From an email:
[tag]Journal Star[/tag] assignment editor [tag]Dayna Brown[/tag] is leaving the paper in early June. She has been a full-time since 1994. Photographer David Zentz (recently assigned to the PJStar Web team) is leaving soon, too.
[tags]GateHouse[/tags]

A couple of new posts are up over at Press Releases.
Submit them via email: peoriapundit AT gmail DOT com.

Damn.
Jonathan Ahl is leaving his job as news director at WCBU for another job outside Peoria.
I say we take up a collection and see how much we can raise to keep him here. Ahl is top-notch newsman. He’s a voice of reason and experience in the Peoria media. In fact, he’s the dean of the [...]

I sat down with Councilman Gary Sandberg today, and he laid out his case for approval of $35 million in bonds for the Peoria Public Library District’s renovation/construction project. The Peoria City Council will vote on the issue Tuesday.
I am now convinced that it is in taxpayers’ interest to approve the bonds now, rather than [...]

C.J. Summers has the scoop on the District 150 Watch Coalition’s meeting with Superintendent Ken Hinton. He’s done some remarkable work on all this.
In fact, it’s so remarkable that HOI News, in it’s own on-line version of the story, linked directly to C.J.’s most recent post.
I do believe this is a first for the Peoria [...]

Here’s some statistical evidence that nanny-state thinking backfires, via a study done at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee:
By comparing data from a variety of locations around the United States where laws requiring smoke-free bars exist with locations without bans, economists Scott Adams and Chad Cotti found a relative increase in fatalities caused by drunk driving following [...]

I have no real preference regarding where to build a new branch library in North Peoria. It would be nice to remodel and use an existing structure on already developed land, so the Festival Foods location seems appropriate.
The problem, as I understand it, is that the asking price seems a bit high* once remodeling costs [...]

Via HOINews:
Alan Beaman was convicted in 1995 of murdering Jennifer Lockmiller in Normal.
Supreme Court Justices cited Beaman’s consitutional rights to due process were violated.
They say the state failed to disclose information about a viable alternative suspect in the murder.
The Journal Star has an article, too.
The Daily Vidette (the ISU student newspaper) quotes Beaman’s mother as [...]

Diane Vespa finally posted an article about the movement to rescind the gutting of art and music from primary schools:
The events of the last few weeks have been a learning experience for me, as well as a crash course in public education. Never again will I casually cast aside a bio of a candidate running [...]

It’s here. I iaven’t the time right now to look at it.

Jonathan Ahl just doesn’t get me. And here, I thought I had him at hello.
First, not all blogs I create are intended to be permanent. I created that site simply to test (and as it turns out, repair) this WordPressMu installations import and export features. I didn’t want to try it on any existing blog.
And as [...]

People are complaining that cars aren’t following the speed limits on city streets. The solution? Lower the speed limit. Because, as we know, people who don’t follow the rules will start doing so when the laws get tougher. That’s why we have no murder and assaults anymore.
Silly people. They ought to just change the existing [...]

I’m still getting the old version of PJStar.com. It was supposed to switch over to the new format last night. Well, they did say it might take 24 hours to show up on home computers. Yet another reason to hate Comcast, I suppose.
UPDATE: I’m seeing it now. Looks nice. Same ads at the old site, [...]

I’ve moving posts from the old site to this one. The process didn’t go exactly as planned. She essentially share the same date, so I’m having to go through them individually and assign them a date and a category.
I only imported the 100 most recent posts, so I won’t be spending the next year doing [...]

Once again, HOINews came through for parents at District 150 schools. Last night, I caught their 10 p.m. newscast, and there were two — count ‘em, TWO — reports related to the quality of education at Peoria’s public schools. One was a follow-up to the station’s original report on how some school’s aren’t meeting state-mandated [...]