In its effort to capitalize on available state money, the City of Davenport is working quickly to finalize its first phase of the joint Rock Island/Davenport River Vision implementation. But chasing that money - the city plans to ask for $15 million from Iowa's Vision Iowa and Community Attractions & Tourism (CAT) programs - means the city council probably won't be giving itself or the public much time to study the plan's details, including its financing or a riverfront casino hotel that became part of the discussion only at the tail end of the process.
There is a lot of discussion going on today regarding the images of American atrocities coming out of Iraq. Discussions regarding who is to be held accountable, whether it is the active-duty troops, the Army Reserve, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, or President Bush himself.
It used to be that theologians would waste their time arguing about how many angels could dance on the head of a pin. Now it appears the discussion has swung to what political party Jesus would belong to. (How would Jesus vote?) I have been following with minimal interest the ongoing discourse in theolitics.
At first blush, the proposal from the Isle of Capri and the City of Bettendorf for financing an expanded hotel, a new parking garage, and a convention center seems ludicrous. Less than half of the money for the project would come from the casino, with the rest of the funding coming from the city and the Scott County Regional Authority (SCRA).
While I typically look forward to the Reader, last week's "Champagne Appetite with a Beer Purse" was a mean cut at an easy toss that missed by a mile. John O' Donnell's re-opening is a home run for Davenport.
• A recently released report by the Washington, D.C.-based group American Rivers warns that the Mississippi River could face "ecological collapse" unless Congress directs the Army Corps of Engineers to fix problems afflicting the river in the next Water Resources Development Act.
This was supposed to be a quiet year at the Illinois statehouse. The Democrats have some vulnerable incumbents, particularly in the House. The fewer problems, the less controversy, the better for incumbents with tough campaigns ahead.
Three major issues are currently on the minds of most Americans. These are (1) jobs going overseas, (2) swelling numbers of immigrants, both legal and illegal, and (3) transferring to foreign organizations the power to dictate our nation's policies.
The number of entries in this year's River Cities' Reader short-fiction contest jumped to over 120, up more than 25 percent from last year. There was one significant rule change - the word limit was cut from 250 to 200 - but that didn't seem to affect the quality of entries.
New Ground Theatre's current show, David Schulner's An Infinite Ache, appears to be a conventional love and marriage story. A man and woman meet, fall in love, and get hitched - nothing unusual. But the script is so intricately crafted that we see snapshots of the couple as they progress through a partnership of more than five decades and take on sex, marriage, children, and death - in a mere hour and fifteen minutes. The fast-paced, natural dialogue travels seamlessly through the years, with no specific scene divisions. Time simply progresses.

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