12 May 2011

Figge offers art of the national parks class

By Susan Horan

The Figge Art Museum is offering a three-week Art History class entitled "Art of the National Parks," from 6:30-8 pm on Tuesdays, May 24- June 7. The class will cover the history of national parks, numerous landmarks and locations, and the artists that encountered those areas. The course will be taught by Ranelle Lueth, Ph.D. Candidate in American Art at the University of Iowa. The course is free to Figge members; membership options begin at $40. For more information, call the Membership Office at 563.326.7804 x2007. Registration for the class is required; please call the Education Department at 563.326.7804 x2045.

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12 May 2011

Brucemore in Bloom Tours

By Tara Richards

Tour the blossoming gardens and lush terrain during the specialty tour? Brucemore in Bloom, Tuesday, June 7 and Thursday, June 9 at 6:00 p.m., and Saturday, June 11 at 9:30 a.m. During the 90-minute tour, the Brucemore garden staff will trace the development of the gardens from the original plan conceived by prominent landscape architect O.C. Simonds to the integration of function, recreation, and entertainment in Mrs. Douglas' vision for the country estate in the 1930s. View current plants and landscape techniques that continue to help preserve the historically accurate prairie style design by Simonds.

Admission is $10 per person and $7 per Brucemore member. Space is limited. Advance ticket purchase required. Call (319) 362-7375 or visit the Brucemore Store to purchase tickets.

Brucemore, Iowa's only National Trust Historic Site, is located at 2160 Linden Drive SE, Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The grounds are open and free to the public from dawn until dusk.

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12 May 2011

Civil Rights assessment at USDA

By Sen Chuck Grassley

U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley made the following comment after the Department of Agriculture released an independent study on the agency's civil rights programs.  Grassley has conducted oversight of the Office of Civil Rights at the department and has asked for hearings in the Senate Agriculture Committee.

"Over the years, the Department of Agriculture lost a great deal of credibility on civil rights issues.  People are tired of talk and are looking for action from the department.  After years of this inaction, I appreciate the focus on civil rights issues at the department.  I look forward to seeing the progress they make on these recommendations, and I hope Chairwoman Stabenow can hold a hearing on minority issues and the department's Office of Civil Rights in the near future."

12 May 2011

Braley Announces Winners of Congressional Art Competition

By Alexandra Krasov

Washington, DC - May 11, 2011 - Today, Congressman Bruce Braley (IA-01) announced the three winners of the 2011 annual Congressional Art Competition, "An Artistic Discovery".

Krista Stork, a junior from Dubuque Hempstead High School, won first place for herpiece "Why Poverty". Lisa Davis, a senior from Dubuque Wahlert Catholic High School, received second place for her piece "Individuality is the Movement". And Brock Cavett, a junior from Davenport North High School for his piece "The Hardest Thing in Life ".

"Each year, talented students from across Iowa submit great artwork to the Congressional Art Competition - and this year was no different," said Rep. Braley. "I'm proud to announce the winners of this year's competition and I extend my congratulations to the eight semi-finalists."

This year, Rep. Braley's office accepted submissions online and allowed constituents to vote for their favorite artwork. More than 1,500 people voted online. The full list of winners and semi-finalists, as well as the online gallery of submissions, is posted on Rep. Braley's website at: http://go.usa.gov/jrA

The winner of this year's competition will receive two roundtrip plane tickets to Washington, D.C. to attend a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Capitol. The Congressional Art Competition, initiated by Congress in 1982, is a nation-wide high school arts competition sponsored by the Members of the U.S. House of Representatives. One piece from each Congressional district is displayed in the Cannon Tunnel of the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. for a year.

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12 May 2011

Braley Calls on Boehner to Repeal Tax Breaks for Big Oil

By Alexandra Krasov

Washington, DC - May 11, 2011 - Today, Congressman Bruce Braley (IA-01) sent a letter to House Speaker John Boehner, calling on him to repeal tax subsidies for big oil companies. Rep. Braley urged Speaker Boehner to bring a bill to the House Floor that would repeal oil subsidies at a time when oil companies are making record profits but gas prices are skyrocketing at the pump.

"I was pleased to read Speaker Boehner's recent statements acknowledging that eliminating tax subsidies for big oil companies is 'something we should be looking at' and I'm glad that other members of the Republican party such as Representative Paul Ryan and Senator Charles

Grassley have also questioned whether these types of subsidies areappropriate," said Rep. Braley. "It seems clear that the push to end oil tax subsidies now has bipartisan political support. And I think it's past due time to bring a bill to the House Floor that would repeal big oil's tax breaks."

A CNN poll released earlier this week shows that 9 in 10 Americansblame big oil companies for the recent spike in gas prices.

A copy of Rep. Braley's letter is available here: http://go.usa.gov/j1C

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12 May 2011

Milan-Based Field Artillery Battalion Returns from Sinai, Egypt

By readMedia

Homecoming Ceremony Set for May 14 for Units in Milan, Galesburg and Macomb

MILAN , IL (05/11/2011)(readMedia)-- Approximately 440 Illinois Army National Guard Soldiers who served in Sinai, Egypt assisting with the 1979 Egypt and Israel peace treaty agreement, will return to Illinois this weekend. A homecoming ceremony for units with 2nd Battalion, 123rd Field Artillery Regiment in Milan will take place at 10:00 a.m. May 14 at armories in Milan, Galesburg and Macomb.

The Soldiers mobilized in May 2010 as part of the Multinational Force and Observers (MFO). The international peacekeeping force oversees the terms of the 1979 peace treaty between Egypt and Israel. For three decades the MFO has carried out its mission and has proven successful. The desire of peace on the part of both Israel and Egypt, combined with the effectiveness of the MFO, has resulted in a durable and lasting state of peace between the two nations.

"Our Soldiers did an outstanding job accomplishing their mission," said Lt. Col. Maurice Rochelle of Flossmoor, 2nd Battalion, 123rd Field Artillery commander. "There were no major accidents, incidents or casualties during our deployment and we succeeded in every facet of our mission. I am proud of the work these Soldiers have done representing Illinois and their families should be proud of them as well."

The Milan-based 2nd Battalion, 123rd Field Artillery Regiment includes the Forward Support Company, 2nd Battalion, 123rd Field Artillery in Milan; Headquarters, 2nd Battalion, 123rd Field Artillery in Milan; Battery A, 2nd Battalion, 123rd Field Artillery in Milan; Battery B, 2nd Battalion, 123rd Field Artillery in Macomb and Battery C, 2nd Battalion, 123rd Field Artillery in Galesburg.

This is the first time the battalion has deployed as a single unit. While the mobilization included units from northwest Illinois, Soldiers are from all areas of Illinois.

12 May 2011

CELEBRATING 35 YEARS OF INVESTING IN CHILDREN AND FAMILIES

By M. McNeil
Just Kids Commemorates Anniversary with Sports-Themed Celebration


April 26, 2011 - Just Kids Early Care & Education Centers in Milan, IL is celebrating 35 years of providing high-quality early education services to the Quad Cities community.

Just Kids is a non-profit, United Way partner that has been providing services in Milan since the organization's inception. They operate 4 child development centers and serve over 250 families annually. Just Kids has over 50 early childhood professionals working together to educate young children, build public support for high-quality programs, improve professional practice and support area families.

"All young children deserve high-quality early learning experiences that will prepare them for life. Just Kids has had a great opportunity to contribute to this need for the past 35 years," said Vera Hinrichsen, Executive Director of Just Kids. "I am honored that parents have continued to turn to us to help give their children a positive start."

The organization is inviting the community, particularly current and former Just Kids families, to celebrate their 35th anniversary at their "High Five for 35" event on May 11, 2011 from 5:30-7:30 at the Milan Community Center, 2701 1st Street East, Milan. This sports-themed event will feature free family activities, crafts, raffle baskets and dinner for $1. Kids can also meet Mo Mallard and Monkey Joe. Blackhawk Bank & Trust, a loyal supporter of Just Kids, is serving as the principal sponsor of this celebration.

For more information on Just Kids Early Care & Education Centers, please visit www.justkidsinc.org.
10 May 2011

Figge announces Haitian art exhibition with special event

By Susan Horan

(Davenport, Iowa - May, 2011) The Figge announces the fall exhibition, Restoring the Spirit: Celebrating Haitian Art and the recent reinstallation of the Figge's Haitian Gallery with an event on May 18.  The upcoming exhibition celebrates Haiti's complex visual traditions and the devotion of artists to creative endeavors in the face of national adversity.  The exhibition will open September 17 and run through January 15, 2012.

The Figge's Haitian Collection is one of the first and most comprehensive collections of Haitian art in the United States.  The collection was established through a gift from Davenport native Dr. Walter E. Neiswanger and charts the growth and development of the country's rich artistic tradition from its origins in the 1940s through today.

Now on view in the reinstalled Haitian Gallery is the triptych Azaka, Agro Rex by Edouard Duval-Carrie.  Duval-Carrie, who was featured in the solo exhibition, Migration of the Spirit at the Figge in 2006, will have work included in Restoring the Spirit exhibition.  Duval-Carrie will visit the Figge on October 13 to lead a "Thursdays at the Figge" art talk on his experiences as a Haitian artist.

On May 18, in honor of Haitian Flag Day, the Figge will host an event to celebrate the announcement of the exhibition and the recent Haitian Gallery reinstallation.  The Figge is partnering with Kids Against Hunger Your Quad-Cities to bag life saving food which will be delivered to Haiti.

Kids Against Hunger is an international food relief organization working to save the lives of starving people. The local chapter has provided over 500,000 meals to starving people in Haiti, Honduras, and Nicaragua, many of whom suffer from malnutrition and resort to eating mud cakes to stave off the hunger.  In addition, they have provided nearly 60,000 meals to hungry people in the Quad Cities. The bagged meals, made up of rice, soy, six vegetables and twenty-one vitamins and minerals, provide a nutritionally complete meal and cost $0.25 per meal.

The Figge is seeking over 100 volunteers to help bag food from 2:30pm to 4:30pm on the May 18.  Individual cash donations of $20 are encouraged to help cover the cost of these meals.  For a fee of $360, teams of 12 volunteers can sign up to create 1440 meals in an hour.

Leading the bagging efforts will be Keith Donohue.  Donohue is the founder of Positive Present®, an organization devoted to making a positive impact through philanthropy. His organization is currently embarking on a unique project called "50Give," where Donohue will trek cross-country to volunteer in each of the 50 states as well as Canada, Mexico and the District of Columbia.  Travelling by car, plane or boat, Donohue will devote over five months of his time helping various nonprofits, charities and other worthy causes.

Donohue volunteers at one non-profit in each state and has chosen to spend his time in Iowa volunteering at the Figge.  In addition to helping bag food, Donohue will help in the administrative offices and assist Figge outreach staff with an elementary program in the Davenport School District.

There will be a brief program at 2pm with remarks by Figge staff and community members. Haitian gallery tours will be offered at 2pm, 3pm and 4pm by Sally Ruggeberg, a Figge Docent who has spent time volunteering in Haiti.

To volunteer, please contact Jennifer Brooke at the Figge Art Museum 563.326.7804x2048 or j.brooke@figgeartmuseum.org

For more information on 50Give and Keith Donohue visit www.50give.com/contact.

For more information on Kids Against Hunger Your Quad-Cities, contact John Kessler at info@kahqc.com or 309.762.0437.

This event is being sponsored by Thrivent Financial for Lutherans. As the country's largest fraternal benefit society, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans does much more than offer financial services. It offers programs and outreach opportunities where members can connect with each other, learn new things, and help their communities. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans supports two foundations that address a variety of needs and serve charitable purposes that support individuals, organizations and communities.

For more information on Thrivent Financial for Lutherans contact Tom Brooke at 326.650.2389 or Thomas.Brooke@Thrivent.com.

--END--

10 May 2011

Grassley urges SEC Chairman to make sure new whistleblower office is effective

By Grassley Press

Senator identifies numerous weak aspects of proposed regulations, cautions against failed effort

WASHINGTON - Seeking an effective whistleblower office to help fight financial fraud, Senator Chuck Grassley is asking the Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to reconsider proposed regulations for the whistleblower provisions created by the financial regulation legislation enacted last summer.

"These changes were supposed to strengthen the ability of whistleblowers at the SEC to help correct wrongdoing," Grassley said.  "But, so far, the regulations that have been proposed would unravel the good of the legislation.  The draft regulations are overly complex and overly restrictive.  They emphasize internal compliance over accuracy, and they perpetuate an environment hostile to whistleblowers by failing to provide any guidance to prevent retaliation against SEC employees who speak up."

In a detailed critique in a letter dated today, Grassley urged the Chairman to use the time left by delays in releasing final rules to make sure the SEC whistleblower program is as strong as possible and complies with what Congress intended for whistleblowers with the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

Grassley was involved in developing the SEC whistleblower provisions that are part of the Dodd-Frank law.  Grassley often provides assistance with whistleblower legislation because he has authored numerous whistleblower protection statutes, including the 1986 and 2009 amendments to the False Claims Act, the 2006 amendments to the Internal Revenue Service whistleblower program, and the Sarbanes-Oxley whistleblower protections for employees of publicly traded companies.

Grassley said he also has seen other federal agencies struggle to implement strong whistleblower provisions.  He said the most recent example is the Internal Revenue Service, which ultimately was able to ensure the independence of a new whistleblower protection director who consolidates all tips and is able to prevent enforcement personnel from invalidating individual whistleblower claims.

"The SEC has a bad track record when it comes to using valuable information from whistleblowers, and the changes to the law last year were intended to turn that around.  Now, it's up to the SEC.  If the agency fails to set up an effective whistleblower office, then regulators are compromising their own ability to identify financial wrongdoing and protect the public and marketplace," Grassley said.  "The stakes are very high.  We've seen how SEC failures can hurt anyone with a pension plan or money in a retirement fund.  In recent years, the SEC missed the biggest Ponzi scheme in U.S. history in the Madoff case, and it might have been avoided if the SEC had given whistleblowers a chance.  Whistleblowers can be an effective line of defense.  Their information can shed a lot of light on what might be happening.  There's no excuse when public officials ignore that information or, worse yet, allow retaliation against whistleblowers who stick their necks out for the good of all of us."

A copy of Grassley's letter to SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro is posted at http://grassley.senate.gov/news/Article.cfm?customel_dataPageID_1502=34427.

10 May 2011

Editorial from Congressman Bruce Braley: We must save our rural post offices

By Alexandra Krasov

For hundreds of years, Americans have relied on their local post office as their main form of communication. Before Facebook, text messages, emails, and even cables, we had letters and packages, thanks to the postal service that delivered them to our door and our town. Postal workers and letter carriers were, and still are, the driving force to ensure that everyAmerican has access to consistent, reliable mail service. But now thatservice is in jeopardy as Washington politicians put more and more rural post offices on the chopping block.

In my own family, my wife's grandfather worked as a letter carrier. After serving in World War I, he came home and went to work as a letter carrier for the post office in Dubuque, Iowa. He was so well regarded and respected among his fellow letter carriers that he was presented with a gavel made out of timber from the White House. Now, that gavel - and the pride in one's work and community that it symbolizes - is a prized possession in our household.

During the Second World War, my father relied on the post office as his only form of communication with his family. Half a world away, he was only 18 when he served at Iwo Jima, but he was still able to send and receive letters from his mother and his loved ones. If it weren't for the hardworking employees of the United States Postal Service (USPS), these letters would never have made their way to him. And on Mother's Day in 1945, while he was recuperating on Guam, my father used the mail to send flowers to his mother in Iowa.

Today, many Iowans still rely on their local post office for their main form of communication. Whether you use the post office to write letters to loved ones far away or to send and receive packages, the post office continues to be a reliable and necessary service. And even in the age of electronic communication, small-town post offices serve as the heart of so many communities across Iowa. Going into your local post office is about more than just getting the mail - it's about catching up on the local gossip, checking in on friends and neighbors, and staying connected to your community. Our local post offices provide good-paying jobs to Iowans and they remain astrong presence in many small-town economies.

Unfortunately, in recent years we've witnessed the closing of many post offices across the state. In towns like Volga, St. Olaf and Arlington, post offices have already been closed. And now communities like Evansdale and New Hartford are facing closures of their own. Some of these closings have come so abruptly that communities don't even have a chance to make their protests heard or rally to save the post office.

But now, bending to political pressure, the USPS is planning to close even more small-town post offices. The USPS has proposed new regulations that would consolidate or close many small town post offices.

That's not the way we treat our neighbors in Iowa, and I will continue to make sure our rural communities have a voice when it comes to issues that affect them. That's why, just this week, I sent a letter to Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe expressing my grave concern over these new proposed regulations. I urged the Postmaster General to reconsider and not to issue new government regulations that would lead to the closing of even more rural post offices in our state. I strongly believe that these closings would lead to job loss and would cause many headaches for Iowans in rural communities who rely on their local post office. But I also know that if we stand together and make our voice heard, we can prevent these closings.

After the 2008 floods devastated parts of our district, the post office in Greene was in danger of closing. The post office was badly damaged because of the floods, but as the people of Greene rallied to repair and revive after the flooding, I was pleased to work with the community to help prevent this post office from closing. And just like I did then, I intend to keep fighting for all the post offices in my district.

With our growing national deficit, we certainly need to look at all the ways we can save money. But closing post offices that so many small towns and rural communities rely on will not solve the financial troubles of the USPS or the U.S. government - it will serve as a financial and moral blow to Iowans who can least afford it. The United States Postal Service has a long and proud history. Shuttering the post offices that serve as the hearts andsouls of our small towns would be a devastating closing chapter.

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