Our January Tazewell County Board meeting began with an IDOT update on the proposed Eastern Bypass which would connect I-74 in Tazewell County with Route 6 north of Peoria. During the meeting, IDOT officials asked that we, as County Board members, study the six proposed Eastern Bypass Corridors that were presented to us. We were asked to carefully analyze the proposed corridors and to narrow the number of acceptable corridors down to one or two.
Everything was not reported (about the hillside pool issue). I was at the meeting (Zoning Board of Appeals meeting at Jan. 9).
The Zoning Board of Appeals didn’t address the fact that a request for variances to the Steep Slope Ordinances was not submitted prior to construction of a second retaining wall and the installation of a swimming pool.
The reason Marianne Gingrich’s account of her ex-husband’s wanton behavior bounced off him like a quarter on an Army cot is that it’s hard for a woman to win much sympathy when she helped a man cheat.
Marianne was Newt Gingrich’s second wife, but first, she was his mistress. The two were embroiled in an affair while he was married to his first wife, Jackie.
Germantown Hills resident Becky Reeser has created a Haitian charitable organization called “Life’s Path” out of nothing.
The organization was created after repeated trips Reeser made to the impoverished island nation with the Friends of the Children of Haiti.
The needs Reeser saw there haunted her. She decided the answer to part of those people’s needs were providing goats. They provide meat, milk, commerce and a chance to a better way of life. Her efforts are beginning to pay off with the help of volunteers and donors here.
The work is laudable.
Helping someone in need is one of the best things in life, but it is hard to make a commitment without becoming consumed. There is no shallow end when it comes to helping those in need.
Sometimes the problem seems too big. Sometimes after helping that one starfish and seeing hundreds more still on the shore, it doesn’t feel like you’ve done enough.
The decision rendered by the East Peoria Zoning Board of Appeals approving a steep-slope permit variance for Robert Robins was a very sound decision.
The evidence included a civil engineer who testified that a slope was a “steep slope” because it had a slightly greater than 3:1 ration, which defines a steep slope. The architect/contractor testified that he began the project two years ago by replacing an existing railroad-tie wall that was failing with a reinforced steel and concrete wall.
It’s hard to believe a year has passed since the approval of the largest tax increase in our state’s history.
I remember watching the live vote take place on my laptop the night before I was sworn into office. I was dumbfounded with the decision of a 67 percent income tax hike and a corporate income tax increase from 4.8 to 7 percent.
GasBuddy.com Senior Petroleum Analyst Patrick DeHaan said that $5 a gallon gas is a very real possibility in some portions of the country in 2012. Early indications, DeHaan said, show this year may see the highest ever recorded prices at the pump, if conflict arises in Iran over several key issues.
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., last month, said he supports a “rock-bottom” federal minimum wage.
He said, “Bottom line, when you’re a good worker you don’t stay at minimum wage for long. Trust me on that.
The recommendation last week from the National Transportation Safety Board that states should ban the use of all cellphones, including hands-free models, while driving came about 10 years too late. Maybe 20 years.
With the holidays rapidly approaching and the season of giving upon us, it is time for our lawmaker to give everyone a gift, the gift of fully funding the National Institute of Health.
“I’m sounding the alarm. Every household in Illinois is responsible for the repayment of $10,000 to reimburse our bond holders in the coming years. The backlog of other bills and our unfunded pension and retiree health care liabilities, when combined with the bond repayments, brings household debt above a whopping $40,000,” Illinois State Treasurer Dan Rutherford, said.
“America, We Love You”
War with Japan, that terrible prospect which three generations of Americans have discussed, is here.
American soldiers have been killed, our island possessions have been assaulted. It is the most unbelievable happening in American history, but it is true. It is a fact.
The citizens of our community are once again being sold a bill of goods on development that sounds very encouraging to our benefit. What are lacking in the presentations are many facts about the incentives and costs attributed to these latest developments.
Kathleen L. Grady of the American Heart Association Illinois Advocacy Committee is not very happy with Congress.
Congress is ordering the U.S. Department of Agriculture to consider pizza as a vegetable for school lunches.
Is a waiver from "No Child Left Behind" a benefit?
TimesNewspapers looks at both sides of the issue.
By now, most have heard about the gruesome child sexual abuse scandal that swept through the Pennsylvania State University football program, and as details continue to come out, many wish they could forget about the particulars of the case.
While many in the national media have spent a considerable amount of time trying to place blame on an individual or institution, the chance to turn the tragedy into a teachable moment is largely being squandered.
Tomorrow is National Parent Involvement Day. It is all about parents being involved in their child’s school.
Here schools boast impressive parental involvement scores. However, parental involvement scores can be jacked up simply by a parent answering a teacher’s note. It does not require a parent step foot in their child’s classroom for a school to have impressive parental involvement scores.
Outwardly Joe Miller would not strike anyone as a hero, but he is.
The 89-year-old man looks like anyone else. But, this Metamora man is a World War II veteran.
The Huffington Post on Oct. 24 carried an article by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.). They wrote of the importance of Food Day.
The day had escaped our notice. That is too bad. The idea behind it brings up important issues — promoting improved nutrition and health, lessening hunger, increasing access to safe and healthy food, enhancing opportunities for farm families and rural communities in producing food, conserving natural resources and protecting the environment.
The two spoke of our food and agricultural system as a gift that has kept on giving.
