Peoria

Wildlife Prairie State Park stays open through private nonprofit ownership

05/15/2013
by Brian Costin Every once in a while, government in Illinois actually gets smaller. One recent example revolves around the Wildlife Prairie State Park, which will drop “State” from its name and will be run by the Forest Park Foundation of Peoria, a private, nonprofit group, effective immediately. Wildlife Prairie Park, located 10 miles west of...

Capitol Updates: April 22 week in review

By Jane McEnaney
03/31/2013
It was a quiet week in Springfield as the Illinois Senate was the only chamber in session. Here’s what took place: Virtual charter school moratorium bill assigned to substantive committee On Wednesday, the Senate Assignments Committee referred House Bill 494 to the Senate Education Committee, where it is scheduled to be heard next Tuesday, April...

TAGS: Illinois Statehouse, virtual learning

Another day, another terrible competitiveness ranking for Illinois

By Lawrence McQuillan
07/12/2012
CNBC just released its 2012 America’s Top States for Business, and guess what, Illinois didn’t top the list (no surprise there), but it wasn’t even in the top half! Illinois placed a dismal 26th, worse than most of its neighboring states. Texas took top honors as it has done for three of the six years that...

10 Peoria-area municipalities fail government transparency audit

By Brian Costin
04/11/2012
Peoria, Ill. (April 11, 2012) – Ten out of eleven government agencies in the Peoria-area received failing grades in an online transparency audit conducted by local citizen activists and the Illinois Policy Institute. Members of the Peoria 9/12 group worked with the Institute to grade local government websites on how much public data is readily...

The prison system is not a jobs program

By Lawrence McQuillan
04/04/2012
On March 19, the Regional Economics Applications Laboratory (REAL) at the University of Illinois released an assessment of the economic impacts on local economies of proposed closures of four correctional and adult transition centers – Tamms, Dwight, Westside, and Peoria. The study, Impact of the Closure of Selected Department of Corrections Facilities, calculates the direct, indirect...

SPECIAL REPORT: Turning Passes into Fails

01/31/2011
The owner of a medical testing laboratory conducting drug tests of probationers in Cook County says the chief probation officer and several judges are pressuring him for data so they can turn negative drug tests into positive ones—passes into fails.

Peoria: Good Vibes and a New School Choice

09/17/2010
by Collin Hitt Central Illinois’s newest charter school held an open house last night. I drove up from Springfield to check it out. Called Quest Charter Academy, the school will grow to enroll children in grades 6 through 12.  It’ll focus on math and science, and will mirror the international compass of local businesses like...
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Pathway to a Profession: How Apprenticeships Could Reshape Illinois’ Beauty Service Industry

Occupational licensing requirements present one of the steepest barriers to low-income Illinoisans starting careers in beauty services. Illinois requires anyone seeking to become a barber, cosmetologist, nail technician or hair braider to obtain a state license, essentially a permission slip to work. Unlike 45 other states, Illinois offers only one pathway to licensure for each...

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Diana Graham

Process for unionizing non-state workers raises red flags

By Paul Kersey
06/19/2014

CBS Chicago: Illinois’ highest-paid superintendent receives $400K per year to oversee 1,200 students

By Ted Dabrowski
05/02/2016