PeoriaStory

Meeting Too Long

PEORIA, IL -- The Peoria District 150 School Board meeting on Feb. 25 lasted, and lasted, and lasted, way too long. The public comments didn't occur until around 8:30 pm, two hours into the meeting.

Several presentations and award ceremonies took place, most of them unfocused, and way too long. Here's an idea:  have an awards assembly to honor the students, and limit presentations to the board to 10 minutes. If someone can't say it in 10 minutes they can't say it at all.

Sharon Crews presented her very sharp and provocative comment, a copy of which is below. She has analyzed high school grades and knows what she is talking about. She should be a paid consultant.

Terry Knapp's comment focused on the district's outstanding athletes, some of whom never get recognition in the local daily newspaper, he said. But how would he know, since he said he also dropped his subscription.

Here is a recording of the comments. 

Download D150 Feb 25 19

 -- Elaine Hopkins

And here are the comments from Sharon Crews:

Dr. Kherat recently said that until schools stop doing things the way they’ve always been done, there will be no solutions to discipline and academic problems.

Summer school was the old way and it worked very well, but then it was replaced with credit recovery with Plato first, then with Compass Learning, and now with some other program. So you see it is the new way, not the old, that isn’t working.

In the 1960s, grades for three grading periods and a final exam were averaged to get a semester grade. All grades were number grades. A was 93-100, etc. Gradually, the “new” took over. With each change, less and less was expected of students. Forty became the new zero. Two F’s and two D’s had to average to a passing D. Final exams disappeared.

The last major grading change was the policy adopted by this administration—the very needed short-term goals of grading periods were eliminated. First grading period was the “getting to know what the teacher expects” grading period. Students earning a passing grade for first grading period were one-third on their way to passing the course—grading period grades provided security.

I believe it is possible that the debacle of 17s and the now admitted but still very unclear use of HISET tests could well have been related to the elimination of grading periods.

All of these policy changes, which led to watered down course content and inflated grades, were supposedly to help students. Instead they make the administration look good by raising the graduation rate.

The result of lowered academic standards and out-of-control discipline problems are the reasons parents are taking their children out of our schools. These newer policies aren’t working.

In the 60s and 70s, the need for curriculum changes were often brought to the attention of the Superintendent and Curriculum Director by teachers. Then teachers who would be affected by the changes were assigned to committees to form plans for change.

More recently, the Superintendent reads a book or buys a program and presents an idea. Then Wisconsin Avenue administrators work on a plan. Then teachers, with no input, are commanded to carry out the Superintendent’s idea. The last ten plus years of changes have not worked.

The newest idea is to allow high school students to choose a career and then choose what they want to learn. Who is going to plan the curriculum to fit the desires of individual students? The really old system provided great career education through industrial arts, home economics, business, and other electives.

Now students in the suburban schools and private schools will be gaining a comprehensive liberal arts education that will serve them well as preparation for college and almost any career they could choose in the future. Meanwhile our students will be engaged in a pie-in-the-sky experiment.

Coming from the chaos of most of our middle schools, our students presently do not have the educational background to make a wise career choice or to choose course content. These student-run classes require much more planning than do teacher-run classes.

Also, to be effective, this kind of curriculum requires small classes of no more than 15. District 150 does not have or cannot attract or pay teachers for smaller classes. Save your idea for consideration after you end the discipline problems in all schools (K-12). Certainly, the wraparound program is a start.    - 30 - 

CAFOs and how to stop them

PEORIA, IL -- You moved to the country for peace and quiet.  Or into a welcoming small town.

Or perhaps you have lived in your historic farmhouse for years, after generations of your family before you. 

Suddenly you face the challenge of your quiet life: a CAFO, a concentrated animal feeding organization, is planned on a neighbor’s property, a few thousand feet from your home.

Yikes!  The stench, the pollution, the noise, the threat of disease,  the buildings hiding the suffering of animals – your life as you know it will be ruined, along with your property values.  And you can’t move – who would buy your home now? Your hometown may be in permanent jeopardy, as well, if it’s near a CAFO.

This has happened to thousands of rural dwellers in Illinois, thanks to weak laws governing CAFOs, and lax enforcement of the laws that exist on air and water pollution.

Two organizations stand ready to help, and met on Feb. 23 to share ideas and plan strategy with CAFO victims and lawyers. Their stories are scary, but their expertise is hopeful.

Also hopeful: some new laws waiting to be enacted in the new Democratic party-controlled state government.  Their sponsors held them back knowing that the defeated Republican governor would veto them. Now they will be presented to the General Assembly.

The organizations are ICCAW,  Illinois Citizens for Clean Air and Water, and SRAP, the Socially Responsible Agricultural Project.

They heard reports from the various fights in central Illinois, plus legal actions, legislative and public relations strategy and mutual support. Here are some of the ideas:

1. To fight CAFOs, “you do everything.” Study the maps, measure the distance to a cemetery, test water in streams and wells, look at road weight limits and record road damage, do anything to fight the  state permit. The CAFO operators are generally “pompous” and “think they own the world.” They make mistakes, a Jo Davies County man said. It cost $500,000 and five years to stop a CAFO there, he said.
2. Don’t give up. You may lose a fight but stop a second CAFO with what you have learned. Document with logs and photograph everything, time stamped. It helps if you put a landmark in the background. That’s evidence a court will believe.
3. Check out federal and state tax subsidies for CAFOs and their requirements.  Maybe they have been skipped. (Publicize this form of ‘farm welfare.’)
4. Make complaints about everything on one email to every state and federal agency, which may move one of them to take action. Dead pigs in a ravine? That’s illegal. Complain. Make the CAFO get a compost permit. Sludge leaving the property? That’s also grounds for a complaint or a lawsuit.
5. Lobby the legislators. To get their attention go to Springfield, go office to office with documents and photos.  The newly appointed Illinois Department of Agriculture head John Sullivan, a former Democratic state senator, “ignores our emails,” someone said. He needs to hear from people in person. (I would invite him to an event at a time when the odor is awful.)
6. “The butchering facilities are at fault,” said Judy Koehler, a former state legislator who lives in Adams County, home of 66 CAFOs including one across from her rural property. They are in Illinois and on the Iowa border, convenient to the CAFOs, she said. (Hummm… go after them? How is their environmental record?)
7. Test every waterway, document the content. Wear gloves and a mask, as the pollution can be deadly. Monitor these from a roadway, and don’t trespass. In Michigan, cattle DNA was found downstream from a CAFO – a big ‘no-no.’

The legal issues are numerous.  “Standing” is a problem for lawsuits, an environmental lawyer, Albert Ettinger, said. In Illinois, CAFOs can sue, but citizens cannot.  That can be remedied by state legislation, or by going to federal court. Illinois HB2839 will change the Illinois standing laws, he said. Most other states allow citizens lawsuits.

Other legal problems:  waste management plans are not public records. Small CAFOs can expand once they get a permit, no review needed.

Even federal RICO lawsuits may be possible, involving wire or mail fraud if CAFOs repeatedly misreport information, such as not accurately reporting results,  he said. 

Freedom of Information Act lawsuits are possible if state officials won’t give out information. Triple damages will be assessed, an incentive for lawyers to help, he said.

And here’s a good quote from Ettinger:  “the bureaucrat never has authority to do what he doesn’t want to do.”

A most important bill in the General Assembly will allow County Boards to site CAFOs, a very important step in preventing them.

Another bill will ban routine antibiotic use for farming, namely CAFOs, since resistant bugs such as MRSA have evolved and pose a major public health threat. The number of people dying from antibiotic resistant microbes in the US is now an astounding 160,000 people annually, it was said. That bill is in a public health committee of the Illinois legislature, not an agriculture committee, which is pro-CAFO.

Anyone who contracts a MRSA infection should insist on a test of the strain, since they differ and cures are different, someone said.

So who, besides the industry biased Farm Bureau supports CAFOS? The unions have supported CAFOs because they want to build them, advocates said. (Would they support building concentration camps, someone asked.) But the joke is on unions, since some CAFOs are now being built using foreign workers with agricultural Visas, a likely violation of federal law.

Feeling sorry for the chickens, hogs and cattle confined in buildings and their human neighbors isn't the only issue. The farmers persuaded to get involved in CAFOs as contractors are financially squeezed, and have become American peasants, advocates said. 

Those who fight the CAFOS should be prepared to be harassed, even attacked, advocates said. But remember, CAFOs are not farming.  They are industrial installations and must be treated accordingly.

Here's the story the Journal Star did on the meeting.

 -- Elaine Hopkins

 

 

 

 

Peoria Public Radio at ISU?

PEORIA, IL -- The Illinois State University Trustees on Feb. 22 learned about the issues over the so-called partnership/merger between Peoria Public Radio, WCBU, Bradley University's NPR station, and the ISU  NPR station WGLT. I spoke at the quarterly meeting of the trustees during the public comment period of the agenda.  

Here is what I said:

Hello – I am Elaine Hopkins of Peoria.  I am a retired journalist, and once served on the Publication Board for the Daily Vidette as its outside journalist, so I am familiar with ISU and respect it as a fine university.

However I am here today to represent hundreds, even thousands of people in Peoria who listen to Bradley University’s NPR station WCBU, which brands itself as Peoria Public Radio. It is said to have 30,000 listeners to its two High Definition stations, one with classical music 24 hours a day, the other with a variety of great national news and talk shows and local news coverage.

Underwriters and listeners throughout WCBU’s large listening region have spent millions over the last 49 years to support Peoria Public Radio. They were very upset to learn that Bradley University decided to develop a “partnership” e,g, merge WCBU with ISU’s NPR station WGLT. 

Bradley is demolishing Jobst Hall where the WCBU studio is located to make way for a new science and engineering building, but somehow decided there would be no room for a new studio. Bradley officials cited the high costs of relocating the station, and so contacted WGLT to work out a merger or partnership deal.

To keep everything as secret as possible, station staff members were threatened with termination if they spoke out about the station, and they were, oddly, forbidden to conduct a capital campaign to raise extra money to save the station. 

After they became aware of the distress of the listeners, Bradley officials vaguely promised that the two Peoria Public Radio stations will continue as they are.  But as we all know, it’s not against the law to lie to the public or the press, and there is little or no accountability for such lies.

The Peoria City Council passed a resolution urging Peoria Public Radio to stay in Peoria.  Some of us organized a public meeting that attracted over 120 people, and we set up a Facebook page Save Peoria Public Radio. I invite you to check it out. In addition some very generous large donors have promised to keep their checkbooks shut if the station goes away or changes drastically.  

While nothing has persuaded Bradley U. to change its mind on this issue, yet it has refused to surrender the station’s FCC license, which expires in Dec. 2020. That license can be challenged, but that’s a tough undertaking making even the lawyers in our group wary.

So we are asking you, Trustees of a public university, to insist on voting on the proposed merger/partnership agreement, which I have been told is not completed yet.  That way it is a public document that we in Peoria can see for ourselves, and evaluate, in advance of your vote.   

You should not leave it up to ISU staff to develop then approve this important document.

 You are the checks and balances, the license holders of WGLT, just as the Bradley Trustees, who meet in secret in Chicago, hold the WCBU license.  We don’t know what they will do, and they don’t have to tell us. But you do, and we beg you to do the right thing on this proposed agreement, to be sure it protects Peoria Public Radio.

If we don’t like it, we will be back to tell you.   

Thanks for listening.

Elaine Hopkins

1825 E Maple Ridge, Peoria, IL 61614

309-231-5758  [email protected]

Facebook:  SavePeoriaPublicRadio

Attached is a copy of the resolution passed without changes by the Peoria City Council last month.

 

CAFOs awful! Close the legal loopholes

PEORIA, IL --  From a news release:

Proposed CAFOs in Peoria County and Across Illinois Spark Calls for

Resolutions and Changes to Weak Regulations
 

A coalition represented by residents of Peoria County and beyond applaud the Peoria County Board for their past resolution providing automatic public hearings on concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) in Peoria County. They are now requesting that the Board consider an additional resolution to oppose the siting of new CAFOs until stronger laws are enacted that would provide more protection of public health, air, water, and property values. 

“We are here today discuss the importance of local government resolutions and to provide factual data and reasons for reforming current laws governing CAFOs,”stated Karen Hudson, farmer and Regional Associate of the Socially Responsible Agricultural Project and co- founder of the Illinois Citizens for Clean Air & Water.  The meeting was  on Feb. 14. 

"It is our hope that this information will assist the Board in considering a resolution that would recommend sensible changes needed in Illinois law. "The resolutions that we seek from our elected officials on the local level send a valuable message to our lawmakers in Springfield,” stated Hudson.

The Fulton County Board, the City of Lewistown, and townships in Fulton County recently approved resolutions opposing proposed CAFOs in their areas until the Livestock Management Facilities Act (LMFA) is strengthened when faced with the construction of two 20,000-head swine CAFOs near the Village of Lewistown.  Similar resolutions have been enacted in other counties across the state. 

Cindy Arnett, a newly elected Fulton County Board member, has been impacted by a poorly sited 500-head boar facility located directly next to her farm property and lake. “I encourage the Peoria County Board to do their homework and consider the welfare of the existing farmers and residents who elected them.

 A study published by the University of Illinois found that 89% of citizens questioned the legitimacy of CAFOs at county public informational meetings and 70% opposed them. Only 5% supported them, with the majority of positive comments supplied by outside consultants for the CAFO company and government officials. These numbers speak for themselves and accurately reflect the public’s position,” stressed Arnett.

Recently a proposal was announced for a 2,480-head swine CAFO just under one mile southwest of the Village of Princeville (northwest of Peoria.) The project predictably falls just a few swine short of triggering a “public informational meeting,” which would allow the County Board to issue a non-binding recommendation for or against the project.

By law this facility can over double its size every two years  without having to abide by greater setbacks or other environmental and siting review requirements that new facilities are subject to.

“Currently many notices for new CAFOs in Illinois intentionally fall just a few animals short of triggering a public meeting. This strategy cleverly avoids public scrutiny and then utilizes the popular 'expansion loophole," which allows them to expand a short time later, states Hudson. This setup fails to protect existing neighbors and farmers who have lived on their family properties for generations. "We need to recognize these grave deficiencies and support reform."

Joyce Blumenshine of the Heart of Illinois Sierra Club stated, “while there are hundreds of large CAFOs in Illinois, most are never required to submit their waste management plans for review and/or approval prior to construction or operation. It was recently reported that over a near ten-year period, water pollution incidents tied to Illinois hog confinements caused more fish kills than any other industry by double. Planned reforms would require registration with the IEPA and waste management plans prior to construction." 

The Illinois EPA's (IEPA’s) 2016 Integrated Water Quality Report and 303(d) List identifies animal feeding operations (AFOs) as one of the top ten potential leading sources of impairment of streams and lakes. More than 672 miles of Illinois streams and more than 25,000 acres of lakes have been polluted by animal feeding operations, making them among the top 10 causes of pollution for both rivers and lakes, according to the Illinois EPA.

CAFOs across the state are responsible for toxic emissions, manure spills, fish kills, decreased quality of life, nuisance, public health threats, and road damages in rural communities.  Citizens are vulnerable to the spread of antibiotic resistant pathogens (superbugs) in water, air, and even inside their residences as research has discovered resistant staphylococcus and fungi inside homes downwind from swine CAFOs. Research also reveals that residents near CAFOs and manure application sites are more likely to be colonized with MRSA, which puts them at risk for future soft tissue infections. - 30 -

Rally on Monday, Feb. 18, 2019

PEORIA, IL -- From a news release, action on President's Day:

>>> PROTEST! CALL OUT THE FAKE CRISIS & DEFEND THE CONSTITUTION

Yes, we are protesting the fake 'national emergency.'

Monday, February 18, 12:00 noon
Federal Building
100 N.E. Monroe, Peoria, IL

 

This is an event planned as a rapid response protest against the fake national emergency declared by Trump on February 15.

In the Peoria and multi-county area, progressives will meet at the Federal Courthouse in downtown Peoria. Park in parking areas open to the public, on streets or in parking decks. Carpool, too. Dress for the weather conditions. This is intended to be a peaceful event. Please be respectful.
Event is public.

RSVP here

https://www.crisisresponse.us/event/crisis-response/search/

 

***

Black history: the real story

PEORIA, IL -- From a news release:

BLACK HISTORY MONTH: The Ongoing Legacy of Racism and Its Impact on Peoria

Free Public Forum:

6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 28

Illinois Central College, Peoria Campus

Arbor Hall, Auditorium, Room 111

5407 N. University St. Peoria, IL

Slavery, lynching, discrimination and injustice are not only rooted in America’s past but percolate into current events almost daily. Learn a truth about this country that history books rarely reveal and that pervades our contemporary world.

Two Peoria writers and a Peoria police officer traveled to Montgomery, Ala., recently to learn more about America’s redacted history. They will report on their trip and how what they learned can help Peoria address the institutional, systemic racism that’s the focus of unwanted national attention and that holds us back from becoming a healthy and vibrant community.  

A brief video and slide program will introduce the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Ala., and the two new museums it opened in April 2018 –

The National Memorial for Peace and Justice and The Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration. These museums are unlike any in the country.

Audience members will be invited to question the panelists following the presentation.

Panelists are: Writers Sherry Cannon and Pam Adams; Peoria Police Officer Daniel Duncan; and Illinois Central College Professor Anthony White. Moderator is Rev. Marvin Hightower, president Peoria NAACP.

The forum is sponsored by the Peoria NAACP and the Journalism Diversity Fund created with assistance from Community Word. The forum is hosted by Illinois Central College.

Candidate Forum Feb. 13, 2019

PEORIA, IL -- From a news release:

League of Women Voters of Greater Peoria Candidate Forum

on Feb. 13, 2019

 

           The League of Women Voters of Greater Peoria is co-sponsoring a candidate forum from 5:30 to 8 p.m., Wed., Feb 13, at the Peoria Public Library Downtown Branch-Lower Level, 107 NE. Monroe, Peoria, IL

            The event’s co-sponsor is the Young Professionals of Greater Peoria.

            Candidates invited to participate are those running for the at-large positions in the primary race for Peoria City Council.

            Because of the large number of candidates in this primary election the candidates were required to respond to three questions submitted in advance in order to participate. The questions will be copied for audience to read later. All candidates will answer two questions. Then the audience and candidates will divide into small groups for discussion.

            The primary race involves cumulative voting, so a voter can vote for five or fewer candidates on the ballot. Early voting is taking place now, and the election is Feb. 26.

            The event is free, and the public is invited to attend, to meet the candidates and submit questions to the moderator.

            The League is a non-partisan, issues oriented, volunteer, member-directed organization committed to open, responsive and effective government brought about by informed, involved citizens with membership open to both men and women in Peoria, Tazewell, and Woodford counties. For more information, go to www.lwvgp.org. - 30 -

Finding Neverland: good show

PEORIA, IL -- The musical Finding Neverland has had good and bad reviews, so I didn't know what to expect from the touring group that played at the Peoria Civic Center Theater for two shows, on Feb. 2.  I was pleasantly surprised.

The show was terrific, bolstered by a spectacular production with videos, flashing lights, even rope ladders for pirates to climb. Plus singing, dancing, great costumes and a sharp script.

The plot focuses on the author J. M. Barrie, and how he came to write Peter Pan, the story which has survived for more than a century.

At one point people in early 20th century London think he is nuts, as they sing "Circus of Your Mind."  That's a useful phrase for you-know-who today.

The huge cast  was quite good, and it even included talented children and a beautiful live dog, on stage in several scenes. It's a shame that the PJS did not do a better advance story on the show, though the matinee looked to be almost a sell-out. I would like to know more about that dog!

When the dog in one scene met the actor playing the dog, the live dog licked the face of the fake dog, then sniffed its behind.  Very clever and funny.

The theater's sound system has not improved, and some of the dialogue was difficult to understand, and not helped by the British accents of the cast.  This was not an Actor's Equity cast, but the actors did a good job anyway.

I wish I had bought a CD of the original cast recording to hear before the show, so as to better understand the lyrics of the  songs.  I wish supertitles would become the standard for musicals as well as operas.

Still, this was a fine show, worth the money, and its standing ovation was well deserved. 

 -- Elaine Hopkins