Parents look at walkability when choosing colleges

Of course parents, students and faculty over at Bradley University are concerned about the increase in crime on campus, and rightfully so. As a result, they have increased police patrols and added other security measures. However, now the Bradley Police are providing a shuttle service. How sad is that, really?

In a City the size of Peoria, on a campus the size of Bradley University (a school that is considered one of the best), crime is so bad, that students need to be coddled with a shuttle service?  Part of the college experience is the walkability of the campus. How embarrassing for Peoria, Bradley students are officially too good to walk through our City.

Click here to read entire article 

Bradley University begins free nighttime shuttle service for students, faculty, staff

Peoria, IL (November 27, 2012) – Bradley University is launching a shuttle service for students, faculty and staff in the Bradley Police patrol area starting this evening.

Specially trained students employed by the Bradley Police Department’s Student Patrol will drive the Hilltop Safety Cruiser, a van that accommodates up to 6 passengers. The free shuttle will operate from 7 p.m. to 3 a.m. seven days a week in the patrol area that extends from Moss Avenue to Columbia Terrace and Western Avenue to Sheridan. The shuttle will be radio dispatched by calling 309 677-2800 and also will provide flag-down rides. Students, faculty and staff must display a valid Bradley ID.

The Hilltop Safety Cruiser will circulate through the patrol area but will not have defined stops. The new service supplements the walking escort patrol that has been available to students for several years.

The Hilltop Safety Cruiser will operate when the University is in session during the regular academic year. Source

New music Wednesday...

Whose idea was it to change The District grading system?

Last week this blog posted on changes to The District's grading system being blocked by the IHSA.

As previously posted, changing The District's grading system has been proven to not be conducive to students who are seeking to go to college. Additionally, it has proven to not be conducive to student athletes. So, why was the change made? More importantly, why was the change allowed to be made without knowing how it would affect students? 

Today, we learn that apparently some blame falls on principals, counselors and athletic directors for the change being made, because "they didn't mention concerns." If they had mentioned concerns, would anybody have listened? They certainly didn't listen to parents when they showed up to voice their concerns.

IHSA rules compel District 150 to reverse grading policy

School District 150 is going back to semester-long courses, with semester grades and credits, for all high school classes, reversing a policy of yearlong courses and credits that went into effect this year.

Though several parents protested yearlong courses, saying it could jeopardize some seniors' chances for college admissions and scholarships, the district's reversal came about because of athletic eligibility rules.

"Essentially, it's being done to be compliant with IHSA," said District 150 spokesman Chris Coplan.

Kim Hudson, mother of a Peoria High School senior who ran into problems applying for colleges and scholarships because of the yearlong policy, still is frustrated with the district, but she's ready to move on.

"To me, it makes it look like they consider what happens to athletes more important than what happens to the average student," Hudson said. "But I'm not ready to fight that battle."

 "...neither principals, counselors nor athletic directors mentioned concerns about the yearlong policy

when it was first discussed in the spring." Coplan

"It didn't come up until we started moving forward with the policy," he said.

Concerns about how yearlong courses would affect athletic eligibility - for instance, if a high school junior failed a yearlong course would he be ineligible for a year - came up about the same time parents started expressing concerns about college admissions, Coplan said.

After contacting the IHSA, the district chose to return to allowing students to accumulate credits at the end of a semester rather than the end of the school year.

Hudson and Paris McConnell, another parent of a Peoria High student, said they wish the district had gotten more input from parents before switching to yearlong courses.

Most colleges make admissions decisions based on a student's showing in the junior year of high school. In some cases, admissions officers want to see a high school senior's grades for the first semester, which can't happen with yearlong courses.

Hudson said at least one college placed her daughter's application on hold until she submitted first semester grades. Another said her chances of receiving a scholarship would be diminished. Source

Do you think we'll be reimbursed for damages?

Thanks to the fact that several neighbors had their surveillance cameras up and running...

Suspected vandal arrested in rash of Peoria tire slashings
Police arrested a suspected vandal after tires were slashed on nearly 40 vehicles overnight Friday.

Ian E. Reynolds, 21, of 1202 E. Norwood Blvd. was arrested at 5:20 p.m. Sunday at 2114 W. Farmington Rd.  and booked on 39 charges of criminal damage to property. Source

___________________________

So, we are to believe that one (1) person, walked up and down the street (14 City blocks), on the coldest night of the year and did this much damage all by himself, with one (1) knife? From what I heard, he looked like he was taking care of business when he was doing what he was doing. So, what's this tire slashing episode really about?

Crime scene span: Peoria Heights to the East Bluff

Yesterday my family had to purchase four (4) new tires: two (2) for a 4-wheel drive truck; one (1) for a minivan; and one (1) for a vehicle with special rims.

Overnight on Friday, about 37 vehicle owners (at least that is the number the newspaper gives) woke up to find that the tires on their vehicles had been slashed.

The crime scene spans from the Peoria Heights to the mid-East Bluff (about 14 City blocks). This blog covered the story first. There was no report on any of the local news stations and there was only a blurb about it in the local news paper.

If you drive the area shown in the photo above (click the image to enlarge), you will see vehicles still sitting on flats; some are sitting on jacks; others are on donut wheels. 

Unfortunately, the timing of the vandalism occurred the day after most people have probably begun Christmas shopping. As a result, many will not be able to run out and purchase tires for a vehicle; a vehicle that they may need to get back and forth to work and/or school in.

The vandalism clearly wasn't about money - nothing of value was taken from any of the vehicles. If a group of young thugs were out on the coldest night of the year and thought it would be fun to slash tires - why not go to a dealership and have at it (there are two dealerships in the area)? Why take the chance of going up and down the street in a densely populated, residential neighborhood? The slashing of the tires was clearly an organized activity and yes, it was more than likely done by a gang - but this is not your standard inner city, youth, gang crime. So, who would commit such a crime and why?

The sad thing is, we don't expect to get any answers about what, why or how this happened. Heck, if I hadn't witnessed it, I couldn't conceive the magnitude of the crime, considering it got so little exposure with the local news agencies.

Just one more strike against living in Peoria and the East Bluff (as if a person needed one).

Over 30 vehicles vandalized...UPDATED

The newspaper is placing this crime between Republic and McClure. However, the crime scene runs from four blocks below McClure to two blocks above Forest Hill Ave (Norwood Ave).

Last night tires were flattened on what a Peoria Police Officer has informed us to be about thirty vehicles, all on and/or near the East Bluff (they went across Forest Hill). The ignoramus flattened tires on three of my family vehicles.

Expletives Deleted!

In steps the IHSA

Remember the story below about District 150 making changes to the grading system?

At the time, Lathan didn't appear to be too willing to hear about parents concerns and she kind of poo pooed Mrs. McConnell's notion that the system wasn't working and should be changed.

Well, recently I have been told that the IHSA has informed The District that they are in violation of their rules. They must give semester grades. So, it appears that somehow The District now has to scramble and get grades for these year long classes. It appears Mrs. McConnell was right after all!

It's not fattening...

Blogger stole your comments...

yeah, they are saying "the gadget is broken."

Sorry... However, feel free to go back and start the conversation fresh.

The Hostess Store at Sheridan and Loucks...

is officially out of Twinkies!

Hostess Brands Inc., the makers of Twinkies, Ding Dongs and Wonder Bread, says it's going out of business, leading some Americans to stock up on the sweet processed treats in case they disappear from shelves.

Read entire article here.

Why President Obama should skip the Romney "listen"

At President Obama's first post-election news conference today, he was asked if and/or when he will be sitting down with Mitt Romney to get his ideas on the economy, etc. As far as I'm concerned, the President doesn't need to feel obligated to have a "listen" with Romney. Romney is clearly as ignorant now about the 47% as he was before and during the election:

Romney reflects on his loss in call with campaign donors

Mitt Romney told his top donors Wednesday that his loss to President Obama was a disappointing result that neither he or his top aides had expected, but said he believed his team ran a “superb” campaign with “no drama,” and attributed his rival’s victory to “the gifts” the administration had given to blacks, Hispanics and young voters during Obama’s first term.

Obama, Romney argued, had been “very generous” to blacks, Hispanics and young voters. He cited as motivating factors to young voters the administration’s plan for partial forgiveness of college loan interest and the extension of health coverage for students on their parents’ insurance plans well into their 20s. Free contraception coverage under Obama’s healthcare plan, he added, gave an extra incentive to college-aged women to back the president.

Romney argued that the Obama’s health care plan’s promise of coverage “in perpetuity” was “highly motivational” to those voters making $25,000 to $35,000 who might not have been covered, as well as to African American and Hispanic voters. Pivoting to immigration, Romney said the Obama campaign’s efforts to paint him as “anti-immigrant” had been effective and that the administration’s promise to offer what he called “amnesty” to the children of illegal immigrants had helped turn out Hispanic voters in record numbers.

“The President’s campaign,” he said, “focused on giving targeted groups a big gift—so he made a big effort on small things. Those small things, by the way, add up to trillions of dollars.”

Read the entire article here.

When a parent goes before the School Board

It's not easy to get up and speak at a School Board meeting. When you are hoping to persuade the Board to move on something you care deeply about (your child), it can be very intimidating. 

You certainly don't want to tell all of your student's personal business, but you will have to reveal certain information to get a response. So, if one (or two) parent(s) get the nerve to go before the Board to discuss an issue, does that mean the issue is less valid because other parents have not shown up to articulate the same need?

District 150 explores options for grading system changes

Paris McConnell

Peoria School District 150 Superintendent Grenita Lathan is meeting with high school principals and counselors to look at new options for posting high school seniors grades for first semester classes.

The meeting comes after two parents expressed frustrations that District 150's change from semester to year-long courses could jeopardize students' chances for college admissions and scholarships, along with other problems they encountered concerning transcripts and grades.

"I'm all about change if it's effective, if it's going to make us progressive," Paris McConnell, parent of a Peoria High School senior, told board members during a regular board meeting Tuesday. McConnell described the problems she had getting an accurate transcript as "foolishness" and urged Lathan to communicate better with parents.

Lathan said the district could have done a better job of communicating with parents about move to year-long courses and that a curriculum review found past practices that did not always benefit students.

"You're right, there were mistakes" she said, referring to McConnell's concerns about how her son's eighth-grade algebra class was not part of his transcript. "When we found them we have tried to clean them up."

But overall, Lathan added,

"We can't change the formula for one student."

Many colleges base students' applications on grades they've earned through the junior year. But in some cases, especially for students trying to raise their grade point average, colleges will ask to see grades from the first semester of their senior year. The district's move to year-long courses means students' grades aren't posted until May for many classes. Source

How about just kicking him out of the bed?

Wife runs over non-voting husband

An Arizona woman who can’t stand President Barack Obama slammed her husband — literally — for not voting, wedging him between the family Jeep and the street curb, a report says.

Holly Solomon, 28, and her husband Daniel, 36, got into an argument on Saturday night over his failure to vote, news reports say. She then chased him around a parking lot in the Jeep, screaming, before hitting him as a he tried to run to a bigger street, witnesses told police, according to the report.

“The husband told investigators that Solomon believed her family was going to face hardship from President Barack Obama’s re-election,” CBS News reported.

He is in critical condition at a Scottsdale, Ariz. medical center, while she “was booked on an aggravated assault and domestic violence,” the report said.

Daniel Solomon also said in a police report that his wife is six months pregnant, according to a report from an ABC affiliate in Arizona.

He “told police his wife ‘just hated Obama and was very angry he was re-elected and blamed the President for problems her family is going through,” the news report said. Source


AZ woman runs over husband for not voting; 911 call released

I was wondering what Tavis and Cornell thought...

about President Obama's re-election:

Cornel West calls Obama a ‘Republican in blackface’

In a recent interview on Democracy Now! ex-Princeton professor and frequent Obama critic Dr. Cornel West lashed out against the president as well as pundits Michael Eric Dyson, Melissa Harris-Perry and Rev. Al Sharpton.

West called Obama a “Rockefeller Republican in blackface” and said Dyson, Harris-Perry and Sharpton were all “for sale.”

West, along with TV personality Tavis Smiley, has been one President Barack Obama’s loudest and harshest African-American critics. Although West endorsed and campaigned for Obama during the 2008 campaign he has since complained that the first black president turned his back on impoverished Americans.

In May, West called Obama a “disastrous response to a catastrophe” and he was rumored to be behinds efforts to mount a third party campaign to challenge the president from the left.

West has been criticized himself for the personal nature of many of his attacks on the president. He has questioned Obama’s racial authenticity on numerous occasions. 

This is also not the first time West has publicly rebuked former colleagues.

In February West called Harris-Perry a “liar” and said that, ”[s]he’s become the momentary darling of liberals, but I pray for her because she’s in over her head. She’s a fake and a fraud. I was so surprised how treacherous the sister was.”

“Cornel has a right to disagree with the president, but why does he have to go out and disparage everyone who disagrees with him?” said Sharpton at the time. Source

Reated Posts

·   Cornel West's criticism of Obama sparks debate among African-Americans

·   Cornel West: 'Obama is a disastrous response to a catastrophe'

·   Cornel West vs. Barack Obama

·   Cornel West, Tavis Smiley continue to complain about Obama

·   Why Tavis and Cornel won't stop Obama in 2012 (even if they try to)

Happy Birthday Auguste

I adore sculpture. I remember visiting Rodin in the Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden - alone, while pregnant. Very moving.

Chicagoans push for an elected school board

In an effort to get out from under Mayoral control...

Elected school board referendum results give supporters a boost

Supporters of an elected school board in Chicago say they have new momentum Wednesday. That’s after an advisory measure passed overwhelmingly Tuesday night to end a mayor-appointed board.

Only a fraction of the city’s precincts got to weigh in, but about 85 percent of voters in those 327 precincts favored electing the city’s school board.

The campaign for an elected school board has been going for months and after unsuccessfully getting the measure on the ballot in several wards, supporters went precinct by precinct to get the question on the ballot.

Supporters, like Jitu Brown, said they want to use the results to continue pushing for an elected board, possibly at the state level.

“The question is, 'will there be political will in Springfield to respond to an overwhelming cry from their constituents?’” Brown said Wednesday morning.

In Chicago, city and school officials do not support having an elected board, for one, because they say it would only make public education more political.

But Brown disagrees. “Democracy gives you a fair shot,” Brown said. “Right now, there is no fair shot. We have to depend on the morality of people who are being hired, because they are willing to push a certain agenda.” Source

Lots of people actually talking about assassination

America the beautiful...

Did you vote for Obama because he is black?

One Mississippi or two Mississippi?

Obama re-election protest escalates at Univ. of Mississippi 

A protest at the University of Mississippi against the re-election of President Barack Obama grew into crowd of about 400 people with shouted racial slurs as rumors of a riot spread on social media. Two people were arrested on minor charges.

The university said in a statement Wednesday that the gathering at the student union began late Tuesday night with about 30 to 40 students, but grew within 20 minutes as word spread. Some students chanted political slogans while others used derogatory racial statements and profanity, the statement said.

President Obama elected to a second term: A sharply divided America gave President Obama another term Tuesday, choosing him over Republican Mitt Romney to lead the repair of the economy, still the country’s biggest concern by far.

Click to enlarge photo from SandraRose

The incident comes just after the 50th anniversary of violent rioting that greeted the forced integration of Ole Miss with the enrollment of its first black student, James Meredith.

Ole Miss Chancellor Dan Jones promised an investigation and said “all of us are ashamed of the few students who have negatively affected the reputations of each of us and of our university.”

On Wednesday night, about 700 people held up candles and called for racial harmony outside the administrative building at the university in Oxford, countering Tuesday’s protest over Obama’s re-election.

Rumors about the situation were fueled on Twitter after the university’s student journalists posted a video referring to the gathering as “riots.” The student newspaper posted a video of the crowd, but much of what the students said in it is unintelligible other than the “Hotty Toddy” cheer, which is common at football games and other school gatherings.

One picture that spread rapidly on social media shows people burning an Obama campaign sign, but the university hasn’t confirmed that the picture was taken on campus. The chancellor said some photos shared on social media showed things that were not seen by police on campus, but the reports of uncivil language and racial slurs appeared to be accurate.

In a state with a 37 percent African-American population, Ole Miss now has a black enrollment of about 16.6 percent. The current student body president, Kim Dandridge, is the fourth black person elected to the post.

The university was planning an event for Wednesday evening called the “We are One Mississippi Candlelight Walk” to condemn the protest, according to Thomas J. “Sparky” Reardon, vice chancellor for student affairs.

Read the entire article here.

Faith

Look at this photo...

What year do you think it was taken in?

Let's see, big mall hair, harsh eyebrows, pink frosted lip gloss...

Is it 

1980 or 2012

Romney - Trumped!

Will the Tea Party Revolution be holding a conference soon at Trump Towers?

US Elections: Forward, or Back to the Bush Regime?

Because it really does matter what others in the international community think of America and it's President.

From Pravda:

Those of us on the other end of the time line several timescales ahead of the USA will have to wait until Wednesday morning to find out whether the citizens of the United States of America have decided to move forward with President Obama or to slip back to the fumbling, bumbling elitist Republicans...

Those of us who know the American people have no doubt that the intelligent choice, nay the only choice, will be made since only four years ago, the Republican regime of George W. Bush sent the United States of America and the economy of the rest of the world sliding into the abyss as it pandered to the whims of the super-rich elitists which gravitate around that party and neuter the occupant of the White House before he can sit down in the Oval Office.

Four years ago, the United States was gripped by a vice of incompetence and corporate greed, as the likes of Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld and their cronies played political games at the expense of their hard-working citizens and nearly sent toe citizens of the world to Hades by trying to start world war three.

Four years ago, the United States of America was synonymous with concentration camps, torture, illegal detention, murder, rape, sodomy, tyranny; four years ago, Americans would have to lie about their nationality when travelling abroad and say they were Canadians.

Four years ago, millions of jobs were lost as the effects of the Bush regime's incompetence started to bite. People lost their homes, people lost their savings, people lost their livelihoods. Four years ago, the "Foreclosure" signs started to appear like mushrooms in communities across the United States of America.

Those of us who know the American people also know that they understand that these massive ills cannot be righted in three and a half years. It takes time and it takes collaboration between the Presidential team and Congress. Despite the fact that the Republicans have spent the last four years trying to make things difficult for President Obama, he has set the ball rolling and it is gathering momentum. The economy is turning round, jobs are being created, the massive Bush-era investments in the military have been pumped back into the economy and the signs are starting to show.

Make no mistake: the Republican Bush-era Remnants are there waiting in the side-wings and this time around they are the bumbling old fools of yesteryear, mad and rabid for power, thirsty for war, who will send the world over the abyss as they implement 1980s-style policies in the 21st century. The world has moved on.

The American people understand this. That is why I shall awake on Wednesday morning knowing we can all move forward together, with President Obama as a trustworthy, articulate and intelligent partner in the international community.

It's Election Day...VOTE FORWARD!

A plea for my fellow Americans...

This election season there's a billowing cloud of misinformation... Billions have been spent for one purpose and one purpose only: to obscure and distract from the fact that Mitt Romney is backing the identical agenda George W Bush did.

It's really and truly that simple.

Read entire article here.

Of course the Peoria Journal Star endorses Romney

I'll tell you why Ceelo... 

A newspaper that regularly allows hateful, racists comments to run unchecked, would of course endorse a person for President of the United States, that is on record saying that he doesn't even care about 47% of Americans. Nope, no surprise here. As a matter of fact, this endorsement would be consistent with everything the newspaper stands for on a daily basis. 

click on any image if you care to enlarge

A small sampling from the regular pjstar audience who are allowed to make racist statements every time the newspaper runs an article with anything to do with African-Americans...

and...

So again, no surprise here.