PeoriaStory

Factory farm event

PEORIA -- Anti factory farm activist Karen Hudson will appear with the author of a new book on the subject, at 7 p.m. Friday, May 28, at Borders Bookstore.  From the news release:

David Kirby, author of the new book "ANIMAL FACTORY - The Looming Threat of Industrial Pig, Dairy and Poultry Farms to Humans and the Environment" (St. Martin's Press)  will be in Western Illinois on May 27 and 28 to speak about the social, environmental and health effects of animal factory farming, and what can be done on both the personal and policy levels to encourage more pasture-based, independent animal agriculture in the United States.

 

One of the lead characters in the book is Karen Hudson, of Elmwood, IL, a leading activist against mega-dairy and hog pollution in the state.

 

On the 27th at 6:30PM, he will speak at the Galena Convention Center at an event sponsored by Helping Others Maintain Environmental Standards (HOMES) group of Jo Daviess County. 900 Galena Square Drive, Galena, IL 61036-1361

 

On the 28th at 7:00PM, he will appear with Karen Hudson at Borders Bookstore in  Peoria. 1520 West Northmoor Road.

 

ANIMAL FACTORY describes the rapid rise in Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) and their associated pollution, threat to wildlife, harm to humans and rural communities, treatment of livestock, and corporatization of the national food chain. The book follows real Americans as they struggle to defend their communities.

 

National Public Radio (NPR) compared the work to Upton Sinclair, saying that, "ANIMAL FACTORY is nonfiction, but reads like a thriller. There's no political pleading or ideological agitprop in this book; it's remarkably fair-minded, both sober and sobering... it has the potential to change the collective American mind about contemporary food issues."

 

More information is at my website at http://www.animalfactorybook.com/.

 

ACCLAIM FOR ANIMAL FACTORY

 

"HeartbreakingŠ the narrative urgency of Sinclair.  It reads like a thriller (and) deserves a wide audience."

NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO

"Extraordinary... Relatable, irrefutable, and unforgettable."
BOOKLIST - JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION

"CompellingŠIt moves along with the urgency of a pot-boiler."

THE CHARLOTTE OBSERVER

 

"A powerful, important book."

 THE WASHINGTON TIMES

 

Deeply disturbingŠ The writing is brilliant."
SAN FRANCISCO BOOK REVIEW

 

"Immensely readable, and should be required reading."
LIBRARY JOURNAL

 

"A meticulously researched expose."
MONTREAL GAZETTE

"Chilling."
INDIE NEXT - AMERICAN BOOKSELLERS ASSN

 

"A really wonderful book, an easy read"
MARK STEINER, WEAA-FM, NPR Affiliate, Baltimore

 

"An amazingly detailed historyŠ an impressive feat of all-consuming, shoe-leather journalism. It packs a punch."
THE INDEPENDENT WEEKLY, DURHAM

 

"A valuable addition to exposing the ills of mass-produced meat and dairy."
EUGENE WEEKLY

 

 "A beautifully written accountŠ unique and captivating. It has all the makings of a number one best seller."
ROBERT F. KENNEDY, JR  

 

"A story that is seldom told, and rarely with such force and eloquence."
ALICE WATERS:

 

"If you want to know about the worst practices of our food system, David Kirby is your man."

CHANGE.ORG 

 

Peoria District 150: what they don't want you to hear

PEORIA -- Another Monday night (May 24), another meeting of the Peoria District 150 School Board, the board that wants to censor public comments so the larger public can't hear and view them without attending the board meeting. 

The board is continuing its practice of videotaping the board meetings, minus the public comments, to be played one week later on cable TV.  But a District 150 watchgroup is filming the May 24 meeting, and it is available how, here .   The URL is:

http://centralillinoisproud. com/district- 150

This file above is difficult to open and play on some computers. Here's an audio file of the public comments, in mp3 format:

D150 May 24

The public comments, which lasted an hour, were breathtaking.  Hedy Elliott-Gardner, whose GED program was profiled in an April story in the Peoria Journal Star, has learned that the program is being shut down for lack of money. She brought several of her students to the meeting to speak out for the program.

You must listen to these people -- some ex-offenders -- who have been offered a lifeline and a second chance because of this program:

A 20-year-old father of three, a high school dropout whose only hope for a productive life is education:  "She's the best teacher I've ever had," he said.

An older man:  "I would like to learn a trade. I want to go up, set a goal for myself."

An ex-offender:  "I see people every day who want education. This is real life we're talking about, our future."

Gardner teaches residents of Taft and Harrison homes, at their housing complexes. They don't have the savvy or confidence to access GED classes elsewhere, such as Illinois Central College, she said.

She told the board that more than 200 ex-offenders are released into the Peoria from the Department of Corrections each month. "Many are middle-school dropouts. Adult literacy gives people hope and a fresh start."

Megan Lundeen, spokeswoman for the Peoria Housing Authority, told the board how vital Gardner's program is for residents. New rules require residents to work or attend school, she said.

After a recent survey, she found 65 percent of the residents don't have a GED, "yet they're expected to get a job." Many have reading levels at the 4th grade or less, she said. They're also intimidated, scared, feel "dumb" she said.

"Education is the only thing that gives me hope. Keep the opportunity there," another of the students said.

Afterward Gardner said she learned last week that the program is being killed.  She says she plans to quit her District 150 teaching position, "sell my car," do anything to keep teaching these students.

She shouldn't have to do that! 

Other public comments dealt with an agenda item, to offer high school summer school only to Title One students, poor enough to receive free or reduced cost lunches, but not others who may need to make up work to graduate on time.  That idea received criticism from retired teacher and District 150 activist Sharon Crews, and from me, as unfair and unwise. It's another way to drive middle class students out of the district, when they see they can't make up work and keep up with their class.

At the conclusion of the public comments, the official videotaping began, but the board discussed the adult education program whose students they had listened to -- no doubt baffling to the TV audience, if anyone is watching a week later.

They were obviously moved, along with everyone else in the audience. But they suggested the GED students go to ICC. "Our primary mission is K-12," Jim Stowell said, and Laura Petelle agreed.

The state of Illinois owes the district $10.4 million, controller Pam Schau said. Last year the board approved $38 million in working cash bonds.  Without that money they would have no cash flow, she said. "By December or January, we'll be short again," she predicted.

The $600,000 adult education program is funded from various sources, including $95,000 from the education fund, she said.

That seems high, as Gardner later said her salary is the district's only expense. 

 -- Elaine Hopkins

The ceremony, the hypocrisy... sigh

PEORIA -- The politicians were all smiles as if the Kellar Branch Trail deal was wonderful instead of disgusting.

The trail itself is innocent -- a terrific public good.

The deal that finally freed it for development stinks so much that several of the trail's most ardent backers boycotted the event. held May 22 outdoors at the trail crossing on Knoxville. For a 35-minute mp3 audio file on the ceremonies, see below. 

The railroads, their ally Carver Lumber Co., and the Tom Leiter law firm and its not-for-profit the Kellar Branch Corridor Corporation, took (stole?) $1.2 million of taxpayers money as part of the deal.  Those funds -- whitewashed as 'land acquisition' -- would have gone to develop the trail, and put an overpass over Knoxville Avenue, so vehicles will not have to stop for a red light there, and trail users would risk death as they cross that wide and busy road.

Oh well -- Peoria Park District executive director Bonnie Noble said the district will be applying for more grants to built an overpass or underpass. The trail will be blacktopped, Noble said afterward. " It will be built like a federal highway." 

For details on the financial transactions, see Peoria Journal Star columnist Terry Bibo's column, one of the best she's ever written. "Feeling Railroaded at the End of the Line" is a great headline, too.

Back to the ceremonies:  Attorney Tom Leiter began by stating: "this is the best example of a public-private partnership."  The best?  Oh, please.  I guess it's the best for the private entities getting their booty.  Not so much for the public.

He continued: "This is the model for getting projects like this accepted, public and private working together for the common good."  Ah yes, and the public pays off the private.  But we digress.

"We've had a little criticism about the process," he acknowledged.

Cong. Aaron Schock, R-Peoria, attended the event.  To his credit, he's innocent in the machinations behind the money. He is a long time supporter of the trail, writing letters, speaking out. Good for him.  

But he couldn't resist blasting the "government bureaucrats" that held up the trail. And he has a point. The US Surface Transportation Board could have kicked the railroads off this line a few years ago, but didn't.  If he can simplify the red tape involved in this board, he should do so.  Let's hope he secures a grant to build that overpass, too, as Noble indicated.

Of course it doesn't hurt that Noble's daughter is married to US Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood's son. Perhaps the one good thing about the "cooperation" behind the trail is the bipartisan effort. Democrats and Republicans supported the trail, though few Demos were present at the May 22 ceremonies, only a couple of park board members and some of the trail advocates.

The two mayors, of Peoria and Peoria Heights, attended.  Mayor Mark Allen has been a full-speed-ahead supporter, and the village threatened to sue the railroads.  Mayor Jim Ardis has dragged his heels.  The city could have sued the railroads for breech of contract, since their contracts said they would leave the line when the trail was ready for development.  It never sued.

Why not? It surely would not have cost $1.2 million to kick them off legally, instead of paying them to leave. Of course city taxpayers would have funded that lawsuit, and not the state and federal funds.   

Ardis pronounced himself "satisfied" with the project. "This is what the private side's good at, the governments not good at," he said.  Uh, yes, when it's Ardis's government.

When her turn to speak came, Noble acknowledged the work of trail advocate George Burrier, and previous advocates Bill Rutherford and Rodell Owens, both now deceased, in developing the trail. It's been in the park district's master plan for decades. "We have an aggressive plan to move forward," she said. The grants in hand total $2.2 million.

Then five spikes were symbolically pulled from the ancient rails, Leiter took a couple of softball questions, and the event was over.  It was hot in the spring sun, and everybody wanted out of there.

Here's the scene as the ceremonies have ended.

At least the railroad guys and former mayor Carver -- who reportedly still owns the land where Carver Lumber Co. sits -- didn't show up. No one wanted to see their faces, unless to throw tomatoes and eggs.

 -- Elaine Hopkins 

Listen to the ceremony.

Kellar

Climate change panel June 17

PEORIA -- This may prove interesting. The news release:

The Challenges of Climate Change

Security, Sustainability and Suggestions for Alternatives

 

A Panel Discussion hosted by the Peoria Area World Affairs Council

and the Heart of Illinois Sierra Club

 

Dr. David Michel: “A River Runs through It: Climate Change, Global Security, and Shared Water Resources”

Director of Environmental Security, The Stimson Center, Washington, DC

 

Dr. James Foley: “Economic Sustainability and the Challenges of Climate Change”

Director, Turner Center for Entrepreneurship, Illinois SBDC International Trade Center, Bradley University

 

Mark Bauer: “Conquering the Elements: Alternative Energy Systems”

CEO/Owner of Bauer Power, Dunlap, IL

 

Jofrey Quintanar: “Living in Your Environment: Sustainable Architecture”

AIA, LEED AP, CDT Principal for Element Design Studio, Chicago, IL

 

 

   Thursday, June 17, 2010

Barrack’s Cater Inn

1224 W. Pioneer Parkway, Peoria

 

Reception begins at 5:00 p.m.

Dinner will be served at 6:00 p.m.

Panel Presentation will begin at 7:00 p.m.

 

Please RSVP by June 14 for the “early bird special”!

 

Tickets for the dinner and presentation are

$30.00 for Peoria Area World Affairs Council members, Sierra Club members,

and Students ($22 for dinner, $8 for program)

$35.00 for non-members ($22 for dinner, $13 for program)

A $5.00 late fee will be applied to reservations made after June 14. 

 

Tickets for the presentation only are $10 for PAWAC and Sierra Club members;

 $15 for general public in advance.  All tickets purchased at the door are $15.00. 

High school students with valid ID may attend at no charge.  Pre-registration is encouraged.

 

On-line registration for this event is available at http://artstix.artspartners.net, or you may tear off the registration portion below and return with your payment.  There is a processing fee for use of credit cards; there is no charge for purchases made by cash or check.

For more information about this and other programs offered by the Peoria Area World Affairs Council,

please visit our web site at www.pawac.org or call (309) 677-2454.

 

Climate Change: June 17, 2010, Barrack’s Cater Inn, Peoria

  

NAME: _______________________________________________________________________________

 

ADDRESS: ___________________________________________________________________________

                                                Street                                                                                          City                                                         Zip

 

PHONE: _______________________  E-MAIL: _______________________________________________

 

Dinner and Presentation:  ___ PAWAC/Sierra Club Members/Students  @ $30  ___ Non-Members @ $35

________Check here for vegetarian option

 

Presentation only:            ___ PAWAC/Sierra Club Members/Students @ $10 ___ Non-Members @ $15

 

Please enclose a check made payable to PAWAC or provide your credit card information below.  Note: Due to increased fees, PAWAC must add $4 to process your credit card transaction.  Mail to: PAWAC, 1501 W. Bradley Avenue, Peoria, IL 61625.   Phone: (309) 677-2454.  Registration must be received by June 15.

 

VISA/MASTERCARD#:_____________________________________________________  Exp. Date: _____________

 

Signature: _____________________________________________________________________________________

 

 

A good speaker, a worthy cause

PEORIA -- This should be fun!  The news release:  

LOOK. IT’S MY BOOK!  To Hold Fund Raiser Featuring Chicago crime author David Heinzmann  

The not-for-profit organization Look. It’s My Book! is holding a gala fund raiser with dinner, music and literary entertainment beginning at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday, June 12 at the Mt. Hawley Country Club, 7724 N. Knoxville, Peoria.  

The event, which is open to the public, costs $55 per person, with reservations due by June 5 to Susan Davis, 563 E. High Point Road, Peoria, IL 61614. 

Chicago Tribune journalist and suspense author David Heinzmann (http://davidheinzmann.com/) will speak.

His novel, A Word to the Wise, has been praised as revealing “the inside scoop” on Chicago as he “uses the cover of fiction to reveal some dark truths, in this unsettling and revealing journey through the inner-workings of the Windy City.”  He’s also a Metamora native, and has been interviewed numerous times about this book on national media outlets. It will be for sale at the event.  

Look. It’s My Book! is committed to providing six new books each year to every Peoria School District pupil in kindergarten through fourth grade.

Children select the books with Look It’s My Book! from a list vetted by Accelerated Reader, a program used by District 150.  Research shows that the only way to get children to read more is to make it fun for them, while at the same time a child’s reading skills and school performance improve if there are books in the home.

For further information visit the website www.lookitsmybook.org or call 309/691-9266 or email [email protected].  Contributions to Look. It’s My Book!  are tax deductible.

 

 

 

West Bluff Tour of Homes -- lovely

PEORIA -- The annual Grand Tour of West Bluff Homes is always interesting.  This year it was especially fascinating for the diversity of the offerings. It's a one-day-only event, this year on May 16.

The buildings included a couple of grand homes undergoing renovation, some beautifully renovated more modest homes and their gardens, an apartment in a 1916-era building, and even a 2007 building, the Peoria NEXT Innovation Center, 801 W. Main.

Will this lovely glass and brick structure hold up for a century, like the other buildings on the list?  Good question. 

The tour is always fun because of the ideas, the antiques on display, the wonderful interior features of these homes, and the clever decorating. Everyone is friendly and welcoming.

One home featured dancing from the Civil War reenactment dancing group, in costumes.

Why do this year after year?  The homes are always different, it's fascinating to see real homes undergoing renovation or being lived in by real families.  It demonstrates that you don't have to be a millionaire to save a lovely, historic home.  And it shows off Peoria's heritage to best advantage.

Moss Avenue, where four of the homes are located, could be Charleston, South Carolina, which makes millions off tourism from its history.

This tour also shows that inner city Peoria -- that term is loosely defined here -- is fascinating and historic -- and many, many people are dedicated to saving it from dissolving into slum landlordism -- as has happened in parts of Chicago's inner city with wonderful century -old homes.
I'll be back next year.

 -- Elaine Hopkins

District 150: Off live TV

PEORIA -- The Peoria District 150 School Board was live TV-free for its meeting on May 10.

Board chairwoman Debbie Wolfmeyer  announced last month that a "consensus" agreed to discontinue the live broadcasts.  Just when that "consensus" occurred is unknown, and likely involved a violation of the Illinois Open Meetings Act, since no public vote or discussion took place.  Oh well, details....

Part of the May 10 meeting was videotaped for cable TV transmission a week later. That delay is a shame, as many of the announcements made at the meeting concerned events this week, before the news reaches the TV audience.

The 35-minutes of public comment was not videotaped, so the board in effect is censoring what the TV viewers will see next week.  That's a shame, because the speakers had many valuable remarks concerning public policy.

These included former teachers union president Terry Knapp, noting that the district has spent $17 million on Edison schools and $25 million on "the program," which helped to erase the district's $61 million surplus in 1999, leaving it with a deficit for several years running. And still it continues to pay for outside programs and a charter school, he said.

"How many jobs and sales taxes would that (money) have given to Peoria?" he asked.

He noted a news report about how Wall Street is making money off charter schools.  (There's also one in the New York Times.)

Sharon Crews, a retired teacher, noted that $200,000 going to pay for a Johns Hopkins program at Manual High School could instead have gone to finance summer school and the alternative school. She decried the situation that "the board decided to stifle public comments."

Teachers union president Bob Darling said 250 teachers are being let go, and only 150 openings will occur for them, as the district downsizes by closing Woodruff High School (which incidentally received a Key Club award from the Kiwanis Club, it was noted earlier in the meeting. Another tradition in Peoria gone.)

Thirty tenured teachers are still without jobs, he said.

Then he attacked the news media, and the Journal Star. "If you sneeze in the wrong direction, trust me the Journal Star will print it in the paper," he said.

Four others also spoke, including one woman, a former teacher elsewhere, who offered to help teachers learn how to include children with autism and ADHD. "Inclusion was a disaster for us," she said of her own family.

I recorded the public comments with an audio digital recorder.  The file is posted here:

Download DW_A0043

 

   -- Elaine Hopkins

Kellar Trail on fast track now

PEORIA -- Final documents to turn the Kellar rail line into a recreational trail will be signed on May 20, followed by a gala press conference on May 21, attorney Tom Leiter told the Recreational Trail Advocates at a May 3 meeting.  "I see no reason why it's not going to occur," he said.

The group celebrated with cake and soda.

Leiter said that when progress toward turning the rail line into a trail stalled, he became interested in taking a "different approach," to "see if we could negotiate a solution."

He added, "actions might be principled, but that would result in no trail."

He and others then formed the Kellar Branch Corridor Corp., a not-for-profit group, and "started negotiations with the railroads to acquire leasehold rights. The reality is under the US Surface Transportation Board they do have operating rights on the line. So you negotiate for these rights," Leiter said.

The negotiations took a year. Documents and money, from a donor who is now anonymous, were placed in escrow, he said.

He discovered that the city of Peoria and village of Peoria Heights owed only half the line, and the rest was based on easements dating back to 1868 that heirs to the property might try to claim. "This is an issue that has faced trails all over the country."

The railroads then applied to the STB to leave the line, and it is to be rail-banked, so the easements continue.  The Peoria Park District will hold the easements, he said. The line remains under the jurisdiction of the STB, however, and could revert to a rail line if necessary. "This is a very unusual deal," he said.

The STB approved the arrangement on April 16.

The Park District has $2.2 million in grants earmarked for the trail, group member Mike Rucker said, and may be able to acquire additional grants. The district needs to come up with a 20 percent match, but the value of the property itself may serve as the match, he said. 

Some of that grant money can be used to purchase right of way, Leiter said, money which will go to the railroads.  The escrow funds are considered a loan.

State and federal transportation departments required an appraisal, which showed the line is worth $2.8 million, he said, but the railroads will be paid much less than that amount.

As part of its compensation, Central Illinois Rail Corp holds the option to salvage the rails and ties and reuse the rails, he said.  They have to remove them within six months of the May 20 closing, and likely will do it sooner, he said, so construction of the trail could begin next fall.

Ultimately it will be blacktopped, but perhaps not immediately. A grade crossing with a stop light will be developed where it crosses Knoxville, a wide and busy street.

The heroes of this effort of more than a decade include Leiter who devised the strategy to acquire the line, his allies in the business community who understood the value this trail will bring to the area, Park District executive director Bonnie Noble, who patiently saved the grant funds for the trail, the many RTA members who rallied for the effort, Peoria Heights elected officials who fully supported the trail efforts, and several politicians who also supported the trail.

Those who lagged behind or tried to thwart the trail include some city of Peoria officials, Carver Lumber Co., Pioneer Rail Corp and Central Illinois Rail Corp.  Their names won't be on the brass plaques of trail developers, but they probably don't care. 

When completed, this trail may be called the Rock Island Trail Greenway, because it links with the Rock Island Trail. It's a missing link in a trail system that's slated to be 1,100 miles long, providing many opportunities for health, recreation and fun events.

 -- Elaine Hopkins

Update 5/7/10:  Here's the link to the document that the Peoria City Council, Peoria Heights Village Board and Peoria Park District will vote to accept next week.  The deal stinks, worse than Leiter indicated.  He gets $140,000. Instead of working as a volunteer, as he told some trail advocates earlier, he collects a nice check at taxpayers' expense. Take his name off the 'heroes' list above.

But it gets worse:  Pioneer and Guy Brenkman gets $915,000, a reward for his refusal to leave the track as his contract with the city required.  Why didn't Peoria enforce that contract?  It never did.  Will Brenkman reward his city council pals with 'contributions' to their campaigns?  We'll be watching.

The trail grant is left without adequate funds to develop the trail, and must hope for more taxpayer money. We'll be watching!

The document is on the city of Peoria's website.