly, Peoria journalism isn’t going to suffer all that much because five stations are owned by a company that’s going out of business. Peoria journalism is weaker because of the cuts and early retirements at the PJS.

But I’ve never seen a reporter from a Regent station at ANY news event. Live remotes from a bar or some advertiser holding a sale don’t count. All five of these stations could vanish from the face of the Earth, and there would be zero effect on Peoria journalism, except that their advertising might go to media that actually provide news and information.

But as I said, the stations will probably survive, and probably go through another format change.

Sorry for being blunt.

Hat tip: Commenter, blogger and radio executive B.J. Stone.