15 Aug 2006

Habitat for Humanity Quad Cities Dedicates 37th Home

By Administrator

On Saturday, August 12, Habitat for Humanity Quad Cities dedicated its 37th home. This is the fourth Habitat house to be built in East Moline and is located at 1321 12th Avenue. It will become home to Tracy Howard and her daughters. Howard has completed more than the required 250 hours of "sweat equity" working on her home and other partner-family homes under construction, and participating in additional Habitat activities such as homeowner classes, fundraisers, and mailings. A large portion of the sponsorship funding for the home was provided by Quad Cities Area Realtor Association and Wells Fargo. Additional funding came from the Thrivent East Scott County Chapter. The lot for the house was acquired with the assistance of the City of East Moline. For more information, go to (http://www.habitatqc.org).

 

08 Aug 2006

Why Wireless?: Bettendorf Considers a Community-Wide Network, but It's Already Being Built

By Administrator

Reader issue #593 The idea has immediate appeal. Anybody would be able to use a laptop computer anywhere in the city, making it attractive for tech-savvy (or tech-dependent) people and businesses who might want to visit or relocate there.

That was an idea that Dick Klein brought earlier this year to the Bettendorf City Council, which then formed a task force to look into the concept. That six-member task force has met twice already, and is expected to report back to the council in the next few months.

Klein said his vision was for the city to use a wireless network to make city services more efficient, with the savings underwriting free wireless Internet access for citizens.

But don't expect Bettendorf to become the Quad Cities "most wireless" city. Although it has reached no conclusions, several members of the task force said that private-sector initiatives in the area of wireless networks would make any municipal effort redundant.

08 Aug 2006

Paranoid?

By Administrator

The City of Davenport's leadership continues to decline on so many levels that redemption is no longer possible with the current players.

Beyond the complete abdication of the public trust because of a long list of ethically dubious actions - including the fast-tracking of the high-risk, financially inequitable development agreement for the Isle of Capri's casino hotel on our downtown riverfront, the serious cost overruns at Prairies Heights, the RiverCenter scandal with contracted private manager, the attempt to burden taxpayers with the Market District and Crossings proposals that would only benefit private development, John O'Donnell's financial problems, mismanagement of critical deterioration of infrastructure (sewers, roads, etc.), parking-ramp deficits, key personnel layoffs because of budget prioritizing, to name the most recent fiascoes - conditions have potentially entered the criminal arena with the revelation of City Administrator Craig Malin's three self-imposed pay raises in a year's time.

08 Aug 2006

Noteworthy Events for the Week for August 9 - 15

By Administrator

Mingo Fishtrap

The Redstone Room

Thursday, August 10, 9 p.m.

 

08 Aug 2006

Rock Island Public Library Closes for Renovation in September

By Administrator

The Rock Island Public Library in downtown Rock Island will undergo a makeover this September. The work on the first floor and in the Children's Room includes a fresh coat of paint, new carpeting, new work desks, and a new resource room on the ground floor.

01 Aug 2006

Luck fo' the Irish: Liz Carroll at the Midwest Folk Festival, August 5-6 at Bishop Hill

By Administrator

Reader issue #592 Although born and raised in Chicago, Liz Carroll has found a stunning amount of success in her ancestral homeland of Ireland. In 1975, at the age of 18, the fiddler won the Senior All-Ireland Championship - the first American to win that title in nine years, she recalled in an interview last week.

And a quarter-century later, in 2001, Irish Echo named her traditional musician of the year - its highest honor.

Carroll will be one of nine main-stage acts at this weekend's Midwest Folk Festival in Bishop Hill, about 30 miles southeast of the Quad Cities. The free two-day event focuses on Midwestern talent but has an international flavor because of artists such as Carroll, who still lives in the Chicago area.

01 Aug 2006

Digging in the Dirt

By Administrator

Chris Vallillo Chris Vallillo studied archeology in college, but when that didn't suit him professionally, he decided to give music a shot.

"I figured if I was going to starve, I was going to go ahead and try to play music and just see if I could make a living at it," he said in an interview last week.

But Vallillo's vocational choices aren't all that different: Both archeology and the study of folk music involve the excavation of artifacts to help illuminate the way people lived deep in the past. Vallillo - a singer, songwriter, guitarist, and folklorist based out of Macomb - is one of the main-stage performers at the Midwest Folk Festival this weekend in Bishop Hill, Illinois.

01 Aug 2006

Putting the "Folklore" in Folk

By Administrator

When most people hear the phrase "folk festival," they think of idealistic and liberal white people with acoustic guitars. The Midwest Folk Festival at Bishop Hill this weekend will have a few of those, but it's more of a folklore festival, highlighting ethnic and traditional arts.

So in addition to those acoustic guitars, the Midwest Folk Festival will feature Latin American music, the santur (the Iranian hammered dulcimer), the pipa (a Chinese stringed instrument), and the Irish fiddle. And its conception of "American" music is broad as well, with Delta blues, Cajun, and Creole styles.

01 Aug 2006

"Taste" Should Have Been More Accessible

By Administrator

My name is Jim Maloney. I am a resident of Rock Island and use a wheelchair.

My favorite Quad Cities event is the Taste of the Quad Cities, which I've attended for the past five years. In previous years, I had no problems with wheelchair accessibility at the Taste. However, this year my visit to the Taste of the Quad Cities was ruined due to changes made that totally ignored the needs of persons who use wheelchairs.

01 Aug 2006

Poll Shows: It Ain't Easy Being GOP

By Administrator

Democratic state treasurer candidate Alexi Giannoulias has a new poll that shows he has an 11-point lead over his Republican opponent, state Senator Christine Radogno.

Giannoulias has struggled since shortly before the spring primary. Reporters started looking into his family's bank business, and came up with ties to some seriously shady mobsters. Things went downhill fast.

But all the bad publicity hasn't helped Radogno, a moderate, well-liked Republican legislator from the suburbs who had been considered by some to be the Republican with the best chance of winning a statewide race this November.

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