Community-service organization

1. American Red Cross

2. YMCA

3. United Way

 

Local blues band

1. Ellis Kell Band

2. Electric Leroy

3. Shane Johnson

 

Local country band

1. Dani Lynn Howe Band

2. Jim the Mule

3. A Fifth of Country

 

Local jazz band

1. Josh Duffee & His Orchestra

1. The Tritones Jazz Ensemble

3. Craig Bentley Jazz Trio

 

Local rock band

1. Crossroads

Local theatre organization

1. Circa '21

2. Quad City Music Guild

3. Comedy Sportz

 

Local theatre production

1. Cats (Circa '21)

2. White Christmas (Circa '21)

3. Grease (Circa '21)

3. It's a Wonderful Life (Quad City Music Guild)

3. The Nutcracker (Ballet Quad Cities)

 

Annual family event/festival

1. Bix Beiderbecke Memorial Jazz Fest

The Davenport city leadership is receiving strong objections from the community regarding the elimination of regular standing-committee meetings by folding them into the bi-weekly Committee of the Whole (COW) meeting. How responsive it will be to the collective opposition to this serious degradation of the public process remains to be seen, especially since it tends to conduct far more business behind closed doors these days.

Governor Rod Blagojevich has said he wants billions more a year for a universal-health-care plan. Last week, a coalition of business and labor groups called on the state to put $5 billion a year into transportation for five years. The Regional Transportation Authority estimates it needs $57 billion over 30 years to maintain, enhance, and expand transit services.

proposed railway map Passenger rail to the Quad Cities is part of a larger discussion about how a community moves its people. While our transportation policy most often focuses on how to move automobiles from one place to another, alternative transportation has frequently been ignored.

That's shifting. An aging population, traffic congestion, air-travel hassles, high fuel prices, and concern about global warming have all sparked renewed interest in mass-transit options such as passenger rail (getting from city to city) and commuter rail (transportation within a city).

Here's the question: If eliminating the Davenport City Council's Thursday-afternoon standing-committee meetings is a positive change for Davenport citizens, then why all the hush and rush?

It was the Gisswold v. Connecticut case in 1965 that struck down state laws prohibiting married couples from using birth control; the law was ruled unconstitutional because it violated marital privacy, a right protected by the Constitution.

For months, most Statehouse observers have predicted a battle royale between the state's three top Democrats: Governor Rod Blagojevich, Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, and Senate President Emil Jones.

The three men haven't been getting along, and the relationships between Madigan and Blagojevich, and between Madigan and Jones, are particularly strained. So far, Jones and Blagojevich are doing okay together, but that could change in a heartbeat if Blagojevich and Jones tangle over school funding. Jones wants a lot of money for schools, but Blagojevich refuses to raise taxes.

On August 4, 2005, the publisher of the River Cities' Reader, the Quad-City Times city-hall reporter, and an Argus/Dispatch journalist strategically positioned themselves outside the doors of City Hall, just as the city attorney unlocked them at 6 p.m., allowing the media through, then re-locking the doors behind them. They had finally gained entrance to the elusive "Governance Committee" meetings.

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