By Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA)


As we begin 2011 and welcome the 112th Congress to Washington, it can be easy to focus on all the challenges we face and forget about all the important things we have accomplished in the past two years during the 111th Congress and President Obama's first years in office.  In fact, this Congress has accomplished more legislatively than any other Congress since the 1960s.  I have been proud to work with others to fight for an unprecedented series of steps to restore the economy and improve the lives of Iowans in common-sense, concrete ways.  

For starters, as many Iowans are all too aware, flood recovery in Eastern Iowa is still ongoing, and will be for some time, but each federal dollar that has been allocated for that effort has been put to good use.  I was proud to play a lead role in securing and directing significant funds for ongoing flood recovery in addition to the bulk of dollars appropriated in 2008.

On the financial front, when the 111th Congress began, the nation was headed toward another Great Depression and to help stop this, we passed the stimulus bill, which helped preserve and create millions of jobs and prevented an economic disaster.  And to prevent a future financial meltdown and to protect consumers from abusive financial products and practices, Congress enacted the most sweeping Wall Street reform bill in decades.  This bill helped put our focus back where it should be - on protecting consumers, instead of vast financial institutions.  The consumer protections included in the bill mean that Iowans can have more confidence in their financial dealings.  There is still much more to be done to turn the economy around, but without these steps our financial situation would be far worse than it is today.

Later, as the recession racked our state budget, Iowa's public schools faced the prospect of massive layoffs, which would have meant larger class sizes and a great risk to the state of our kids' education.  The fight to pass the Keep Our Educators Working Act was sometimes a lonely one, but in the end the bill delivered $96 million to Iowa and helped keep thousands of teachers in the classroom.  

We also succeeded in enacting a health reform law that increases access to affordable, quality care.  Because of the bill, more Iowans can see a doctor than could before and children cannot be denied coverage because they have a pre-existing condition.  In addition, young adults can stay on their parents insurance until they are 26, and crucial preventive services such as mammograms and colonoscopies are now provided free of any copay or deductible.  The health reform bill is an important step that finally set us on the path to remaking America as a wellness society - one that focuses on keeping people well instead of patching them up after they get sick.

And I have been proud to be at the center of two critical efforts to improve food policy in this country.  Our long-standing effort to make our food safer and healthier, came to fruition with the passing of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, the most significant child nutrition reform bill in decades, as well as the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, which updates and strengthens our nation's outdated food safety laws for the first time in nearly a century.

The list of accomplishments over the past two years also includes the Children's Health Insurance Program, funding for our troops, housing loan modification, the 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, supporting national service programs, the repeal of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell," a small business lending fund, student loan reform, tobacco regulations and so many more.

Overall, we made great progress towards restoring the economy and improving the lives of Iowans in very real ways.  I am proud of what we accomplished and look forward to working in the 112th Congress with members on both sides of the aisle to do what is best for Iowa, working families and our nation as a whole.

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Encino, CA--January 6, 2011:  Operation Gratitude today revealed that the organization's 600,000th Care Package, containing the keys to a Victory Vegas 8-Ball Motorcycle, was personally delivered on Christmas Day by Marine Corps Commandant, General James Amos, to a Lance Corporal deployed in the Sangin District of Helmand Province, Afghanistan.  The Lance Corporal, whose name will be revealed upon his return to the United States, is an infantryman with the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines (3/5), also known as the "Dark Horse Battalion."

"I received a phone call from a very happy young Marine on Christmas Day," exclaimed Carolyn Blashek, Operation Gratitude founder.  "He said: 'Your package means the world to me. I appreciate everybody who put something in that care package and everybody back home.  And I thank you for your love and support, as do all the other Marines who received packages from y'all.  Have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.'"

Ten days earlier, Blashek had flown to Washington DC to meet General Amos, who, upon learning the recipient was a Marine with the 3/5, had offered to deliver the 600,000th Care Package during his trip to Afghanistan.  The Commandant met with more than 12,000 of the 20,000 Marines deployed in Afghanistan during the ten day trip.  While visiting with the "Dark Horse" Marines in Sangin on Christmas Day, he presented Operation Gratitude's milestone care package.

"We were outside in the  cold night air; about 200 Marines had just finished their Christmas meal. All of the senior leadership in the Battalion were present," wrote General Amos.  "The Battalion Commander called [the Lance Corporal] up in front of everyone and I gave him the package. He read  your letter to everyone before he figured out what the gift was. Then he read the second letter from Victory and was handed a picture of the bike...that did the lad in. He was crying and his fellow Marines were cheering. I don't think that it could have gone any better."  

General Amos added:  "God bless the many faithful Operation Gratitude volunteers for what they have done...over 600,000 times!!  My hearty thanks to all!"

The Victory Motorcycle will be presented to the Lance Corporal when the Battalion returns to Camp Pendleton in the Spring of 2011.

"Victory is always looking for meaningful ways to thank those serving in the military and our veterans," said Victory Motorcycles General Manager Steve Menneto. "The opportunity to partner with Operation Gratitude and donate one of our motorcycles to the organization's 600,000th care package means a lot to our company. We encourage everyone to continue finding ways to thank our troops for all they sacrifice in service to our country."


The 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines, deployed in Sangin since late September, 2010, have faced an extremely dangerous and challenging operational environment, sustaining numerous casualties.  According to Lt. Colonel Jason Morris, the Battalion Commander, significant progress has been made in fracturing the enemy while providing humanitarian aid to the local populace.

"We hope our Milestone package, along with the approximately 1000 regular packages sent during our Holiday Drive, brought good cheer to the 3/5 Marines during this difficult time away from loved ones," said Blashek.  "We look forward to welcoming home each of the Marines in the Spring and personally thanking them and their families for their courageous service to our nation and the cause of freedom."
Operation Gratitude, a non-profit, volunteer-based organization, shipped more than 45,000 individually addressed care packages during the holidays and plans to send another five thousand or more before the Spring.  The group's Patriotic Drive will start in late April and run through June, sending an additional 40-50,000 care packages to Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Coast Guard and Marines deployed in harm's way.
UPDATE: Due to winter storms, the Mallards game on Feb 1, 2011 has been rescheduled for Feb 21.  Tip A Mallard at Antonella's will take place on another date which will be determined soon.

TIP A MALLARD

 

On Monday evening, February 21st, members of the Quad City Mallards hockey team will be celebrity waiters at Antonella's Ristorante and Pizzeria.

All tips received by the Hockey waiters that evening will be donated to the hunger programs at Churches United of the Quad City Area.

We encourage you, your family, and your friends to enjoy a wonderful Sicilian-style dinner of pizza, pasta, salads and sandwiches, support a great cause, and be served by some of the most athletic "waiters" in town.

Antonella's, a family owned and operated restaurant at 112 West 3rd Street in downtown Davenport, is a proud supporter of Churches United and a sponsor of Mallard hockey. Reservations can be made by calling 563-359-4411.

The Figge Art Museum is saving the last dance for you; come see the Figge Art Museum's exhibition, Dancing Towards Death: The Richard Harris Collection, before it closes this Sunday, January 9th. Although the show is about to meet its end, the opportunity still remains to experience a fabulously Figge-curated exhibit that centers on the inevitable and futile struggle with mortality.  With themes played out in print, oil, and sculpture, Dancing Towards Death addresses the certain fate bestowed upon all people; death is inexorable and spares none, regardless of status and wealth. The exhibition highlights a popular theme addressed throughout the art of Western Europe for the past six centuries, most often as a decaying corpse or skeleton embracing a victim in a dance foretelling his or her demise. Works from Albrecht Dürer, Rembrandt, Georg Grosz, and Sue Coe are featured.

For more information, contact the Figge Art Museum at 563.326.7804 or visit online at figgeart.org.

 

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January 5, 2011                                                                       

Washington, D.C. - As the 112th Congress gavels in this afternoon, the bipartisan coalition fighting to end secret holds has introduced a resolution to eliminate the undemocratic practice and move the Senate closer to an up-or-down vote on their proposal.  U.S. Senators Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), and Susan Collins (R-Maine) introduced the Secret Holds Reform Resolution that forces all holds to be disclosed to the public after one day, eliminating the ability of one senator to hijack the legislative process without being held accountable.

"The first day of the new congress is the perfect time to begin making the Senate fairer and more accountable to the public," Wyden said. "For too long, secret holds have given one senator the power to grind the legislative process to a halt without any accountability. The bipartisan group of senators standing up against this practice is growing. The tide of reform is moving with us and the Senate must be able to take an up-or-down vote on the merits of secret holds to show who the allies of transparency are and who are the allies of obstruction."

"Holds protect the rights of individual senators, but with this power must come public accountability.  Lack of transparency in the public policy process exacerbates cynicism and distrust.  Senator Wyden and I have advanced reforms to make holds public for more than 10 years, only to have them undermined by both parties.  If a senator has a legitimate reason to object to proceeding to a bill or nominee, then he or she ought to have the guts to do so publicly.  It's time for each of us to stand up and be accountable to our constituents and our colleagues for any hold placed," Grassley said.

"The American people don't trust Washington, and secrecy is one of the reasons," McCaskill said. "If someone is opposed to legislation or a nominee, they should be willing to say it publically.  We're here to do the people's business and they deserve this basic level of transparency."

"We have a responsibility to assure the American people that the decisions we make are decisions of integrity, in which their interests are put first.  Placing a hold on a nominee is a legitimate use of Senate rules and can be used to provide additional time to seek answers to important questions and address concerns.  If Members of Congress are acting in the best interests of their constituents, then they should not hesitate to make public their reasons for placing a particular hold," said Collins.

Wyden and Grassley have spent more than a decade working to eliminate secret holds and have introduced bills and amendments and secured pledges from both caucuses to no longer honor the practice. However, an amendment to an appropriations bill in 1997 was removed in conference with the House of Representatives and though a 2006 Wyden-Grassley amendment requiring that secret holds be publically disclosed after three legislative days passed the Senate in 2006, it was altered as part of the 2007 "Honest Leadership and Open Government Act" to require disclosure after six days only after a nomination or piece of legislation is called up on the floor.  Senator McCaskill brought renewed momentum to the effort last year by drawing attention to the continued abuse of secret holds and authored a letter signed by 68 senators calling for the elimination of the practice.

The three joined forces last summer to introduce the Secret Holds Elimination Act that formed the basis of the current resolution. The resolution will require that all holds on legislation and nominees be submitted in writing and automatically printed in the Congressional Record after one legislative day, whether the bill or nomination has been brought up for floor consideration or not. The latter provision will eliminate the all-too-common practice of secret holds being used to indefinitely prevent bills from reaching the Senate floor.

Here is the text of Grassley's statement delivered on the Senate floor this afternoon.

Madam President, my colleagues as well as any of the public watching the debate today knows that there's a great partisan divide thus far.  Senator Wyden has already referred to the motion that he and I are putting before the Senate, and Senator Wyden being the Democrat and my being a Republican, and we're joined also by Senator McCaskill, the presiding officer right now, as well as Senator Collins in this effort, it is the only bipartisan issue before the Senate this particular day.  I emphasize that because I think the public ought to know that not everything in the Senate is partisan.

Senator Wyden and I have been chipping away at the informal backroom process known as "secret hold" in the Senate.  We've been working on this for well over ten years.  So it shouldn't surprise anyone that we're back again at the start of another Congress joined as I said by Senator McCaskill of Missouri who was very helpful in our pushing this issue to the forefront at the end of the last congress.  As I said, I'm also pleased that we have Senator Collins on board again.

There's been a lot of talk lately about the possibility of far reaching reforms to how the Senate does business that have been hastily conceived and could shift the traditional balance between the rights of the majority and rights of the minority parties. Now, in contrast, our resolution by Senator Wyden and this Senator is neither of those two things.  In other words, it does not shift any balance between the majority and the minority.

This resolution is a well-thought-out, bipartisan reform effort that has been the subject of two committee hearings and numerous careful revisions over several years.  In no way does it alter the balance of power between the minority and majority parties, nor does it change any rights of any individual senator.  This is simply about transparency, and with transparency I think you get a great deal of accountability.

I want to be very clear that I fully support the fundamental right of any individual Senator to withhold his consent when unanimous consent is requested.  In the old days, when senators conducted much of their daily business from their desk on the Senate floor and were on the Senate floor for most of the day, it was quite a simple matter for any Senator at that time to stand up and say, "I object" when necessary, if they really objected to a unanimous consent request.  And that was it. That stopped it.

Now since most senators spend most of their time off the Senate floor because of the obligations for committee hearings, the obligations for meeting with constituents, and a lot of other obligations that we have, we now tend to rely upon our Majority Leader, in the case of the Democrats, or the Minority Leader in the case of the Republicans, to protect our rights and privileges by asking those leaders or their substitutes to object on our behalf.

Just as any Senator has the right to stand up on the Senate floor and publicly say "I object," it is perfectly legitimate to ask another Senator to object on our behalf if he cannot make it to the floor when unanimous consent is requested.  By the same token, senators have no inherent right to have others object on their behalf while at the same time keeping their identity secret, thus shielding their legislative actions from the public, because that's not transparency, and that's obviously not being accountable.

So, what I object to is not the use of the word "holds" or the process of holding up something in the Senate, but I object to what is called secret holds.   So the adjective "secret" is what we're fighting here.  If a senate then has a legitimate reason to object to proceedings to a bill or nominee, then he or she ought to have the guts to do so publicly.  A Senator may object because he does not agree to the substance of a bill and, therefore, cannot in good conscience grant consent or because a Senator has not had adequate opportunity to review the matter at hand.  Regardless, we should have no fear of being held accountable by our constituents if we're acting in their interests, as we're elected to do.

I have practiced publicly announcing my holds for many, many years, and it hasn't hurt one bit.  In fact, some of the senators that are most conscientious about protecting their prerogatives to review legislation before granting consent to its consideration or passage are also quite public about it.  In short, there is no legitimate reason for any Senator to ever have to, if they place a hold to have that hold be secret.

So, how does our proposal achieve transparency and the resultant accountability?  In our proposed standing order for the Majority Leader or Minority Leader to recognize a hold, the Senator placing the hold must get a statement in the record within one session day and must give permission to their leader at the time they place the hold to object in their name, not in the name of the leader.  Since the leader will automatically have permission to name the Senator on whose behalf they're objecting, there will no longer be any expectation or pressure on the leader to keep the hold secret.  Further, if a Senator objects to a unanimous consent request and does not name another Senator as having the objection, then the objecting Senator will be listed as having the hold.  This will end entirely, once and for all, the situation where one Senator objects but is able to remain very, very coy about whether it is their own objection or some unnamed Senator.  All objections will have to be owned up to.

Again, our proposal protects the rights of individual senators to withhold their consent while ensuring transparency and public accountability.  And, you know, here in the Congress as well as almost any place in the federal government, except maybe national security issues, the public's business always ought to be public, and the people who are involved in the public's business ought to stand behind their actions.  As I have repeatedly said, the Senate's business ought to be done more in the public than it is, and most of it is public.  But, this secret hold puts a mystery about things going on in Washington that hurts the credibility of the institution.  This principle of accountability and transparency, this is a principle that I think the vast majority, if not all, senators can get behind.

I think the time has come for this simple, commonsense reform.

 

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Scott County Kids, a public-private partnership that helps families raise happy and healthy children, will be announcing an initiative to award approximately $250,000 in child care scholarships for Scott County families who are working, attending school or looking for work.

This federal money targets two groups: those with children ages birth to 24 months and those who need care in the late afternoons/evenings, at night or on weekends for infants, toddlers and preschoolers. The majority of the money comes from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act. Income guidelines do apply.


The Moline Foundation, and the Illinois Children's Healthcare Foundation Announce $30,000 Gift to River Bend Foodbank To Assist in Fight Against Local Hunger

A news conference held this morning, Wednesday, January 5, 2011, at the River Bend Foodbank, 309 12th Street, Moline, Illinois announced a major funding gift of $30,0000 from a local community foundation, the Moline Foundation and a statewide foundation, the Illinois Children's Healthcare Foundation, Oak Brook, Illinois.

The gift is the result of a challenge grant campaign held in the Quad Cities the last few weeks and conducted by the Moline Foundation. Donors in the Quad Cities contributed $15,000 in just four days to benefit the River Bend Foodbank and its hunger relief programs, including the Backpack Feeding Program. The Backpack Program strives to ensure that children don't go hungry over the weekend when are no school meals for them to rely upon. The program serves approximately 1,200 children in the Quad Cities. Every Friday, during the school year, children participating in the Backpack Program receive free, nutritious food distributed at their school which they can then take home in their backpacks and easily prepare at home.

"This is an especially critical time in our community as food supplies are low during the cold winter. We are grateful to our donors and the opportunity to receive such a large matching grant to give to River Bend Foodbank," said Jon Tunberg, Chairman of The Moline Foundation.

The Moline Foundation and other community foundations in Illinois were challenged to raise funds in Springfield, Champaign, Chicago, St. Charles, Peoria, and East St. Louis. Over 1.5 million people in Illinois now live in poverty. Of this number, approximately 500,000 are children. This statewide funding initiative will be used to provide nutritious meals for Illinois children through after school programs, weekend back pack feeding programs, and mobile distribution programs.

River Bend Foodbank is the largest hunger relief organization in the Quad Cities and surrounding communities, distributing 6.3 million pounds of food annually to more than 300 charitable feeding programs throughout a 22 county service area in Eastern Iowa and Western Illinois. More than 10,000 people receive food assistance each week through River Bend's distribution network. The Foodbank also operates four Kids Café sites serving over 45,000 free meals to children each year, the Backpack Program which provides over 1300 Quad City children with nourishing food to take home on the weekends during the school year and the Mobile Food Pantry which directly feeds thousands of families.

As a Community Foundation, The Moline Foundation offers a range of charitable funds, allowing donors to advance a cause such as education or the environment, support an individual organization, provide flexible support for community needs or recommend individual grants. The Moline Foundation, founded in 1953, is a Community Foundation which provides funding to health, human services, education, community, workforce and economic development, the arts and other charitable organizations which benefit the citizens of Scott County, Iowa and Rock Island, Henry, Mercer, Warren, McDonough and Henderson counties in western Illinois. The Moline Foundation receives and administers charitable gifts; has a current endowment of approximately $15 million; and handles additional funds to benefit donor wishes. The Moline Foundation also serves as a catalyst and convener to bring about solutions to problems affecting quality of life in our region.

Illinois Children's Healthcare Foundation is the only statewide private foundation focused on improving the health of all children in the State of Illinois. It was created in December 2002 through an action between the State of Illinois Attorney General's office and a private insurance carrier. This action established the Foundation which was funded with an investment of approximately $125 million.



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COMPANY OFFERS $64.99* ONE-WAY FARES

MOLINE, Ill. - Allegiant (NASDAQ: ALGT), today announces low-cost, nonstop travel service between Moline/Quad Cities, Ill., and theTampa Bay, Fla., area beginning Feb. 18, 2011.  The company, known for its exceptional travel deals, is offering its customers fares between the two cities for as low as $64.99* one-way.

"We're pleased to announce yet another affordable and convenient way for our customers to get away," Andrew C. Levy, Allegiant Travel Company President, said. "We are confident the Moline/Quad Cities community will appreciate the value of flying nonstop to the Tampa Bay area and the great deals we offer on hotels and car rentals."

"I am thrilled Allegiant is continuing to expand in the Quad Cities by adding nonstop service to the Tampa/St. Petersburg area," Bruce Carter, Director of Aviation for the Quad City International Airport, said. "The Tampa/St. Pete area has some of the most popular beaches in Florida and will be a great vacation destination.  With the addition of these flights, the QCIA will now have 12 nonstop destinations?more than ever before in the history of the airport."

The new flights will operate twice weekly betweenQuad City International Airport(MLI) and St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport (PIE), with service Monday andFriday. Flights will depart Moline/Quad Cities at 5:40 p.m. arriving in the Tampa Bay area at 9:10 p.m. Flights leaving the Tampa Bay area will depart at 3:20 p.m. arriving in Moline/Quad Cities at 5 p.m. (all flight times are local).  The carrier will utilize a full-size, 150-seat MD-80 jet aircraft on the route.  The company also offers nonstop service from Moline/Quad Cities to Las Vegas and Phoenix-Mesa, Ariz.

With an average 361 days of sunshine each year, the St. Petersburg-Clearwater area is considered the most popular vacation destination on Florida's West Coast.  The area was named among the top beaches in the United States and is one of a few destinations to have received the "Blue Wave Award" from the Clean Beaches Council.  In addition to pristine beaches, visitors are within minutes of shopping, amazing golf courses and award-winning resort and dining experiences.

Allegiant is more than an airline, it is a full-service travel company that offers great value to its customers through its hotel and car rental packages.  The company partners with 20of the Tampa Bay area's most exciting hotel properties, including: Grand Hyatt Tampa Bay, Barefoot Beach Resort, Hilton Clearwater Beach Resort, Sheraton Sand Key Resort, Alden Beach Resort, Don CeSar Beach Resort andSirata Beach Resort & Conference Center. Allegiant provides low-cost car rental service through its partnership with Alamo Rent a Car.

Allegiant's offer is not available on all flights and must be purchased by Jan. 26, 2011. Reservations may be made through the company's website at www.allegiant.comor by calling Allegiant's travel experts at 702-505-8888.

About the offer:
Valid between Moline/Quad Cities, Ill., and Tampa Bay, Fla. Seats are limited. Fares are one-way and not available on all flights. Must be purchased by Jan. 26, 2011. Prices do not include PFC, segment tax or Sept. 11 security fee of up to $10.70 per segment. A segment is one take-off and one landing. A convenience fee of $14.99 per passenger will apply when booked on allegiant.com. A convenience fee of $14.99 per passenger, plus $14.99 per segment, will apply when purchased through Allegiant call centers. Purchases made at any Allegiant Airport Ticket Office will not incur a convenience or call center fee. For ticket counter hours of operation, please visit www.allegiant.com. When purchased at the time of booking, a checked bag fee of $14.99-$29.99 per bag will apply per person, per segment. If purchased at flight check-in, a fee of $35 per checked bag, per person, per segment will apply for the first two bags checked. Additional higher fees will apply for three or more checked bags. Fare rules, routes and schedules are subject to change without notice. Restrictions apply. $20 savings based on a two-night, air+hotel purchase; valid at select Allegiant hotels.

Allegiant, travel is our deal.
Las Vegas-based Allegiant Travel Company (NASDAQ: ALGT), is focused on linking travelers in small cities to world-class leisure destinations such as Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Phoenix-Mesa, Orlando, Fla., and Tampa/St. Petersburg, Fla.  Through its subsidiary, Allegiant Air, the company operates a low-cost, high-efficiency, all-jet passenger airline offering air travel both on a stand-alone basis and bundled with hotel rooms, rental cars and other travel-related services.  In 2010, Allegiant was ranked number one for low-cost carriers in Aviation Week's Top Performing Airline study and ranked 25 on FORTUNE magazine's Fastest-Growing Companies list.  Receive breaking news from Allegiant by visiting Allegiant's Facebook Fan Page at www.facebook.com/Allegiantor follow Allegiant on Twitter at twitter.com/allegiantair.

 

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Davenport, Iowa - January 5, 2011- Lafarge North America recently was recognized by the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) at its annual "Training Resources Applied to Mining" (TRAM) Conference held at the MSHA training academy in Beckley, WV.  Lafarge, not only received the first place prize in the Best CD's & DVD's Training for Industry award for their "Safety Glasses Save Lives - The Adam Oliver Story" video, but that same video captured the highest level of recognition by winning the Grand Prize for the best overall resource.  The video described the story and the lessons learned from a real-life incident that happened to Adam Oliver, a Lafarge employee, at its Davenport, Iowa Cement Plant.

"The video did well for the simple reason that it hits close to home.  All incidents are preventable. And, as this video portrays, wearing your Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) can save your life," said Dan Thompson, Regional Safety Director for Lafarge's River Business Unit.  "People can relate to this because it's not a hypothetical situation.  It is a real life story told by one of our own," continued Thompson.

"My experience was life changing. I decided to do this video to let my experience become life changing for others, without having them get hurt," said Adam Oliver, Raw Mix Coordinator at the Davenport Cement plant.  "I am excited the video won these awards, but I am more proud of the fact the video is reaching out and potentially preventing the next incident. Safety is such a big part of the culture at Lafarge. I know it is the top priority and we must continue to instill this culture into everyone in the industry, in order to prevent future incidents from happening," added Oliver.

MSHA's 15th annual conference gathers representatives from the mining community, including participants from academia, states programs, and coal, metal and non-metal mining industries, to share ideas and training around health and safety.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

The Lafarge Group is the world leader in building materials, with top-ranking positions in all of its businesses: Cement, Aggregates & Concrete and Gypsum. With 78,000 employees in 78 countries, the Group posted sales of 15.9 billion Euros in 2009. Lafarge North America Inc. ("Lafarge North America" or "Lafarge"), a Lafarge Group company, is the largest diversified supplier of construction materials in the United States and Canada.

In 2010 and for the sixth year in a row, the Lafarge Group was listed in the "Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World". With the world's leading building materials research facility, the Lafarge Group places innovation at the heart of its priorities, working for sustainable construction and architectural creativity.

For more information about Lafarge North America, go to www.lafarge-na.com

Deployment Ceremony Jan. 9 for Eight Illinois National Guardsmen Deploying to Balkans

SPRINGFIELD, IL (01/05/2011)(readMedia)-- A deployment ceremony is scheduled for approximately eight Soldiers who will deploy to the Balkans with the New Mexico Army National Guard. The ceremony for the Kosovo Force Balkans mission will be Jan. 9 at 11 a.m. at the Illinois Military Academy at Camp Lincoln in Springfield.

The Soldiers will be teamed with more than 700 Soldiers from the New Mexico Army National Guard's 111th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade (MEB). They will train for approximately one month at Camp Atterbury, Ind. before deploying to Kosovo.

The Illinois Army National Guard Soldiers will assist the 111th MEB and subordinate units to alert, organize, mobilize and deploy to Kosovo as Multi-National Task Force East. They will conduct peace enforcement operations, enforce United Nations Security Council Resolutions by providing a safe and secure environment, and promote the transition of responsibilities to civil authorities.

The eight-man team consists of Illinois Soldiers from as far north as Rockford and Rolling Meadows to near the St.Louis area.

News media attending the event should arrive at least 30 minutes prior to the ceremony and are required to notify the Public Affairs Office by 3 p.m. Jan.7 or they will not be granted access onto Camp Lincoln. For more information call the Public Affairs Office at 217-761-3569.

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