It’s been almost a year since the Supreme Court decided in Kelo v. New London that bureaucrats may seize homes and businesses through eminent domain and transfer the land to private developers in the name of economic progress. Although the Constitution says government may only condemn land for “public use,” the court held that this term means the same thing as “public purpose” or “public benefit.” Thus whenever a city council thinks it would benefit the public to snatch a house or small business and give it to Costco or Home Depot or any other company, they may do so, and courts will not intervene.

Americans reacted with outrage to the decision, and urged state officials to pass laws protecting them from eminent domain. But so far this backlash has achieved mixed results.

The president’s recent prime-time address focused on illegal immigration, and has provided America with a unique opportunity to discuss this polarizing, hot-button issue in a rational way. While I support the idea of temporary National Guard assistance to secure the chaos at the border, we know that such action only briefly treats one symptom of a much larger problem.

My article that ran in this publication three weeks ago about how the city of Davenport was marketing itself has led to a significant response, and it’s running about six-to-one in support of what was said (23 positive and four negative). (See “Davenport Marketing Can’t Overcome City’s Deficiencies, River Cities’ Reader Issue 577, April 19-25, 2006.)

Interestingly enough, during one telephone call from a rather prominent Quad Citian providing me with feedback, I learned of an effort to develop a comprehensive “commerce” effort for the Quad Cities. This effort would involve private enterprise funds, and would combine the efforts of all of the cities’ major chambers, including DavenportOne. This was confirmed by a second person.

Free Radio Berkeley and KBLT-Los Angeles are two of the more storied pirate-radio operations of the late 20th Century. Stephen Dunifer and Sue Carpenter fought federal regulations and, for a time, ran their own radio stations without a license.  Pirates still flourish in some corners of the country, but the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is often quick to pull the plug.