PeoriaStory

Stupid

PEORIA -- Author Steve Pizzo does a blog with often brilliant insight. Here's his insight for the day, which is too good not to repeat here:

 

 

America's Hezbollah Stupid is on a rampage in America. Stupid has discovered its voice and is shouting from the steps of every state capitol and the nation's capitol. Stupid wants what it wants and it wants it now, no matter what. Stupid is in the driver's seat -- because we are too polite to call it by its name and demand it get the hell out from under foot.   I understand that stupid people have rights too and that it's not nice to make fun of them just to make fun of them. But when stupid people decide they're smarter than smart people, and demand smart people shut up and get out the way, then its time for some tough love.   I don't want to live in a country controlled by the lowest common denominators. It's time to call the Tea Party types what they really are; uninspired, uneducated and profoundly un-American.

-- Steve Pizzo

 

Think of this as the politicians fight over ideology and adopt policies that could send the US into Third or Fourth World status, worse than it already is.

Here's smart -- the New York Times editorial today.

  -- Elaine Hopkins

8/29/2011: Here's more smarts and facts, USA Today's editorial on the myths of the debt ceiling.

Rally today

PEORIA -- Here's an event worth attending, given the crazy situation in Washington.  Several groups will rally today, Tuesday, July 26, at noon at Cong. Aaron Schock's office in the Federal Building at Main and Monroe, to rail against GOP stubbornness on the debt ceiling. Schock, R, Peoria, always votes the GOP line.

Here are comments from one of the sponsors, Progressive Democrats of America:

Last weekend, it became 100% clear that Republicans would rather see America default, Social Security payments stopped, and unemployment soar ever higher than give an inch on their position: The very richest people and most profitable corporations shouldn't pay one penny more in taxes.

House Leader John Boehner walked out of another meeting, and President Obama appears ready to cut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid benefits to appease the Republican base. Now is not the time for political theater, or further undermining the social safety net that so many Americans depend upon.

Rallies large and small in all 435 Congressional districts will be held at noon Tuesday—today—at local Congressional offices. (Find your local office here.) This is an "All Hands On Deck" effort with no one "coordinating" it.

Last week, PDAers and our allies were in front of Congressional offices at Brown Bag Lunch Vigils with the message "Hands off Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid." Now, the American Dream movement is urgently calling for every patriotic American to show up outside every congressional office to deliver a crucial message: "Don't destroy the American Dream."

Find your representative's office here. Download signs here, here, and here. Better yet, make your own!

We need to bring together—now—the vast majority of Americans who find the Republicans' position immoral and the Democrats' reticence unconscionable. Let's get out there today and let our Republican and Democratic representatives know how important it is to stand up to Republican threats and Democratic capitulation—for the American people.

Find your representative's office here.

And make the call Wednesday for the National Call-in Day.

In solidarity and urgency,

Tim Carpenter, national director

P.S. Read Van Jones's appeal, and please spread the word!

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Peace Air Show

PEORIA -- From a news release:

"The third annual PEACE AIR SHOW, sponsored by the Peoria Area Peace Network and Food Not Bombs, will take place Saturday, July 23, 2011, 3:00 pm, at Constitution Park, (foot of Morton St., on the riverfront).

We hold this family friendly event in response to the Peoria Prairie Air Show which is used as a recruiting tool for the military.

That air show glamorizes and sanitizes the military and the fighter jets. It also ignores the human, economical and environmental toll that is taken in war and to make and use the fighter jets.

The Peoria Area Peace Network wants to give people alternatives to the mostly military air show by flying kites along the riverfront. Join us, bring a kite or use one of ours. Cold drinks will be provided by Food Not Bombs."

Here's the Facebook page for the event.

 

Here's real economic development for Illinois

PEORIA -- Here's a provocative idea for real economic development in downstate Illinois, courtesy of Ken Meter of Crossroads Resource Center. 

Ken Meter’s PowerPoint file is available here.

 

As you know, agriculture is big in Illinois.   Forty percent of the state's farmland is located within the 32-county central Illinois region that Ken Meter studied, and the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd ranked counties for sales of farm products are located in central Illinois--Iroquois, McLean, and Livingston.  

Central IL farmers and ranchers sell $4.8 billion of food commodities per year.  (average figure from 1987-2009)

But they spend 4.3 billion on inputs to raise those commodities.

Thus, there is an average gain of only $464 million per year. 

This is the total gain for the 26,537 farms in central IL-- meaning an average of only $16,000 a year per farm.

In 2009 dollars, Central Illinois farmers actually earned $115 million dollars less by selling farm products in 2009 than they earned in 1969.

Meanwhile, on the consumer side, Central IL consumers spend $3.9 billion per year buying food, nearly all of which comes from outside our area. 

If you add the amount of food dollars leaving central IL ($3.9 billion) and the farm input dollars leaving central IL ($4.3 billion), there is a gigantic sucking sound of over 8 billion dollars leaving our communities each year because of our current food and farm economy.  

Local food production and consumption will create and retain wealth in our communities.

If only 15% of food were purchased from local farmers, it would generate $639 million in new farm income, which would cycle within our communities each year.

Here are some of the local food production and consumption trends revealed in the USDA data that Ken analyzes:

Increasing number of small farms--of Central Illinois’ 26,537 farms, 9,451 (36%) are less than 50 acres

Increasing amount of non commodity farm products (generally fruits, vegetables, meats and eggs) grown – 408 farms worked about 20,000 acres (total) to produce vegetables, which is a 78% increase in the number of farms producing vegetables over 2002

Increasing amount of non-commodity products sold through direct sales by farmers to other members of our community – thus retaining wealth and promoting self-sufficiency.   972 farms sell at least $5.9 million directly to consumers.  Compared to 2002, this is a 28% increase in the number of farms selling direct, and a 74% increase in the dollar amount of direct sales. 

• 600 farms produce and sell value-added products

• 78% increase in the number of farms raising veggies in central IL, and a 74% increase in direct sales. 

• 2,818 farms sold $26 million of food directly to consumers – 41% increase in dollar amount over 2002

The USDA ERS tabulates data for Illinois’ top farm product.  Corn, soybeans, and hogs are the top 3 – followed by cattle, ornamentals, dairy, wheat, eggs, and hay.  But if “direct sales” were considered a farm product they would slot in at #10, with 26 million, just after hay, and just before apples.

Over 17,000 acres in the region are certified organic, and 8,904 acres under conversion 

 Woodford County  (total population around 30,000, but with a high concentration of organic farms)  leads the region in direct sales ($650,000 which was a 78% increase over 2002)  AND Woodford was called out by the Robert Wood Johnson study as the 3^rd healthiest in IL --  See my analysis of why Woodford is as healthy as the rich collar counties of Chicago here: http://civileats.com/2010/02/25/rural-living-may-be-hazardous-to-your-health/   Could be a model for other counties, and for the state – improving economic and personal and community health all at the same time.

Also SEE:  Dave Swenson.  “Selected Measures of the Economic Values of Increased Fruit and Vegetable Production and Consumption in the Upper Midwest.” Department of Economics and the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, Iowa State University, March 2010, p. 16. (http://www.leopold.iastate.edu/research/marketing_files/Midwest_032910.pdf)

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Follow up notes on District 150 including preliminary test scores

PEORIA -- The Journal Star has an interesting story today, July 20, on how state Rep. Jehan Gordon, a Peoria Democrat, took a $100,000 campaign contribution from Stand for Children.  That's an interest group funded by rich CEOs, the oligarchy, to in effect, destroy public education as we have known it, by enacting "reforms."

Here are other links on this issue, including the original Chicago Tribune story by former PJS reporter Ray Long, and a link to the national advocacy group, Parents Across America, that helped expose what's going on.

They are the same people that exposed the Gulen Movement's initiative in charter schools, including the Quest Math and Science Academy in Peoria. (See previous posts below on this.)

A freedom of information request to the Illinois State Board of Education produced a document that links Concept Schools, the parent not-for-profit of Quest in Peoria, to the Gulen Movement and its operation in Ohio.

In an official audit of the Chicago Math and Science Academy Charter School, the auditors state:  "The school is supported by Concept Schools, Inc., a Chicago based non profit educational management and consulting organization. Concept Schools, Inc. first initiated Horizon Science Academies, a science and math emphasized school model in Cleveland and Columbus Ohio in 1999."

It adds:  "During the years ended June 30, 2007, and 2006, the school received approxinately 80 percent and 77 percent, respectively, of its support from per capita tuition paid by Chicago Public Schools." In other words, taxpayers.

Now to Peoria's other schools: preliminary results from the Illinois State Board of Education, leaked to PeoriaStory show that only four public schools made adequate yearly progress, as shown in test scores.

They are Calvin Coolidge Middle School, Charter Oak Primary School, Northmoor-Edison Primary School, and Washington Gifted Middle School. Hines, Kellar and Lindbergh made AYP in math but not in reading.

Watch for the official results to be released later, including the high schools, which District 150 reportedly is appealing.

There is much to be criticized about the emphasis on testing and the concept of adequate yearly progress.  Still, it does measure how students are doing on math and reading. 

    -- Elaine Hopkins

 

Peoria redistricting gets complicated

PEORIA - Here's an account of the July 18 redistricting meeting held by the West Bluff Council, by activist and volunteer Judy Stalling:

On Monday July 18, the West Bluff Council held a forum on City Council re-districting . The forum was held at the Bradley University Student Center.  The President of the Council said the goal of  the forum was to obtain citizen input on the issues facing the re-districting of the City Council. The President also pointed out that Map 12 had been recommended to the City Council by the Ad Hoc Council Commission  as a point to begin the discussion of re-districting.

The President asked  each neighborhood representative  to  state an opinion on which  sample  district map was best  and which concerns needed to be addressed.

Several issues were raised.  The West Bluff must remain cohesive.  For example, the Main Street Business Project  would suffer if the Bluff were broken up. All the neighborhoods expressed concern that the neighborhoods remain together. Another concern was  lack of transparency in citizen input. Lack of understanding the time table for completing the re-districting was also expressed.

Councilwoman Van Auken said federal law requires city re-districting by December 2012. The City Election Commission was aiming for September 2012. In any case she assured the audience that there was plenty of time to complete the job.

Based on the Federal Constitution the five Council Districts must be realigned with the 2010 census. This requires 23,000 eligible voters per district.  To meet this goal Districts One , Two, Three and Four must be redrawn to gain voters and District Five must be redrawn to lose voters. She said Map 12 keeps all neighborhood associations in the same district.

Councilwoman Van Auken explained some of the complexities of the re-districting

Issue.  Peoria’s current system of five districts plus five at large representatives plus cumulative voting inevitably intrudes on a discussion of re-districting. This system was the result of a court case and any changes are subject to judicial review.  Any change in the system will be done with a referendum.

Concerns raised by audience members included:

• Changing the configuration of the First District to encompass more of the Bluff. Madison Manor is already part of the First.
• Trying a map with 8 or 10 single member districts.
• Preserving minority voting.
• Comparing Peoria to the voting systems of similar cities in Illinois.
• Reviewing the upcoming Bradley study on at large and cumulative voting.

                    -- Judy Stalling

 

 

Fracking film Aug.5

PEORIA -- If you have not seen this film, here's your chance. It's a must-see!

 Here's a Sierra Club link to information on fracking.

Congress looks at chemical drift

PEORIA -- Here's a very interesting story by former PJS reporter Clare Howard.  It will scare you -- and should move you to action:

As central Illinois braces for another season of crop dusters crisscrossing the skies over farm fields creating billowing clouds of chemicals, legislators in Washington are weighing in on the dangers of chemical exposure, especially for children.

On July 13, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Rep. Jim Moran, D-Virg., introduced “The Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals Exposure Elimination Act of 2011.”

 The bill was immediately endorsed by The Endocrine Disruption Exchange, a not-for-profit science-based organization founded by Dr. Theo Colborn.

In a statement explaining its endorsement, TEDX said, “The Act addresses one of the most serious threats to the security and economy of our country: the health and well-being of our children who face mounting odds of being born with an endocrine-related disorder.”

 Dr. Colborn elicited a collective gasp from a full lecture hall at University of Colorado School of Public Health in April during a conference sponsored by Beyond Pesticides when she said endocrine-disrupting chemicals pose a more imminent risk to the planet than global climate change.

Endocrine disruptors affect hormones that regulate almost every organ in the human body and have been linked to feminization in fish and amphibians. These chemicals are also linked to cancer, autism, asthma, diabetes, obesity, Parkinsons Disease, Alzehimer’s Disease and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder among more.

These chemicals affect the hippocampus. Dr. Colborn said they are the chemicals she worries about the most because they affect our ability to love, parent, bond, communicate and process information.

One of an array of endocrine-disrupting chemicals used widely in central Illinois is atrazine. This herbicide was banned by the European Union over a decade ago but is still heavily used in the United States.

For more information on The Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals Exposure Elimination Act of 2011 go to www.endocrinedisruption.org/endocrine.edlaw11.php. Contact Sen. Dick Durbin and Sen. Mark Kirk about your position on this legislation. Also contact your representative in the U.S. House.

 -- Clare Howard

 

 

 

Hog farm proposal raises a stink

MACOMB -- Here’s a sure fire way to make your neighbors furious:  propose a factory-style hog farm.

 Larry O’Hern, who is seeking permission to construct a swine breeding farm for 8,200 adult hogs and 10,000 smaller hogs, 4.7 miles southeast of Industry in rural McDonough County, faced his neighbors at a July 12 public meeting about the facility.

“I’m a family farmer, not a corporate factory,” O’Hern said, looking both concerned and sheepish. He said he had earlier that very day acquired all ownership rights to his hog farm, Shamrock Acres, from other, distant  investors. 

 This stunned the hog farm opponents, and they at first didn’t believe him. They laughed skeptically, then someone said loudly: “They’re lying.”

 “This is better than reality TV,” one man in the audience said.

The packed meeting of perhaps 300 people, at Western Illinois University’s Sandberg Theater, spilled into an adjoining room. Signs and posters were banned, but at least one woman brandished a fan – needed in the warm room – saying “Farms not Factories.”

Elected officials, campus and other police, guys in seed caps and public health department shirts, activists, ordinary citizens, even a few Amish, filled the audience.  O’Hern, his engineer and his public relations guy sat up front on the stage along with officials from the Illinois Department of Agriculture. The O’Hern trio presented sworn testimony.

O’Hern claimed he will run the farm “with the interest of the pigs in mind.” He really said that!

But his public relations man, Nic Anderson of Illinois Livestock Development Group, contradicted him, in a slide show on hog farms then and now, as he claimed the confinement methods are superior to mud lots.  “They’re not pets.  They are there for production systems.”

 The Agr. Dept. ran the hearing, according to a set of rules that includes timetables. Within 30 business days, the McDonough County Board can issue a recommendation on whether to site the facility, and that carries a lot of weight, Warren Goetsch, the agency’s environmental manager, said.

Though the facility would add about 25 jobs and tax money to the county, board members are feeling the heat from enraged constituents.

 Board member LeRoy Brown arose to say he had 30 letters opposing the facility. He asked that they be submitted as evidence in the hearing, and they were accepted.

After statements from the O’Hern trio and Agr. Dept. officials, it was time for questions – which went on for two hours into the hearing.

 Some audience members wanted to know why this hearing was wasting everyone’s time since the application was now in error if ownership of the facility had changed. Wouldn’t the process have to start over?

 Goetsch ruled it could continue. “It’s still Shamrock Acres,” he said.

 Which brings up an interesting question that no one raised:  what’s to stop family farmer O’Hern from selling it to distant corporate investors the minute the state approves it?

 Someone asked O’Hern where he lived, and he responded three miles from the facility, downwind.  No one asked how many people live closer than that, but from the tone of the questions, it appeared that many do.

 A day care center is also nearby, someone said, asking about increased rates of asthma in the children. “I would hope we would be able to address it,” O’Hern said.

 O’Hern admitted he didn’t know how he could control the ammonia odors from the hog waste pits. “I can’t answer that. It’s a valid question,” he said.

The manure will be injected into the soil for fertilizer.

He’s relying on management plans from others, he said. He also would not say whether the hogs would be routinely fed low doses of antibiotics.

 He ducked a question on diminished property values for nearby residents, saying that nearby farms might rise in value.

Asked about wear on county and township roads, O’Hern said, “I want to be a good neighbor and address the road situation.” He didn't say how he would do that.

 He located the facility in McDonough County even though he owns property in Schuyler County, he said, so McDonough County would benefit from the taxes. It’s good economic development, he said.

 As a hearing, this scene left much to be desired.  The room was way too small, the hearing officer cut off some questioners,  and people were left with many unanswered questions.

 -- Elaine Hopkins

 7/14/11:  Here's a comment via email:

As a professional advocate for clean rivers, I attended the meeting to shed light on the environmental violation history of the originally-proposed owner of Shamrock Acres, Professional Swine Management.  While PSM appears at least temporarily out of the picture (for reasons not made clear), the engineering firm PSM has used for other hog confinements will remain on the project.  Chris West, the engineer from Frank and West, refused to discuss whether any of the confinements he has engineered have been litigated for pollution.  I suspect some have.  Unfortunately, the Illinois Department of Agriculture does not have to consider the environmental track record of the applicant when deciding whether to issue a confinement construction permit.  The industry's attitude of entitlement and disrespect for concerned citizens is disgusting.

 Stacy James, Ph.D.

Water Resources Scientist

Prairie Rivers Network

1902 Fox Drive, Suite G

Champaign, IL  61820

phone: 217-344-2371

fax: 217-344-2381

[email protected]

www.prairierivers.org

 Prairie Rivers Network is Illinois' advocate for clean water, healthy rivers, and engaged communities.  Please support our efforts by becoming a member or making a donation today.

 

UPDATE July 20:  Check out this story in the New York Times for an alternative view of how to raise hogs.

 

District 150 and baseball: no hits, just errors

PEORIA -- Baseball dominated the public comments at the Peoria School District 150 Board of Education meeting on July 11.

Activist Terry Knapp asked the board to table a plan to set the 2012 high school graduation on June 2, the same day as the finals in the state championship high school baseball tournament in Peoria. The dates conflicted in 2011. It "embarrasses Peoria" to have this conflict, he said.

He also questioned why District 150 students are not allowed to attend the free DARE program at O'Brien Field to see the Peoria Chiefs play ball, when every other school district in the region sends their students to the free event.

The teaching opportunities from this event could include writing about the history of baseball, math lessons on batting averages and baseball statistics, he said.

Teacher Hedy Elliot Gardner asked the district to support inner city baseball, and not to allow the graduation date and the tournament to conflict.  She is president of Proctor Center and has raised funds to promote baseball there, where the team has won the city championship, she said.

After the public comments, Supt. Grenita Lathan said the district tried to avoid the conflict but had no other options. She didn't mention the DARE event.

Activist Sharon Crews presented a study on student discipline, which she said is wasting teacher time. Her remarks are reprinted below.

Lathan responded that the district will be training teachers in the fall to use new discipline methods, to begin in January.

Activist Sam Sierra expressed regret that the senior board member, Martha Ross, was passed over for board chair, in favor of Linda Butler. She was "disrespected," he said.

Ross later responded that she has received many awards for her work and is OK. "I have spent my life standing up for children and families and trying to make life better for them," she said.

Steve Brandt presented the board with a petition he said contained 200 signatures asking that Manual HIgh School not be renamed.

General Parker asked the board to support the Million Fathers March on the first day of school, to get fathers involved. In Peoria they will march from Glen Oak School to Glen Oak Park for a program, he said.

Lathan responded that the Dream Center is sponsoring a back to school event on July 30, and asked Parker to send information to the board on the Million Fathers March.

Lana Myers, vice president of the Peoria Federation of Teachers asked the board to adopt a heat schedule. Lathan responded that will be considered. 

A recording of the public comments can be found here.

D150 7-11-11

 

 -- Elaine Hopkins

Here are the comments from Sharon Crews:

Tonight I want you to think about the time and money wasted by discipline problems.   Please note that the data given you covers only six of the 39 discipline codes for student offenses: class disruption, disrespect, insubordination, use of abusive or profane language, misuse of electronic devices, and dress code violations.

 From September through May 25, about 33,000 students were written up on referrals for these six categories.  Each referral represents time taken away from teaching:  a minimum of 10 minutes taken up by the student’s disruptive behaviors and, at least, another 10 minutes taken up for the teacher to write the referral and to restore order to the classroom once the student has left.  A conservative estimate would be that, at least, 11,000 hours of teaching time were taken up by the behaviors for only 6 of 39 discipline categories.

How do you expect teachers to meet all the teaching goals required by the curriculum and NCLB testing when so much time is lost because of discipline?  

Of course, the larger high school enrollments create the most discipline problems.  At Manual about 6400 students were written up in these 6 categories; 8400 at Peoria High, and 4300 at Richwoods.

I believe that discipline problems, especially at the primary and middle schools, are misrepresented by the data I was given.  These schools do not have deans and secretaries to handle discipline problems and to record data.  There are few effective consequences for bad behavior in the primary grades, so teachers just cope as best they can and do not report many of the problems that hinder teaching.  Even when teachers do report the behaviors, the numbers aren’t maintained to be included in official reports.

At Trewyn, 1,112 referrals were written in 9 months—that would be 126 misbehaving students per month or about 8 per day.  Those who believe that only 8 students per day at Trewyn disrupted a classroom are burying their heads in the sand.  Equally difficult to believe is the data for Sterling that indicates that an average of 6 students per day disrupt classes.   If you want to face reality in District 150, you will have to demand much more accurate reporting of discipline problems.

As for the dress code, those violations, I am sure, are very underreported.  However, about 1900 high school dress code violations were reported:  569 at Manual, 497 at Richwoods, and 826 at Peoria High.  The underreporting shows up for middle school with only 30 violations reported—with none at Trewyn.  Now that is laughable.   Glen Oak reported 40 dress code violations, Harrison reported nine and all the other primary schools reported none.  Definitely underreported—but those are the numbers that the public would be asked to swallow.  There were 353 violations at the 6 alternative school sites.

For improper use of electronic devices, 2,284 referrals were written for the three high schools.

I fear that some of you will conclude that teachers write too many referrals and that discipline problems would be resolved if only teachers would engage students in positive learning experiences.  In fact, much of the money spent by the district is dedicated to purchases that will help teachers engage students.  The money and time spent on professional development represent the implied belief that changing teacher behavior will change student behavior.  I hope that someday you will begin to see that it is your responsibility to provide an environment in which teachers can teach and students can learn.  As I said at the last meeting, nothing will change as long as the main action required of misbehaving students is that they stay home.  You must recognize the stupidity, futility, and expense of such a system.