02 Jul 2013

BEMIDJI STATE UNIVERSITY ANNOUNCES ITS SPRING SEMESTER DEAN'S LIST

By Valerie Mason
Bemidji, MN (June 27, 2013) - The Spring Semester Dean's List was released by Dr. Martin Tadlock, vice president for academic affairs at Bemidji State University, and included Melissa Youngblut from Davenport, Iowa. Bemidji State students carrying 12 or more semester hours during any one term and earning at least 3.25 (B-plus) grade point average are listed on the Dean's List.

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02 Jul 2013

Local Residents Named to Dean's List at the Savannah College of Art and Design

By Holly Elliott

SAVANNAH, GA (06/28/2013)(readMedia)-- Local residents have been named to the Dean's List at the Savannah College of Art and Design for spring quarter 2013. Full-time undergraduate students who earn a grade point average of 3.5 or above for the quarter receive recognition on the Dean's List.

Local residents include :

Kelsey Meden of Davenport, Iowa (52807)

Lisa Naffziger of Sterling, Illinois (61081)

Katherine Sivits of Sterling, Illinois (61081)

SCAD: The University for Creative Careers

The Savannah College of Art and Design is a private, nonprofit, accredited institution conferring bachelor's and master's degrees at distinctive locations and online to prepare talented students for professional careers. SCAD offers degrees in more than 40 areas of study, as well as minors in nearly 60 disciplines in Savannah and Atlanta, Georgia; in Hong Kong; in Lacoste, France; and online through SCAD eLearning.

SCAD has more than 20,000 alumni and offers an exceptional education and unparalleled career preparation. The diverse student body, consisting of more than 11,000 students, comes from 49 states and more than 100 countries worldwide. Each student is nurtured and motivated by a faculty of nearly 700 professors with extraordinary academic credentials and valuable professional experience. These professors emphasize learning through individual attention in an inspiring university environment. SCAD's innovative curriculum is enhanced by advanced, professional-level technology and learning resources and has garnered acclaim from respected organizations and publications, including 3D World, American Institute of Architects, BusinessWeek, DesignIntelligence, U.S. News & World Report and the Los Angeles Times.

For more information, visit scad.edu.

02 Jul 2013

Red White & Boom Fireworks to Shoot from Centennial Bridge

By Kyle Carter

(Quad Cities) -Red White & Boom is excited to announce that despite flooding, the show will go on in a big way! The fireworks will now be shot from the Centennial Bridge on July 3rd. High water and a fast current prevented the typical use of a barge for the show; however, the fireworks will now still be visible far and wide. The last time the bridge was utilized for fireworks was for the Millennium celebration.

In Davenport, the primary viewing area, activities and vendors will be located on 2nd Street between Ripley and Main Streets. If river levels are low enough, additional viewing areas may also be available between River Drive and 2nd Street.  All activities on the Rock Island side will remain at Schwiebert Riverfront Park.

Events for Red White and Boom will open at 6 p.m. in downtown Davenport and Schwiebert Park in Rock Island. Both sites will have live music, thank you notes for our troops, food, beer gardens, and of course, the largest fireworks display on the Mississippi River beginning at 9:30 p.m.

This year, Red, White & Boom will feature a fireworks display that is choreographed to a music soundtrack. A computer controlled launching system will be used to pair specific types and colors of fireworks to be fired during the musical broadcast. This allows the fireworks to be launched at specific times to accentuate the musical dynamics and feel throughout the display.

Both Davenport and Rock Island will have ceremonies with a proclamation read by the Quad Cities mayors highlighting the Rock Island Arsenal and those who are serving, or have served, in our military. The public is also encouraged to visit the "Hooah! Quad Cities" website to learn more about resources for military members, veterans, and military families. The website is also a great resource for finding out more about how we can support our soldiers.

Red,White & Boom is generously hosted by Genesis Health System and Riverboat Development Authority.

This event would not be possible without all of our additional sponsors including St. Ambrose University, Wells Fargo, Iowa American Water, Quad-City Times, KWQC TV-6, B100, Lunardi's Italian Restaurant, Acsentra Credit Union, City of Davenport, City of Rock Island, Downtown Davenport Partnership, Davenport Parks & Recreation Dept, Rock Island Parks & Recreation, Davenport Levee Improvement Commission, Nerdwerx, and Quad Cities Chamber of Commerce.

Supporting sponsors include Mutual Medical Inc, Platinum Information Services, Riverview Dental, LPI Loans, Pepsi-Cola Bottling Company, Happy Joes, Mississippi Fleeting LLC, and Davenport Fire & Police Departments.

For more details, please visit www.RedWhiteBoom.org

02 Jul 2013

Chancellor's List announced for the University of Wisconsin-Platteville

By UW Platteville Public Relations

PLATTEVILLE, WI (06/28/2013)(readMedia)-- University of Wisconsin-Platteville announced its 2013 spring semester Chancellor's List. Students receive this academic status by earning a 4.0 grade point average during the semester. Attainment of the Chancellor's List represents the high academic achievement at UW-Platteville.

Among those who made the Chancellor's List were,

Mary DePauw, a Elementary Education major from Port Byron, IL

Joseph Fisher, a Social Science BA major from Port Byron, IL

Cassandra Heusinkveld, a Elementary Education major from Morrison, IL

Kaela Hoggard, a Business Administration major from Taylor Ridge, IL

Micah Klahn, a Ag Business major from Wheatland, IA

Alexander Scroggins, a Biology major from Sterling, IL

Lori Witte, a Elementary Education major from Moline, IL

UW-Platteville, founded in 1846, is located in the southwestern corner of Wisconsin, near the Iowa and Illinois borders. The University, the fastest-growing four-year school in the 13-college University of Wisconsin System, enrolls approximately 7,500 undergraduate students.

02 Jul 2013

Governor Quinn Takes Bill Action **Friday, June 28, 2013**

By William Palmisano

CHICAGO - Governor Pat Quinn today took action on the following bills:

Bill No.: HB 192

An Act Concerning: Education

Allows Lake County Township High School District 113 to issue bonds to become due within 25 years.

Action: Signed

Effective Date: Immediate

 

Bill No.: HB 479

An Act Concerning: Local Government

Allows the Illinois Medical District Commission, rather than the Auditor General, to provide its annual audits to the General Assembly.

Action: Signed

Effective Date: Immediate

 

Bill No.: HB 513

An Act Concerning: Education

Requires Governor's State University to provide the names of individuals enrolled in alternative teaching certification programs and extends the deadline for those individuals to complete the programs.

Action: Signed

Effective Date: Immediate

 

Bill No.: HB 982

An Act Concerning: Insurance

Allows the charging of assets for another business a company conducts if the separate account is subject to guarantees, so long as the contract does not specify that the assets are insulated.

Action: Signed

Effective Date: Immediate

 

Bill No.: HB 3390

An Act Concerning: Civil Law

Implements operational efficiencies and cost-cutting measures for the administration of the Workers' Compensation Commission.

Action: Signed

Effective Date: Immediate

 

Bill No.: SB 626

An Act Concerning: Regulation

Ensures that Early Intervention Services is in compliance with new federal regulation.

Action: Signed

Effective Date: Immediate

 

Bill No.: SB 1366

An Act Concerning: Public Employee Benefits

Extends the Early Retirement Without Discount Option under the Teachers' Retirement System for three years, provided certain conditions are met.

Action: Signed

Effective Date: Immediate

 

Bill No.: SB 1584

An Act Concerning: Public Employee Benefits

Requires the boards of local pension systems within the City of Chicago to continue to subsidize retiree health care costs for the City of Chicago.

Action: Signed

Effective Date: Immediate

 

Bill No.: SB 1621

An Act Concerning: State Government

Repeals or makes permissive several unfunded or unduly burdensome mandates for State agencies.

Action: Signed

Effective Date: Immediate

 

Bill No.: SB 1664

An Act Concerning: Regulation

Makes technical changes to and extends the sunset dates of the Public Utilities Act, Cable and Video Competition Law of 2007, and the Wireless Emergency Telephone System Act.

Action: Signed

Effective Date: Immediate

 

Bill No.: SB 1688

An Act Concerning: Education

Eliminates the community college districts' non-residential gross square footage calculation requirement for grant appropriations.

Action: Signed

Effective Date: Immediate

 

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02 Jul 2013

What Happened to My Data? Midland Communications Explains the Dangers of Insufficient Backup Procedures

By Janet Dufour

DAVENPORT, IA - June 27, 2013 - Today's businesses are operating at a blistering pace and IT infrastructure has become the backbone of small to mid-sized businesses across the nation. The complexity and strain placed on networks has exposed SMBs to greater security threats than ever before. Natural disasters, power outages, employee errors and failed system upgrades all pose significant threats to the network and failing to address these risks can cause severe network damage and immobilize a company for hours, days or weeks. The best way to combat this dynamic is to understand the risks, address the problem, and make sure the proper precautions have been taken.

One of the risks most easily mitigated is when data simply hasn't been backed up. Oftentimes organizations fail to have a regular backup procedure in place, whether partially or completely, and having a data backup program can help get around this issue. According to Symantec's 2011 SMB Disaster Preparedness Survey, "only half [of SMBs] back up at least 60% of their data, meaning they would lose 40% of their data in the event of a disaster. In addition, organizations often fail to back up corporate PCs, or take an "all or nothing" approach if it can't be all-inclusive. For example, of those surveyed, 31% don't back up email, 21% don't back up application data, and 17% don't back up customer data." The biggest benefit in having a process in place is that employees never have to redo work. If data is ever lost, it can be recovered rather quickly and with minimal effort.

Another risk to address is failing to protect branch offices or telecommuters. "Out of sight, out of mind," doesn't exactly fare too well in the corporate arena. When businesses are subject to compliance or regulatory standards, they must ensure that all company endpoints are protected in an appropriate fashion. When there is a centralized IT support staff, they can often overlook users that are not primarily in the office, as in the case of salespeople for example.

Failure to consistently backup company data is another common oversight. The benefit of having an automated or regularly scheduled backup is paramount. According to Enterprise Security Group, even with all the advancements in storage technology, only about 20% of backup jobs are successful. This is exactly why consistency and frequency are such key metrics in evaluating any backup solution.

Utilizing outdated equipment such as tape or disk media poses a threat as well in that these solutions are hardware, meaning that they can be lost, stolen or improperly stored. Any of those situations usually results in irretrievable data, therefore rendering that equipment useless when a recovery is most needed.

Today's business continuity and disaster recovery solutions address these risks and provide a software-based solution that virtualizes all data to the cloud. This enhances overall performance by providing greater accuracy, efficiency, security and archiving functionality to a business's disaster recovery plan. Simply put, technology has come too far for SMBs to have to deal with the notion of losing important data and risking going out of business. With today's powerful solutions and the assistance of a trusted IT advisor, SMBs can protect themselves, their employees and their customers' data from these threats.

ABOUT MIDLAND COMMUNICATIONS

Midland Communications began more than 60 years ago in 1946 as the Worldwide Marketing Arm of Victor-Animagraph Projectors. In 1977 a communications division was formed due to a partnership with NEC America. Today, As a distributor of NEC America, for 33 years, Midland Communications has a customer base of more than 3,000 satisfied customers that include general businesses, government agencies, Universities, colleges, hospitals, and hotels.
Midland provides a wide range of communication services including VOIP, PBX and key systems, Wide Area and Local Area networking, computers, Computer integration, voice mail, CCIS, and video conferencing and paging systems. Our philosophy is simple, provide quality products at a fair price, backed by an average emergency response time of twenty minutes, and the best service in the industry. For more information on Midland Communications, call (563) 326-1237 or visit www.midlandcom.com.

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02 Jul 2013

Governor issues disaster proclamation for Jackson County

By Office of the Governor of Iowa
(DES MOINES) - Today, Governor Terry E. Branstad issued a proclamation of disaster emergency for one county in response to recent storms and flooding.

The Governor's proclamation, for Jackson County, allows state resources to be utilized to respond to and recover from the effects of the storms and flooding.

Additional information on storms and flooding may be found at www.homelandsecurity.iowa.gov<http://www.homelandsecurity.iowa.gov>.

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02 Jul 2013

Loebsack: House Leaders Hang "Closed for Business" Sign on Capitol

By Rick Martin

Go on Vacation Leaving Farmers and Students Without a Way Forward

Washington, D.C. - Congressman Dave Loebsack released the following statement today after House leaders sent Congress home for a vacation without a plan on how they will move forward a farm bill that can be signed into law and also ensure student loan rates don't increase on July 1st.

Last week, House leadership failed to pass a farm bill and have not made any progress finding a way to move the bill forward.  Earlier this week, Loebsack worked to push the farm bill process forward by introducing the Senate farm bill in the House (HR 2498).  Loebsack supported the House version and has worked to find a compromise to make sure farmers and rural communities get the certainty they deserve.

"It is inexcusable that the House is going on a week vacation without a clear plan on how to move a farm bill forward.  I introduced the Senate farm bill in the House because it passed with strong bipartisan support - including from both Senators Harkin and Grassley.  After voting down the farm bill last week, the House should find a commonsense way to move a farm bill forward by taking up the bipartisan Senate legislation. I, along with others who supported the House bill last week, have called on the Speaker to bring the Senate bill up for a vote so Congress can get a bill to the President that can be signed into law."

Loebsack also continues to pressure House leaders to act to prevent student loan rates from doubling on July 1st.  Student loan interest rates are currently 3.4 percent, but are set to double to 6.8 percent on Monday due to the lack of Congressional action.  Today, Loebsack cosponsored legislation (H.R. 2574), which is fully paid for, to halt the increase.  He also spoke on the House floor urging House leaders to stay in session until an agreement was made to stop the increase.

"When the House leadership hung a "Closed for Business" sign on the House chambers, they sent a strong signal to students that Congress just doesn't get it.  I have heard from many Iowans that they would not be able to attend college without this assistance. I could not have gone to college and would not be where I am today without the availability of student loans and other financial assistance programs.  It is shameful that Congress left town leaving our students to face the consequences of their inaction."

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02 Jul 2013

'THE MUSIC MAN' Cast His Spell at TLP

By Rick Martin

Mount Carroll, IL-- Executive Director James Beaudry directs and choreographs The Music Man, one of the most beloved musical comedies of all time, at Timber Lake Playhouse. The show, a valentine to the American small town in a more innocent time,and was last seen at TLP 24 years ago, opens Friday, July 5 for only 12 performances.


Meredith Willson's classic story of a fast-talking salesman who knows nothing about music but sells bands to unsuspecting small towns until he meets his match in a piano playing librarian became an instant hit in 1957 and has since been turned into two films and seen countless productions all over the world. Songs like "Seventy-Six Trombones," "Till Theatre Was You," "Goodnight My Someone," "Lida Rose" and  "Marian The Librarian" are now American standards. The score, the dances and the timeless and hilarious writing still delight audiences of all ages.


Cody Jolly of Atlanta and Sarah Larson of Milwaukee star as Harold Hill and Marian Paroo. TLP favorites Time Wessel and Judy Knudtson return to play Marcellus and Mrs. Paroo, respectively. Featured in the show are Matthew C. Webb and Hannah-Jo Weisberg, as well as fifteen performers from the region including Will Boze and Vivian Lobdell, both of Sterling, IL, in the roles of Winthrop and Amaryllis. Cindy Blanc of Monroe, WI vocal directs and Emily Bressler of Mount Carroll directs the musicians.


"Classic musical comedy is one of the most american arts forms, and it's also one of the hardest to get right," Beaudry said. "But the commitment of the cast to creating a fun and spectacular show that celebrates a kind of mythical small town Americana, is turning The Music Man into a show that I think our audiences will just love."


The Music Man runs July 5-14 for 12 performances only. TLP is located at 8215 Black Oak Rd. in rural Mount Carroll, IL. Tickets are $15-23 and are available at the box office, by calling 815-244-2035 or visiting www.timberlakeplayhouse.org. The show is appropriate for all ages, and a few performances are already sold out. Opening July 9, TLP will also present Seussical, an hour-long musical based on the books of Dr. Seuss for children and families. All tickets for Seussical are $6.


Full Cast List:


Harold Hill ........................................................................... Cody Jolly

Marian Paroo .................................................................. Sarah Larson

Charlie Cowell  .................................................................... Brad Field (Mount Carroll)

Mayor Shinn ....................................................................... Matt Webb

Eulalie MacKecknie Shinn ..................................... Hannah-Jo Weisberg

Marcellus Washburn ........................................................... Tim Wessel

Mrs. Paroo .................................................................... Judy Knudtson

Winthrop Paroo  .................................................................... Will Boze (Sterling)

The School Board

Ewart Dunlop ....................................................... Elliot Marach

Oliver Hix ......................................................... Gilbert Domally

Jacey Squires ..................................................... Alex Johnson

Olin Britt .............................................................. Brandyn Day

Tommy Djilas ................................................................. Zak McMahon

Zaneeta Shinn ...................................................... Genna-Paige Kanago

Amaryllis ........................................................................ Vivian Lobdell (Sterling)

Alma Hix  .......................................................................... Terrie Miller (Savanna)

Maud Dunlop ...................................................................... Lexie Plath

Ethel Toffelmier ................................................................ Tayloir Pace

Mrs. Squires .......................................................... Kathleen Brinkmeier (Pearl City)

Constable Locke ............................................................. Kevin Strunk  (Morrison)

Gracie Shinn ................................................................. Kallie Zuidema (Sterling)

Citizens of River City ....................................................... Joe Capstick,

Caden Foster (Sterling), Elise Foster (Sterling), Abby Frank-Taylor, Angie Lobdell (Sterling), Natalie Masini, Dylan Passman, Levi Skoog (Chadwick), Kallie Timmons (Lyndon), Katie Woods (Savanna), Morgan Zuidema (Sterling)




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02 Jul 2013

Local students named to Aurora University Dean's List

By Sara Meers

AURORA, IL (06/28/2013)(readMedia)-- Aurora University congratulates the more than 800 undergraduate students who earned Dean's List honors for the spring 2013 semester.

The high honors list recognizes students who attain a 4.0 grade-point average while completing at least 12 credit hours during the semester. The regular honors list recognizes students who achieve a GPA of 3.6 to 3.99.

The following local students have been named to the Dean's List:

Lillie Stone of Moline, IL *

Alyssa Valdez of Rock Falls, IL *

*Earned high honors for the spring 2013 semester.

Aurora University is an inclusive community dedicated to the transformative power of learning, annually educating more than 4,800 degree-seeking students at the bachelor's, master's and doctoral levels. The university has a long tradition of preparing students for lives of service and leadership, and using its resources and expertise to meet the needs of the community. In addition to its main campus in Aurora, Ill., AU offers programs online, at its George Williams College campus in Williams Bay, Wis., and at the Woodstock Center in downtown Woodstock, Ill. Learn more at aurora.edu.

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