Today’s news: Wireless plan’s broken promise?

All links are via the Peoria Journal Star:

• A parolee (served half his 15-year sentence for aggravated battery with a firearm) tells police that he got mad and broke his two-month-old son’s leg. How did this Cook County dirt bag end up in Peoria? Did he come here on work release?
• If wireless Internet access does come to the entire County of Peoria, and there is going to be a $20 fee for anyone to access, they had better offer connection speeds real close to the 10 MB/second download rate that Insight Cable is offering now. My two cents: I was under the impression that there was going to be a free version — Web access only — that anyone could use, but at download rates not much higher that basic dial up. This was supposed to bring access to folks who could not otherwise afford it and allow visitors to access the Web. Without the free component, I’m not sure I’d support it. We already have broadband for residents who can pay for it. Why offer government competition to these providers if there’s no free version for the poor. It’s like handing out a cable television franchise, but not requiring public access channels.
• Yes, as the Peoria Journal Star headline reads, the City of Peoria is “exploring” new utility fees. You have to read to the end of the second paragraph to catch the part about how it would almost dollar for dollar replace the hated “garbage fee” that appears on water bills that pays for some police officer salaries. And it would also get money out of Peoria’s huge not-for-profit-but-hardly-poor institutions, like Bradley University and the hospitals. My two cents: It’s hardly the first mention of this idea, it’s been blogged about before, and written up in the PJS, although not with a sorta-scary breathless, breaking-news headline. So, let’s not panic and run screaming into the streets with burning torches about tax increases, OK? This isn’t politicians breaking a promise, this is a case of politicians trying to keep election promises.
• In case readers didn’t hear, the Cubs beat the Cardinals 5-2 last night.
• Phil Lucinao investigates and discovers that Peoria County Clerk is a dirty cheapskate.
• Signs of spring: Robins prowl for worms, the trees start to turn green and Peoria records it’s eighth homicide of the year. The article in the Journal Star doesn’t have many details on the victim, so we don’t know whether we need to be sorry it happened.