5 questions: ‘Art ought to be genuine, not predictable or stereotypical’

PEORIA’S EAST BLUFF – After decades working in the mental health field, 74-year-old Paul Adams started concentrating on music in several forms: as a craftsman building stringed instruments for well-known creators such as Daryl Hall and far-lesser-known talents; as a guitarist playing an eclectic mix of genres like New Age, Americana and traditional singer-songwriter work; and collaborating with other musicians to produce some jazz and a little World Music (literally, partnering with artists from Africa and Australia).

He’s successful as a musician. Adams’ 13 albums have more than 138 million streams, gained airplay on satellite radio and other platforms, won music awards, and earned praise from guitarist Gary Green (of Gentle Giant, Mother Tongue, Three Friends) and producer Norbert Putnam (who’s helmed projects by Joan Baez, Jimmy Buffett and Dan Fogelberg). But he hasn’t limited himself to music. He’s a writer, photographer and poet, too.

Despite a busy schedule, he made time to answer the Community Word’s “Five Questions” over coffee. 

 

1.  What do you appreciate about art, whether visual art, theater, music, literature…?

I want it to feel … genuine, I guess I’d say – not predictable or stereotypical. Art doesn’t have to say something to me as much as make me feel something

 

2.  What are some of your current music projects?
I’m working with Australian singer/lyricist Elizabeth Geyer – who I’ve worked with before – on an album, “Why,” and also with Mufrika Edward from Zambia. He’s plays the kalimba [a small African musical instrument also called a thumb piano. Almost like a dulcimer combined with a music box, it has metal tines atop a wooden board played by plucking the tines with thumbs, yielding a pleasant, easygoing sound]. We’ll be released a single, “I’m A Happy Man.”

 

3. As a listener, what’s your preferred medium?

I like CDs  for the sound and the physicality [but] my favorite is probably Spotify. Of course, Pandora and Sirius XM are good – and they’re my bread and butter.

 

4.  I’ve seen photos of you and your dog. What’s that story?

Seamus is my dog’s name; I love Irish names – my last one was Liam. I got Seamus – then named Rascal – in Burlington, Iowa. There was no peace for three years. Now Seamus, 7, is just full of love and beauty and joy.

 

5. What’s a go-to refuge for you? Hiking? Poetry?

I like books and a well-made movie, especially Frank Capra. I even have a signed copy of one of his books. Capra really had a sense of spirituality.

There’s a ‘right to vote.’ Right?

Entering the Tazewell County Clerk’s office in the Mckenzie building in downtown Pekin, visitors see a wall rack of state Board of Elections brochures with titles like “Voting by Mail” and “Preventing Voter Fraud,” and a friendly staff working a year before the next federal election.

In Peoria, the Peoria County Election Commission along Brandywine Drive likewise is abuzz with activity; phones are ringing and faces are smiling and bright.

But there’s a shadow, increasingly dark, from Illinois to Washington, D.C.

Days before the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments about removing one of the last pieces of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) – 60 years after it passed – local election authorities and voting-rights advocates are talking about the right to vote. Several issues are nagging at that right:

* Gutting the VRA and guardrails on redistricting

* Mandating new voter IDs

* Jeopardizing mail-in ballots

* Questioning voter machines

* Federal demands for voter data, including personal information

 

PROTECTING THOSE HISTORICALLY PREVENTED FROM VOTING

The Supreme Court in mid-October heard arguments in Robinson v. Callais and Louisiana v. Callais, combined to challenge a court decision outlawing a new Louisiana district because it diluted minority voting power. The Court could eliminate the VRA’s Section 2, which prohibits race-based redistricting (gerrymandering) when it reduces minority power. Plaintiffs describing themselves as “non-African American voters” say creating a Black-majority district is itself racial gerrymandering.

Chris Kaergard, a longtime government reporter and now president of the League of Women Voters of Greater Peoria, commented, “As to the Louisiana v. Callais case, I'd point to the actual title of the Voting Rights Act: ‘An Act to Enforce the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution’ [which states voting rights “shall not be denied or abridged … on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude”].

“The people who wrote the law -- including central Illinois' own Everett Dirksen – were clear on what they wanted to accomplish, and Congress has been clear that it believes in those provisions by extending the bill repeatedly on bipartisan votes. They knew 60 years ago there were voices missing from the table that were needed to ensure our political discourse involved everyone. In fact, when the VRA was passed, there was not a single Black member serving in the U.S. Senate – the first Black senator to be popularly elected didn't take his seat until 1967, and only a handful of African-Americans serving in the House. That didn't look at all like America. In truth, the Congress still doesn't. But it looks a lot closer to the way our country looks now than it did a few decades ago. You've got to think that improved access to the polls and drawing boundaries that keep communities of interest together has played some role in that – particularly in states and regions that had a legacy of shutting access to certain groups.”

Mark Morial, President of the Urban League, said, “American democracy is under siege, a national pattern of voter suppression, restricting access to the ballot through voting-roll purges, reduced polling locations, gerrymandering and ID laws.”

Indeed, in 2013 Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the opinion in Shelby v. Holder, which killed the VRA requirement for federal preclearance in voting changes by states that used to deny people, mostly African Americans, the right to vote, and assured that Sec. 2 would still protect voting rights.

If the 2025 Court kills Sec. 2, Republicans could redraw up to 19 Congressional seats to favor the GOP and crush minority voters’ influence in the House, rendering Blacks a “right” without impact. As Justice Thurgood Marshall said in 1980, such a right “provides the politically powerless with nothing more than the right to cast meaningless ballots.”

It’s possible the Court could issue its decision before next November’s “off-year” election, and in campaign years without a presidential race, the party in power usually loses congressional seats.

 

OTHER REDISTRICTING MISCHIEF

Trump weeks ago asked Texas to redistrict Democrat-leaning districts to create GOP-friendly districts to gain an edge in the 2026 House election, and Texas complied. Districts are usually adjusted after the decade’s Census, so it’s unprecedented as far as timing as well as purpose.

Other Republican-majority states are considering it. Missouri has redistricted a Democratic-leaning district in Kansas City and is being challenged in court, and conservative lawmakers in Florida, Indiana and Louisiana may follow suit. However, Democratic-majority states are trying to counter the move, from California to Utah. Illinois may, too, and Politico reports that Gov. Pritzker has not ruled out a counter-move reportedly targeting Right-wing stalwart Mary Miller in the 15^th District.

“None of us want to do it,” he said. “But if we’re forced to, it’s something we’ll consider.”

 

‘SHOW ME YOUR PAPERS’

A new attempt to require more forms of identification, the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, passed the House in April 220–208. If approved in the Senate, it would require documentary proof of U.S. citizenship, such as a birth certificate or passport, when registering to vote.

“It's hard to conceive a point of the SAVE Act that doesn't center on suppressing the vote,” Kaergard says. “Surely it's not to prevent non-citizens from voting. That's already against federal law. Laws in all 50 states also already require that someone registering to vote has to affirm or verify their citizenship. The SAVE Act is certainly not designed to make it easier for anyone who has ever changed their name because of marriage, divorce, remarriage, adoption or any other common reason. Anyone in that position who's gotten their REAL-ID knows the burden of locating all those original documents. Try having to do that any time you register or re-register.

“Create extra hoops, and fewer people will want to take the time to jump through them -- and their voices as citizens will be silenced in an arena they're constitutionally guaranteed,” Kaergard continues. “The right to vote is sacrosanct. For more than 160 years, the country has slowly but systematically expanded voting rights. This isn't the time to take a step backward.”

 

MAIL-IN BALLOTS RETURNED TO SENDER?

Also recently heard at the Supreme Court was Bost v. Illinois Board of Elections, which argues that accepting ballots postmarked Election Day 14 days after is unconstitutional. Brought by Republican Congressman Mike Bost from southern Illinois, the lawsuit was dismissed by lower courts that ruled that the claim failed to show an injury from the “grace period” practice.

Mail-in ballots have dramatically grown since 2016, says the always cheery Tazewell County Clerk John C. Ackerman, “It hasn’t been a problem. Each state is a bit different, but it’s a long-standing practice in Illinois.

Kaergard adds, “Illinois has operated elections effectively with mail-in ballots for years, and we've seen races change course because of them. If you're a snowbird, or headed on a trip, or just don't want to risk the roads being clear during a late February city primary election, your vote should still count. We also know from news this past year that our local election authorities are diligent about ensuring a mail-in voter can't vote on Election Day without being caught and facing consequences. Claiming somehow that there is a problem with the existing mail-in ballot rules defies all the evidence to the contrary.”

 

DOUBTING VOTING MACHINES WITHOUT CAUSE

“The exact same can be said about voting machines,” Kaergard says. “Local election authorities here keep paper records of the votes as well. They're double checked as a matter of law as part of the final certification process. It's hard to argue there's election-machine fraud when there are records to check that can prove the exact opposite point: We have well-run, transparent, secure elections and responsible officials who conduct them.”

In Peoria, election commission Executive Director Elizabeth Gannon says Peoria’s system scans voters’ ballots and saves paper copies – “and is not connected to the internet.”

 

FEDS’ WANT PRIVATE DETAILS IN DATA GRAB

Illinois is among 21 states that have received threatening requests to turn over sensitive voter data to the U.S. Dept. of Justice. It would be “the largest set of national voter-roll data it has ever collected,” the New York Times reported, “to try to prove long-running, unsubstantiated claims that droves of undocumented immigrants have voted.”

 

 

 

Like most states, Illinois declined because the information includes personal details such as drivers license data and Social Security numbers, and the DOJ is suing several “blue” states to better identify voters. Other states considering released the personal information include Florida, Indiana and South Carolia.

Ackerman shrugs and says, “There may be a little validity to it in that there might be overlapping or repetitive names, but it could be too intrusive, and it’s not necessary. Local authorities run the show, and we’re always cleaning voter rolls, whether [through] the reminder cards election years or throughout the off-years.”

Gannon agrees: “Illinois is a ‘bottom-up” system handled better at the local level.”

However, Trump asserted executive power.

“Remember, the States are merely an ‘agent’ for the Federal Government in counting and tabulating the votes,” he posted on Truth Social. “They must do what the Federal Government, as represented by the President of the United States, tells them.”

Benjamin Ginsberg, former general counsel for the Republican National Committee disagreed, saying, “He doesn’t have the constitutional power to take over and run elections. What he can do is continue to try to delegitimize the election system so he can make up his own results.”

David Becker, director of the nonpartisan Center for Election Innovation & Research, said, “There is zero federal law that entitles the Department of Justice to that sensitive data.”

Indeed, constitutional scholars say states aren’t just agents of the federal government when it comes to holding elections. The Elections Clause of the Constitution (Article I, Section 4, Clause 1), gives the feds control over the times, places and manner of holding elections, subject only to congressional, not presidential, action.

 

WHY IS THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION SO CONCERNED?

Ackerman says there’s a lot of misinformation, but he invites concerned citizens to “come in with questions and talk to us, and we’ll show them what we do.”

Historian Heather Cox Richardson said Trump’s scheme to redistrict in the GOP’s favor is revealing, commenting, “The President of the United States is openly admitting that his party cannot win a free and fair election.”

Others say Trump wants to discredit elections, period. Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read, a Democrat, said Trump is using “the DOJ to go after his political opponents and undermine our elections,” and Pritzker echoed that, commenting that Trump would “just claim that there’s some problem – and then he’s got troops on the ground that can take control.”

Asked about how election authorities feel when facing such challenges, Gannon doesn’t roll her eyes, instead taking a deep breath and smiling.

“We work hard at ensuring democracy happens,” she says. “Especially in these times.”

Trump’s disapproval rises with shutdown, other ‘war on workers’ actions

This month started with a shutdown that followed weeks of unending controversies from the White House and the President personally, and the chaos – whether planned or not – has resulted in popular support dropping like an anvil in a koi pond.

The 15^th shutdown since 1981, the current standoff took effect after the GOP’s temporary funding “Continuing Resolution” proposal got 55 votes – 5 short of what’s required to overcome a filibuster – an important tool for a minority party.

Trump and his toadies have blamed Democrats for the shutdown, which has meant about 750,000 federal workers missing paychecks. The President has said Democrats seek free health care for violent criminals and Vice President Vance said Democrats want “health care for illegal aliens” (both statements labeled “a lie” by CNN).

In fact, the key issue is extending tax credits that have made health insurance more affordable for millions of U.S. citizens since the COVID pandemic. After the Republican Congress and Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” those subsidies – for low- and middle-income people who purchase health insurance through the Affordable Care Act – are scheduled to end in December unless Congress extends them. That would more than double what subsidized enrollees currently pay for premiums, according to KFF, a nonprofit that researches health-care issues.

Besides the shutdown, recent weeks’ actions and blunders include Trump’s wacky speech filled with exaggerations and falsehoods at the United Nations; blaming “antifa” and the Left for violence when the government’s own statistics show that Right-wing violence is far more common; the unhinged and insulting remarks he and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made to U.S. military leaders (saying that the nation is “under invasion from within” and that U.S. cities should be “training grounds” to target domestic “enemies”); praising the (temporary) silencing of late-night host Jimmy Kimmel; Trump’s ongoing false statements about violence in "blue" cities – a pretext for sending troops to punish political foes; rescinding funding approved by Congress – again, to blue states; dodging a discharge petition to release the Epstein files by having House Speaker Mike Johnson refusing to seat Arizona’s newly elected Democratic Congresswoman Adelita Grijalva; indicting a former FBI director after firing a federal prosecutor who found no evidence of wrongdoing; and threatening to fire – not temporarily furlough – thousands more federal workers, an illegal move.

It's a “war on workers,” The Nation magazine says.

During his 2024 campaign, Trump promised to fight for workers, saying, “You’re going to have the American Dream back,” adding, “I’ve dealt with unions my whole life. I have a great relationship with unions.”

Once his inauguration occurred, reality reared an ugly truth. Some 80% of unionized federal workers lost their jobs, and dozens of federal agencies, including Health & Human Services, Veterans Affairs, Defense, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Education, even the decades-old Voice of America, and especially the Department of Labor have had billions of dollars taken away.

Indeed, the President, adviser Stephen Miller and disciples of the Right-wing Project 2025 have engineered a nationwide assault on working Americans and unions:

* firing or de-funding federal workers and programs, attacking the long-standing apolitical Civil Service to replace it with a “spoils” system rewarding those who pledge loyalty to Trump;

* attacking organized labor by neutralizing the National Labor Relations Board;

* advocating for lower wages and inferior benefits;

* diminishing protections for job safety and health;

* criticizing equal opportunity and goals of a diverse labor force; and

* expanding immigration improvements to wholesale detentions and deportations, affecting crucial day-labor positions in various industries, meat-packing and agriculture as much as misguided or haphazard tariffs threatening soybean farmers with bankruptcy.

 

“He hasn’t done squat to help working people,” said former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, an author and Emeritus Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley. And “Trump’s approval ratings are tanking.”

True. The New York Times’ poll found 26% blame Trump and the GOP for the shutdown, with 19% blaming Democrats.

The Washington Post’s poll showed “significantly more Americans blame President Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans for the shutdown than Democrats: 47% to 30%.

Gallup shows Trump’s support is lower than any modern Presidents at this point in their administrations.

Generally, apart from the shutdown, Morning Consult’s poll shows half of the country’s states disapprove of Trump – 55% of Illinoisans disapprove of him.

A poll from YouGov/The Economist shows 47% of Americans “strongly disapprove” of Trump – up 11% from January.

And RealClearPolitics’ poll show Trump’s disapproval ratings range from 50% to 53%, with an increasing negative assessment.

 

Campaign words are cheap; the jobs and security Trump’s targeting? Priceless.

And Americans increasingly see that.

Wells Fargo is much different than the ‘Good Old Days’

There are only a couple of Wells Fargo banks in west-central Illinois, and people of a certain age probably tie Wells Fargo to the old TV western starring Dale Robertson as the intrepid special investigator solving problems with his fists or pistol. Now, instead of an express company protecting its stagecoaches, Wells Fargo wears the black hat of villainy, according to organized labor.

Wells Fargo has branches in Canton and Galesburg, plus Wells Fargo Advisers offices in Peoria and Bloomington, but nationwide, the megabank faces a different challenge: unionized workers.

Banking is one of the least unionized industries in the nation; less than 1% of U.S. financial-activities sector employees are union members. (Globally, more than 3 million bank workers belong to a union.)

That’s potentially changing. Since Well Fargo employees in Albuquerque organized with the Communications Workers of America in 2023, 27 other Wells Fargo branches or divisions in 15 states have unionized.

None have negotiated a contract.

“Under federal law, workers have the right to organize, advocate for better wages and working conditions, and engage in collective bargaining without interference,” wrote U.S. Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) and other lawmakers in a letter to Wells Fargo CEO Charlie Scharf. “However, rather than remaining neutral as your employees exercise their federally protected rights and organize for better wages and working conditions, your company has initiated an anti-union campaign.”

The CWA’s Wells Fargo Workers United organizing is the first such campaign at a major U.S. bank, with successful union drives at branches and dozens of conduct management investigators who handle customer and employee concerns.

“We are the face of Wells Fargo,” said personal banker and CWA Local 3901 member Brittany Ball. “We deserve to be compensated fairly and to be treated with dignity and respect.”

The 15 U.S. Senators who signed the letter – including Illinois’ Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth – add, “Workers report that company management’s practices prevent them from effectively serving customers and small businesses. They see union representation as a way to address long-standing issues before they escalate into scandals.”

Staff issues are familiar to regular working people: inadequate pay, staff shortages that mean increased workloads, and sales pressures that similar demands a decade ago resulted in a scandal: fraudulently opening millions of accounts customers didn’t request – a situation that caused the Federal Reserve to impose a fine of billions of dollars.

The CWA has filed more than 30 Unfair Labor Practices such as alleging the employer is illegally interrogating and coercing workers.

“There was definitely a perception of surveillance,” says WFWU organizing director Nick Weiner, who’s communicated directly with employees at the Apopka, Fla., branch where such activity happened.

“It was a pretty negative and intimidating interaction to the point of, we thought, encouraging workers to decertify the union.”

Tensions are commonplace throughout the country.

“Workers in Anniston, Ala., or Cartersville, Ga., are feeling the same pain as workers in Wilmington, Del., or San Diego, Calif.,” Weiner says “What’s exciting is that they’re getting all connected with technology so that they can support one another and communicate in real time when something is amiss. Or Stan [Sherrill, Wells Fargo’s head of labor relations] shows up in their branch causing mischief. They can spread the word so people are on alert.”

In one case, the National Labor Relations Board in February issued a complaint against Wells Fargo for unlawfully threatening and retaliating against workers, and asked the bank to recognize and negotiate with the union.

“Wells Fargo Workers United-CWA members have been trying to negotiate a contract with the company since late last year,” said the AFL-CIO this summer. “Wells Fargo has been aggressively working to undermine unionization efforts. In June, company executive Stan Sherrill began interrogating union members, calling union signage ‘propaganda,’ and unlawfully encouraging workers to file for a decertification petition. Wells Fargo workers are standing strong and fighting back.”

Wells Fargo claims it’s bargaining, but Wells Fargo Workers United (WFWU) member Misty Elms says, “This fight isn’t just about our rights on the job – it’s about holding the bank accountable to its workforce, customers and the public it serves.

Elms, a Lake Elsinore, Calif., personal banker, continues, “It’s time for Wells Fargo to respect its workers and bargain in good faith.”

One of the country’s “Big Four” megabanks (along with JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America and Citibank), Wells Fargo has 25,000 branch workers, plus loan processors, call-center staff and technology workers. With about 4,000 branches, Wells Fargo reported $10.4 billion in profit in the first six months of this year, and Schar, Wells Fargo’s CEO last year received compensation of $30,313,559 – 23% more than he got in 2022, based on corporate proxy filings.

Meanwhile, as if to cement its standing as a questionable corporate “citizen,” Wells Fargo this spring released a memo suggesting ways to privatize the U.S. Postal Service to make the longtime popular public service a profit-oriented company by raising rates 30% to 140%, depleting its unionized work force, and closing Post Offices and selling that real estate.

The Wells Fargo memo concedes that privatization will mean “less job security amid inevitable loss of union protections, loss of pension benefits, higher health-care costs and employee/wage restructuring.”

Also, Wells Fargo has increased its financing of the fossil-fuel industry despite evidence that it contributes to climate change that affects jobs and health as well as the well-being of the planet. Wells Fargo and five other U.S. banks “significantly increased their fossil-fuel financing, including ramping up finance for fossil fuel expansion,” according to “Banking on Climate Chaos,” a report from the Sierra Club, Rainforest Action Network and other environmental groups. Corporate-level financing increased by almost $117 billion from 2023 to 2024, the report says. Last year, Wells Fargo spent $39.3 billion in fossil-fuel financing.

Negotiations are slow – by design, WFWU says.

“They want to discourage people from [organizing] by pointing to: ‘Look how long this is taking, the union hasn’t gotten a contract, the union can’t win you anything’,” Sabrina Perez, a personal banker at Wells Fargo’s El Dorado branch in Albuquerque, told Labor Notes. “But their reason for fighting isn’t as strong as ours. We will last one day longer than they will.”

As troubadour Woody Guthrie sang decades ago, “Some will rob you with a six gun. And some with a fountain pen.”

5 questions: ‘It’s all about love,’ long-time restauranteur says

PEORIA HEIGHTS - A couple of blocks south of where the Spotted Cow served ice cream for about 20 years, founder Frank Abdnour shared some time at his new Italian beef venture, Frank’s, hours before opening the doors one morning.

Abdnour, 66, likes serving people – even serving as Peoria Township Supervisor from 2017-2021. He lost races in 2021 and this year (but agrees that one-for-three is a decent average, as his friend and Hall of Famer Jim Thome might note).

Born in Streator, Abdnour was the youngest of seven kids – 2 girls and 5 boys – who moved to Peoria when Frank was 7. He attended St. Bernard and Spalding, then “USC – the University of Spotted Cow,” he says.

Before selling that business, Frank and his wife Donna worked together to make it a success. She passed away four years ago this month.

Between emptying a trash can, having an electrician finish some repairs, and accepting the day’s delivery of fresh hoagie rolls from Trefzger's Bakery down the hill, Frank chuckles, shrugs and says, “It never ends,” and sits down and answers the Community Word’s “Five Questions”:

 

1. Is the restaurant business as challenging as it’s said?

It’s always had the highest failure rate for businesses, something like 85% fail in the first few years. It’s hard work; you can’t do it for the money. But if you love it, it’s not work – and I’d forgotten how much I love it.

Also, restaurants have been romanticized by TV. There, you don’t see equipment problems, the steam table’s gas running out, the problems, the bills. For me, Donna handled all that behind-the-scenes stuff, the bookkeeping, correspondence and so on. She didn’t really want the people contact  -- which I love.

On the one hand, you don’t need a degree; I can’t be a lawyer or doctor. But restaurants can be open to creativity. On the other hand, restaurants love money; they want you to sink every dime into them. So, again, you have to have a love.

 

2. What’s the opposite – the easiest job?

Work for somebody else. Let them embrace the risks.

 

3. Have you even given any advice to Jim Thome?

No, no – although I pitched to him once. And another time he was thinking about opening a breakfast place. He decided against it. Maybe he had a thought like when I threw to him: ‘Ah, that’s not for me.’

 

4. What’s the last “escape” for you – that last good book, maybe?

I don’t read a lot of books – I read articles and stuff online – but I enjoyed “Kitchen Confidential” by Anthony Bourdain.

 

5. Your son and daughter are part of the new eatery. Any recommendations for working with family?

Noah wanted to get involved, and Sydney works in marketing, so she’s handling that part of things. I know: Significant others can be a big, important part of success in anything. But maybe everybody should stay in their lane.