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).

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.

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.

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.