Today’s news: Learning something new
Today’s links are via the Journal Star:
- Clare Jellick’s article on the Manual restructuring is up. It includes the list of “recommendations” that the various subcommittees working on the plan asked the board to approve. The meat of the story is that they want the new Manual to operate under a longer school day, a longer school year (if not year-round), offer junior academies or some sort of enhances programming for middle school students, and perhaps offer several schools within a school inside Manual. Intriguing. Clare’s article focusing on the proposed Woodruff feeder school site is also up.
- The Journal Star didn’t learn any more about today’s press conference beyond what they posted yesterday.
- Once the Post Office moves its Priority Mail processing from Peoria to Champaign, anyone who uses the service to to send a letter across town will see it go from Peoria to Champaign and back to Peoria. Or, they could just drive the damn thing across town themselves and deliver it by hand.
- Nice nostalgic article about the 60-year-old murder of a notorious Peoria gangster. Dec. 19, 2007 will be the third anniversary of Brian Alexander, the nurse who was murdered outside his East Bluff home. No one has ever been arrested for his murder. Six decades from now, when someone writes a nostalgic book about this colorful era in which we live, will Brian Alexander get a mention?
- After what must have been an exhaustive search through police records, the Journal Star has concluded that bars that stay open past 2 a.m. see more police calls than bars that close before 2 a.m. Coming tomorrow, the Journal Star interviews noted scientists and concludes that there is a 96.7 percent chance the Sun will rise in the east and set in the West.
- And a belated kudos to Karen McDonald for yesterday’s Word on the Street, which included comments from Ray LaHood stating that he felt an obligation to let voters know which of the three people running for the Republican nomination for his job he would prefer. The article includes positive comments LaHood made about the campaign being run by Jim McConoughey. Hint, hint, maybe?
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 
