• AirTran Airways announced that it will enhance nonstop service between Quad City International Airport and Orlando International Airport. The new nonstop flights will begin March 9. All flights will be aboard the largest aircraft serving the Quad Cities airport, a Boeing 717 aircraft, with approximately 100 coach seats and 12 business-class seats available.
• The Iowa Tourism Office has released its 2005 Iowa Travel Guide, filled with information about hundreds of destinations in all parts of the state. The new guide's availability is especially timely, as parents are looking for fun, educational places to take their children, many of whom are enjoying a holiday break.
• For the 2003 calendar year, Bettendorf Fire Rescue, & Emergency Medical Services was one of 14 departments in the State of Iowa to receive a Life Safety Achievement Award from the Residential Fire Safety Institute for its proactive efforts in fire-prevention and -education while protecting its community and achieving zero structural-fire deaths.
• Bettendorf Mayor Mike Freemire recently met with the state's Community Attraction & Tourism (CAT) review board in West Des Moines, where he was notified that the downtown riverfront-development project for Bettendorf has been scored and will move toward negotiations sometime in January.
• Contained in the federal government's Fiscal Year 2005 Omnibus Appropriations Bill is $1.1 million for the I-74 bridge in Bettendorf. The City of Davenport will receive $1 million for a sewer separation project.
• Quad Cities PBS station WQPT has announced that Chad Pregracke: The River Rescuer - a film produced by WQPT staff members Lora Adams and Brad Mosier - won a prestigious CINE Golden Eagle Award. The CINE Gold Eagle recognizes excellence in professional and amateur works.
• Genesis Medical Center has announced that it will renovate the third and fourth hospital floors on its East Rusholme Street campus in Davenport beginning in January 2005. The focus of the 18-month project is improved patient care resulting primarily from enlarged and enhanced nursing stations, updated patient-care technology, and private patient rooms that are more conducive to rest and comfort.
• The number of ballots cast in Scott County in the November 2 election was 82,838, or more than 75 percent of the county's 110,168 registered voters, a not -unexpected number considering the nature of the campaigns.
• Scott County has set aside $114,138 for a new Mental Health Jail Diversion program that will serve as an alternative to police or hospital intervention in responding to situations involving the emotionally disturbed.
• The Bettendorf Rotary Club has brought Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) to elementary and middle schools in the Bettendorf and Pleasant Valley school districts - a $24,000 effort made possible with the help of generous donations and a successful program already in place at the Genesis Heart Institute.

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