Posts Tagged ‘Bradley University’
Friday, June 26th, 2009
Jonathan Ahl has one of the most well-developed bull**** detectors I’ve ever ever encountered on a journalist. When he left Peoria for that cushy job in the hinterlands of Iowa, Peoria lost one of the few people left in this town who could keep things relatively honest.
As the one who goaded him into blogging (and demanded he name the blog “AHL Things Considered,
get it?) I am disappointed when he lets posting slip by the wayside.
Well, after a two-month lull, he’s posting again, and this one is chock-full of Peoria-related newsy goodness:
… former WCBU Executive Director Anthony Dean is facing a lawsuit for gender and age discrimination from the wife of civil rights icon James Meredith. At the end of this article, there is a reference to a sexual harassment suit filed against him that was settled. That’s where the Peoria connection comes in. In the course of that lawsuit, the plaintiff obtained a subpoena for Dean’s employment record at Bradley. But Dean fought the that, and Judge John Gorman quashed the request.
Every person is innocent until proven guilty, but I think its pretty obvious that nobody would go to the trouble and expense to attempt to quash a subpoena in another state unless there was something in there they didn’t want other people to see. It’s important to note the lawsuit related to this was settled out of court. Still, for WCBU, Bradley University, and people in Peoria, I think this asks more questions than it answers.
Too bad the general lack of warm bodies in the news biz here in Peoria kept this news out of the local media.
Thanks, Jonathan. You’re still keeping folks informed here in Peoria.
Tags: Bradley University, jonathan ahl, WCBU
Posted in On the Media | 3 Comments »
Tuesday, May 12th, 2009
Gee, this sounds familiar:
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Officials at Central Connecticut State University don’t see the humor in this prank: burning bags of popcorn in a microwave in a crowded dorm in the middle of the night and tying some doors shut so residents think they’re trapped in a burning building.
Campus police say they arrested three teenagers who purposely burned the popcorn early Monday, setting off a fire alarm in the dorm shortly after 3 a.m.
Oh, yeah. It’s a less lethal version of this story, when some students — mostly at B.U. and mostly associated with the soccer team — managed to kill a friend and classmate with some fireworks and a locked door.
People that young are stupid. They think they will live forever and that breaking the rules is cool. College is a group of thousands of these stupid, dangerous people, without any real supervision by adults. Then you combine alcohol and a culture that encourages binge drinking as a rite of passage, and when some of them are athletes, who quite often are coddled and have previously avoided discipline …
Tags: arson, Bradley University, college
Posted in Local | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, May 12th, 2009
Hooray! The recession is almost over. Yippie! Two Bradley professors said so. Ummm, waitaminute. Where did I hear these two names before?
“The second half of 2009 should see the U.S. economy on a slow recovery track, said Joshua Lewer who, along with Bob Scott, chairman of the school’s economics department, addressed 90 people at a breakfast meeting Tuesday at Bradley’s Bob Michel Student Center.
Oh, yeah, these are the two geniuses who museum tax supporters paid to write a study saying that the museum tax was a wonderful idea. Of course, their study was based on the assumption that the wildly overblown estimates of the number of paying visitors would pan out.
So I’m wondering who paid them for their opinion THIS time?
I’m I’m guessing that we’ve got at least another two years.
Tags: Bob Scott, Bradley University, Joshua Lewer, Museum, Recession
Posted in Local | 4 Comments »
Thursday, April 9th, 2009
Congressman Aaron Schock has posted a list of his appropriation requests — i.e. “earmarks,” i.e. “pork” — on his Website. Among the highlights (or lowlights, depending on your point of view):
Peoria Mental Health Court: $500,000
To alleviate the overcrowded jail system by diverting mentally ill offenders into the help they need.
The entity to receive funding for this project is Peoria County, 324 Main St., Room 502, Peoria, IL, 61602.
Hey, I’ve been arguing for years that there’s too much insanity in Peoria County’s justice system.
Manufacturing Lab for Next Generation Engineers at Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois: $2 Million
The funding would be used to construct a laboratory to discover innovative and creative manufacturing techniques and teach these techniques to engineers so they can be competitive in a global economy.
The entity to receive funding for this project is Bradley University, 1501 W. Bradley Avenue, Peoria, IL 61625.
I wonder which Peoria neighborhood Bradley University will have to demolish to build THAT? And I wonder if Congressman Schock still owns any more property on the hilltop. That $2 million is roughly 1/6 of what BU has already paid Schock. Oh, I’m sure I’m just being paranoid.
Replace a sewer system in Peoria, Illinois: $3.45 million
The funding would be used to replace an out-of-date sewer line.
The entity to receive funding for this project is City of Peoria, located at 419 Fulton Street, Peoria, IL 61602.
Well, knock me over with a feather. A request to use taxes to pay for actual infrastructure.
Institute for Principled Leadership-Bradley University: $100,000
The funding will be used to provide educational access to students and community residents through the Peoria Full Service Community Schools Initiative.
The entity to receive funding for this project is the Institute for Principled Leadership of Bradley University located at 1501 W. Bradley Avenue, Peoria, Illinois 61625.
More return on BU’s investment in Schock. Anyway, the Institute is run by the guy who misrepresented a bunch of facts about the museum while misrepresenting what was being said by museum tax opponents.
It’s a long list, and I could go on, but some of us have real jobs.
Tags: Aaron Schock, Bradley University, earmarks, Pork
Posted in Statehouse & Capitol | 5 Comments »
Friday, May 16th, 2008
From a press release:
Maplewood, North of Main Street, will be closed for two weeks starting Monday, May 19th to allow for construction activities.
Tags: Bradley University, Maplewood, press release, road closure
Posted in Overset | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, April 29th, 2008
Kudos to Bradley President Joanne Glasser, who took a firm stand for a safe campus:
Three former Bradley University students convicted of manslaughter for a fatal college prank learned recently they would not be allowed to return to the college, a family member said.
The parents are livid, because they say they were promised their offspring would be allowed back in school after their finished their six-month sentence for killing their friend and fellow soccer-team member Danny Dahlquist. Naturally, the parents of these convicted killers think their kids are the victims. Here’s the money quote, as far as I am concerned:
Ron Mentgen [one of the parents] agrees Bradley officials have not fully explained their reasoning.
“The thing that is pretty amazing and shocking about the whole situation is if the other parents didn’t reapply for readmission, we probably would not know anything about this until the three students got out of jail,” he said. “That’s the really sad part about it.“
Oh, bullshit. The “really sad part” is that Danny Dahlquist doesn’t have a future. Your son does. But thanks to your son’s OWN actions, it includes a six-month stint in jail (a sentence many people consider lenient) and probably not a college degree.
But don’t worry. I saw a help-wanted ad in today’s PJS. They are hiring down at the car wash. Maybe the job will still be open when your precious little darling gets out of the clink.
Tags: arson, Bradley University, Danny Dahlquist
Posted in Local | 4 Comments »
Saturday, March 15th, 2008
As I get ready for tomorrow’s Peoria Pundit Radio Show (6 p.m., listen here, call in at (347) 326-9459), I thought’s I’d toss together six links to keep readers occupied. I’m planning to talk about litter, but ANY subject is likely to come up:
Tags: Barack Obama, Bradley University, Jeremiah Wright. homosexuality, Sally Kern
Posted in Local | 2 Comments »
Monday, March 10th, 2008
Here’s some links to keep readers amused as I look for a guest for Sunday’s radio show about litter:
From Chef Kevin’s site, this email he received about the downtown museum:
 ”…seems to me if they can’t do the marketing and promotions to raise enough money to BUILD the museum, why should anyone expect they’d be able to market and promote the museum once it’s built??? Wow, I’m all a-tizzy from over here; no wonder you’re pissed.”
No kidding.
And from iVoryTowerz, reflections on another newspaper snatched up by GateHouse:
With the buyout will assuredly come a move away from the local focus and personal touch that defines the current coverage. Just like the droves of tourists that now overwhelm the Lower Cape in the summer, the Banner’s replacement will likely be a distanced, mass produced paper unconcerned with the roots of the area and its interests. The slow erosion of the Lower Cape’s unique culture may go as unnoticed as the Banner’s demise.
Merle Widmer doesn’t think much of the Jim Les era at Bradley University:
Jim Les returned to this community promising a return to the greatness of many years past. As a longtime observer of Bradley basketball, I have not seen a fulfillment of that promise nor do I see it in the future.
Also, unanswered is not only whether or not a player is guilty of assault or speeding while drinking, but why were they “messing” around in the early morning hours especially the day of a nationally televised game? All indications are that the athletic director and the coach do not have the respect of some of the players or rules are lax or both.
Scott Janz is all a-twitter about drugs in the drinking water:
The Associated Press reports it’s only parts per billion, but the mere fact they reported it, must mean there is concern somewhere.
I call bullsh*t. Travel back in time 200 years, or even as recently as 100 years ago. There probably weren’t drugs in the drinking water, but I’m certain that healthy, drinkable water was much, much harder to find. We’re living longer than ever, and as a result, we get bent out of shape at microscopic risks, or risks we’ve invented out of whole cloth, like the vaccine-autism boondoggle.
And finally, from Dan Johnson-Weinberger, a bit of clarity:
The idea that an asset worth a billion dollars owned by one of the wealthiest men in Illinois should get government money is so preposterous on its face that I’m a little sad that we have to argue whether or not we should put Sam Zell’s Chicago Cubs on welfare.
Hat tip to The Capitol Fax Blog.
Tags: Bradley University, Chicago Cubs, drinking water, GateHouse Media, Jim Les, Merle Widmer, Museum, Sam Zell, scott janz
Posted in Local | Comments Off
Monday, March 10th, 2008
Unless noted, all links are from the Peoria Journal Star:
- I attended Woodruff High School, and walked up and down Abington Street hill more times than I care to remember. And being a stupid teenager, we goofed around. It was quite common to playfully “shove” a friend off the sidewalk and onto the street as a car was approaching. No one got hurt, no one came close to getting hurt. But it was stupid. Stupid. Stupid. It was no more or less stupid than what happened on University and Russell the other night. And had I managed to kill one of my friends through this stupid horseplay, I’d have been arrested too. Too many people in Peoria are interpreting this incident though their own agendas, from opposition to alcohol, animus toward Bradley and Bradley students and even district toward the police (there’s a coverup, dontchknow). Please. Young people are stupid and think they will live forever. As long as this is a universal truth, there will continue to be incidents like this.
- John Morris isn’t coming back to WTVP, says today’s Word on the Street. WCBU reported the same exactly one week earlier. My suggestion for future employment: Fundraiser for blogs.
- The intrepid Illinois State Police, using their keen instincts and investigative skills, have discovered that underage people sometimes rent hotel rooms and have drinking parties. I am shocked, I tell you, SHOCKED at this new and insidious form of crime. The sinister criminals discussed in this article are 20 years old.
- PANTAGRAPH: Colleen Callahan and Aaron Schock are speaking in generalities.
- WEEK: The death of a Peoria Heights baby is being called an accidental drowning.
Tags: Aaron Schock, alcohol, Bradley University, Colleen Callahan, John Morris, underage drinking
Posted in Local | 9 Comments »
Monday, March 3rd, 2008
Jonathan Ahl reports on the passing of Dave Schenk, director of Infrastructure and Engineering Services at Bradley University, which made him chief engineer at WCBU and WTVP. My condolences to his friends, family and co-workers.
Tags: Bradley University, Dave Schenk, obituaries
Posted in Local | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, February 27th, 2008
The Journal Star’s latest story has even more details. The victim sorta recanted the first statement she made to police, saying she can’t be sure how her injuries happened. And she expressed concerns about his being treated unfairly because he’s a basketball player.
If Danny Ruffin and the other witness are to be believed, his one failure was to walk away from an irate woman and instead try to use force to remove her from the apartment. It’s still not dissimilar to a typical police domestic violence call. When a woman shows up bleeding and bruised at the hospital, someone’s gonna get arrested.
But will Danny Ruffin be denied the right to play in the tournament? It’s not a decision I would want to make. Ruffin doesn’t exactly come off as an innocent participant in that night’s events, even if you believe his version and the witness’s version, and also believe that the victim’s recantation is legitimate.
Tags: Bradley University, danny ruffin, domestic violence
Posted in Local | 2 Comments »
Saturday, February 23rd, 2008
Bradley University just doesn’t get it. If you want to be a top basketball school that perennially sends teams into the NCAA tournament, you have GOT to overlook the little things, such as when your star player gets his sorry ass arrested for domestic battery. In fact, you’ve got to have a local police department whose officers know better than to do something so civically unpatriotic as arrest the team’s star player.
How in the world will BU be able to attract top flight athletes who just happen to be devotees of the thug lifestyle, or who are spoiled punks who just think that women are put on Earth to be their punching bags?
If stuff like this keeps happening, BU will begin to get a reputation as a school that ranks piddly details such as integrity and honor above winning. And where would we be then?
And no doubt Daniel Ruffin fans are lining up their list of excuses and rationals for keeping him on the team.
Tags: basketball, Bradley University, Daniel Ruffin, domestic battery, spoiled athletes
Posted in Local | 8 Comments »
Tuesday, December 4th, 2007
Phil Luciano has jumped on the Bradley University Soccer bandwagon. He admits it. He doesn’t care. He finds the whole three-victories-away-from-a-national-championship thing absolutely riveting:
Saturday night at home, with the team playing in Maryland, I kept dashing to my computer, desperate for updates. College soccer scores are hard to find, especially mid-game.
And when the final score came in, I couldn’t believe it. Bradley not only had erased a 2-0 deficit with 21/2 minutes to play, but won the game in a second sudden-death overtime. That’s like the Chicago Cubs scoring 10 runs to tie a game in the bottom of the ninth inning, then winning in the 18th.
No, Phil is is not like that at all. The difference is that if the Cubs scored 10 runs to tie a game in the bottom of the ninth inning, then won in the 18th, I would give a damn. Hell, if the Cardinals did that, I would be impressed. POed, but impressed.
Soccer is boring. Occasionally there’s a head-butting incident, a riot or collapsing bleachers to liven things up. But for the most part, soccer nothing more than a bunch of guys running from one end of the field to another trying to kick a ball into a net. The vast majority of the time, they fail to accomplish this.
And soccer is un-American. I strongly suspect that the Kremlin funded youth soccer in the 1970s and ’80s to drain the talent pool away from football, which is a perfect sport for training the next generation of military and political leaders. Quick: Name me one president OR general who grew up playing soccer. Thought so.
And how can I support the growth of any sport responsible for bringing THIS to America:
American football, however, has given us THIS:
I rest my case.
Tags: Bradley University, Phil Luciano, Soccer, The Sports Page, Victoria Beckham
Posted in The Sports Page | 13 Comments »
Tuesday, November 13th, 2007
Today’s links via the Peoria Journal Star:
- Repairs are done at the McClugage Bridge. If I ever used that bridge, I’d be ecstatic.
- Bradley University is investigating what happened at the sorority talent show that led to the dangerous street brawl. No doubt BU is deeply concerned about student safety. Heaven forbid that something would happen to the students who drunkenly started a fire that killed their roommate. All are still attending classes on the Hilltop while awaiting trial for killing their friend.
- I hate to begrudge any gift to a place of learning, but couldn’t Par-A-Dice find a more worthy use for its $75,000 donation to ICC than the college’s culinary arts program. Something like Peoria Promise, perhaps? But when you are in the food and entertainment business, you want an oversupply of well-trained kitchen help, I suppose. Par-A-Dice know which side of the bread to apply the butter.
- Had anyone even reported this poor woman missing during the two to three weeks before her body was found in the woods in Creve Coeur?
- The Peoria Journal Star’s award-winning (snicker) editorial page continues to insist that the way to confront allegations of racism by Peoria’s downtown 4 a.m. bars is to make sure that no black-owned bars, frequented mostly by black people, do not get 4 a.m. liquor licenses. I’m waiting for someone to point out to me that its the city’s responsibility for enforcing federal and/or state anti-discrimination laws.
Tags: Bradley University, ICC, Liquor, Peoria Promise
Posted in Overset | 6 Comments »
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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