The Dick Versace juggernaut is now utterly unstoppable as his lone opposition in the primary, Chuck Giger of  Chatum, has dropped out, about a week after announcing he was in.

I love this song …
And I stumbled across this clip, which brought a tear to my eye:
To understand exactly why Cubs fans love Andre Dawson, you have to remember that the man not only gave us games like the one presented above, he was a complete class act, and he literally had to beg to [...]

The Chicago Cubs (that’s National League Central Division CHAMPION Chicago Cubs to you, CJ) clinched the NL Central tonight with a (finally) overpowering win over the Cincinnati Reds.
Coupled with the Milwaukee Brewers loss against the San Diego Padres, this drops the Cubs Magic Number to ZERO.

Went for lunch today at Alwan’s. They basically have a food cart set up - grilling some of their product. Indeed, my ribeye sandwich was both tender and tasty.
This, of course threw me into the Wayback Machine. I purposefully checked out the rear of the building. The lids were, in fact, [...]

After a short absence, here are today’s news links, via the Journal Star:

A commenter points out that Peoria County’s new $11.2 million radio communication system still won’t allow them to communicate with counterparts in East Peoria and elsewhere. Why not? And why would the county want such a system. Certainly the bad guys travel across [...]

Peoria Illinosian and Bill Dennis have ranted, lately, on restaurants in which they have recently had a bad experience. I guess it is my turn.

District 150 held another forum on where to build a new super-sized feeder school for Woodruff High School.
Once again school board members insisted that they could only build one new school for the three they want to take down (they’ve already closed White School).
And once again, parents pleaded and begged the district to not take [...]

From a source:
I dont know if its your kinda news but there was just an attempted bank robbery down town at the first bank office across from Ameren. 3 suspects in custody 1 african american female one african american male and one white male. No shots were fired as far as I could tell.
1470 WMBD [...]

I know, I know. It seems like we just now seated the newest members, Jim Montelongo and Ryan Spain. But the district and mayoral election will be held in April of 2009. That’s about a year and a half away, and I absolutely guarantee you that the folks with a yen to sit around the [...]

Neil De Grasse Tyson has a cool job. He is an astrophysicist and the director of New York City’s Hayden planetarium. He is an expert, sought after by the media for his expertise in celestial phenomena. He first wanted for become an astrophysicist at the age of 9 and he followed his [...]

The following press release landed in my inbox yesterday afternoon.
PEORIA, IL - A coalition of Illinois business organizations, including the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform, Illinois Civil Justice League and Illinois Chamber of Commerce, today lauded Peoria City Council for passing a resolution calling on the Illinois legislature to pass meaningful lawsuit reform.
The resolution, [...]

The conventional wisdom has been that whoever captures the Republican nomination will be the next U.S. Congressman from Illinois’ 18th District. But Robert Novak and Timothy P. Carney say that isn’t the case, according to the article I found on the conservative site, Human Events:
Illinois-18: The entrance of former basketball coach Dick Versace (D) brings to a [...]

From a press release:
One of the greatest comedians ever and the first actor to be nominated for an Oscar for a filmin which he played multiple roles, Peter Sellers will be featured in two movies set for downtown Peoria’s nonprofit Apollo Theater this weekend: “A Shot in the Dark” Sept. 28 and “What’s New, [...]

As long-time readers know, I sometimes vacillate between wanting this site to be judges as just another blog and wanting it to be taken seriously as a citizen journalism site. The difference is subtle, but it’s discernible. A blog is just one guy’s view of the world, full of rants and raves, or poetry and [...]

C.J. Summers has a good post on the Riverfront housing development presented by Economic Development Dirtector Craig Hullinger at last night’s council meeting. I concede now, officially, that I was wrong about this leading to a net loss of park land. It won’t. I also concede that was wrong — as was the rest of [...]