More hurdles for museum tax

The Pekin girls basketball team used a balanced scoring attack to beat host East Peoria, 55-42, in the title game of the East Peoria Tipoff Classic on Friday night.

Forgive Richwoods sophomore Hannah Freyman for her enthusiasm Friday after finishing her preliminary heats at the state swimming and diving meet.

"Silhouettes of Lincoln" is the theme for this year's Peoria Historical Society Candlelight Tours, which run the next two weekends at the Pettengill-Morron House, 1212 W. Moss Ave.

Amid the deep green rainforest of the Luthy Botanical Garden, an explosion of red has bloomed once again this holiday season. The annual Poinsettia Show at the garden kicked off Friday.

The Bureau County Health and Wellness Center has purchased a used motor home to turn into a mobile health unit.

Sen. Dick Durbin said Friday he will recommend another term for corruption-busting federal prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald if he wants to stay on as Chicago's U.S. attorney.

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When Chrysler was near death and awaiting a government bailout in 1979, then-CEO Lee Iacocca ordered drastic spending cuts and required all checks above $1,000 to be approved by a senior vice president.

A federal judge in Nashville, Tenn., has denied a request by Caterpillar Inc. that an injunction preventing it from deducting health insurance premiums from its retirees be stayed.

It is very noble for the state to want pay for those who have died because of drunken drivers. If the state were to pay for those who have died from head injuries, there would be enough money to have a long-term, head-injury rehab facility in this area.

Re. Nov. 14 Forum letter by Dwight Helle, "Plenty of good during Bush years": Let's see, 10.1 million unemployed Americans; hundreds of American companies leaving the country for cheap labor elsewhere; the highest level of imports; 47 million citizens without health insurance; 3.5 million homeless, more than a third of them children; home foreclosures at an amazing rate. ... Yep, lots of good!

Thanks to J.P. Hayes, this has been a good week. Hayes is a pro golfer who reported himself for inadvertently violating a rule during a tournament last week in Texas. He was disqualified. By failing to place, Hayes also lost his chance to earn a PGA Tour card for the 2009 season.

When a female bank teller chatted me up about deer season it hit me.
This one still has zing.
Opening weekend of the Illinois firearm deer season still gets people talking, still sends boys and men to bed dreaming. While most hunting openers fly under the radar, shotgun season looms large.
Today in small towns across Illinois, kids will skip school, men will skip work and the same question will be asked repeatedly: “Did ya get your deer?”
That’s one big difference between Peoria and towns like Elmwood. In Peoria, I was rarely asked about hunting. In Elmwood, it’s rare hunting doesn’t come up in conversation — particularly with gun season approaching.

A dozen musical groups and musicians are joining hands for an All Star Holiday Concert at 3 p.m. Nov. 30 to raise money for the Pediatric Resource Center, which meets the needs of abused and neglected children.

From childhood we see pictures of Thanksgiving — Pilgrims dressed in black with big buckles and wide-brimmed hats sharing a bountiful feast with friendly Indians. This, the most familiar story of the first Thanksgiving, took place in Plymouth Colony, in present-day Massachusetts, in 1621. The subtext, at least the one taught to many schoolchildren, being that the Indians shared their food and the Pilgrims shared their God. And they all lived happily ever after.

Martha Stewart - her name evokes a groan in those of us still hoping for a clean house this Thanksgiving, let alone one exquisitely decorated with handstitched fall garlands from the front yard maple tree.

• Saturday, November 22, 2008 •

The Bureau County Board this week voted to not allow Walnut Ridge Wind LLC to use S88 turbines produced by India-based Suzlon on seven turbines located in Bureau, Manlius and Walnut townships. The board approved conditional use permits for those turbines. The information was incorrect from a story in some editions of Wednesday's paper.

Illinois House Rep. Richard P. Myers, R-Macomb, has raised roughly $69,500 in his campaign for the 94th District seat. The amount was incorrectly reported in Wednesday's editions.