Last June, the Davenport City Council approved a $48-million development agreement with the Isle of Capri to build an 11-story casino hotel with a five-story adjacent parking ramp on downtown Davenport's riverfront, after less than a month of formal review that included the public.

Reported cases of sexual trafficking in the United States are horrifying and, unfortunately, not uncommon. In recent years, our federal courts have heard cases involving a group of Thai women - promised good-paying restaurant jobs - forced into prostitution upon their arrival in New York; a group of Mexican teenagers - told they would be working as waitresses and child- and elder-care workers - held in sexual slavery in Florida and the Carolinas; a syndicate of smugglers and pimps who brought hundreds of Asian women (some as young as 13) into the United States, forcing them to work as prostitutes - and making them live in bondage - until their "contracts" were paid off.

It was disheartening last week to see the East Moline city council so eager for jobs that it lost all common sense and self-respect. On December 19 - just six days before Christmas and after less than three weeks of public deliberation - the council voted unanimously to approve a development agreement with Triumph Foods, which plans to build a $135-million hog-processing facility in the city.

I was told a few weeks ago by a very good source that Governor Rod Blagojevich's campaign had assigned people to monitor my blog. You may know that besides this weekly newspaper column I publish a daily political newsletter called Capitol Fax.