12 Nov 2012

Happy Birthday USMC & a Salute to all Veterans This Veterans Day

By Operation Graditude

My best wishes to all our friends in the United States Marine Corps for a very happy USMC birthday!  Tomorrow we will join you in celebrating 237 years of brave and honorable service to our country. Thank you to all who, past and present, bear the name "U.S. Marine."

Sunday is Veterans Day, another special occasion when we have the opportunity to thank, honor and salute all U.S. Military Veterans. We owe you a debt that can and will never be fully repaid. We are grateful to you, and to your families, for the faithful service rendered to our Nation in times of peace and war.

In tribute to both the Marine Corps birthday and Veterans Day, we haveJohn Adams published a new blog post written by our own John Adams, a Marine and combat Veteran who recently left active duty and joined our Operation Gratitude team.

Please read John's moving words here: A Veteran's Salute

Thank you for your generosity in support of deployed Troops, Veterans, Military Families, Wounded Warriors and First Responders. We couldn't do what we do without you!

All best,

Carolyn Blashek, Founder
Operation Gratitude

12 Nov 2012

Governor Quinn Sending 54 Law Enforcement Officers to Assist New Jersey

By Rick Martin

Illinois State Police, Local Law Enforcement to Deploy on Saturday

SPRINGFIELD - November 9, 2012. Governor Pat Quinn today announced 54 law enforcement officers will be deployed to New Jersey on Saturday to help local law enforcement agencies deal with the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy and this week's Nor'easter. The group includes 29 officers from the Illinois State Police (ISP) and 25 officers from law enforcement agencies in Central Illinois.

"I'm proud of Illinois' first responders who are eager and willing to help East Coast residents devastated by Hurricane Sandy," Governor Quinn said. "This will be a long recovery and we will continue to provide assistance to help our neighbors recover."

The officers will support recovery and public safety operations throughout New Jersey during their eight-day deployment.

The team will report to IEMA's headquarters in Springfield Saturday morning to receive event identification, mission and safety briefings and mobilization assistance. This process ensures the accountability and readiness of personnel and assets before departure.

Saturday's deployment will bring the number of Illinois responders sent to the East Coast to assist with hurricane response and recovery to 76. That includes fourteen emergency managers who were deployed to New York City on Nov. 1 to help with 24/7 operations in the city's emergency operations center and eight members of an Incident Management Team that left Illinois on Nov. 5. Both teams were deployed for two weeks.

All of the deployments were in response to requests from affected states through the Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC).

IEMA, the Illinois National Guard and other Illinois public safety agencies are standing by, ready to provide assistance in response to further EMAC requests.

###
12 Nov 2012

Braley Pays Tribute to Those Who Have Served

By Amanda Bowman

Washington, D.C. - Rep. Bruce Braley (IA-01) is paying tribute to all members of the armed services this weekend as the country celebrates Veterans Day.

"Veterans Day is a special time to remember those who have served our country, and honor the men and women who are currently serving our people overseas and here at home. Our continued gratitude for their sacrifice, commitment, strength, and service shall not diminish, and we thank them for helping keep America strong and secure," said Braley.

Braley has been a leader in continued legislation for efforts in helping Veterans when they return home, such as his Andrew Connolly Veterans Housing Act, signed into law earlier this year.

 

# # #

12 Nov 2012

Branstad, Reynolds encourage Iowans to register for the Governor's Bullying Prevention Summit ahead of Nov. 13 deadline

By Rick Martin
DES MOINES) - Gov. Terry Branstad and Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds today encouraged Iowans to register for the Governor's Bullying Prevention Summit. The registration deadline is Nov. 13 at midnight.

 

The summit will be held on Nov. 27, at Hy-Vee Hall in Des Moines. Iowans are encouraged to register at: https://preventbullying.iowa.gov/

 

 

The agenda for the Governor Bullying Prevention Summit is as follows:

 

8:30 a.m.- 10 a.m. Registration

10 a.m.- 10:05 a.m. Welcome - The Honorable Kim Reynolds, Lieutenant Governor of Iowa

10:05-10:15 a.m. Opening Remarks – The Honorable Terry Branstad, Governor of Iowa

10:15 a.m.-10:45 a.m.     "It Takes a Community" Paul Gausman, Superintendent of the Sioux City School District

11 a.m. to 12 p.m. Breakout Sessions

 

Breakout Session One

"24/7 Bullying in the Digital Age"

Marsali Hancock, CEO and president of the Internet Keep Safe Coalition, will speak and moderate a panel discussion, followed by questions from the audience

 

Panelists:

  • Ben Barry, Guidance Counselor at Carlisle Middle School
  • Elizabeth Englander, Director of the Massachusetts Aggression Reduction Center at Bridgewater State University
  • Matt Shankles, Student at Linn-Mar High School, Marion
  • · Jenny Pfeifer, College student from Simpson College, Indianola 

 

Breakout Session Two

"Schools in the Legal Twilight Zone"

Tom Wheeler, Member of Frost Brown Todd LLC, Indianapolis, IN, and Past Chair of the National School Boards Association Council of School Attorneys, will speak and moderate a panel discussion, followed by questions from the audience

 

Panelists:

  • Drew Bracken, Attorney at Ahlers & Cooney PC, Des Moines
  • Judy Bradshaw, Des Moines Chief of Police
  • Matt Carver, Legal Services Director for School Administrators of Iowa
  • Frank LoMonte, Executive Director of the Student Press Law Center, Arlington, VA
  • Beth Townsend, Director of the Iowa Civil Rights Commission

 

12 p.m. to 12:30 p.m. Box lunch available

12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. "Queen Bees and Wannabes: Teaching Social Competency" Rosalind Wiseman, Parenting and Bullying Expert whose book became the basis for the movie "Mean Girls"

1:45 p.m. to 2:45 p.m. Breakout Sessions

 

Breakout Session One

"Sick from Bullying"

Diana Schroeder, Director of Bullying Prevention Initiatives for the Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention at Windber Research Institute in Windber, PA, will speak and moderate a panel discussion, followed by questions from the audience

 

Panelists:

  • Cheryll Jones, Health Services Coordinator and Director of Policy and Advocacy for Child Health Specialty Clinics, University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics
  • Dr. Jennifer Groos, pediatrician at Blank Children's Hospital, Des Moines, and vice president of the Iowa Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics
  • Laura Jackson, Executive Vice President, Health Care Strategy and Policy, Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Des Moines
  • Sharon Guthrie, Executive Director of the Iowa School Nurse Organization
  • Michael Peters, Great Prairie Area Education Agency school social worker, Ottuwma

 

Breakout Session Two

"The Culture of Mean"

Barbara Coloroso, author of "The Bullied, the Bully and the Bystander," will speak and moderate a panel discussion, followed by questions from the audience

 

Panelists:

  • Ella Daft, Student at Newton Senior High School
  • Lori Eastwood, Counselor with Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Dubuque, Decorah Office
  • Dave Kramer, Executive Director of the Iowa Pupil Transportation Association
  • Michelle Lane, Parent Advocate for Youngsters with Disabilities, Waterloo
  • Mike Schlesinger, Publisher of the Marshalltown Times-Republican

 

2:45 to 3:45 p.m. "Leadership Makes the Difference"

Conference-wide discussion moderated by Iowa Public Television's Dean Borg, followed by questions from the audience

 

Panelists:

  • Penny Bisignano, Consultant for Bullying Prevention and Intervention, Iowa Department of Education
  • Arthur Tate, Superintendent of the Davenport School District
  • Joel Pedersen, Superintendent of the Cardinal School District, Eldon
  • Emily Domayer, Student at Morningside College, Sioux City
  • Timothy Minard, Senior Vice President, U.S. Distribution, the Principal Financial Group, Des Moines
  • Nate Monson, Executive Director of Iowa Safe Schools, Des Moines
  • Nishan Singh, Student at Iowa State University, Ames

 

3:45 to 4 p.m. Final remarks by Jason Glass, Iowa Department of Education Director

 

# # #
12 Nov 2012

Muscatine Art Center in welcomes Carol Ehlers, art history speaker

By Lynn Bartenhagen

The public is invited to join the Muscatine Art Center in welcoming Carol Ehlers, art history speaker, as she presents a 45 minute lecture on the art of Russian artist Marc Chagall. The lecture will take place Thursday, November 15, 2012 at 5:30 pm in the Muscatine Art Center's Music Room. Admission is free.

Marc Chagall was a Russian artist associated with several major artistic styles and was one of the most successful artists of the 20th century. He was an early modernist and created works in virtually every artistic medium, including painting, book illustrations, stained glass windows, stage sets, ceramics, tapestries and fine art prints. Chagall did not want his work to be associated with any school or movement and considered his own personal language of symbols and motifs to be meaningful only to him.

Marc Chagall was born July 7, 1887 in Vitebsk, Belarus, then part of the Russian empire. He received his primary education at the local religious school, where he studied Hebrew and the Torah. He soon began copying images from books and found the experience so rewarding he decided he wanted to become an artist.

At the age of 19 he moved to St. Petersburg which was then the capital of Russia and the center of the country's artistic life. After a few months at the art school there, Chagall realized that academic portrait painting did not suit his desires and relocated to Paris, where he remained until 1914. After Paris he returned to his village of Vitebsk where he founded Vitebsk Arts College, which became one of the most distinguished schools of art in the Soviet Union.

In 1941 at the age of 54 he traveled to America where he discovered he had already achieved international fame. Initially, Chagall's fellow artists did not understand or even like his art, but those attitudes began to change when the son of French artist Henri Matisse became his representative. After several successful years in America, Chagall returned to France where he spent the remainder of his life. He died in Paris on March 28, 1985 at the age of 98.

In 1992 the Muscatine Art Center's collections were significantly enriched by a gift of twenty-seven works of art by Toulouse-Lautrec, Matisse, Degas, Boudin, Chagall, Renoir, and other European artists. The collection was a gift from the estate of Mary Musser Gilmore in honor of her parents, Richard Drew Musser and Sarah Walker Musser. The paintings are on permanent display in the Laura Musser Mansion.

12 Nov 2012

Fully Committed opens Nov. 29 on The Old Creamery Theatre's Studio Stage

By Rick Martin
Amana - Join The Old Creamery Theatre for a perfect holiday comedy this season. Fully Committed follows a day in the life of Sam, an out-of-work actor who mans the reservation line at an upscale Manhattan restaurant. Desperate callers will do or say anything to secure a table during the holiday rush while Sam tries to remain sane keeping track of it all, and at the same time find a way home for Christmas.

Fully Committed by Becky Mode, features a cast of 40 wildly diverse characters all played by Lisa Margolin of Iowa City. The show opens Thursday, Nov. 29 at 3 p.m. on the Studio Stage in Middle Amana and runs through Dec. 16.

Directed by Tom Milligan of West Amana, Full Committed is rated Theatre R for adult language. Tickets are $27 for adults and $17.50 for students. Show times are Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays at 3 p.m. and Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m.

Walk-ins are welcome if seats are available. Reservations are recommended. Call the box office at 800-35-AMANA (352-6262) or visit us online at oldcreamery.com. Student rush tickets are $12. No reservations accepted for rush tickets. Come to the box office no earlier than 30 minutes before a performance for this special rate. A student ID is required.

The Old Creamery Theatre Company is a not-for-profit professional theatre founded in 1971 in Garrison, Iowa. The company has been bringing live, professional theatre to the people of Iowa and the Midwest for 41 years.
12 Nov 2012

Local Paralyzed Veteran to receive Retro-fitted Vehicle

By Melissa Winters

This Veteran's Day (Nov. 11th) Pennzoil will be presenting retro-fitted Dodge vehicles to three paralyzed veterans as part of the brand's Long Love Cars campaign. To help injured veterans regain their driving independence, Pennzoil donated $150,000 to the Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA) to support PVA's Mission:ABLE program to retro-fit vehicles for injured veterans.

The three lucky veterans were selected after hundreds of entries were whittled down to six finalists and then almost 10,000 votes were counted in deciding the winners.  The vehicles will be presented during a ceremony at Phoenix International Raceway as a way to recognize the service men and women that help protect our country.

Local Navy Veteran, Lonn Cunningham, is going to be receiving a personally retro-fitted vehicle!

12 Nov 2012

KING'S HARVEST VOLUNTEER TRAINING AND SIGN UP MEETING FOR THEIR HOMELESS SHELTER.

By Rick Martin
King's Harvest is desperate for volunteers this winter to help with their overflow shelter for the homeless. The organization will have a Volunteer Training and Sign-up Meeting Wednesday, November 14, at 7:00 pm. The meeting will be held at 824 W. 3rd Street in Downtown Davenport. Please enter through the front door.

Individuals will be given training and an opportunity to sign up to volunteer for check-in (8:45-10:30 pm) and overnight. The organization also needs individuals to supply sandwiches to help feed the homeless.

King's Harvest is a non-profit 501c(3) organization that serves the poor and homeless in the Quad Cities and is located in Downtown Davenport. They offer the following services to the less fortunate: hot meals, shelters, clothing, groceries, pet assistance, and various other emergency needs.
 
If you would like more information about this or any of King's Harvest Ministries, please call Chris Dunn at 309-798-3776.

# # #
12 Nov 2012

Pass Legislation For the Agent Orange Equity Act

By John J Bury, USN, retired

With the elections over, the new Congress and Senate will have their first session in early 2013.  They will be faced with many issues, some old, some new.  It is time for the new Congress and Senate to put aside politics and become legislators.  There are still two major Bills in committee of interest to Vietnam veterans, House Bill HR-3612 and Senate Bill S.1629.  These Bills are to restore VA benefits for Agent Orange exposure during the Vietnam war.

The present Congress and Senate still have time to act upon these Bills before January 2013.  These Bills must come out of committee and go to the floor of both houses.  I ask the American people to urge our legislators to act on these Bills.  The Vietnam veterans who are sick from Agent Orange Dioxin exposure need these Bills passed into law by our present legislators before the new legislators take office.  With a new legislative assembly, we advocates for Vietnam veterans will have to start over again.  This means longer delay for veterans VA approval.  Thousands of Vietnam veterans won't be approved by the VA because they did not have boots on ground, even though they were awarded the Vietnam Service Medal. Many Sailors, Airmen and Fleet Marines who served during that war are sick from exposure to the deadly herbicide.  With the passage of the afore mentioned Bills, these members of the Armed Forces will receive equality for VA benefits.
12 Nov 2012

Clinton Franciscans plan solidarity with SOA vigil

By Sallyann McCarthy

The Sisters of St. Francis, their Associates and Sojourners, and students from Ashford University are inviting the public to join in a prayer vigil in solidarity with the thousands of persons who will gather at the gates of the U.S. Army base at Fort Benning in Columbus, Georgia, this month.  Fort Benning is home to the Army's infamous "School of the Americas" (SOA).

The vigil will be held in the chapel at The Canticle, home of the Franciscan Sisters, 841-13th Ave. No., Clinton, and begins at 6 pm, Thursday evening, Nov. 15.

November 16 marks the 23rd anniversary of the 1989 massacre of 6 Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter at the University of San Salvador, El Salvador.  A U.S. Congressional Task Force reported that those responsible were trained at the SOA.  Since 1990, the organization SOA WATCH has been holding prayer vigils outside the gates of the base to draw attention to the evils perpetrated by SOA graduates and to lobby for an end to US funding for the program.

Clinton Franciscans have been participating in the vigil since 1996.  Over 20 Sisters plus Associates, friends and students have travelled to Georgia in the ensuing years to join the 10,000 + people from around the world who gather annually to pray and work for change through creative nonviolence.

The Pentagon has responded to the growing movement and Congress' near closure of the SOA with a PR campaign to give the SOA a new image. In an attempt to disassociate the school with its horrific past, the SOA was renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation in January of 2001

News reached the public earlier this month that one of the perpetrators of the 1989 massacre has been located in the U.S. and is being deported to Spain for trial on murder charges.

Thousands of other Latin Americans and North Americans including four American church women and two bishops have been killed by forces linked to the SOA.  Several bills have been introduced in Congress to halt funding for the SOA, only to be narrowly defeated,

"We hope many people will join us for this brief prayer vigil of solidarity," said Anne Martin Phelan OSF, president of the Clinton Franciscans who has participated in the vigil at Fort Benning many times.  On one trip, she joined hundreds who "crossed the line" onto Army property in nonviolent civil disobedience.

"It is vital that we not participate in the training of those who are terrorizing their fellow citizens in Central American, Mexico, Peru and Columbia.  By holding a vigil in Clinton, we hope to involve more citizens in this form of prayerful, peaceful protest," she said.

For more information, call Sisters of St. Francis, 563-242-7611 or visit www.clintonfranciscans.com.

Pages

more

Subscribe & Listen to Reader Podcasts

On Stands Now

 

Tagged Content

Two Ways to Subscribe

1. Subscribe to free weekly e-mail content updates.

You'll get both the current official narrative challenge and What's Happenin' in the Quad Cities.
(Did you know we publish a new Amy Alkon Advice Goddess, Real Astrology, Red Meat cartoon and RCR Crossword every week?) 

* indicates required

View previous campaigns.

2. Get 12 monthly issues mailed first class for $48

Get 12 issues mailed monthly for $48 per year.

Get the printed Reader edition mailed to you (or anyone you want) first-class for 12 months for $48.
$24 goes to postage and handling, $24 goes to keeping the doors open!

Click this link to Subscribe now.

 
 

Meetings Calendar

Kids Calendar

Eat & Drink Calendar