06 Dec 2006

The Little Program That Can: Why Do Small Business Development Centers Get So Little Money?

By Administrator

Reader issue #610Emily Starr knows how to teach kids. A fourth-grade teacher in DeWitt, Iowa, she had an idea for a Web-based educational tool that would help schools, teachers, and parents reinforce core concepts in math and reading.

But Starr didn't know how to turn that idea into money - a viable business. "I had expertise in the content area," she said. "I didn't really know how you take a concept and develop it into a business."

06 Dec 2006

This Year's Crop of Christmas Music Makes the Grade

By Administrator

There's not a lump of coal in this season's stocking of new Christmas music, with five CDs from indie record labels worth finding.

06 Dec 2006

Noteworthy Events for the Week of December 6 - 12

By Administrator

Jim Brickman

Adler Theatre

Wednesday, December 6, 8 p.m.

 

06 Dec 2006

Development Group Begins Search for New CEO

By Administrator

The executive committee of the Quad City Development Group on December 1 announced that it would begin a nationwide search for a new president and CEO. Once that position is filled, the organization's current president and CEO, Thom Hart, will assume the position of senior vice president for government relations and public policy. The new president will be a sales and marketing executive who will lead the development of a new marketing and branding plan for the Quad Cities region and will work closely with a planned Quad Cities Growth Steering Council. A priority for the Quad City Development Group will be a strategic initiative to form a regional, bipartisan, public-private policy council to work on issues of common concern to organizations such as the local chambers of commerce, the Bi-State Regional Commission, and the Quad City Convention & Visitors Bureau. Hart will lead that effort.

 

30 Nov 2006

Correction to the November 29 Issue

By Administrator

Due to a production error, an incorrect version of page 19 was printed in the November 29 issue. A short calendar article and several listings -- particularly in the theatre category -- were omitted as a result.

To download or view a .pdf file of the correct page, click here. 

29 Nov 2006

Fall 2006 Photo-Contest Winners

By Administrator

Reader issue #609 The cliché goes that a picture's worth a thousand words, but what happens when a picture is supposed to represent a single word?

"Allure." "Awkward." "Pattern." Those were the prompts for the Reader's fall photo contest, and they're admittedly challenging. Many things are attractive, or graceless, or feature the repetition of motifs, after all. But how do you capture those qualities in a photograph?

29 Nov 2006

The Impending Gambling Arms Race

By Administrator

Last week's announcement that the Rhythm City Casino's parent company, Isle of Capri, was reconsidering its contentious casino-hotel project on the Davenport riverfront tells you all you need to know about the future of casinos in Iowa: It's bleak.

In Quad-City Times articles on Friday, Isle of Capri officials claimed that competition from the Riverside Casino & Golf Resort - which opened south of Iowa City on August 31 - has dramatically cut into admissions and revenues at the Isle's two Quad Cities properties. The Isle of Capri in Bettendorf and Rhythm City in Davenport saw their combined adjusted gross revenues drop by nearly 12 percent in September and October compared to those months in 2005.

From here gaming companies will engage in casino arms races in which they will need to continually build bigger, more extravagant facilities merely to maintain market share.

29 Nov 2006

Casino Karma

By Administrator

Last week, Isle of Capri (IOC) notified the City of Davenport that it was putting its 11-story casino hotel, to be located on the downtown riverfront, on hold while it studies alternatives to the current riverboat-casino model.

The screeching citizens are hearing is IOC's brakes slamming as it hits the predicted financial wall. During September and October, both properties (Isle of Capri in Bettendorf and Rhythm City Casino in Davenport) lost 12 percent of their combined revenues to the newly opened Riverside Casino & Golf Resort in Riverside, Iowa.

IOC is finally getting serious competition not only from Riverside, but also Jumer's Casino Rock Island, which is currently constructing a facility on Interstate 280 on the outskirts of Rock Island.

29 Nov 2006

Living Muddy's Music

By Administrator
Bob Margolin(Editor's note: Although the December 2 Adler Theatre "Legends of the Blues" concert was canceled, the River Cities' Reader thought readers - particularly blues enthusiasts - would appreciate this interview with Bob Margolin of the Muddy Waters Reunion Band.)

"For me, ‘the crossroads' is in Boston, not Mississippi."

That's how guitarist Bob Margolin explained his luck at finding himself playing beside a true musical giant, the father of deep "old school" blues - Muddy Waters - from 1973 until 1980. 
29 Nov 2006

Noteworthy Events for the Week of November 29 - December 5

By Administrator

Paquito D'Rivera

Hancher Auditorium

Friday, December 1, 7:30 p.m.

 

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