A bipartisan chorus seemed to rise as one last week to urge Governor Pat Quinn not to appeal a ruling by a Cook County judge. The judge ruled that the governor had violated the state Constitution when he vetoed lawmaker salaries this summer. Quinn said he vetoed the appropriations because he was tired of waiting for legislators to finish a pension-reform plan.

Despite urgings by both Democrats and Republicans to drop the whole thing, Quinn forged ahead, issuing a defiant statement in which he vowed to pursue an appeal of Judge Neil Cohen's decision voiding the veto and ordering lawmaker paychecks to be processed "immediately."

Local developer Rodney Blackwell clearly got the Davenport City Council's attention with a $250-million casino-development proposal on September 7. But from the outset it didn't appear there was any path forward for it.

The Isle of Capri (IOC) has, through October 15, an exclusive negotiating agreement with Dan Kehl's Scott County Casino company to sell its Rhythm City property. And, as Blackwell readily admits, even if it didn't, the Isle wouldn't want to negotiate with him and his partner, the Canadian company Clairvest Group.

So the city council's 9-1 vote on September 11 to table a development agreement with Kehl appeared to be little more than a delay. Kehl has said he'll complete the sale by the October 15 deadline. And the Riverboat Development Authority (RDA) - which holds the Rhythm City gaming license - on September 16 approved an operating agreement with Kehl's company. (All these agreements are steps toward actually building the casino, and beyond them is approval from the Iowa Racing & Gaming Commission.)

The message of Kehl's comments and the RDA's action is that the train has left the station, and Blackwell isn't on it. As RDA Chair Gary Mohr told the Quad-City Times: "The RDA will keep its commitments. I don't know if people don't understand it or they just don't like it."

But Blackwell thinks he has a play. He said in an interview last week that he believes the city council can kill the Kehl deal, and that it further has the leverage to force the Isle of Capri to negotiate with him and Clairvest. Alternatively, the city could use its power to push Kehl to make a larger investment than the $110 million he has pledged to spend on a new casino and hotel complex. (Kehl said the three-phase development will total $200 million.)

Several members of the Illinois General Assembly's special pension-reform committee told me last week that they believed a final proposal would emerge within the next week to 10 days.

The conference committee has been working on a solution to the state's pension problems since June, after urgings by Governor Pat Quinn to find a way around the spring legislative session's pension-reform gridlock. For the past several weeks, the committee - made up of three Democrats and two Republicans from each chamber - has been working on "tweaks" to ideas they've discussed behind closed doors.

As I write this, there was no word on what the final proposal will look like, but there is real concern among Democrats I spoke with that the Republicans might decide not to go along. While the Republicans appointed to the committee have strongly indicated they were committed to finding a solution, three of the four are running for higher office: Senator Bill Brady (governor), Representative Jil Tracy (lieutenant governor), and Representative Darlene Senger (U.S. House).

A short course in learning the language of transition is soon to be offered in the Quad Cities, and it's one to attend if you're encountering changes in your life. Present or past, all can be reviewed with careful guidance. Listening is a powerful source of learning, growing spiritually, and sustaining relationships, whether with spouses, family members, friends, or associates. Specifically, listening to another's life stories, composed of a vast array of experiences and emotions contributing mightily to our individual self-images and well-being. Our stories are often the means by which we convey our identities to each other, a process of self-revelation.

The Reverend Canon Marlin Whitmer, a retired hospital chaplain, believes profound healing comes while listening to stories. He discovered this over 40 years of experience, listening to patients at St. Luke's Hospital after establishing The Befrienders in 1966. His program began with three people from Trinity Cathedral who were members of the Auxiliary of St. Luke's Hospital. They were to provide patients with in-hospital visits from non-medical volunteers whose sole purpose was to listen to the patients. The following year and thereafter Befrienders were trained to continue these visits. This legacy continues today at both Genesis and Trinity hospitals and has been recognized as a contributor to improving quality of life in the Quad Cities.