• MidCoast Fine Arts last week was recognized with the Arts Build Communities Award for Arts Organization representing the entire state of Iowa. The award was presented by the Iowa Arts Council as part of the 2002 Iowa Arts Awards at a ceremony on February 20 in Des Moines.
• Because of reductions in revenue streams such as the hotel/motel tax, local-option sales tax, and interest, the City of Bettendorf is contemplating a levy increase of 25 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation.
• Supportive Housing for Single-Parent Families, a program offered by Humility of Mary Housing, Inc. (HMHI) to bring affordable housing and supportive services to single parents and their children, has received an Audrey Nelson Community Development Achievement Award.
• The one-cent local-option sales tax in Scott and Muscatine counties that helps fund education might be implemented all across Iowa. The additional statewide sales tax would give those districts that haven't been able to pass a local-option sales tax access to more funding, without having to raise property taxes or relying on a vote.
• The good news about the Centennial Bridge is that the tolls are tentatively scheduled to be removed by June. The bad news: Traffic slowdowns and tie-ups are likely while improvements and renovations are made to the bridge, and these could drag into 2003.
• A law that went into effect on January 1 makes Illinois one of the harshest states in the nation on the club drug Ecstasy. Under the new law, sale of as few as 15 Ecstasy tablets will be treated as a Class X felony, punishable by up to 30 years in prison and with a mandatory-minimum six-year sentence.
• Iowa's budget woes mean thousands of Iowa taxpayers will have to wait three months for their income-tax refunds during the upcoming tax season. Normally, the state needs about eight weeks to process an error-free tax return that is filed on paper.
• According to a report from the Task Force on Overrepresentation of African Americans in Prison, 24 percent of the state's prison population in 1999 was African-American even though blacks comprised just over 2 percent of Iowa's population.
• Marycrest International University will close following its spring semester, the school announced on Monday. On Friday, the university's Board of Trustees voted to shutter the institution, citing "economic factors.
• The Davenport Police Department is seeking an accreditation through the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA). Upon completion of the process, the Davenport Police Department will become the first accredited law-enforcement agency in the Quad Cities, and the largest accredited municipal police department in Iowa.

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