Commonwealth Edison has come a long way from the bad old days when it was constantly trying to find underhanded, sneaky ways to bill consumers for its overpriced, and then-unfinished, nuclear-power plants. ComEd's service territory was infamous for having the highest electric rates in the Midwest, and the third highest rates in the country.

Difficult economic times have forced cities to take a hard look at their budgets, the scope of their services, and how they provide them, particularly in Davenport. For that reason, the River Cities' Reader chose to ask two direct budget-related questions of candidates running for municipal offices in the November 4 general election: 1) Build your own city budget from the following city responsibilities (listed alphabetically) by assigning a percentage.

After seeing Riverside Theatre's annual monologue performance Walking the Wire during its three-day run last weekend, I'm already looking forward to next year. Rarely is a collection of monologues presented locally (with the exception of the woman-power fundraiser The Vagina Monologues, which is structured more like a play), and the Iowa City theatre's Wire provides a unique opportunity for viewers to absorb an assortment of unpublished works presented by diverse individuals. While a few of the pieces were lacking in either character believability or author voice, most of the two- to 10-minute monologues were very engaging.

The reminder that the media often reports the "news" as fed to it by those in power and ignores the relevant news - such as the reasons for the behaviors and policies - is validation of the continued existence of Project Censored, a program in its 27th year that collects under-reported stories from around the country and compiles a list of the top 10 "censored stories" as well as 15 runners-up.