Davenport Aldermen Barnhill and Moritz reluctantly voted against a proposed mixed housing development along North Pine Street, between Valley and 58th streets, during last Wednesday's regular council meeting. The vote appeared inevitable, especially after Mayor Brooke expressed his assurance that the development would fail with such a high protest rate (never mind the inappropriateness of the development for the neighborhood, or the water retention problem that duplex construction could potentially create).

Alderman Howard is too inexperienced for the position of mayor pro tem. During April 17's regular council meeting, Alderman Howard confirmed the public's worst fears about Mayor Brooke's inappropriateness in appointing someone so green.

A recent edition of Now with Bill Moyers on WQPT dealt with the Presidential Records Act and Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), and the current erosion of these crucial elements of our democracy. The FOIA was passed during Lyndon Johnson's administration, who praised it "with a deep sense of pride that the United States is an open society in which the people's right to know is cherished and guarded.

The congressional investigation of the Enron debacle is frustrating, to say the least. Both House and Senate participants are clearly unqualified to probe the complex financial and political issues that characterize Enron's dirty dealings.