15 Mar 2013

Smiddy-Sponsored Legislation Cracks Down on Methamphetamine Production Passes House

By Rep. Mike Smiddy
PORT BYRON, IL - Legislation sponsored by state Rep. Mike Smiddy (D-Port Byron) increasing the ability
of law enforcement officers to examine the distribution records of a pharmacy or its employees to
prevent substances like Sudafed from being used to make illegal drugs passed out of the Illinois House
on Wednesday.

"We must give law enforcement officers the tools they need to fight the production of dangerous
drugs," Smiddy said. "By expanding the ability to examine and distribute pharmacy records, we are
taking important steps to crack down on the production of harmful substances."

House Bill 1311 adds the Department of Corrections, the U.S. Probation and Pretrial Services System,
the U.S. Parole Commission, and any probation and court services department authorized by the
Probation and Probation Officers Act to the list of agencies that may investigate violations of the
Methamphetamine Precursor Tracking Act. This act sets out specific standards for maintaining
distribution records of methamphetamine precursors (like Sudafed).

Currently, only law enforcement agencies and prosecutors' offices have the authority to investigate
these distribution records. Smiddy's legislation would authorize a greater number of people to access
the distribution records of pharmacies and their employees for certain methamphetamine precursors to
provide greater oversight of these potentially dangerous substances.

"I believe empowering more investigators will mean less drugs on our streets," Smiddy said. "Bringing
more people into the fight against drugs can help put criminals behind bars. I encourage the Senate to
pass this important piece of legislation quickly so it can start protecting the people of our district."

For more information, contact Smiddy's office at RepSmiddy@gmail.com, (309) 848-9098, or toll free at
(855) 243-4988.

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15 Mar 2013

Revised: Tentative Opening Dates For Davenport Public Golf Courses:

By Davenport Parks & Recreation

 

 Red Hawk Golf & Learning Center:

Driving Range:  Monday, March 18th - 10:00am

Golf Course :  Thursday, March 21st

 

Duck Creek Golf Course:

Wednesday, March 27th

 

Emeis Golf Course:

Wednesday, March 27th

 

For up to date notices on course openings, visit our website at www.golfdavenport.com

Why 'Drive' Anywhere Else!

Get those clubs out and get ready for a great season of golf!

15 Mar 2013

Mother Son Formal Dance

By Davenport Parks & Recreation
Mother Son Formal
15 Mar 2013

Spring Break Events at the Family Museum

By Elly Gerdts

Family Museum Announces 2013 Spring Break Spectacular Lineup

Bettendorf – With a week off from school, area parents and kids are looking for fun and exciting activities during spring break. From March 21 - March 30 the Family Museum is offering ten days of just that: programs ranging from live music, live animals, science, and performance art. Events and performances are included with paid admission or Family Museum membership.

 

THURSDAY, MARCH 21 - SATURDAY, MARCH 23

Kinetic King

Daily Detonations at 4:00 PM

Whoo-Hoo! Your favorite science geek from America's Got Talent will be back building more of his super cool kinetic structures! Come check it out! He will set off a chain reaction collapse each day at 4:00 pm with a final detonation on Saturday at 4:00 pm! You Betcha!

SUNDAY, MARCH 24

Jim Gill

Performance at 2:00 PM

Jim Gill, an award-winning musician and author, offers more than a show to watch.  Each concert is an opportunity for family play! In concert, Jim strums energetic rhythms on his banjo while everyone claps, sings, dances, and even sneezes along to the silly and inspiring musical games. This year's Family Room Tour celebrates Jim's five awards, in over 20 years, from the American Library Association (the same organization that famously grants the Caldecott and Newberry awards for books).  This unprecedented string of awards includes a 2012 honor for his most recent release Music Play for Folks of All Stripes. Come and join in the fun!

 

MONDAY, MARCH 25

Niabi Zoo

Presentation at 10:00 AM

Meet some friendly critters from the Niabi Zoo!  A Zookeeper will bring a variety of animals to share with us, and they will teach us about the featured creatures and the zoo's role in animal conservation.

Insect Zoo

2:00-4:00 PM with a formal presentation at 3:00 PM

Do you love bugs?  Come see, touch, and learn about all kinds of awesome insects with the Iowa State University Department of Entomology Insect Zoo!  You'll meet insects found in Iowa and throughout the world. Participants can view and interact with live insects and other arthropods.  The Insect Zoo emphasizes the diversity, ecology, and behavior of arthropods while participants are exposed to many basic concepts of biology. Visitors will learn about interrelationships among diverse insect groups and their important role in life on Earth.

TUESDAY, MARCH 26

West Music's Instrument Petting Zoo

2:00-4:00 PM

Get ready to roll up your sleeves and pet some...instruments! Our friends from West Music are bringing along a sampling of instruments kids can try for themselves.  It's a great way to pique a musical interest in young children.  Prizes too!

Insect Zoo

10:00 AM - Noon with a formal presentation at 11:00 AM

Do you love bugs?  Come see, touch, and learn about all kinds of awesome insects with the Iowa State University Department of Entomology Insect Zoo!  You'll meet insects found in Iowa and throughout the world. Participants can view and interact with live insects and other arthropods.  The Insect Zoo emphasizes the diversity, ecology, and behavior of arthropods while participants are exposed to many basic concepts of biology. Visitors will learn about interrelationships among diverse insect groups and their important role in life on Earth.

 

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27

Comedy Sportz

10:00 AM

Get ready for some laughs!  The Comedy Sportz team from right here in the Quad Cities will take the stage at the Family Museum!  The "act-letes" hilarious improvisation skits will have kids giggling!  The audience-involved show is appropriate for the entire family.

60 Second Caricatures with Adam Pate

1:00 - 4:00 PM

Bring the whole family for this fun-filled afternoon of caricatures!  Adam Pate is a nationally known caricature artist able to draw you in just one minute!  He is also bringing his iPad for some digital drawings.

 

THURSDAY, MARCH 28

Bubble Wonders: Anything Is Possible!

10:00 AM

Don't miss this fun, inspiring, sticky, and educational show!  Bubble Wonders is full of amazing tricks including the bubble caterpillar, bubble volcano, the dancing bubble, a bubble merry-go-round, and much more!  The amazing bubble-ologist Geoff Akins will even put a child inside a bubble!  Fun for the entire family!  Show lasts approximately one hour.

 

FRIDAY, MARCH 29

ScribbleMonster

Performance at 10:00 AM

ScribbleJim and ScribbleJayne will be here for some musical Family Fun! ScribbleMonster can be heard nationally on children's radio, and their latest release was named one of the Top 5 Kids & Family Albums of the Year by NPR. Their "draw outside the lines" approach to music for the family has earned raves from parents and Parenting Magazine alike. Come sing, think, play, dance, and get creative with ScribbleMonster!

 

SATURDAY, MARCH 30

CoMotion Dance Theater

Performance at 10:00 AM with workshop following

Valerie Williams Co|Motion Dance Theater is a professional modern dance company which has been performing throughout the Midwest since 1978. Located in Ames, Iowa, they are committed to build awareness of and appreciation for modern dance through education and outreach.

 

Sponsored by the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs
15 Mar 2013

America's Favorite Geek, the Kinetic King, Returns to the Family Museum

By Rick Martin

Bettendorf – NBC's America's Got Talent introduced the nation to the self-proclaimed "greatest purveyor of chain reaction gadgets in this and the 17 known universes," the Kinetic King. Viewers fell in love with the Minnesota charm ("you betcha" / "whoo hoo") and the impressive chain reactions made from tongue depressors, ping pong balls, plastic cups, and more. View his debut appearance on YouTube. The King will be packing his gadgets and heading to the Quad Cities to build several super-cool kinetic structures at the Family Museum in Bettendorf, Iowa. He will host daily detonations Thursday, March 21 - Saturday, March 23 at 4:00pm.

Last year at the Family Museum, the Kinetic King broke the world record for Clever Levers with a total of 728 - watch the YouTube video here.

The Kinetic King, aka Tim Fort, holds the Guinness World Record for the "Largest Stick Bomb" using 3,864 tongue depressors. It was detonated on June 20, 2010 at the Science Museum of Minnesota. Fort creates displays all over the country (some successful and some not). Many of these attempts he posts to his YouTube page (username LunaTim). The Kinetic King placed 13th overall in season 6 of America's Got Talent.

"Oh wow!" -Howie Mandel, Season 6 America's Got Talent

"Wow!" -Nick Cannon, Season 6 America's Got Talent

"Do it again!" -Nick Cannon, Season 6 America's Got Talent

"Weird, but interesting." -Sharon Osbourne, Season 6 America's Got Talent

"Whoo hoo!" -The Kinetic King, Season 6 America's Got Talent

Find out what the buzz is about March 21-23 at the Family Museum. "It's way beyond your grandma's domino tumbling!" -The Kinetic King

Sponsored by the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs
15 Mar 2013

Quad City Coin Club Annual Spring Coin Show

By John R. Brixey

The Quad City Coin Club's annual Spring coin show will be Sunday, April 7, 2013. The show will be held at the Milan Community Center. Admission is FREE.

The show will open at 9am and close at 4pm. There will be 80 tables offering U.S. and foreign coins, paper money, gold, silver, and coin supplies.

This year, kids will be able to select coins from our World treasure chest and other numismatic items at the door. Also, we will have a youth coin auction at 1:30pm. Each participant will receive play money to bid on lots donated by club members and dealers.

We will also have FREE door prizes every hour and a gold raffle.

Members will be available to identify coins and paper money, answer questions on coin collecting and the Quad City Coin Club. A lunch stand will be available at this year's show.

If you are interested in coins or history, come to the show, where you can hold history in your hands.

14 Mar 2013

2013 Artists-in-Residence Selected for Herbert Hoover National Historic Site

By Adam Prato
WEST BRANCH, IOWA– Visual artist Vivian Hyelim Kim and writer Emily Melhorn will be the 2013 Artists-in-Residence at Herbert Hoover National Historic Site. Vivian Hyelim Kim will be in residence this spring from April 1 to May 25; Emily Melhorn this fall from September 12 to November 2. During their residencies Ms. Kim and Ms. Melhorn will be available to interact with park visitors as they work in the park. Each may also present a public program. The Artist-in-Residence (AIR) Program at Herbert Hoover National Historic Site promotes creative means of communicating the park's national significance and its relevance to visitors.

Vivian Hyelim Kim was born in South Korea and was raised in the U.S. She received her MFA in Painting from Pratt Institute in New York and BFA from Arizona State University Herberger College of Fine Arts. She has had solo shows at Chashama Gallery in New York City and in Seoul, South Korea. She has also participated in numerous group shows and is a recipient of a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. She has been awarded residencies at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, New York Mills Residency, Paducah Artist in Residence, Vermont Studio Center and the Contemporary Artists Center. "I wish to observe the plants, flowers, and other organic elements at Herbert Hoover National Historic Site," said Ms. Kim, "and use their forms and patterns in my paper cut outs."

Emily Melhorn is a writer currently living in Los Angeles. She was a former journalist for The Gettysburg Times, The Evening Sun, and NoHo News.  Ms. Melhorn wrote a column "Living the Dream" for many years for The Gettysburg Times. She has had short stories and plays published in Red Weather, received the John V.A. Weaver Prize in Poetry, and Fiction Honorable Mention for Hayden's Ferry Review. Ms. Melhorn was Artist-in-Residence at Homestead National Monument of America in 2012. She is looking forward to writing at the Herbert Hoover National Historic Site and adding to the depth of work about Herbert Hoover. "I would like to put my writings about Herbert Hoover in the context of current issues and events," said Ms. Melhorn.

Herbert Hoover National Historic Site and the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum are in West Branch, Iowa at exit 254 off I-80. Both are open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Central Time. Parking is limited so please allow extra time to find a parking space. For more information go online at www.nps.gov/heho or call (319) 643-2541.

Herbert Hoover National Historic Site
110 Parkside Drive
PO Box 607
West Branch, Iowa 52358

Twitter: @HooverNPS Facebook: HerbertHooverNHS Photographs may be available upon request.
14 Mar 2013

"Cool history" tour for UT students on spring break

By M. McNeil
Some United Township high schoolers are spending one of their spring break days on a bus learning about the "cool" history of the Quad Cities

(East Moline, IL)  While on spring intersession, approximately 65 United Township students will be on a Quad Cities tour of "cool and historic" places led by their history teacher, Heather Monson.

The Lights ON for Learning students will board a bus Friday (March 15th) morning and tour such local landmarks as the Deere/ Wieman house, Lagomarcinos,  Ross's restaurant, Campbell's Island, the Looney House, etc.  Monson says she wants the students to realize the cultural history of the area and develop an interest in local history.  "As a history teacher, I find history dazzling and think when people know the background of their area they can appreciate it more and become more interested in the current events of our area".

***The media is invited to visit with Monson and the students at any of their stops along the tour?see schedule below***

The Rock Island County Regional Office of Education and the 21st CCLC grant funds the "Lights ON For Learning" program at UT.


###


Itinerary for 2013 Cool QC History Tour

8:50 am  Meeting the UTHS parking lot
9:00am Load the bus/take lunch orders/Call Ross's
9:10am Head out/first stop Campbell's Island
9:20am  Arrive at Campbell's Island Monument
9:30am Debrief about Battle/Monument/Resort discuss the prison
9:40am  Load Bus Head to Deere/Wieman House
10am Arrive at Deere Wieman House for 1 hour tour
11am  Head to Ross's Restaurant for lunch
11:20am Arrive at Ross's for Lunch
12:3pm0 Finish Lunch Head to Arsenal Bridge/Bucktown/LeClaire Park Bix
12:45pm Bucktown area/ On bus begin background of Bucktown and the start of Citadal of Sin
1:10pm  Head to Rock Island for driving House tour
Downtown: Market Square/Argus Building
Begin with Looney House on Hill/20th then to 16th then Bel Air
Business tour: Van Dale and her businesses/Barber shop
2:20pm Lagomarcinos for drinks/green river and history of Lagos (tentative)
3:00pm head to school Wrap up with other historical events and places for next time
3:30pm arrive back at UTHS
14 Mar 2013

WOB to present Iowa Premiere of New Version of Cabaret

By Randal K. West

Way Off Broadway, Iowa's only professional musical theatre company and the residential company at the Stephen Sondheim Center for the Performing Arts is delighted to announce their Iowa premiere production, the newest version of Cabaret which won the Tony for Best Revival. Cabaret is a musical based on a book written by Christopher Isherwood, music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb. The 1966 Broadway production became a hit and spawned a 1972 film as well as numerous subsequent productions including a major "re-think" revival in 1998, which WOB will present.

Cabaret is based on John Van Druten's 1951 play, I Am a Camera, which in turn was adapted from the 1939 short novel Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood. Set in 1931 Berlin as the Nazis are rising to power, it focuses on nightlife at the seedy Kit Kat Klub and revolves around the 19-year-old English cabaret performer Sally Bowles and her relationship with the young American writer Cliff Bradshaw.  A sub-plot involves the doomed romance between German boarding house owner Fräulein Schneider and her elderly suitor Herr Schultz, a Jewish fruit vendor. Overseeing the action is the Master of Ceremonies at the Kit Kat Klub which serves as a constant metaphor for the tenuous and threatening state of late Weimar Germany throughout the show.

The 1967 original production won 8 Tony Awards including Best Musical and the Bob Fosse movie won 8 Oscars including Best Director. The 1998 version, which is what WOB is producing in its Iowa premiere, won 4 Tony's, including Best Revival Nationally known pop music singer Lyric Benson will make her WOB debut as Sally Bowles and Jonathan Christopher will return after performing in WOB's successful tour of "Plaid Tidings' this past fall. Other WOB favorites include Robert Kemp as Cliff, Margaret Clair as Frau Schneider, Brendan Thomas as Herr Schultz, George Kelley as Ernst,  Natalie Saunders as Frau Kost, The Kit Kat Girls are played by Madeline Sloat, Noel Wotherspoon, Pricilla Marlar, Rebecca Frasier,  Sara Hawthorne, and Nina Benjamin.  Shawn David Walker and Brian Graziani as German Sailors, Mitchel Price plays Max and Gareth West is the Nazi youth.

Cabaret is produced by Paul Praither, will be directed and choreographed by Artistic Director Randal K West and musically directed by Shari Rhoads who will also conduct the live orchestra.

Cabaret will open at the Stephen Sondheim Center in Fairfield, Iowa on March 29 and also play on Saturday the 30th, both at 7:30pm. Another 4 shows run the following weekend Thursday-Saturday April 4-6 at 7:30pm and will close its Fairfield run at 2:00pm on Sunday April 7th. Following the Fairfield dates Cabaret will travel to the new Coralville Performing Arts Center for another two shows on April 12&13 both at 7:30pm. The Sondheim Tickets can be reserved by calling the box office M-F 12-6pm at 641-472-ARTS or going to FairfieldACC.com. The Coralville tickets can be reserved by calling 319.248.9370 or going to coralvillearts.org

14 Mar 2013

MOLINE FOUNDATION ANNOUNCES DEADLINE FOR GRANT APPLICATIONS

By Linda Martin

A grants submission deadline has been announced by the Moline Community Foundation. Non-profit organizations are encouraged to apply if they serve the citizens of Moline and the surrounding region, including the Quad Cities. All materials necessary to receive funds are due in The Moline Foundation offices by 4:00 p.m. on Monday, April 15, 2013 or must be postmarked by or on Monday, April 15, 2013.

Any non-profit, 501(c)(3) organization, including those who have never received Moline Foundation funding in the past, is welcome to apply.

An application should consist of eleven copies of a written request stating the name and address of the organization, its mission, names and addresses of Board members, income and expense statement, balance sheet, and the specific purpose for which any money received would be used including a project budget. The name, telephone number, and email of a contact person must also be included. The requested materials should be mailed according to the above deadline. If you need further information, please call Linda Martin at the Moline Foundation at (309) 764-4193. The Moline Foundation offices are located at the Deere-Wiman House, 817 11th Avenue, Moline.

The Moline Foundation, founded in 1953, is a community foundation which provides grants to health, human services, education, workforce development, the arts and other charitable organizations which benefit the citizens of Moline and the surrounding area, including the Quad Cities region in both Iowa and Illinois. The Moline Foundation receives and administers charitable gifts and works with citizens to achieve their dreams to improve the community.

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