The Peoria-Area Blogger Bash will start at 6 p.m. TONIGHT at the Silver Bullet, 135 N Main St. East Peoria, IL. A map is available here.
I’ll try to be there at least by 6 p.m. This is an event held in a public place, so anyone can show up. Creators of Peoria blogs, commenters [...]

East Peoria likes to crow about all the economic development happening in its downtown and riverfront areas. Well goody for them and their little strip mall paradise.
But look what happened when there was a major water main break in East Peoria. Some 32 restaurants were without water for 48 hours. And what I find frightening [...]

From a press release:
Central Illinois to Host 2008 UMIMRA Annual Waterways Conference
Waterway challenges and opportunities to be highlighted by Upper Mississippi, Illinois and Missouri
Rivers Association
WHAT: The Upper Mississippi, Illinois and Missouri Rivers Association (UMIMRA) hosts its annual waterways conference in Central Illinois for the 3nd year. Stakeholders from across the Midwest gather at this annual [...]

Links via the Journal Star:

Phil Luciano rightfully criticizes East Peoria Fire Chief Mike Vaughn for abdicating responsibility for keeping the public informed about the fire at Caterpillar’s KK building that send three people to the hospital. My two cents: It is absolutely untrue that the public officials have chips implanted in their brains that require [...]

All I’ve been hearing for decades is that that the condition of the Illinois River is so bad that before long, we’ll be able to wade across the river underneath the Murray Baker Bridge. Well, that’s an exaggeration, but you get the point.
Now comes news that U.S. Rep. Ray LaHood has is guaranteeing President Bush [...]

News links via the Journal Star:

Aaron Schock officially announced yesterday. As far as I know, he’s the only candidate to come out in favor of expanding the use of nuclear power, which is something I strongly support.
Doug Finke says that Gov. Blagojevich wants to send the entire state a bill so Blago’s Chicago neighborhood can [...]

Aaron Schock is going to make some sort of big announcement regarding his campaign tomorrow at noon at some hotel in East Peoria. My source didn’t know the name of the hotel or the subject of the announcement. And since the Schock campaign staff seems to has misplaced my email address, I never got the [...]

In this article on Hanukkah, the name of Matt Hale is casually brought up. Trouble is, the article states the convicted hate monger and would-be judge killer was born in Peoria. Wrong! Male is the son of East Peoria police officer, lived in East Peoria and attended East Peoria schools. Peoria has enough freaks and [...]

Via a midday update from the Journal Star
Spcs. George R. Obourn Jr., 20, and Kristofer C. Walker, 20, both originally of Creve Coeur, recently died in Iraq, East Peoria Superintendent Cliff Cobert confirmed Wednesday.
“They were good students in school, quite active with the band,” he said. “It is our understanding they joined (the Army) together.”
The [...]

The new mayor of Pekin is blaming the state’s Open Meetings Act because he can’t meet with members of his city council to discuss business.
State law says that anytime a majority of a quorum of a public body get together to discuss business, that’s a meeting, and it has to be announced in advance and [...]

A huge retail corporation is wants to lower the taxes it pays on one of its properties.
I am reminded of a family vacation to see Yellowstone Park, where the signs advised visitors to not feed the bears. The rangers didn’t want the animals associating humans with free food, lest the animals become accustomed to it [...]

I got this email a few moments ago. There’s no word on whether the “Meet Me in the Middle” event means the bridge will actually be reopened to trafic at that time or not.

I’m surprised that the Peoria media isn’t reporting on the fact the Fred Phelps “God Hates Fags” group plans to protest at Gunnery Sgt. Terry Ball’s funeral. They say the gunny died because God is punishing the United States because it is insufficiently intolerant of homosexuals.
Rich Miller is all over the story, thanks to his [...]

Hat tip to Marathon Pundit:
Perhaps my readers have heard of Fred Phelps and his church group that takes its faith-based opposition to homosexuality to extremes. You know, the “God Hates Fags” group.
Lately, they’ve been showing up at the funerals of soldiers and Marines who’ve been killed in combat. Their message is that these brave people [...]

Via the Journal Star:
Gunnery Sgt. Terry W. Ball, a Purple Heart recipient from East Peoria who was injured after warning others in his unit to stand back from an object that turned out to be a bomb, died while being treated for his wounds, relatives said Monday.
—
Ball and his unit were driving along a road [...]