WEEK announced at last night’s 10 p.m. newscast that weekend anchor/producer Jenny Li was leaving the station to work in public relations for State Farm Insurance in Bloomington.
What’s good for Jenny — better pay and better hours, no doubt — is bed news for news consumers. I’ll miss seeing her around the press table [...]

I’m not even going to try to name all the bloggers and others who attended. Lot of conversation. Lots of hugging. Lots of liquid refreshment. And the Cubs won 7-1 over the Brewers.
We even talked some shop.
Look for photos on some of the blogs. I’ll link to ‘em when the photos get posted.

Via WMBD:
Three victims went to the hospital after a Sunday morning shooting in Peoria. It happened at the Southern Valley 66 on Western Avenue. Authorities say soon after a victim went to the hospital with a gun shot wound to the stomach, two more people showed up with bullet wounds. Police won’t say if the [...]

From a press release:
Beginning Monday, May 5th, Allen Road will be reduced to one lane of traffic in the vicinity of Northmoor Road for approximately two weeks. 
 
Starting with the northbound inside lane the week of May 5th, and the outside southbound lane the week of May 12th, the contractor will be installing the left and [...]

Internet service went down at Peoria Pundit World Headquarters today. After confirming that this was not the case of an unpaid bill (not THIS time), I contacted Comcast technical support.
Some background: While others may disagree with me, During past several years, I found Insight technical support to be friendly and well-trained. It wasn’t perfect (as [...]

Parents of children attending Keller Primary School are upset at changes that will give their kids less time in school and fewer teachers to teach music, science and computer skills.
One set of parents spoke to me today and complained at length about many of the issues they and other parents at Kellar have with District [...]

The Metropolitan Airport Authority of Peoria on Wednesday will see renderings of the proposed $60 million terminal planned for 2010, the Journal Star is reporting this evening. The new building will be built just west of the current terminal and preparation work is expected to take place this summer.
The existing terminal opened in May 1959 [...]

I took the following email from Peoria City Hall:
Today, Public Works crews began grinding alleys.  This is done so they can put material into the alley to build them up.  The next step will be to seal coat the alleys.  The work will not be completed until early Summer.
I would hardly call this “rebuilding alleys,” [...]

… Peorians.
We want it both ways.
We scream and yell about how Peoria makes it hard to do business.
But  we scream and yell even louder whenever anyone wants to do business in our neighborhood. Heaven forbid, there might be a car parked where I want to park! There might be some urban youth-type person walking down [...]

Freakonomics has an interesting post in reaction to state of New York passing a law making it illegal to recruit anyone into a gang. Success is 100 percent guaranteed because, as you know, the last thing people who are engaging in an ongoing, multi-generational criminal enterprise want to is break the law. End sarcasm.
From the [...]

How completely bizarre.
For a little less than five years, the official position of the City of Peoria is that Elliott’s cannot and must not have a liquor license. Because a tiny non-stripper corner of the joint was too close to an apartment complex.
This decision allowed the place to operate as a liquor-free strip joint where [...]

Links via the Journal Star:

To the surprise of no one, OSF Health Plans has been old. The new owner will be Humana Inc. This sale was mentioned back when the city was deciding who employees’ health care provider would be. The decision to pick OSF over rival Methodist saved the city millions of dollars. Employees [...]

(The show is over now. Listen here.)
If you see this post at the top of the blog, then I’m on the air (click to listen), right now. Call (347) 326-9459 to join the conversation. It starts at 6 p.m. and ends at 7:30 p.m. (Central)
Here are some of the topics and some associated links:
Litter:

Peoria Litter [...]

From Peoria City Hall:
At the Mayor’s State of the City Address this year, he announced the formation of the Peoria Race Relations Commission to focus on race issues in the community, and positive means to deal with them. Dr. Amir Al-Khafaji, Chair of Civil Engineering and Construction at Bradley University, has agreed to serve [...]

From a Peoria City Hall press release:
The 2008 yardwaste collection season begins on Monday, March 17, 2008, and ends Friday, December 19, 2008, for City of Peoria residents served by Waste Management.
Yardwaste may be set out for collection in:

Garbage cans marked “Yardwaste only” which do not exceed 32 gallons in size nor 50 lbs. in [...]