Rock Island, IL: Starting in February, kids can read with a dog again at the Rock Island Library.

The twice-monthly Read with Rover events allow children from PreK to 6th grades to practice reading aloud to a therapy dog at the Rock Island 30/31 and Southwest Branches. The library first introduced the popular read with a dog events this summer.

Read with Rover events will be offered from 5:30 to 6:30 pm on Monday, Feb. 2 and Monday, March 16 at the 30/31 Branch, 3059 30th Street, and Monday, Feb. 23 and Monday March 30 at the Southwest Branch. Sessions are scheduled through May. For more dates, visit www.rockislandlibrary.org.

Each drop-in session pairs a young reader with a certified therapy dog and handler from the Quad Cities Canine Assistance Network (QC CAN). No registration is necessary.

"Reading aloud has great benefits for kids of all ages, from developing vocabulary to attention, and the dog provides a patient and loving audience,"  says Ranell Dennis, a children's librarian from the Rock Island Public Library.

Families who stay for the 6:30 pm Pajama Storytimes offered immediately after Read with Rover can experience a story, song and craft on different story themes and learning concepts, including "backwards" stories on Feb. 2 and friendship stories on Feb. 23. The free Pajama Storytimes are designed for ages birth to five.

For more events at Rock Island Public Libraries, visit the library website at www.rockislandlibrary.org, follow the library on Facebook or Twitter, or call 309-732-7323.

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Saturday March 14, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

We are looking for vendors that have any part in a wedding to display their bridal apparel and services at our Expo in March.

We are located at 1411Brady Street in Davenport. The Center is a faith-based social service agency. We're offering the opportunity for smaller businesses to showcase their talents in the hope of helping future brides find their dream wedding at an affordable price.

Spaces are $100.00 a spot, $10.00 more for electricity.

Payments are due at the time of registration. Office hours are Monday-Friday, 8 am to 2 pm. If our office hours are not convenient for you, please call Lea or Ginger at (563) 323-5295 to make arrangements.  Email: lea@thecenter-davenport.com or ginger@thecenter-davenport.com

Register now while there are still spots available!

MOLINE, Ill. (January 23, 2015) - The Quad City Mallards have signed defenseman Bennett Schneider, the Mallards announced today.

Schneider, 25, played 28 games in the Southern Professional Hockey League for the Pensacola Ice Flyers and Mississippi Surge last season after starting the 2013-14 campaign at Hamilton College.  The 6' 3", 205-pound Fort Meyers, Florida native played seven games for Hamilton before turning professional with the Ice Flyers, for whom he collected four assists in 26 games.  Schneider then moved on to skate for the Surge in a pair of games at the end of the season.

Schneider recorded six assists while playing a total of 73 games over three plus seasons at Hamilton.  As a freshman Schneider helped the Continentals to the 2010-11 New England Small College Athletic Conference regular season title.  Schneider was a college teammate of Mallards forward Evan Haney.

Before heading to Hamilton, Schneider played three seasons in the junior ranks, taking the ice for the North American Hockey League's Southern Minnesota Express and Motor City Machine and the Eastern Junior Hockey League's New Hampshire Jr. Monarchs.

The annual internet productivity survey of 5000 people in the USA has been released for 2015. It reveals that that 55% of Americans communicate with their friends over the internet than in real life and 68% of Americans say they have been distracted from completing work by checking emails, browsing the web, and engaging with social media - an increase of 9% from one year ago.

The independent benchmarking survey was released by Stop Procrastinating, the leading website blocker and productivity application.

The survey found that people were more likely to spend time communicating with friends on the internet than a year ago, either through social media, such as Facebook, or via an instant messenger, such as What's App. 55% of respondents said they contacted friends via social media or instant messengers as their primary way to communicate, an increase of 5% compared with a year ago.

However, American's were more likely to use social media and the internet to communicate with friends or set up social events at work than at home. 62% of those using social media and the internet in this way said they regularly used it to communicate at work, admitting that they had become distracted from work by it. This again was an increase from last of 4%.

Of the 68% of people who said they had been distracted at work, 39% said it cost them an hour a day browsing the internet at work to read an interesting article, book a holiday or a culture event, or visit amusing internet video websites. This was an increase of 5% from last year. Some 7% of respondents admitted to taking a smart phone or tablet into the toilet to stream a TV programme they couldn't wait to watch, suggesting a worrying lack of impulse control.

Over 40% of parents in the survey were also were likely to be worried about their children's use of the internet than last year, claiming that they didn't know for sure what there children were doing on the internet. This was an increase in 8% from last year's survey.

Other findings from the survey included 59% of respondents admitted that the reduction in productivity caused them dissatisfaction and unhappiness.

The survey also found that 55% of people thought that checking their emails and social media while trying to get work finished revealed a worrying lack of impulse control.

64% said they lost their chain of thought because they checked and responded to an email or social media alert while they were working on a report or longer piece of written work.

Will Little, who designed and created Stop Procrastinating, says: "As usage of the internet increases so does its presence in every part of our lives at work and at home. We now no longer distinguish between when we should book a holiday, contact a friend or do some personal research. The internet is there all the time and we use it for personal reasons at work more often than ever before,"  he said. 

"It seems that being able to communicate with friends quickly over social media is a positive development, but engaging on social forums to debate issues, as some people in our survey admitted, suggests that some people are becoming more distracted by the internet at work than they should. While the immediate sense of gratification might be high, over time our survey shows this leads to a lack of satisfaction as productivity levels drop and people begin to achieve less,' he said.