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PEORIA — History was made Tuesday night as the first woman and the first Black person was sworn in as Peoria's mayor.  Rita Ali beamed broadly as the oath of office was administered to her by newly elected City Clerk Stefanie Tarr, who then handed her the gavel while the room erupted in applause.  "I would be remiss if I did not mention the historic meaning of today. The city has elected its first woman after 185 years," Ali said, before noting she was also the first Black person to wield the mayor's gavel.  Her election, she hoped, would break down barriers and prejudices. 

WCBU Andre Allen believes Tuesday’s guilty verdicts in the case of George Floyd’s death can serve as a step in the right direction toward better community policing. “I think this will be something that we'll look back in our history as a turning point,” said Allen, the outgoing chairman of Peoria’s Police-Community Relations committee who was recently elected as the next Fourth District city council member. “I think it has an opportunity, even though it was a negative situation, to provide a lot of good when it comes to police accountability, which I think is very important whe...

Ragged around the edges and haphazardly hilarious though it may be, “Top Five” ultimately satisfies as an often raunchy ramble about celebrity, sobriety, selling out and sex, courtesy of the immensely talented but too-often subpar movie star Chris Rock. As befits this comedian who rarely feels the need to censor himself while riffing onstage or sounding off in an interview, there is both a frankness and a personal investment in this, his third directorial feature-film effort, that was sorely missing in 2003’s “Head of State” and 2007’s “I Think Love My Wife.” The need for “...

In the closest Peoria mayoral election in recent memory, Rita Ali has become the first Black person and the first woman to be elected to lead the city

Live election coverage: Peoria mayoral race too close to call, goes to mail ballots Journal Star staff So far in the Peoria mayoral race, it’s Montelongo. But not by much. By a 73-vote margin with 100% of precincts reporting Tuesday night, Jim Montelongo led Rita Ali for the right to be Peoria mayor for the next four years. Montelongo received 7,983 votes, or 50.23%. Ali received 7,910 votes, or 49.77%. The totals included election-day ballots from all 95 city precincts, as well as early and mail voting. © Supplied photos Rita Ali and Jim Montelongo Outstanding mail-in vo...