Today’s news budget, 5/18/2006
By Billy Dennis on May 18th, 2006 All links are from the Journal Star. Take ‘em for what they are worth.
U.S. Rep. Ray LaHood is going to “broker” meetings between the City of Peoria, the Peoria Park District and School District 150 over the plans to demolish Glen Oak School and rebuild it on Glen Oak Park land. My two cents: Actually, I think this is a good development. First, the massive egos on the School Board and the Park District need a graceful way to bow out. They know that there’s no way they can get permission from the city to do this project and that they need the city’s good graces to be able to hold any event in the future. Second, LaHood has a good relationship with Mayor Jim Ardis. Third, LaHood knows there are more votes to be had by opposing this boondoggle than there are in supporting it.
Molly Parker has a good story about some of the issues related to Insight’s recent cable Internet service outages. My two cents: I agree with Council members Gary Sandberg and Eric Turner, who voted against sending a letter to the Congress asking them to consider giving local authorities the more power to regulate local cable Internet service, much as they do local cable television. It was a felicitate, do nothing gesture. Sandberg said anyone unhappy with Insight can simply get a new service provider. True. But consider this: If there was a city-wide WiFi system that let anyone get barely Broadband level, basic Internet service, the impact of Insight’s outages would be minimal.
I appreciate Phil Luciano’s two recent columns on the case of the doctor in Morton who suffocated her autistic child. My two cents: This is a tragic case that calls out for sympathy and understanding, not blind hatred and a demand for revenge in the name of justice. Indeed, the Tazewell County State’s Attorney has already ruled out the death penalty and is talking about a plea agreement. I also wonder if the demands for revenge would be louder were the mother an uneducated Black woman from the inner city of Peoria.
This entry was posted
on Thursday, May 18th, 2006 at 9:49 am and is filed under The Wire.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Both comments and pings are currently closed.
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 
sympathy and understanding??? dont we democrats have any morals anymore? i dont agree with my parties stance on abortion, murder is murder. place a plastic bag on the head of a innocent ,helpless child and we should feel sympathy and understanding? bill you are way to the left on your views. as far as uneducated Black woman from the inner city of Peoria, there are many children from these women killed monthly in peoria not by there mothers but by other gang members, so why should it make a difference? why bring race into it?
If it had been an “uneducated Black woman” I doubt it would have garnered nearly as much press as a child murderess from Morton. As for sympathy, how about for the child she killed, not her.
I was speaking with my girlfriend this morning about this. I say anyone that uses malice to kill a child under say, 6 or even 12 years old should be placed on an automatic trip to the gurney.
We have a handicapped child. I am outraged that this woman decided if this child should live or die. Too bad her attempt to relieve her pain didn’t work. What we will see instead is someone pleading mental illness and get all the therapy that will lay the blame on someone else.
Bill,
Ray LaHood never said he opposed it and don’t forget that he is related to Bonnie Noble.
Quoting the Journal Star: “LaHood doesn’t believe that the proposed school has become so polarized that compromise is out of the picture”
“don’t forget that he is related to Bonnie Noble”
Hmmmmm
Muni Wi-Fi again?
(Grabbing an ‘air sickness’ bag and handing it to Tony)
A Black lady who is as nuts as this woman must be would be treatd in the same manner; also, how can you get out of a one or two year contract with Insight just because of this breach by them-don’t think so.
Bill,
Muni wi-fi will do nothing except take money from those “essential city services” you are already talking about. Those who will use the service, are those we can afford to pay for their own internet service.
Most people without a lot of money in the bank probably aren’t running around with laptops and/or wifi enabled pcs to take advantage of this service. I think they would more likely see their roads fixed, garbage picked up, and snow plowed than this.
Black woman from south side. life in da clink after jury decides againt the death penalty.
white woman from morton, plea deal for 40 yrs, out after 24 for good behavior.
The only sympathy I have is for a dead child. This woman is a murderer and should be treated as such. Plenty of parents with autistic children make it their whole lives without asphyxiating their child. If this crime was something she pre-meditated, she should be charged with first degree murder and serve time accordingly. The fact that she works in the field of medicine does not lessen the blow. In fact, I think her line of work makes her acts all the more reprehensible. She lied to police, which shows that she had planned on covering up her wrongdoing. She knew what she had done, and that she knew that it was wrong.
“My two cents: This is a tragic case that calls out for sympathy and understanding, not blind hatred and a demand for revenge in the name of justice.”
This woman ABSOLUTELY deserves less sympathy and understanding than an uneducated poor person. She’s a DOCTOR with both the monetary and professional resources to get the best care for her child – and relief care for herself.
That child was not acting out on purpose. That child needed substantially MORE care and love than a “normal” child, and far more protection from the world.
It makes me sick that a mother – a DOCTOR – could do such a thing to a disabled child. She needs to be locked up for life.
-Eyebrows, loving and overprotective cousin of a severely autistic boy
Dmoney= 40 yrs. means first degree murder-no goo time given on that charge, must serve full term. Bllack or white, they are treated the same if the circumstances of the crime are the same.
[...] District 150 is moving forward with their plans to built at Glen Oak, and is proving what I said before- the community forums are a formality and there will be a new school built in and alongside park land, in conjunction with the Park District run community center. Now that they have Ray LaHood on board, and it’s only a matter of time before they convince enough people… or more accurately, the people with veto-power. [...]