PeoriaStory

Copper beech, other trees gone

PEORIA -- A petition drive has failed to save a 250-year old copper beech tree on the Bradley University campus.

The tree has been bulldozed to make way for a fitness center, despite pleas that it be saved. So much for Bradley U’s commitment to a sustainable environment. (For more on this tree, see stories under 'environment' category.)

The copper beech is just the latest in a long series of large trees that have been destroyed in Peoria, a town that lacks any ordinance to protect them.

Powerful private organizations like Bradley, and developers are not the only culprits in tree destruction.

The Peoria Park District, supposedly a protector of the environment, bulldozed trees to expand the zoo. Here's the scene as the trees were being bulldozed last February.

Peoria County cut down large, older trees to build a World War I and II monument, removing valuable shade on the courthouse square.

The First Methodist Church in downtown Peoria recently cut down trees by its building so crows would not roost in them and foul the sidewalks. Twinkle lights in the trees, as used at Ravina near Chicago, would have discouraged the birds

Developers recently have cut down acres of trees along Allen Road near Northmoor, apparently to clear building sites for yet another upscale subdivision.

Nearby homeowners report that displaced wildlife are causing problems for them. Several homes near the site of destruction have ‘for sale’ signs in their front yards.

Tree clearing by the city a few years ago at the Allen Road-War Memorial intersection has left an ugly, weedy site devoid of any landscaping or beauty. In some ways it’s worse than that ugliest of commercial strips along University south of War Memorial.

Ameren/CILCO regularly butchers trees instead of putting resources into burying its power lines.

The Illinois Department of Transportation removed scores of trees that once buffered neighborhoods from the traffic noise of Interstate 74, in its upgrade of that freeway. People complained to no avail.

Other Illinois cities protect their trees and require permits and public hearings before they can be removed, but not Peoria. Such an ordinance might have caused Bradley U. officials to think twice before destroying that copper beech because of a badly designed building.

But a proposed tree protection ordinance in Peoria like those in other cities was quietly sold out in a compromise that gave developers points for retaining old trees in their landscaping plans.

This woefully inadequate ordinance may not apply to many of the tree butchers, from Bradley University to the County, the Park District and the Methodist church.

It seems that whenever the powerful decide to build monuments in whatever form to themselves, trees are expendable.

The shade they provide, the habitat for other life forms, even their mitigation of global warning don’t matter. What arrogance!

--Elaine Hopkins

COMMENT. via email, 7/27/07: "What a beautiful cooper beech! I am more than a little irked that people wantonly destroy trees. Not only should trees be allowed to be trees, but they are valuable habitats for wildlife, they are beautiful, and they help keep carbon levels down

At a time when Mayor Bloomberg is going to have NYC plant a million trees, we are cutting them down here in Peoria. Shame on Peoria for not have an ordinance that protects tree.

Terri Brink"

Kellar trail gets a boost

PEORIA -- The U.S. Surface Transportation has slapped down the most recent effort by Pioneer Railcorp to get back its operations on the Kellar Branch rail line.

That's the now defunct line running through north Peoria that activists want to become a hike and bike trail.

In a complicated decision on June 25, published two days later, the board denied Pioneer's attempt to kick Central Illinois Railway Co. off the line, but also told Central to show why is should not be required to obtain board authority to operate over an adjacent track, the Western Connection track built by the city of Peoria to replace the Kellar line.

The decision can be accessed on the STB's website.

Central does not have a contract with the city to operate on the Western Connection line, but began operations as a successor company to a previous operator.

The ruling appears to be a boost for turning the Kellar line into a trail.

--Elaine Hopkins

UPDATE: July 3, 2007. Two pro-Pioneer Rail Corp and anti-Kellar hike and bike trail bloggers, David Jordan and C. J. Sommers say this decision affects only the Western Connection and not the Kellar Branch line.

Nevertheless, any decision that discourages Pioneer is a plus for the Kellar trail. Pioneer wants to get back on that line, and has even offered to buy it from Peoria and Peoria Heights. Any lawsuit Pioneer is involved in is apparently part of the strategy to take back the line for rail use.

Abortion rights in jeopardy

PEORIA -- Two recent major events affecting reproductive rights for women have yet to be implemented.

But they are steps toward severely weakening the right to abortion in Illinois and in the U.S., Peoria Planned Parenthood chief executive officer Joyce Harant told those attending the annual dinner on June 27 for the Peoria chapter of the National Organization for Women.

The U.S. Supreme Court in April upheld the ban on so-called “partial birth abortion,” a medical procedure occasionally used to protect a woman’s health or fertility. For the first time, the court did not consider a woman’s health in banning this procedure, Harant said.

“This court said the politicians decide. An individual woman cannot make an informed decision on the best way to proceed with an abortion,” she said.

“The preponderance of medical opinion was that different techniques should be available. The court retreated from the way it made previous decisions. In the past there was always a medical exception to protect the woman’s health,” she said.

“We now have a Supreme Court majority that is hostile to women’s right to choose. Once there is no Constitutional protection for abortion, Roe is gone,” she said.

Abortion battles will shift to the states, and the right to a safe, legal abortion will evaporate in many states, she said. “Now there are parts of this country where it’s not available, even though it’s legal.”

She predicted that a black market for abortion medication will open, and women will be denied medical help if they attempt to abort themselves.

In Illinois, a blue state, “we cannot pass comprehensive sex education or add another adult to help a minor obtain an abortion,” she said.

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, who claimed to be a pro-choice politician, moved to set up guidelines to implement a requirement for parental notification before a minor can have an abortion. The state law was passed years ago but a federal court stopped it from taking effect because the guidelines have not been written.

“Madigan asked for the federal injunction to be lifted,” Harant said. “She made an intentional move to limit a minor’s right to choose. No politician is trustworthy.”

NOW members discussed reproductive rights, and the fact that most younger women are not aware of the narrowing of their choices, and don’t seem to care unless it affects them directly.

One member reported observing sex education taught to middle school students outside Peoria by the Women’s Pregnancy Center, an anti-choice organization. The children were receiving erroneous information, she said.

She was fearful of embarrassing her children by complaining publicly, but set them straight and hopes they will talk with their friends, she said.

Others recalled the courage that some NOW members showed years ago in fighting racism and discrimination. They implied that similar courage is required today to fight right wing attempts to squelch sex education as well as to preserve a woman’s right to safe, legal abortion.

--Elaine Hopkins

Cruel polar bear hunting

PEORIA -- The votes of two Illinois Congressmen, Ray LaHood, R-Peoria, and Phil Hare, D-Moline show what a difference compassion and common sense can make in a legislator.

LaHood voted to continue hunting polar bears, already endangered by global warming causing their habitat to melt. Hare voted to stop the hunt for a year.

"The Inslee-LoBiondo amendment failed in the House of Representatives by a vote of 188-242" on June 27, the Humane Society of the United States reported.

"This amendment sought to halt funding for one year for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to issue permits for the importation of sport-hunted polar bear trophies. Too many lawmakers caved in to the NRA and Safari Club International, and that provided the margin of defeat," it stated.

Ray LaHood was one of the cave-ins. Congratulations to Hare for his wise vote.

The Humane Society continued, "Last week, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved a funding cut for polar bear trophy imports. We will continue to press forward to include this funding cut in the final Interior Appropriations bill, and to pass the Polar Bear Protection Act, which will permanently ban polar bear trophy imports."

--Elaine Hopkins

Thomas & friends

PEORIA -- Thomas and Percy, trains from the world of children's toys, books and video games, chugged into the Peoria Civic Center on June 26 as the stars of a new children's musical, Thomas & Friends.

As kid shows go, it's fairly amusing, and certainly worth a couple of hours to introduce children to live theater. It's suitable for toddlers and older children, and will interest adults as well.

A quick search of the web revealed no reviews of this play, probably because children's events are not usually reviewed. But all plays deserve reviews, and so does this one.

The production and sets deserve an A-plus. The trains with rolling eyes are adorable, the sets and lighting effective. Especially fun is a scene in a diamond mine.

The performers, all adults, are skilled actors and singers. Alas, they sing to recorded, not live music.

But they worked hard to engage the audience in clapping, creating train whistles, and hugged a lucky few in the front rows.

The sometimes muddy sound system at the Civic Center marred the play a bit, as the plot went by quickly and depended on the dialogue.

But the fast-paced musical with clever music and lyrics rolled along, and the plot details were probably irrelevant to the overall event. The sets had all the good lines.

For clueless parents and grandparents unfamiliar with Thomas a plot summary in a program would have been helpful. But there were no programs, and the cast went unrecognized, a weakness.

The play lasted almost 90 minutes, with a 15-minute intermission -- just about right for kids. The finale is especially exciting.

--Elaine Hopkins

Average hospitals

PEORIA -- Forget all the lavish advertising and public relations promoting Peoria's hospitals. They're all average, according to the latest information from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The government has released information on how US hospitals handle that most common and dreaded event -- heart attacks. More specifically it looks at the death rates from heart failure and heart attack after the victim turns to the hospital.

The information is listed on the HHS's clunky website where you can check out the various measures for treating a heart attack as well as death rates from heart attack and heart failure.

Best bet to navigate the site: type in your city for a list of hospitals within say 50 miles, to get the exact names of the hospitals you want. (For example, OSF Saint Francis Medical Center is not listed that way. Instead it's Saint Francis Medical Center.)

The site covers 188 Illinois hospitals under the category 'heart failure.' It looks at the 30-day survival rate, and finds one -- Bromenn in Bloomington -- as one of only 35 in the US that ranks below average. The rest in the Peoria area are average.

A Bromenn official told the Chicago Tribune he was "perplexed" by the results, since the hospital has above average care on other heart measures. It rated average on the 30-day survival rate for heart attack, as did the other hospitals.

Two Chicago hospitals, Northwestern Memorial and Loyola University Medical Center, Maywood, were the only Illinois hospitals rated above average for heart failure survival

The Tribune's in-depth article reveals that only a few percentage points separate the above average from the below average.

True to form, the HHS site does not reveal exact figures, and lumps the hospitals only in the three categories, above, below and average.

A patient contemplating heart surgery or treatment who has a choice of hospitals might well ask for those exact figures, however, and wonder about a hospital that won't reveal them.

It also pays to remember that medical figures like these rely on complex statistics -- which in turn usually rely on the famous 'bell curve' that controls statistical results. If you're at an end of that curve, the usual treatment may not work for you or may produce better than average results.

--Elaine Hopkins

.

County wins PCB decision

PEORIA -- The Illinois Pollution Control board has sided with the Peoria County Board in its rejection last year of the expansion of the hazardous waste landfill at Pottstown, on the edge of Peoria.

In a 39-page opinion, the PCB stated the board's decision was fair and not against the "manifest weight of the evidence."

Landfill owner Peoria Disposal Co. is expected to appeal an adverse decision from the PCB to the 3rd District Illinois Appellate Court.

Two hundred thirty eight written comments were filed backing the County Board's decision, the PCB stated. It's opinion was 4-0.

The opinion offers an elaborate and detailed analysis of the evidence, and concludes that the County Board's decision was fair on every objection it offered to the landfill expansion.

PDC has also offered an alternative plan that would allow limited expansion, with modifications to its existing operating permit. The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency will rule on that plan.

Opposition groups at first vigorously opposed the expansion. The PCB relied on testimony of opposition expert Charles Norris in reaching its conclusion.

But in February, the opposition splintered as some group members offered a compromise proposal that would have allowed expansion in return for concessions from PDC.

Negotiations began with county officials, but the opposition groups backed out when the negotiations drifted away from conditions they found acceptable, and some of their members raised serious objections to undercutting the board's original decision.

--Elaine Hopkins

.

Hate threats in Peoria

UPDATE -- June 22, 2007: The FBI is now investigating threats like the one detailed below. See story from the Miami Herald.

PEORIA -- In an appalling incident that shows the worst side of human nature and the Internet, a Bradley University math professor has received threats from a group that uses the Nazi swastika in its literature.

Ollie Nanyes who lives near the Bradley U. campus has reported the threats to Peoria police.

He said he first received a threatening telephone call, then a car cruised through his West Bluff neighborhood on June 16 throwing out threatening fliers and seeking converts to a hate group.

The leader of the group is reputed to be Bill White of the American National Socialist Workers Party who lives in the state of Virginia. (Beware if you click on this extremely offensive link.)

"He left a threatening call," on the answering machine, Nanyes said, then his followers distributed the flier, which included a photo of Nanyes taken from a snapshot on his blog. "It has a large swastika on it and claims that I approve of the murder and rape of white people," Nanyes stated. It also called him a "Red" or communist.

Nanyes had posted comments on his blog (scroll down) and the Daily Kos condemning White for his attack on national columnist Leonard Pitts.

The Southern Poverty Law Center has White on its watch list. (Scroll down.)

Pitts wrote about a criminal incident in Knoxville, Tenn. which has become a cause for right wing extremist groups.

Nanyes said police took copies of the flier.

He's not losing sleep over the incidents, he said, but does find them troubling. "This is just a bunch of morons. They will not appeal to anyone in this neighborhood," he said, adding that apparently "they have nothing better to do with their time."

--Elaine Hopkins

To comment, send an e-mail.

PEORIA -- Another unlikely and distinguished speaker will be here soon to question the official explanations for the 9-11 attacks.

He is Robert Bowman, Lt. Col., USAF, ret., president of the Institute for Space and Security Studies, executive vice president of the Millennium III Corporation, and retired Presiding Archbishop of the United Catholic Church.

He will speak at 2 p.m. on Saturday, July 7 at Lakeview Museum Auditorium, 1125 W. Lake Ave.

According to a news release, he is the recipient of the Eisenhower Medal, the George F. Kennan Peace Prize, the President’s Medal of Veterans for Peace, the Republic Aviation Airpower Award, the Society of American Military Engineers’ ROTC Medal of Merit (twice), the Air Medal with five oak leaf clusters, the Meritorius Service Medal, and numerous other awards, and one of the country’s foremost authorities on national security.

Colonel Bowman flew 101 combat missions as a fighter pilot in Vietnam and directed all the DoD “Star Wars” programs under Presidents Ford and Carter. He has been an executive in both government and industry, and has chaired eight major international conferences.

He has taught at five colleges and universities, holds a Ph.D. is in Aeronautics and Nuclear Engineering from Caltech, and has lectured at the National War College, the United Nations, Congressional Caucuses, the Academies of Science of six nations, and the House of Lords.

He founded “The Patriots,” a group devoted to government that "follows the Constitution, honors the Truth, and Serves the People. " As part of this campaign, he has been a major speaker at 9/11 Truth Conferences in Toronto, New York City, Washington D.C., Chicago, Los Angeles, Melbourne, Boston, Detroit, and Phoenix.

He ran for President in the Reform Party in 2000 and was the Democratic candidate for the US Congress from the 15th Congressional District of Florida in 2006, the news release says.

The event, sponsored by Citizens for Truth, Midwest Chapter, is free and open to the public. For more information contact the organizers.

India rising

PEORIA -- India is a fascinating new power on the world scene.

The Peoria Area World Affairs Council is sponsoring the talk "Rising Powers: India" with Dr. Sumi Ganguly on Thursday, July 12 at the Dining Hall, ICC North Campus, 5407 N. University.

Sumit Ganguly is the Rabindranath Tagore Chair in the Indiana Cultures and Civilization Department at Indiana University in Bloomington. He is the author, editor or co-editor of a dozen books on South Asia.

His most recent books are "Fearful Symmetry: India and Pakistan? Under the Shadow of Nuclear Weapons" (2006) and "More Than Words: US-India Strategic Cooperation into the Twenty-First Century" (2006). He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and frequently publishes in Foreign Policy and other publications.

A reception begins at 5:30 p.m. and dinner will be served at 6:00 p.m., catered by Sizzling India. Presentation begins at 7:00 p.m.

Tickets for presentation and dinner are $20.00 for PAWAC members/students and $25.00 for non-members. For the presentation only, the cost is $5.00 for PAWAC members/students and $10 for non-members.

Reservations are requested by July 9. For more information, phone 677-2454 or visit the web site at www.pawac.org.