The national Wake-Up Wal-Mart campaign (WUWM) will be in Davenport on Wednesday, August 16, at 6 p.m. at United Neighbors, located at 808 North Harrison Street.

Since August 1, The WUWM campaign has embarked on a national bus tour, visiting 35 cities in 19 states. The bus, affectionately nicknamed Smiley, will be touring Iowa, as well, and Davenport is one of its stops along the way. Secretary of State and gubernatorial candidate Chet Culver will also be there! This will be a town-hall meeting to discuss what we want the face of America to look like. Everyone is welcome!

My name is Jim Maloney. I am a resident of Rock Island and use a wheelchair.

My favorite Quad Cities event is the Taste of the Quad Cities, which I've attended for the past five years. In previous years, I had no problems with wheelchair accessibility at the Taste. However, this year my visit to the Taste of the Quad Cities was ruined due to changes made that totally ignored the needs of persons who use wheelchairs.

Kenny on "Hardware Wars," River Cities' Reader Issue 588, July 5-11, 2006:

What is interesting here is the reasons they need the incentive. The developer, Mr. Raufeisen, stated that in order to get these business (Panera and Ace) into the property, they needed lower rental rates than he could offer, given the price of the land. The land price is clearly over-inflated by the land owner, who in Mr. Raufeisen's words "knows what he has."

So, it seems, to get this deal closed, and keep all the developers in profit, the City of Rock Island will spend our tax dollars to pay the difference. That difference is the fat profit to the landowner, and the developer.

Maybe the site business case doesn't wash?

The developer could not care less what happens after the deal goes down. He will have made his money in one shot. While there is nothing wrong with making money, I do have a problem with Rock Island favoring this developer at the expense of two established businesses. Why do it?

It also seems that the city will need to circumvent the law to even make it happen. That is not right.

If this is such a good thing for Rock Island, and Mr. Raufeisen is concerned at all about the future of the city, let him or the landowner take less profit and make it happen without spending tax money that is needed for schools and firefighters.

Kathleen McCarthy, in her "Donkey in Elephant's Clothing" opinion piece (see River Cities' Reader Issue 584, June 7-13, 2006), invited dues-paying members of local chambers of commerce to consider whether their interests as small-business owners were being served by the chambers' support for Governor Tom Vilsack's recent veto of House File (H.F.) 2351, and the governor's call for a special session of the legislature to modify this act. I have been a dues-paying member of the Davenport Chamber of Commerce and its corporate successor for nearly 25 years, and I am in total accord on these issues with both the governor and business leaders' support for the governor.