WilliamOnWarMemorial

Subject: Local News Was Punked by a Conman. Here's the Real Wolf Story They Missed

Do you good folks here in Peoria remember the segment a year or two back when our local news shills ran with full dramatic flourish about a “stolen wolf lawn ornament” replete with faux tears, outrage, the whole nine yards from the allegedly aggrieved homeowner? The whole jumbled story was treated like the theft of a National treasure by our local news darlings.

It was a lawn ornament, folks.

But here's the part you missed – or that the media didn’t bother to tell you: the actual living wolf hybrid (husky) doggo that belongs to that same “local treasure” of a tirading man is currently dying behind his hoarder-infested property and garage. There’s always a reason they position the news crews at the foot of the driveway – practically in the street to film the rage bait news piece – while they feign outrage and curated crocodile tears on cue for the cameras, now isn’t there, folks?

Because they don’t want you to see what’s hidden behind their carefully curated curtain of cruelty.

But see, here’s what y’all didn’t catch in that story: The real wolf is still there.

Not a statue. Not a prop. A living husky-wolf hybrid ~ old, sick, and dying ~ trapped behind a hoarder’s garage in the blistering July heat, abandoned by the same man you handed a mic to and called a victim back in 2023.

That man decried a stolen lawn ornament, dragged local media into his tirade – and because of his zip code and last name – the local media played right along like the good little propaganda puppets they are – as if the man were delivering the Gettysburg Address from his own driveway.

Meanwhile, the man’s REAL world/husky dog is currently languishing from a heat stroke in 90* weather over the 4th of July weekend. How do I know? I got a tip from a local Citizen’s Watch Group. Apparently that man who cries wolf all the time to local media and local LE is being watched by a group of neighbors who know who he REALLY is – and know the truth about him – and they are only too eager to tell it – if only someone would ask them.

So, after doing some vetting and recon of my own on this matter, I decided to join those concerned citizens and tell you all the REAL story about this local con man – who by the way has a history of felony fraud. So now, we here at the War Memorial Citizen’s Watch – we’re keeping an eye on that man and that hoarder property. We’ve seen what Animal Control won’t. We’ve documented what Code Enforcement won’t. We’ve called. We’ve begged with them for intervention. And what did we get back? Silence. Or worse – lies wrapped in intentional red tape and weaponized incompetence.

Current condition of his neglected, jailed and abandoned doggo in this July Prairie heat: Padlocked in a cage like he’s a prisoner at Rikers. His only crime is not dying before now, apparently. No regular access to fresh water, love, treats, walks or belly rubs. No relief from the heat except a hotbox of a plastic doghouse. No one who visits him. No one checking in. Just a man’s hand who shows him only cruelty behind that hoarder garage.

Huskies can heat stroke in 90* heat – and this wolf husky is far up in years and medically frail. Left for days of 90–100° heat – rotting in real time.

I watched that man cry crocodile tears over a lawn statue and y’all aired it like it was gospel on your local news. But when it comes to an actual living, wolf-husky, like a noble stead in doggo form- suffering on that same man’s watch? Not a whisper from our local media. Not a single follow-up – except to help the local grifter with his ongoing lies and promote the false narrative that the allegedly stolen lawn ornament was….checks notes “magically returned” without incident – or any proof of the veracity of that entire tall tale.

You could send a REAL news crew there today and find that dog and let freedom ring for a languishing animal in distress for Independence Day. The Fourth of July is a slow news day for the skeleton news crews. And everybody loves a rescued dog story. Especially old William here. They’re my favorite kind of news story.

Animal Control refused to intervene because he’s bourbon buddies with power people in elected office at the local Club where you and I aren’t welcome, friends. You know how small town politics play out here, folks. We’ve seen this kind of cronyism before here in Peoria. It’s just a different part of the same rot.

Sure – you’d have to get past the trip hazards and hoarder yard at the top of the driveway – to find the real noble wolf forsaken like yesterday’s garbage behind the rear garage – by that man who calls HIMSELF the victim. But isn’t that what investigative reporting is all about? I guess I wouldn’t know – it’s been so long since I’ve actually seen any such real reporting around these parts.

So just as a suggestion: maybe trade in the lawn ornament narrative for one that matters and stop selling your craven Corporate media souls for false “rampant thieves criming against the white community in Peoria – can you believe the nerve?!” puff pieces. Because the tip I got says the statue was never even stolen. The man had no proof of the theft and a maintenance worker found that lawn ornament hidden in that con man’s basement and threatened to go public and tell the truth on him. Which, by the way, is the ONLY reason he again – falsely – told the local news crew “Whew, what a relief – my lawn ornament was returned.”

You want to know why people don’t trust local media anymore and why your ratings are in the bucket? Because the real stories die in cages while the staged ones from “select zip codes” get local news prime time spots aired from the foot of the expensive driveway. Fair and balanced reporting, my foot. I’d surely love to see it here in Peoria. Even one time.

So if local news crews had any integrity left at all, you’d go back out there.

Only this time – with your eyes wide open. Asking the hard questions and seeking the REAL truth of the matter.

This isn’t about a lawn ornament. This is about the cost of silence and a man who is utterly shameless. He played you fools like a fiddle – from the local news – and you sang right along to his false tune.

Meanwhile, the real wolf remains hidden and abandoned behind the hoarder garage and is still crying out for somebody to save him. But I suppose that part of the story was just out of your news crew’s camera frame.

I’m William on War Memorial reporting live from the intersection of a car-sized pothole and a future Superfund site.

– William on War Memorial

Got tips for William to follow?

Email: rotinthecot@proton.me

They say it’s about safe water. But it’s not.

This week, Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed Senate Bill 2266 into law, hailed with flashy headlines and a stock photo of a faucet with clean running tap water to falsely make you believe he just saved your stinky tap water in Downstate Illinois. But look closer. The law doesn’t protect families drinking municipal toxic sludge water in Peoria IL or Decatur IL. It doesn't help the poisoned kids in Cairo or the rust-soaked renters in East St. Louis.

What did Governor Pritzker actually do with this Bill?

Governor Pritzker just signed a Bill with a feel-good headline: “Safe Drinking Water Standards Signed Into Law.” But if you're picturing kids in Peoria, Cahokia, or East St. Louis finally sipping clean, lead-free water—you've been had. This Bill is political sleight-of-hand, designed to look like progress while sacrificing the truly vulnerable to protect the bureaucrats, his cronies and regulatory cowards who let this crisis fester.

This Bill targets Christian church congregations, diners, daycares, schools, campgrounds, roadside cafés still surviving on well water in unincorporated zones across the State of Illinois. It gives the Illinois Department of Public Health sweeping powers to fine “non-community water systems” — meaning anyone who doesn't pay a utility company and dares to get their own water.

So while Peoria tap water still ranks among the worst in Illinois with 48 known contaminants, and is cracking people’s skin open with chloramine hell soup, Pritzker isn’t cleaning up that problem. He’s cracking down on Christians and Ma and Pop cafes in rural – and largely Republican – Downstate Illinois; and leaving Peoria’s uranium-spiked  and VOC-stew water untouched, untested and still clogging the old lead pipes like its a backroom favor to the nearest municipal water company.  Because it is.

And why? Because the federal government was about to strip Illinois of its water oversight powers for non-compliance. This Bill wasn't a bold State initiative to mandate immediate clean tap water now in Illinois. It was a panic compliance move to avoid federal takeover and keep corruption tucked safely inside Springfield. Pritzker just played end-round-around and is trying to out-maneuver the Feds with this Bill. And the tell is: this Bill (unlike most others signed in the Summer and don’t go into effect until the following January) – takes effect immediately.  As such, Governor Pritzker just turned safe drinking water in Downstate Illinois into a jurisdictional dodge and stated the following loud and clear for us all to hear:

Willow Knolls? Oh that’s community water – not covered by this law.

Peoria municipal lines? Not our department.

But that one Christian teacher’s retreat center between Washington and Metamora IL? We’re gonna fine the last penny out of them here in Illinois!

Let that sink in.

What the Bill Actually Does:

• Targets private well-water systems at local churches, diners, schools – largely in rural, Republican areas of Christian faith in Illinois;
• Allows the IL Dept. of Public Health to issue civil penalties (aka $$$ hefty fines) for violations. This means he’s ELEVATING the very agency that let this water crisis happen in Illinois to broader enforcement power over Republican Christians he doesn’t like;
• Assigns the Illinois Emergency Management Agency — the one still MIA for tornado victims — as lead clean water enforcer in Illinois to come for Christian dollars and Mom and Pop cafes. They now have the right to impose civil fines and penalties on the Christian churches with a water hose;
• Applies zero pressure to fix or enforce quality at urban (municipal) tap water systems which have been in crisis mode for years.

That’s right. While entire cities like Peoria IL and Decatur IL are drowning in PFAS, lead, and manganese from broken municipal pipes, this Bill is going after the Lutherans with a hose and the 4H barn with a spigot.

So your tap water is still gonna be complete poison in Peoria.  And now your church can be fined for offering a glass of lemonade with well water.

This isn’t justice. It’s fascist water control and a public, performative health fraud perpetrated in a blazer by the Pritzker Administration.

Because Meanwhile in Real-World Downstate Illinois...

• Peoria’s tap water has 48 contaminants, including radioactive elements.
• Peoria's water pipes predate the moon landing and boil orders are frequent enough to make a person question it all.
• Rural towns like Galesburg and Cairo report brown water and still nobody in the Illinois government cares.

But this State’s chosen strategy under Pritzker? “Make an example out of the Baptists and the Catholics and grab their money while we’re at it.”

The Real Motive

This Bill isn’t about public health. It’s about optics. It gives Springfield cover when the Feds eventually step in and ask, “What did Illinois do to protect its citizens?”

Now they can say: “We passed legislation! We issued fines!” Never mind that:

• Community water systems, where most people actually live, are exempt from clean water standards. .
• The worst actors—urban municipal water companies and old, mold-ridden plumbing—won’t be touched or improved in Downstate IL during this decade.

Who Gets Protected?

Not the children of Peoria. Not the tenants in Peoria’s many slumlord properties. Not the elderly in mobile homes near Collinsville with uranium in their water. They get PR blitzes from JB – not water purification.

Meanwhile, the State agencies responsible for this catastrophe get new powers to wreck rural water sources through fines. IDPH and IEMA—who've ignored whistleblower reports for years—now get to show up at Christian church pancake breakfasts and threaten fines over a cloudy test tube.

Final Thoughts on this Farce

This is not a clean water law. It is a bureaucratic face-saving maneuver that weaponizes enforcement against the harmless to distract from those truly harming Illinoisans.

If you're still drinking tap water in Downstate Illinois, congratulations. You're the guinea pig. And Pritzker's new law won't help you escape your cancer cluster from contaminated tap water anytime soon.

But it might finally bankrupt a Protestant retreat center in Bartonville for having a slightly elevated nitrate reading.

So, while this Governor stages photo ops with faucets he never drinks from – the good people of Downstate IL are literally drowning in tap water rot.

Illinois didn’t pass a clean water law. Governor Pritzker passed a control law over Christians and Ma & Pop cafes to water-fine them out of existence.

And the State still won't test the pipes here in Peoria – or the rest of Downstate IL. Or fix the ones they know are killing us.

So go ahead, JB. Sign your bills. Smile for the cameras. But don’t think for one second that the people drinking tainted tap water and breathing in benzene in our Downstate showers are fooled.

We know who this Bill was really aiming for – because THIS TIME you made it very obvious you have now come for the Christians in Downstate Illinois.  And that’s not just discriminatory legislation.  It’s shameful.

— I’m William on War Memorial in Peoria IL

They say it’s about safe water. But it’s not.

This week, Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed Senate Bill 2266 into law, hailed with flashy headlines and a stock photo of a faucet with clean running tap water to falsely make you believe he just saved your stinky tap water in Downstate Illinois. But look closer. The law doesn’t protect families drinking municipal toxic sludge water in Peoria IL or Decatur IL. It doesn't help the poisoned kids in Cairo or the rust-soaked renters in East St. Louis.

What did Governor Pritzker actually do with this Bill?

Governor Pritzker just signed a Bill with a feel-good headline: “Safe Drinking Water Standards Signed Into Law.” But if you're picturing kids in Peoria, Cahokia, or East St. Louis finally sipping clean, lead-free water—you've been had. This Bill is political sleight-of-hand, designed to look like progress while sacrificing the truly vulnerable to protect the bureaucrats, his cronies and regulatory cowards who let this crisis fester.

This Bill targets Christian church congregations, diners, daycares, schools, campgrounds, roadside cafés still surviving on well water in unincorporated zones across the State of Illinois. It gives the Illinois Department of Public Health sweeping powers to fine “non-community water systems” — meaning anyone who doesn't pay a utility company and dares to get their own water.

So while Peoria tap water still ranks among the worst in Illinois with 48 known contaminants, and is cracking people’s skin open with chloramine hell soup, Pritzker isn’t cleaning up that problem. He’s cracking down on Christians and Ma and Pop cafes in rural – and largely Republican – Downstate Illinois; and leaving Peoria’s uranium-spiked  and VOC-stew water untouched, untested and still clogging the old lead pipes like its a backroom favor to the nearest municipal water company.  Because it is. 

And why? Because the federal government was about to strip Illinois of its water oversight powers for non-compliance. This Bill wasn't a bold State initiative to mandate immediate clean tap water now in Illinois. It was a panic compliance move to avoid federal takeover and keep corruption tucked safely inside Springfield. Pritzker just played end-round-around and is trying to out-maneuver the Feds with this Bill. And the tell is: this Bill (unlike most others signed in the Summer and don’t go into effect until the following January) – takes effect immediately.  As such, Governor Pritzker just turned safe drinking water in Downstate Illinois into a jurisdictional dodge and stated the following loud and clear for us all to hear: 

Willow Knolls? Oh that’s community water – not covered by this law. 

Peoria municipal lines? Not our department. 

But that one Christian teacher’s retreat center between Washington and Metamora IL? We’re gonna fine the last penny out of them here in Illinois!  

Let that sink in.

What the Bill Actually Does:

• Targets private well-water systems at local churches, diners, schools – largely in rural, Republican areas of Christian faith in Illinois;
• Allows the IL Dept. of Public Health to issue civil penalties (aka $$$ hefty fines) for violations. This means he’s ELEVATING the very agency that let this water crisis happen in Illinois to broader enforcement power over Republican Christians he doesn’t like; 
• Assigns the Illinois Emergency Management Agency — the one still MIA for tornado victims — as lead clean water enforcer in Illinois to come for Christian dollars and Mom and Pop cafes. They now have the right to impose civil fines and penalties on the Christian churches with a water hose;
• Applies zero pressure to fix or enforce quality at urban (municipal) tap water systems which have been in crisis mode for years.

That’s right. While entire cities like Peoria IL and Decatur IL are drowning in PFAS, lead, and manganese from broken municipal pipes, this Bill is going after the Lutherans with a hose and the 4H barn with a spigot.

So your tap water is still gonna be complete poison in Peoria.  And now your church can be fined for offering a glass of lemonade with well water.

This isn’t justice. It’s fascist water control and a public, performative health fraud perpetrated in a blazer by the Pritzker Administration.

Because Meanwhile in Real-World Downstate Illinois...

• Peoria’s tap water has 48 contaminants, including radioactive elements.
• Peoria's water pipes predate the moon landing and boil orders are frequent enough to make a person question it all.
• Rural towns like Galesburg and Cairo report brown water and still nobody in the Illinois government cares.

But this State’s chosen strategy under Pritzker? “Make an example out of the Baptists and the Catholics and grab their money while we’re at it.”

The Real Motive

This Bill isn’t about public health. It’s about optics. It gives Springfield cover when the Feds eventually step in and ask, “What did Illinois do to protect its citizens?”

Now they can say: “We passed legislation! We issued fines!” Never mind that:

• Community water systems, where most people actually live, are exempt from clean water standards. .
• The worst actors—urban municipal water companies and old, mold-ridden plumbing—won’t be touched or improved in Downstate IL during this decade. 

Who Gets Protected?

Not the children of Peoria. Not the tenants in Peoria’s many slumlord properties. Not the elderly in mobile homes near Collinsville with uranium in their water. They get PR blitzes from JB – not water purification.

Meanwhile, the State agencies responsible for this catastrophe get new powers to wreck rural water sources through fines. IDPH and IEMA—who've ignored whistleblower reports for years—now get to show up at Christian church pancake breakfasts and threaten fines over a cloudy test tube.

Final Thoughts on this Farce

This is not a clean water law. It is a bureaucratic face-saving maneuver that weaponizes enforcement against the harmless to distract from those truly harming Illinoisans.

If you're still drinking tap water in Downstate Illinois, congratulations. You're the guinea pig. And Pritzker's new law won't help you escape your cancer cluster from contaminated tap water anytime soon.  

But it might finally bankrupt a Protestant retreat center in Bartonville for having a slightly elevated nitrate reading.

So, while this Governor stages photo ops with faucets he never drinks from – the good people of Downstate IL are literally drowning in tap water rot.

Illinois didn’t pass a clean water law. Governor Pritzker passed a control law over Christians and Ma & Pop cafes to water-fine them out of existence. 

And the State still won't test the pipes here in Peoria – or the rest of Downstate IL. Or fix the ones they know are killing us.

So go ahead, JB. Sign your bills. Smile for the cameras. But don’t think for one second that the people drinking tainted tap water and breathing in benzene in our Downstate showers are fooled.

We know who this Bill was really aiming for – because THIS TIME you made it very obvious you have now come for the Christians in Downstate Illinois.  And that’s not just discriminatory legislation.  It’s shameful.  

— I’m William on War Memorial in Peoria IL 

The Local News Told Part of the Truth Regarding AQI On Red A/K/A Peoria: Come for the Corruption, Clap for all the New Cancer Clinics

So, the talk around the kitchen table this week in Corn & Soy Flyover Country, Central Illinois is that Peoria, IL currently has the worst air quality conditions in the World.

In. The. World.

Clock that, my dear friends in Peoria.

Pretty, shocking – right? Especially since they are blaming the Canadian wildfires. And while that crisis isn't helping Peoria any – the local news left out a few important details that I would like to fill in for your, friends.

One might ask: How can Peoria be WORSE than say – Des Moines Iowa when they are geographically CLOSER to the Canadian wildfires than Peoria IL is. And that may seem like a dumb question to some but Old Uncle William was raised in a different Era, when people used to say: “The only dumb question is the one you didn't ask and left still not understanding something...”

But science and the environment are not always linear and tidy.

So, yes, as I type this the current AQI (stand for Air Quality Index) is 150 in Peoria IL. That's pretty bad, friends. And easy to blame Canada. But you'd be missing half the plot – and the rot – if you didn't scrutinize that local news “fear-mongering story” a little more.

The truth is Peoria has been Illinois' dumping ground for all things toxic for DECADES. I don't know who made the deal to allow such a quaint little river town become the dumpster fire dumping ground of the State – but you know how it is – these elected politicos make a deal ~ and the unsuspecting people are left with the fallout.

Yes, Peoria's AQI is bad right now. But let's list some contributory factors, shall we? I mean besides blaming our friendly Canadian neighbors to our North. Peoria IL is a hot zone of multiple and overlapping environmental toxic disasters.

1. Utility Pole Clusters: Ancient and rotting old utility poles are a severe health and safety risk in Peoria IL. Cluster them altogether in front of low income apartments and nobody notices a thing. But even those that are merely OLD and not in clusters are leaching:

   • Creosote: Utility poles are soaked in this carcinogenic tar sludge which off-gasses something known as PAHs (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) even decades after installation.
   • Pentachlorophenol & Arsenic: Used in older pole treatment, which Peoria is riddled with: Wind + Heat = vaporization of these slow leaking death sticks.

2. Unremediated Underground Storage Tanks a/k/a USTs: What is an underground storage tank? I'm so glad you asked. It is metal tanks that usually contain/hold gasoline, diesel, industrial chemicals or dry cleaning solvents. They were installed all over the place before the EPA even existed – usually under old gas stations, closed factories, dry cleaners and even apartment buildings. The real kicker? Most of these USTs were abandoned decades ago. Nobody cleaned them up so they are called “unremediated” which for you and me means “the government made the mess but then refused to clean it up.” Again, leaving a hidden and silent killer for the people to clean it up.

Why are they such a harmful problem? Because they leak. Like, a lot. And over time, metal tanks rust, crack, degrade and then ooze toxic junk into your soil. And this leaky tank stuff doesn't stay underground – it evaporates and seeps into the air, into your homes, your basements and your schools. You literally BREATHE the wreckage these underground storage tanks left behind. An unremediated UST is like a leaky underground gas can slowly poisoning your neighborhood – and nobody is doing a single thing about it. You know how when you get gas at the Circle K and there's all kinds of warnings about vapors and combustion and to not fill up during the hot parts of the day during the Summer? Same thing – only the gas leaking and vaporizing from the underground storage tanks is older and more volatile. Because these underground storage tanks leak: *Benzene, Toluene, Ethylbenzene and Xylene (BTEX compounds) leach into soil and vaporize into the air. * These old tanks from gas stations or factories are still in place, especially near Main and Sheridan as just one location. * Vapor intrusion into nearby buildings is common and unmonitored in Peoria's East Bluff and Southside.

And if you're asking yourself, as I once did, whose dumb idea was it to bury metal tanks under the ground where they were certain to cause environmental havoc? The gloriously dumb origin of USTs is about what you might expect: Back in the early 20th century, when gasoline was cheap and the EPA did not even exist (because nobody gave a lick about these matters – yet), someone had a “brilliant” idea: “Hey, what if we hide these giant metal tanks full of flammable cancer-causing chemicals...underground? So, they don't blow up and look ugly?”

That was it: that was the logic. The “benefits” of this “brilliance” were claimed to be: space saving (above ground tanks took up lots of space and were an eyesore); Fire Safety Theater – “If it's buried, it won't explode as easily” – which was technically true...until they started leaking decades ago. And the ever popular: Out of sight, out of mind economics – because maintenance was expensive on these old tanks. Burying this problem meant pretending it wasn't their problem anymore. But the problems nobody back then thought about?

• Corrosion (um, hello, metal + ground moisture + time = rust soup
• Tank lifespan: they thought these would last forever – with no data on that idea.
• Vapor intrusion: Chemicals like benzene and toluene literally evaporate upward into buildings.
• Mapping or tracking: Half of these old tanks were just forgotten, undocumented or lost to time like the Ark of the Covenant. Only no blessings with these relics – just bad air + carcinogens = cancer clusters in Central Illinois.

WHEN DID THEY REALIZE THIS WAS A HORRIFIC IDEA? 1984 – Congress passed the first UST regulation laws under the RCRA (Resource Conservation and Recovery Act) mostly because:

• Leaks were destroying aquifers
• People were getting cancer from their basements
• Towns were literally blowing up from vapor buildup! But by then? Millions of these USTs were already buried and forgotten. And today? Many were never removed. The ones that leaked? Still leaking.

The ones that “pass inspection”? Probably regulatory lying.

And the morons who buried all these tanks? Long dead or now chairing zoning boards. USTs are like being forced to live on top of a Time Bomb of Chronic Disease Graveyard.

1. Dry Cleaner Runoff: I bet you never suspected your friendly local dry cleaners as being a puddle of toxic runoff, did you? Well, they are. They are notorious for runoff off:

* Tetrachloroethyene (PERC): A neurotoxic dry-cleaning solvent that turns into trichloroethylene (TCE) and vinyl chloride in soil. This is a known carcinogen linked to leukemia and Parkinson's Disease.

* Peoria has decades of unregulated dumping, especially at Mom and Pop shops, that closed years ago without any environmental cleanup.

* Want to see what dry cleaner runoff can do to the ground – to make you wonder what it's doing in your air? Just visit the Dollar Tree on Lake and in the Kroger complex and ask yourself why that parking lot is relentlessly riddled with pot holes far too dangerous for most cars to safely travel. It's not because they don't resurface the lot – because they do. It's because Dollar Tree is DOWNHILL from the Dry Cleaner runoff. Also, that mechanic shop next door at the top of the hill next to the dry cleaners? I dare you to Google the kind of sludge places like that do to the environment with their own runoff sludge.

1. Caterpillar, Inc. (CAT) Chemical Legacy Now I know you folks dependent on a paycheck from Cat are going to be quick to rush to their defense; because that's how it always goes in small towns in desperate need of good paying jobs. But the environmental record on Caterpillar is worrisome to those who care about these things:

   • Heavy metals: Hexavalent chromium, cadmium and lead dust from machining.
   • Solvent degreasers used in manufacturing leach into the ground then volatilize into homes and schools.
   • Open air storage and transport of waste leaves particulate matter to drift across entire neighborhoods.

2. BigAg Runoff (Pesticides, Herbicides and Fertilizer Dust, oh my!) Atrazine, glysophate and anhydrous ammonia all go airborne during spraying. So breath in deep, little Bobby, because that's the glysophate in your lungs.

   • Illinois' fertilizer plants and rail transport hubs add ammonia vapor and nitrate dust into Peoria's poor air quality cocktail.

3. Low-lying River Valley Topography Peoria sits in a natural bowl along the Illinois River – perfect for trapping airborne pollutants. Temperature inversions frequently occur causing warm air to sit on top of cooler polluted air, pressing it downward.

• Wind stagnation = a terrarium of toxic funk.

1. Lead Pipes, Galvanized Steel and Rusty Water * Volatile metals like lead, iron and manganese corrode in water pipes and off-gas through fixtures. * In homes without proper ventilation, warm indoor air can vaporize metal-laced moisture into your breathing space. * High chlorination + corrosion = chloroform vapors indoors, especially in older Peoria housing.

HOT ZONES OF ENVIRONMENTAL YIKES IN PEORIA:

1. North Valley/East Bluff – USTs, poor housing and utility pole clusters.

2. Sheridan/Main Corridor – Mobil Station + apartment Sick Building Syndrome and utility pole clusters

3. South Peoria: Legacy CAT dumping, river silt storms, lead-rich soil.

4. West War Memorial Drive- Hybrid hazard zone USTs, gas stations and old housing make this area especially problematic.

• This list is not all-inclusive – just serves as a frightening example of a few.

Ever catch a sweet chemical smell in the air here in Peoria? You can't SEE it – but some people swear they can smell it. We call those folks our prophet bloodhound neighbors who can literally SMELL that something is wrong here – but they can't name it. Well, now they can. Because that sweet smell could be benzene, toluene or vinyl chloride – all linked to cancer, liver failure and brain damage. Some of these chemicals are even heavier than the air – so they hang low- right where your kids play and crawl.

PEORIA'S BAD AIR NOT ENTIRELY CANADA'S FAULT Let's break this myth right now and hard. Sure, the Canadian wildfires are not helping Peoria's problematic air quality; but when the wildfires surrender, you’ll still have air filled with invisible VOCs (volatile organic compounds). Think of your bipolar cousin Nelly – only everywhere in the Peoria air you breathe. Nobody wants THAT! Canada's wildfires are episodic; Peoria's poor AQI is chronic for so many environmental reasons. The AQI may spike during wildfires; but Peoria's air quality baseline is already making you sicker by the day.

So, the next time you hear the local weather guy gaslighting you about the “sudden poor air quality” in Peoria, don't believe there is anything new or novel about it. The Corporate legacy media just found a convenient scapegoat to temporarily blame for Peoria's long term air, soil and water toxicity problems. Forget Canadian smoke. Peoria has been marinating in its own gaslighting to hide its toxic soup for decades.

THIS is decades of environmental neglect weaponized against Peoria residents now briefly trending because the AQI score got high enough to suddenly concern Karen of the white-collar cul-de-sac in Peoria Heights for a day or two. No worries. She will go on mixing her baby's formula with the toxic tap water, once the wildfires have passed. But then don't be surprised when you see Karen's GoFundMe for her child with leukemia in roughly 3-5 years.

The poor people of Peoria have been forced to eat, sleep, breathe, drink and walk on known carcinogens and cancer for decades. But now that it's hit Peoria Heights, it's suddenly a crisis for you? Shame on you. You should have cared when the cancer clusters first showed up here and immediately worked to source your own local Erin Brackovich of Peoria to call next level bullpuckey on all of this.

But you didn't.

So, now you all know: If your zip code starts with 616 – better start your GoFundMe NOW- for your family's chronic illness and cancer treatments. Because you're gonna need it.

So, take a deep breath, Peoria. Because this bad air you're so suddenly alarmed about? It's just an ordinary Saturday in the cancer-creeping air over this lazy little river town turned toxin dumpster for the whole State. You'll be alright. As long as your definition of alright includes chemo treatments twice a week and an abnormal number of funerals you need to attend for your loved ones before you even turn 40. Because in Peoria we don't say “breathe easy” we say: Try not to cough your cancer blood upon your SNAP card, please. Retail clerks frown on you sharing your corrosive bodily fluids trauma.

REPUGNANT ENVIRONMENTAL STATE NEGLECT:

Peoria's air, soil and water did not become toxic by accident. It became toxic because: * Peoria became the dumping ground for Downstate IL industry;

* Peoria is an afterthought for IDPH and IEPA regulators who just look away

* Peoria is the canary in the poisoned coal mine for Illinois' environmental triage system. Peoria is not a fluke. Peoria is what happens when State agencies decide unilaterally that poor people and neighborhoods = disposable. If Peoria actually had citizen activists passionate enough about these issues, the EPA would have declared a State of Emergency in Peoria over a decade ago. They rely on your apathy and you freely hand it over to them, friends.

So, why does it smell like metal and despair in Peoria all the time? Because Peoria is the State's toxic dumping ground and has been for decades. And here's why that red AQI the local meteorologists keep banging on about isn't ONLY Canada in Peoria – it's because Peoria is the poster child for: Chlorinated. Industrial.Illinois. With: Abandoned/ghost USTs, Creosote Utility poles, CAT legacy waste, dry cleaner and car repair runoff sludge, salty lead pipes + massive chlorine, pesticide/ag dust, low topography, indoor mold, especially in older homes that are poorly vented and rail diesel corridors (known as the “silent killer” of American urban zones.)

The AQI Report is red but the Peoria EPA Report is blacked out and redacted.

And if you doubt ol Uncle William calling out the environmental crisis in Peoria, just take the USTs as an example. You'd think dumpy Decatur would have the large majority of those pesky pots of cancer under your land, wouldn't you? Nope. It's not even close. In Downstate IL, Peoria has the most unremediated underground storage tanks of any other town totaling 289, followed by Decatur at 183 and Springfield at 145 USTs.

But cheer up, friends. All those shiny new cancer clinics going up all over Peoria and in the outlying surrounding towns and the new cancer wings at the area hospitals? That's your future waiting room when you, too, have become but a tragic statistic no one cares about as 1 of thousands of cancer clusters in Peoria. Sickness is a million dollar industry in Peoria as millionaires plunder and profit off people's pain. Because without CAT, BigAg and a complete lack of environmental regulation or oversight – you might live a long and cancer-free life in Peoria. But the millionaires need you to be sick – so their stock portfolios skyrocket.

Because if you don't find it ~off~ that people under 65 have had cancer multiple times as natives in Peoria, then you simply cannot be moved to find anything alarming or off – ever.

IF all this strikes you as mildly terrifying – good for you, you still have a pulse and a functioning frontal lobe in your brain. Because remember, friends: Nothing says Downstate happiness like a slow drip of creosote, carcinogens, a lovely bouquet of airborne solvents and VOCs and typical bureaucratic shrugs to ALL of this invisible evil – slowly killing the good people of Peoria, IL.

Reporting live from the intersection of a cracked curb and a car-sized pothole on War Memorial, this is WilliamOnWarMemorial