A Knight in Dragonland

The top story in today’s Pekin Daily Times announces “Smoking Ban Taxes Downtown Litter Control.”
That is incorrect.
Litter-bug smokers who selfishly and irresponsibly believe that the world is their ashtray tax downtown litter control.  Don’t blame this problem on the smoking ban.

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Some upstanding citizens had a fire in their home meth lab on Saturday. Said fire resulted in this lovely little production facility being shut down and fortunately did not result in any deaths or injuries.
There were 4 adults living in the home along with 15-year old boy and a 1-year old girl. Angela [...]

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The Pekin High School varsity football team has a new head coach. His name is George Kaider, and his teams have gone 95-21 during his 11-year coaching career … although 10 of those years were spent as an assistant coach at McHenry, Lake Zurich and Palatine. He spent one season as a head [...]

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After a nearly 4 month hiatus, Edgar Sandoval is back to blogging over at Market 117.  Welcome back!

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My wife and I participated in the Pekin Area Chamber of Commerce “Chamber Challenge” trivia night last night at the Moose Family Center. We enjoyed ourselves, and the Pekin Hospital team placed 2nd overall. “The Know It Alls” from Herget Bank won the night – apparently for the third second year in a [...]

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No, I’m not talking about the pork product. Whatever you eat for breakfast is fine by me. I’m talking about Dean Bacon, member of the District 108 School Board.
Can anyone think of anything more important to come before the District 108 board recently than (1) who will be the new superintendent after the [...]

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Three recent front page stories in the Pekin Daily Times caught my attention as steps in the right direction for Pekin:
1) Upgrading the new Railsplitter’s Park on Derby Street. From the September 19 article: “The 2.3 acre park has proved difficult to find … because the front section is narrow and the rear portion [...]

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Unfortunate from my perspective, at least … Richwoods lost to Washington, and Pekin lost to O’Fallon.
(SIGH)
Ahh well … last season started out the same way, and both the Knights and the Dragons ended up in the playoffs.  Hopefully the same will hold true for this season.
I’m surprised there hasn’t been any gloating from a certain [...]

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It’s my one year blogiversary, and it’s certainly been an interesting year. A brief recap:
I began my blog anonymously, but came out in the open half way through my first year.
My first controversial stand involved rhetorically taking on Jim Mangan and Mike Noyes in the school district consolidation debate.
My commentary on the local Pekin [...]

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Jim Mangan hits a new low in his latest entry onto the editorial page of the Pekin Daily Times.  He apparently felt the need to publicly thump his Bible on the heads of homosexuals.  Mangan even ends his letter with the threat of apocalyptic doom, brought down on us by Democratic presidential candidates “pandering to [...]

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We were in the St. Louis Metro-East area yesterday, visiting my wife’s brother and his family in Edwardsville for our nephew’s first birthday. Driving around Edwardsville, I noticed many similarities to Morton. There are many new homes and new subdivisions going up, and most are upscale ($200,000 plus).
There are some notable differences: Edwardsville [...]

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Remember to drop by the Casey’s at 1800 N. 8th Street in Pekin today between 4 and 8 P.M. to help out the Howard family! Fun & games will be available for children of all ages, and proceeds go to benefit a good family that has accumulated some major medical bills for both of [...]

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Allllllllllllrighty then. After 81 posts at my last discussion of racism in Pekin, it’s time to close up shop there and start a new line of discussion. Let me take this opportunity to clarify a few things.
I’m not proposing any changes in the law of the land, despite the hysterical ramblings about “thought control” [...]

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I’ve wanted to post about this family before, but I couldn’t really say anything because of confidentiality issues. Now, however, they’re holding a benefit and the details of their tragedy have been made public. I want to do my part to call attention to their plight.
The Howards have two children, patients of my [...]

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Unfortunately, in this case, it seems that the children of Pekin are learning a legacy of hate. This past Wednesday, two boys, ten and eleven years old, circled a woman and her 2-year-old child (specific ethnicity not identified) on their bikes, repeatedly yelling racial slurs. One threw an empty soda can at the [...]

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