For the bailout bill, public opinion is running anywhere from 100 to 1 to 300 to 1 or more against passing this bill, according to sources on Capitol Hill. Given the massive size of this package, the fact that it rewards the guilty on Wall Street and does nothing to address the cause, that anger is fully justified.

"Branding Christianity" by John Whitehead is confusing. (See River Cities' Reader Issue 699, August 27-September 2, 2008.)

In the first place, Rick Warren is not "America's pastor." There is no "America's pastor" any more than there is "America's rabbi" or "America's imam." If we could get that straight, perhaps our presidential candidates would not feel like they have to "pander" to us. Rick Warren is a nice guy, but he is not "the future of Christianity in America." We have thousands of spiritual leaders in our country. A few of them are brilliant and/or charismatic. Most of them are simply faithful and hard-working. We should listen to them, study our own sacred texts, and, yes, "speak truth to power."

This is the 700th issue of the River Cities' Reader. Thank you, readers and advertisers, for your support of the independent and free press these past 15 years. Without you this milestone could not have been achieved. And without the dedication and diligence of our outstanding staff, you would not have access to the weekly coverage of local issues and events in an intelligent, balanced manner that is the exception rather than the norm in today's media.

In two years, the Spokane, Washington-based five-piece Paper Mache - which will be performing at Mixtapes in East Moline on September 3 - has gone through more than a dozen members.

You might assume that singer/songwriter Chelsea Seth Woodward is difficult to work with, but to hear him tell it, it was simply a process of shaping Paper Mache.

"It started off as me doing a singer/songwriter, solo acoustic," he said last week, "but the intention was always to have the songs that I wrote have open interpretation, that we could play with them and I could have different members join and see what fit, and then develop a sound from there."