For the River Cities' Reader's fourth-annual short-fiction contest, we got mean. Diabolical. Bound-for-hell cruel.

Oh, sure, in the past we gave the challenge of starting or ending with a particular line, or including seven specific words in a story. We've limited you to 200 words.

This year, in addition to the relatively mundane prompts of a photograph and a fortune cookie, we devised what we called the "Wheel of Fortune challenge," in which authors could not use the letters R, S, T, L, N, and E. As you'll see from the winners and other selected entries, that nasty constraint gave us our most creative and playful entries.

Churches United announced that it received a $30,000 grant from the Scott County Regional Authority in support of Winnie's Place. Winnie's Place is an emergency shelter for homeless women with or without children. Winnie's Place opened in December 2006 and through March had served 67 women and 63 children. The mission of Churches United of the Quad City Area is to unite Christian churches, to empower them for service, and to honor diversity. 

Churches United has announced two awards received in support of its Hunger Ministry: $500 from United Church of Christ, Neighbors in Need, and $5,000 from the Illinois Conference of the United Church of Christ. Churches United operates 23 food pantries and three meal sites in the Quad Cities area. In 2006, the volunteers that work in the food pantries responded to more than 26,800 visits, and meal-site volunteers provided more than 30,800 meals to those who were hungry.

You'd never know it by listening to him, but every time Chris Botti picks up his instrument, he's wrestling with it.

The jazz trumpeter coaxes soothing, true sounds out of his instrument, and they woo and lull you.

But it ain't easy.