Today’s news: Casting about
Links are via the Journal Star, the snarky commentary is my own:
- Apparently, Peoria isn’t the only city that sucks up to politically connected developers, in this case, a developer with a history of making sweetheart deals, not that the Journal Star would ever bother reporting it.
- I don’t know whether or not Ali al-Marri is a terrorist or an enemy combatant or not. Some of the evidence the U.S. government says it has against the guy is pretty damning. But I know one thing: The United States is a nation that should operate under the rule of law. If the courts say this guy deserves a trial, then he ought to get one. If our laws are to be ignored when it’s inconvenient, then they mean nothing. That’s not a pro-terrorist statement; that’s a pro-America statement.
- Personally, I think casting Joe Pantoliano as reporter Ben Urich ruined the movie Daredevil. Pantoliano is just too cool a guy to play the rumpled, beaten-down-by life Urich. But then, casting Ben Afflek didn’t do the movie any favors either. But then, neither did casting Jennifer Garner. Or Michael Clarke Duncan. Still, it’s nice to see a B-list actor slumming in Peoria.
- Wow, talk about burying the lede. In the very last paragraph of Terry Bibo’s article on District 150 administrators’ plans to close Loucks-Edison Junior Academy, State Rep. Dave Leitch says he’s not completely sure the administrators are telling the truth about whose fault the budget shortfall is. I mean, he has a point. Are other district’s planning to close schools?
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 
