Best. Word. On. The. Street. ever.
Oh my God.
Let’s start with the headline: LaHood flip-flops on ethics.
Brilliant and accurate.
It only gets better. The column leads with details abotu how U.S. Rep. Ray LaHood talks a mean game about ethics now, but left his dirty fingerprints all over various pieces of very sleazy legislation that was designed to protect Rep. Tom Delay from the charges he now faces.
What did Peoria’s own “Congressman Ray” say when Word on the Street asked for comment? He said he couldn’t recall the particulars.
Apparently, Peoria’s congressman just votes “yes” on what his masters tell him to, and he doesn’t even bother to think about it long enough to recall it a year later.
How in the world did all this delicious criticism get past the bosses at the JS? Usually, any reporting they do about LaHood falls into one of two categories: Stenography or sycophancy.
Second: The column addresses Peoria’s tickets-for-jaywalkers controversy by noting that City Council Member Gary Sandberg photographed two high-ranking city staffers — Steve Van Winkle and Gene Hewitt — crossing Fulton in the middle of the block. He sent the photo to the police and demanded the two be ticketed.
If you’ve ever listened to Gary tear into these two at a city council meeting, you can just imagine the glee he must have experienced snapping these two highly-paid employees caught dong what ordinary folks have to pay $50 for doing
But alas, there’s a loophole, or so says City Manager Randy Oliver.
Which leads me to ask, once again, exactly what are the friggin’ rules?! Am I going to be able to cross in the middle of the street — right in front of a cop — and not get ticketed because there’s a stop sign and not a traffic light? Or will I have to wait in a courtroom to see a judge?
Remember folks, some of these people who are ticketed say that the police who gave them a ticket simply got the the facts wrong. Just because they got the ticket, that doesn’t mean their violated the law. Innocent until proven guilty, remember.
Third: There is little piece about a doctor who attended a forum on health care and was shocked to learn it was full of people who were in favor of universal health care.
I gather he thinks it’s a conspiracy. I’m thinking that this particular doctor is discovering that there are a lot of people in his profession who are ready to give it a try. Did this guy go to this forum expecting to hear things he already knew and opinions with which he already agreed?
Fourth: Bert Ewert, who was “temporary” city manager of Peoria under the Dave Ransburg regime, is running for Congress in Virginia.
Ransburg and his “progressive” wing wanted to hire Ewert on permanently at a huge salary. It seemed Ewert was just the behind-the-scenes mover and shaker Ransburg wanted.
Ewert is a Democrat. Ransburg is a Republican honcho, who even attended the GOP convention as a delegate.
It surprises me not one bit that a Ransburg was so enamoured with a Democrat. Ransburg is a GOP big shot, but he governed like a tax-and-spend, land-grabbing left-winger.
Ewert might know a lot about deal making, but he doesn’t know jack about Web design. His site is butt-ugly awful. And I looked around a bit (not too much, it hurt my eyes) and I didn’t see Peoria mentioned once.
Maybe his incumbent opponent can take some pictures of the South Side and the East Bluff, to show voters what to expect should Ewert get elected: A lot of projects that make millionaires richer while the infrastructure collapses and esential services wane.
Fifth and finally: Former County Board member Mike Mason is no longer running current County Board Chairman Dave Williams’ run for State Senate. And Mason didn’t have nice things to say about it.
Stick a fork in Williams.
Billy Dennis is a former reporter and editor at small daily and weekly newspapers in Illinois and Missouri. He comments on media, news and politics. He also owns and operates 
“Ransburg is a GOP big shot, but he governed like a tax-and-spend, land-grabbing left-winger.”
You mean right-winger. I think the Republican’s are way ahead of the Democrats on this one by now.
I for one was heartened and surprised by the column. It was just little over a month ago that LaHood was flying high. The PJ Star referred to LaHood as “squeaky clean,” but a wire story about lobbyist paid travel and some good reporting from the blogosphere and suddenly the traditional media is starting to become skeptical and do its job. However, I must disagree with the term “flip-flop.” I do not view the replacement of a corrupt, lobbyist compromised Congressman with another corrupt, lobbyist compromised Congressman to be a flip flop. It is a meaningless “symbolic reform” meant to fool the less politically aware in November. The Founders didn’t toil away in the summer of 1787 for this.
Well, if these tow ladies wrote one good column it is about time! Generally they make news out of nothing, rarely get the facts right and seem to be in the business of dreaming up stuff to make them look good. They comment on candidates without disclosing an interest in the campaign, they write like hacks and they are wrapped up in their own self-importance. Of course that describes 90% of the idiots at our “newspaper”. These two reporters are an embarassment to journalism in my opinion.
You stick a fork into Williams, Bill… I’d like to stick about a 24″ Ginsu knife into his sorry hide.
hard to tell in the pics they have at the top of their articles, but are the word on the street girls hot?
Bill,
Not sure why you think without Mike Mason, Dave Williams is done. While Mike is a good guy, I am not sure of what campaigns he has managed that make him more newsworthy than Dave Williams. Apparently, the PJS doesnt consider the County Board Chairman worthy of granting any press, or maybe its the fact that Shadid intimidates those at PJS, so they dont want to write about a guy that is actually pretty decent. While there are rarely any politicians that anyone can agree with totally, when it comes to my own representation, I would rather elect someone with a track record I can evaluate over someone who has been out of politics so long they forget that big ideas require big funding. Koehler is a long time neighbor, and family friend, but in my humble opinion, no State Senator. ****NOTE**** So that I dont get accused of bias, I am doing some work for a couple of local democrats that are not being supported by the Peoria County Democrats for some reason. But I prefer to choose my elected representatives, not be spoon fed whom I should choose. *****
Andy Diaz
Dave Williams has 1) opposed union friendly legislation, even though he made his good living by being a union member 2) appointed a person to the GPSD board when he clearly knew that her appointment was a conflict of interest 3) not been a visible leader for the County Board
I can dig up more if I have the time to… but, personally, I’d rather go with a decent human being than a guy with Dave Williams’ track record of performance and “friends.” I’m voting Koehler.