With the holiday retail season upon us, The Arc of Rock Island County announces it is currently accepting new consignments from area artists for The Arc's One of a Kind shop.

One of a Kind sells unique handmade gifts made by local artisans. Products include jewelry, paintings, weavings, carved walking sticks, candles, soaps and lotions, and many other unique gift options.

Consigning artists set the retail price and receive 75% of the sale price. The Arc retains 25% which supports programming, developmental training, and wages for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. One of a Kind provides paid employment opportunities for individuals in a retail setting. Individuals are trained and involved in all aspects of store operations-creating original artwork, cashiering, maintaining displays, inventory control, and customer service.

One of a Kind is located at 4016 9th Street in Rock Island.

Hours are Monday through Friday, 8 am to 4:30 pm.

Founded in 1952, The Arc of Rock Island County promotes living and working in partnership with the community to support individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families. The Arc serves more than 325 individuals throughout the Quad Cities community on a daily basis.

Davenport, Iowa (November 2010) - Gilda's Club will host Dr. Mario Sy, Board Certified Hematologist and Medical Oncologist, who will offer vital information about the most current lung cancer treatments, strategies for symptom/side effect management , and tools for survivorship. Lung cancer patients, friends, and family members are welcome to learn how to build a more proactive relationship with their health care team. Free comprehensive booklets about lung cancer treatment and care will be provided. The workshop will take place on Tuesday, November 30th at 6:00 p.m. at Gilda's Club Quad Cities, 1234 East River Drive, Davenport, Iowa.

Advanced registration is preferred and dinner is included.

For more details and registration call Gilda's Club at (563)326-7504 or email erin@gildasclubqc.org.

Rock Island, Ill.-Selected from more than 300 top professors in the United States, Dr. Lendol Calder has been named the 2010 Illinois Professor of the Year. Sponsored by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), the award is the only national initiative specifically designed to recognize excellence in undergraduate teaching and mentoring.

Calder, a 14-year veteran of the history department, is the second Augustana professor to receive this coveted award since the program began in 1981. Dr. Dorothy Parkander, professor emeritus of English, was named Illinois Professor of the Year in 1992.

"This is a very special day for Augustana College, and it's a great honor to join Dr. Calder's colleagues and students in offering congratulations on this outstanding recognition," said Augustana President Steve Bahls. "For almost half a century, Dr. Dorothy Parkander transformed the lives of our students by introducing them to the world's greatest literature. Dr. Calder has the same kind of impact as he leads students to a deeper, more effective understanding of history."

An accomplished historian, Calder also is a leader in the growing movement to bring scholarly inquiry to teaching and learning in higher education. In 1999, the Carnegie Foundation invited Calder to join other distinguished academicians from diverse fields to invent and share new models to enhance student learning.

Calder's research findings, published in the March 2006 issue of The Journal of American History, examine the problem of "coverage" in introductory history courses and is part of a larger effort to forge a new way of teaching and learning college history. It was the first time the flagship journal for American history had published an article on the scholarship of teaching and learning.

"The kind of professor I've worked to be is the kind who approaches teaching with both the trained eye of a scholar and the wild eye of a poet or mystic or comic," Calder said. "Teaching for me is both scholarly work and soul work. Studies tell us that professors are not all that comfortable with spiritual discourse and moral inquiry in the classroom. But Augustana has given me a green light for this kind of inquiry so I've been able to run with it. In my courses I work to help students develop both the language of their hearts and the language of their minds."

For example, Calder's American history class covering 1945 to the present has no exams and no 60-minute lectures. Instead of a single textbook, students read two competing histories and dozens of documents from the past. Grades are based on seven essays in which students demonstrate their ability to construct sound historical arguments on the basis of document analysis. Class time is filled with lively discussions where students do what historians do: formulate questions, analyze evidence, construct claims, dispute inferences, correct initial conclusions and recognize what can't be known. Most importantly, students debate what story best makes sense of the American past. "If you don't have a story that makes sense of the world," said Calder, "then you don't know what to do, or how to live."

Caroline Sallee, a 2002 Augustana graduate, says the most important skills she learned in college were from Calder's classes. "I learned how to  approach history, to think about it critically and to write about it clearly,"Sallee said. "Today, as a 30-year-old economic consultant, I use these skills every day."

A native of Texas, Calder received his bachelor's at the University of Texas at Austin where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1980. He earned his master's and doctorate from the University of Chicago. Calder came to Augustana in 1996, after having taught at Colby-Sawyer College; the University of Washington, Seattle; and the University of Chicago. In 1999, Princeton University Press published Calder's book Financing the American Dream: A Cultural History of Consumer Credit, which continues to be the authority on the subject, even after a decade.

Ceremonies honoring the state and national winners of the U.S. Professors of the Year Awards Program include an awards luncheon at the W Washington D.C. Hotel and a reception at the Folger Shakespeare Library, also in Washington, D.C.

About Augustana: Founded in 1860 and situated on a 115-acre campus near the Mississippi River, Augustana College is a private, liberal arts institution affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). The college enrolls 2,500 students from diverse geographic, social, ethnic and religious backgrounds and offers more than 70 majors and related areas of study. Augustana employs 287 faculty members and has a student-faculty ratio of 11:1. Augustana continues to do what it has always done: challenge and prepare students for lives of leadership and service in our complex, ever-changing world.

--end--

The Phoenix Fine Art Gallery presents

Wearable Art

Please join us for our first

Runway Show

2010

by

The makers of

"Bolero Unique"

official jewelers designer for Miss Iowa

Designer Artist

Elsa Romero

Friday December 3rd. 2010

6.00 p.m.

The wearable art of WAR or Women At Risk, will also be on display for sale.

The Moline Commercial Club

1530 Fifth Avenue

Moline, Illlinois. 61265

309-762-8547

Dress: Business Casual.                        Hor's Devores and cocktails

Cash bar opens at 5.30.p.m.

The WAR or Women At Risk is a not-for-profit with Wearable Art from Africa .. 100% of sales go to the women at risk program.

% sales from BolEro Unique also go to charities in Latin Amerian and the United States.


WEST DES MOINES, IOWA - Nov. 17, 2010 - American families will be able to put a Thanksgiving meal on the table this year for only pennies more than last year, according to Farm Bureau's annual Thanksgiving market basket survey. The average cost of this year's feast for a family of 10 is $43.47, a 56-cent price increase (approximately six cents per person) from last year, but $1.14 cheaper than two years ago, $44.61. The price of the big ticket item - a 16-pound turkey - actually decreased 99 cents this year.
"We're seeing a slight uptick in overall food prices that's consistent with the moderate price increases across the board as the U.S. economy and consumer demand recover," says Iowa Farm Bureau Federation (IFBF) Director of Research and Commodity Services Dave Miller. "Even with this small increase, the affordable prices, security and food safety American consumers enjoy is an incredible value that can't be matched anywhere else in the world."
The informal market basket survey included hearty portions of items such as sweet potatoes, stuffing, green peas, rolls, fresh cranberries, pumpkin pie mix, and two goods Iowa specializes in producing: turkeys and milk. Iowa's growing turkey population ranks ninth in the country, and the state's milk production ranks twelfth.
                 "Iowa's crop and livestock farmers are proud and thankful to be able to play an important role in feeding families in our state and around the country this Thanksgiving," says IFBF President and dairy farmer Craig Lang. "Iowa is blessed with the abundant natural resources that allow farmers to provide us with food choices. That bounty should be shared; everyone deserves food security and choices."
This is Farm Bureau's 25th annual informal survey of classic Thanksgiving Day food items. More than 112 volunteer shoppers, representing every region in the nation, participated.

Staying Off the Naughty (Spending) List: Ten Ways to Manage Your Finances and Avoid Post-Holiday Regrets

The holidays are filled with temptation to go overboard with spending. Financial expert Eric Tyson offers advice on how to manage your holiday spending.

Hoboken, NJ (November 2010)?The holidays are upon us, bringing all those personal and family images and sensations we cherish. But for many of us, there are a few not-so-joyous holiday sights (a purse overflowing with credit card receipts) and sounds (the ca-ching! of the cash registers marking our escalating debt). These negatives can easily outweigh all that we love about the holiday season, especially during this less-than-prosperous economic period.

"Overall, the recession has brought about a renewed dedication to saving," says Tyson, author of Personal Finance for Dummies, 6th Edition (Wiley, ISBN: 978-0-470-50693-6, $21.99). "Before the recession, our national personal savings rate was close to zero, and now it's around 5 percent. But it is very important that you not let your holiday spending zap all of the saving progress you made during the year."

"Whether it's a dedication to the gift-giving tradition, a sense of obligation, or a feeling that the holidays entitle us to have a little more fun than usual, too many of us seem to turn a blind eye to the budget-busting reality of all that spending over just a couple of months," says Tyson. "Don't let excessive holiday spending cause any unnecessary financial stress for you and your family."

What if you could have a wonderful, memorable holiday and avoid the financial hangover afterwards? Tyson provides great tips on how to keep your holiday spending in check.

Find an alternative to gift-giving during the holidays. Many people feel they have to give gifts during the holidays, either because it's a family tradition or because they know their friends and relatives have gotten gifts for them. There are plenty of great ways to trade in this tradition for another one that is even more meaningful, and chances are your family and friends will be happy to save gift-buying dough as well.

"Instead of exchanging gifts, your family members might want to pool their money and spend it on a holiday outing," says Tyson. "If you have kids, you'll probably want to get them a little something, but set strict spending limits. Instead of piling up the toys, let each child choose an outing or event that he or she gets to spend with you one-on-one. Kids will look back on the valuable time you've spent together a lot more fondly than they will any toy or video game they use a couple of times and then toss aside."

If you must buy gifts, cut your expenses elsewhere as necessary. Perhaps you'd rather dine out or go to the movies less, or maybe you can forego that new pair of shoes you've been wanting for yourself in order to afford gifts for the grandparents. "It doesn't matter where you make cuts, just that you make them," says Tyson. "Keeping your other spending under control while you're out there doing your shopping can be a challenge, but just keep repeating to yourself the importance of not over-spending. That way when it comes time to actually pass out those presents you've purchased, you can do it without grimacing as you think about the damage they did to your bank account."

Set a budget and keep tabs on what you are spending. While you're doing your holiday shopping, your new best friends should be your checkbook register, credit card statements, and all of your receipts. It's easy to get into a spending rhythm when shopping for yourself or others, and that's why you need to physically write down every purchase you make and make sure you don't go over your budget. "When you start to add up everything you're spending, you may be shocked at what all those expenses from this store and that store add up to be," says Tyson. "And don't forget about all those 'necessary' holiday extras. Most people don't budget their shopping and don't realize that by the time you buy all the presents, plus wrapping paper, cards, decorations, etc., it's added up to a ridiculous amount. Having a budget that you know you must stick to will help keep your impulse spending from getting out of hand and will help you hone in on the most reasonably priced holiday items."

Plan what you are going to buy, and don't get any extras! Particularly during the holidays, companies pull out their most appealing packaging in hopes of snagging the eyes of shoppers. That's why along with your budget, you're going to want to take an exact list of what you want to buy for your gift recipients. Don't go shopping for someone's gift until you know exactly what you are going to buy.

"It's very easy to go in with no plan, see something you like, and get it simply because you have no idea what else to get for a hard-to-buy-for relative despite the gift's significant price tag," says Tyson. "Another temptation that the list will help you squelch is the desire to buy those little knickknacks here and there that you think will make nice small additions to the gifts you've purchased. Very rarely are things like this necessary, and if you've got your list in hand, it will be easier for you to pass them by without hesitation."

Use the season to set a good example for your kids. Your kids learn about money from you. And if they see you spending left and right during the holiday season, the lesson they come away with isn't going to be a good one. During the holidays, it's very easy for the "gimmee gimmee gimmee" materialistic attitude to get out of control. After all, kids are bombarded with constant advertisements for toys, clothes, and the latest gadgets you can be guaranteed they'll want (or at least think they do!).

"There's plenty you can do to help kids appreciate the true meaning of the holidays," says Tyson. "Have them give some of their money to a local charity, participate in a program in which they buy and wrap gifts for underprivileged kids, or volunteer at a soup kitchen. It can be an eye-opening experience for kids to see that not everyone has enough money to have an enjoyable holiday."

Watch out for deals that seem too good to be true. Retailers run all sorts of specials to induce consumers to buy now, and the holidays offer these companies easy prey in the form of deal-seeking, cash-strapped consumers. For example, furniture stores frequently offer that if you buy now, you don't have to pay a thing for a year, and you might even get free delivery. This sort of "push" marketing can make it harder for you to say no.

"This is just one example of how stores coax in shoppers," says Tyson. "Always remember that free financing for, say, a year is not a huge cost to the dealer, but it is a cost, and if you forgo it, you should be able to negotiate a lower purchase price. Retailers find that buyers are less likely to negotiate the price if they are getting a short-term financing break. Read the fine print on any deal you are considering taking before you go to the store to make the purchase. It can be even harder to say no once you get to the store, so you'll want to know what you are in for before you get there."

Leave the plastic at home. Many of us can explain away spending so much on gifts because we simply charge everything and reason that we can pay it off gradually after the holidays. This is a great way to create a never-ending cycle of consumer debt for yourself. It only creates unnecessary financial stress for you after the holidays.

"Use your budget to figure out how you can purchase the gifts you want to purchase without putting them on your credit card," says Tyson. "If you are so cash-strapped that you think it will be difficult to avoid charging gifts, then you may want to sit down with other friends and family and propose a limit on how much gifts can cost this year?or propose no adult gift exchanges at all. Far from being disappointed, it's likely they'll view this reprieve from gift-buying as a gift in its own right."

Invest in your kids' financial futures. It may not seem as exciting to your kids as a new iPod, but a contribution to their financial well-being will be appreciated long after such expensive "toys" are obsolete. "Have the grandparents contribute to a college tuition fund or savings account rather than buy them more stuff they don't need," suggests Tyson. "Or make one of your gifts to your kids a stock fund portfolio that can start accruing now. Also, make them aware of the budgets and tools you are using to keep your spending in check. The holidays are a great time for them to truly learn that money doesn't grow on trees."

Give the gift of time to your kids. Often, parents buy gifts for their kids with the best of intentions. Either you don't want to deprive them of the toys and gadgets all of their friends have, or you want to give them the things you didn't have as a kid.

"Both of these tendencies are perfectly understandable, but I've found that parents who buy too much for their kids often have difficulty changing the habit," says Tyson. "The holiday season offers great opportunities for you to show your kids how much you love and care for them. For example, you can make time with them each week to watch a holiday film or TV show, go on a walk to see your neighbors' holiday lights and decorations, or emphasize that giving back message again and take them caroling at a local retirement home. All of these activities cost next to nothing, and they will be fun for the kids and for you!"

Remember that meaningful gifts don't necessarily have a big price tag. "Sure, it might be nice to give your mom a brand new TV, but there are other things out there that will be even more meaningful and enjoyable for her?like a photo album with candid shots of the grandkids or something they've made for her themselves," says Tyson. "If you are looking to give a gift that truly means something and that will keep its value for years to come, you are better off looking for nonmaterial gifts to give than for something your gift recipients could get themselves at the local big box store."

"Money can easily become the focus of the holidays when it should be the last thing you are thinking about," says Tyson. "By keeping your spending under control, you can have a great holiday and avoid the sick feeling in the pit of your stomach that occurs when you start getting those credit card bills in the mail. If you prepare properly, you can achieve a happy balance of spending and saving during the holiday season. That's a great gift in and of itself, for both you and the people you love."

# # #

Some have suggested piecemeal repeal of the most obnoxious features of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The risk of this approach is comparable to that in cancer surgery: you might not get it all. In 906 pages of arcane statutory language, a lot can be hidden.

I suggest instead that we wipe the slate clean with a total repeal, and then consider reenacting any features that most agree are good. This would be the most efficient method because the list of items is shorter. Much shorter.

The most popular part is probably the elimination of "pre-existings." You can't eliminate the uninsurable condition of course, only the insurance company's ability to deny coverage to people who have it. How would such an isolated law work?

In a free market, coverage for people with pre-existings might well be available, without any law?if insurers could simply charge a premium reflecting their risk, or limit the potential pay-out. The premium, naturally, could be very high. That would be a strong incentive to buy insurance when young and healthy, and resist temptations to spend the premium money on iPods and new cars instead. But for many it is already too late.

The U.S. already has the equivalent of fire insurance for those whose house is burning down. It is called Medicaid. Roll into the emergency room desperately ill, and the hospital will treat you, and probably enroll you in Medicaid?likely after you have spent through any assets and lost your SUV and your home.

To prevent such personal tragedies, how about a law that simply said: "Insurance companies must take all comers, without price discrimination for pre-existing conditions." This is called "guaranteed issue" and "community rating" (GI/CR).

GI/CR would work well, if insurance were a magical money multiplier (MMM): put $100 in the slot machine, pull the lever, and watch $6 million in medical services pour out. The problem is that if a lot of healthy people who don't expect to need medical services decline to feed in their premiums, knowing they can always do so as soon as they get sick, premiums will have to escalate rapidly. This is called adverse selection (only sick people sign up), or the death spiral. It has happened every time GI/CR has been tried.

This popular part of ACA is impossible without the hated and unconstitutional individual and employer mandates.

What about doing away with limits on lifetime coverage? Limiting out-of-pocket expenditures? Doing away with copayments? All of these have the same problem: lack of an MMM, such as a money tree or the Philosopher's Stone that turns base metal into gold. The more we require insurance to pay out, the more money has to be poured in, with the inevitable loss to administrative overhead.

How about "giving doctors incentives to be more efficient"? In a free market, that is called the profit motive. In the ACA, the "incentives" are sticks painted to look like carrots, involving vast new reporting systems, with payments funneled through managed-care mechanisms. The choice is freedom?or ACA bureaucracies. Which of the some 159 new bureaucracies do we want to keep?

What about "affordability" provisions? Since prices are going up, in ACA "affordable" means forcing someone else to pay. It's a matter of redistributing money from those who earn more than 400% of the federal poverty level (around $88,000) to those who earn less. Americans are divided into winners and losers, guaranteeing constant fights over one's share of a shrinking pie.

One part everyone might favor is the one about allowing people to keep their insurance plan and their doctor if they like them.

Oh, that's not in the bill. That was just a Presidential promise. The ACA has rules for "grandfathering" some plans?a good term since they are not expected to have a long life expectancy. ACA also appears to be designed to drive independent doctors out of practice, and it virtually outlaws new doctor-owned hospitals.

If we continue to scour through the ACA looking for isolated good points that will make things better or less costly, rather than worse and more expensive, I predict that our thought experiment will lead to what in mathematics is called the "null set."

So far I have found no such provisions, zero. Nought, nada, nichts, zilch.

http://www.aapsonline.org/
Braley Statement on Staff Sergeant Salvatore Giunta Receiving Medal of Honor

Washington, DC - Congressman Bruce Braley (D-Iowa) released the following statement today after Hiawatha native Staff Sergeant Salvatore Giunta received the Medal of Honor at a White House ceremony. Giunta is the first living soldier to receive the military's most prestigious combat medal for service in Iraq or Afghanistan.  Braley attended the ceremony.

"Staff Sergeant Salvatore Giunta represents the absolute best our military has to offer and all Iowans should be proud of his service," Braley said. "At a time when any other person might have taken cover, Staff Sgt. Giunta put himself directly in the line of fire to rescue a fellow soldier. While Staff Sgt. Giunta has described himself as 'average' and 'mediocre,' his courage, leadership and selfless action paint a more accurate picture of the man we honor today. On behalf of all First District Iowans, I want to congratulate Staff Sgt. Giunta on this tremendous honor and thank him for his extraordinary service."

According to the White House, Giunta is recognized for the following action:

Then-Specialist Salvatore A. Giunta distinguished himself by acts of gallantry at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as a rifle team leader with Company B, 2d Battalion (Airborne), 503d Infantry Regiment during combat operations against an armed enemy in the Korengal Valley, Afghanistan on October 25, 2007.

When an insurgent force ambush split Specialist Giunta's squad into two groups, he exposed himself to enemy fire to pull a comrade back to cover. Later, while engaging the enemy and attempting to link up with the rest of his squad, Specialist Giunta noticed two insurgents carrying away a fellow soldier. He immediately engaged the enemy, killing one and wounding the other, and provided medical aid to his wounded comrade while the rest of his squad caught up and provided security.  His courage and leadership while under extreme enemy fire were integral to his platoon's ability to defeat an enemy ambush and recover a fellow American paratrooper from enemy hands.

WASHINGTON - November 16, 2010 - Senator Chuck Grassley paid tribute to Staff Sergeant Salvatore A. Giunta, a native of Hiawatha, at his ceremony to receive the Medal of Honor.  The Medal of Honor is the nation's highest medal for valor in combat that can be awarded to members of the armed forces.  Giunta received the Medal of Honor for valorous actions performed on October 25, 2007, during combat operations in Afghanistan.   Giunta, a graduate of Kennedy High School in Cedar Rapids, is the first living recipient of the Medal of Honor since the Vietnam War.

"It was humbling to watch as Staff Sgt. Giunta received the Medal of Honor.  While he would probably be the last to say so, Staff Sgt. Giunta's selfless and honorable actions are truly deserving of the highest honor given to an American service member. May God bless him and all those protecting our nation."

Click here to watch the video of the Medal of Honor ceremony.

Click here to watch a video blog Senator Grassley taped after the Medal of Honor ceremony.

# # #

SPRINGFIELD -- The mayors of Illinois' nine riverfront communities with gaming casinos are asking state lawmakers in Springfield to reject proposed slot machines at Illinois' horse tracks. The mayors agree that these riverfront communities are already struggling and can't afford to lose more jobs in such a poor economic climate.

The mayors of Aurora, Elgin, Joliet, Peoria, Alton, East St. Louis, Des Plaines, Rock Island and Metropolis said their towns have formed a new coalition called Cities Against Slots at the Tracks (CAST). Representatives from the coalition will participate in a drive-down to Springfield on November 16 - the first day of the General Assembly fall veto session -- to protest the legislation. The Mayor of Peoria, which receives a share of local revenue from the nearby Par-a-Dice Casino, has signed on and the organization expects other groups to support the coalition as well.

One of the slots at the racetracks proposals would allow 6,300 slot machines at Illinois' six racetracks, and would create five additional casino licenses --- one license each for Chicago, Lake County, Danville, Ford Heights and Rockford. The millionaire owner of Arlington Racetrack wants slot machines for the track when Arlington Heights has a 7 percent unemployment rate, one of the lowest in the state. The nine riverboat cities have unemployment rates ranging from 8.9 percent to 17.2 percent as of September 2010.

"The intent of the original Illinois Riverboat Gambling Act of 1990 was to create jobs in older Illinois River communities with a need for economic development projects," said Aurora Mayor Thomas Weisner, whose city has the Hollywood Casino. "We should continue to focus on the original intent of the act, which is providing jobs and economic development for river cities, not for millionaire track owners and well to do communities," said Weisner.

"Elgin's riverboat, the Grand Victoria, will suffer terribly with slots at nearby horse tracks," said Mayor Ed Schock.  "This legislation further divides the state's pool of gambling revenues and shortchanges the same river communities that the original riverboat gambling law was meant to support," Schock said.

Joliet Mayor Art Schultz has two riverboat casinos in his city. "We are working with riverboat owners to examine the potential impact of slots at the tracks. We believe that this legislation will be extremely harmful to Joliet, Will County and surrounding communities by decreasing our riverboat revenues," Mayor Schultz said.

According to a report from the General Assembly's Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability, the riverboat gambling industry is already suffering in Illinois from many factors.

• In Fiscal Year (FY) 2010, the State's share of horse racing, lottery, and riverboat revenue reached $1.019 billion, a 4.5% decline from FY 2009 levels. This is the lowest combined total for these revenue sources since FY 2001. The $48 million falloff in overall gaming receipts was almost entirely due to a decline in riverboat transfers to the Education Assistance Fund as lottery transfers and horse racing revenues held flat in FY 2010.

• In FY 2010, lottery transfers comprised 61.7% of total gaming revenues, whereas riverboat transfers comprised 37.6%, and horse racing comprised of 0.7%. Overall gaming per-capita spending declined 3.0% in FY 2010 to $188. This was the third consecutive year of a decline in overall per-capita spending after three consecutive years of increases. 

• Statewide adjusted gross receipts (AGR) for Illinois riverboats in FY 2010 were down 5.0% from FY 2009 levels while admissions were up slightly at 0.6%. This is the third consecutive year of declines in total AGR. State revenues from riverboat gambling totaled $398.4 million, which was a 10.3% decline from FY 2009 levels and was the lowest amount generated since FY 2000. 

• Several factors have contributed to the dramatic downturn in riverboat figures over the last three fiscal years. These factors include the struggling economy, increased competition from other states, and the effects of the graduated tax structure. However, the numbers continue to suggest that the biggest contributor to the drop in Illinois casino revenues is the indoor smoking ban. Since the indoor smoking ban began in January 2008, adjusted gross receipts for Illinois riverboats have fallen a combined 28.0% from pre-smoking ban levels.

• From a regional standpoint, when comparing CY 2007 (pre-smoking ban) vs. CY 2009, AGR for the Chicago area riverboats have dropped 32.8% since the indoor smoking ban began, while the receipts for Indiana's four closest riverboats in the Chicago area have only fallen 0.4%. Similarly, Illinois' AGR figures are down 26.3% for Illinois' two St. Louis area riverboats between CY 2007 and CY 2009, while the AGR of Missouri's St. Louis region riverboats are up 19.5% (although part of this increase is due to a new riverboat in St. Louis). 

• Using FY 2010 adjusted gross receipts as a guideline, Illinois made up 36.3% of total receipts in the Quad City region (compared to Iowa's 63.7%), 20.6% of total receipts in the St. Louis region (compared to Missouri's 79.4%), and 46.7% of total receipts in the Chicago region (compared to Indiana's 53.3%).

• Riverboats created $84.6 million in local revenue for governments in FY2010, down from $116.1 million in FY 2007. 

East St. Louis Mayor Alvin Parks said his city is already suffering from a massive new casino in St. Louis, Missouri, a city with no smoking ban. "It's hard enough to compete with Missouri's new sparkling Lumiere Casino but East St. Louis shouldn't also have to compete with slot machines at nearby Fairmount Park," Parks said.

Des Plaines Mayor Marty Moylan, whose new casino is scheduled to open in November 2011, said the legislation will hurt Des Plaines and coalition of mayors will work tirelessly to defeat slots at the tracks legislation. 

The casino gaming industry provides nearly 7,543 jobs, and every year injects more than $1 billion into the state's economy. In 2008, we spent nearly $145.5 million with local vendors and suppliers and stimulate tourism, attracting numerous of out-of-state visitors a year to our communities.

"If we are talking about saving jobs in Illinois, let's protect the employment of more than 7,500 people already working at our riverboat casinos in the state," Moylan said.

 

-END-


Davenport, Iowa - Mississippi Valley Regional Blood Center will begin welcoming blood donors to its new Donor Center in Moline with a ribbon-cutting ceremony scheduled for 12:30 p.m. on Monday, November 15. The new Donor Center is located at 3600 16th Street in Moline (at the southeast corner of 16th St. and 36th Ave.). Blood donors will join MVRBC staff and officials from the Quad Cities Chamber of Commerce in officially opening the site.

Previously, the Blood Center operated Donor Centers that were located about four miles apart along Hwy. 5 (John Deere Road / Blackhawk Road) Moline and Rock Island. The new site is located about halfway between those locations, which are now closed. "Our new site has more space, more donor beds and more appointment slots," said Kirby Winn, Director of Public Relations. "It all adds up to more opportunities for blood donors to help patients at local hospitals."

Donors may schedule appointments by contacting MVRBC at (563) 359-5401 or online at www.bloodcenter.org. Hours of operation at the new location are:

Mondays & Thursdays: 10:30 a.m.-7 p.m.

Tuesdays & Wednesdays: 7 a.m.-7 p.m.

Fridays & Saturdays: 7-11:30 a.m.

The community is invited to attend an Open House at the new location from 8:30 - 11 a.m. on Saturday, December 4. Coffee, hot chocolate and bagels will be provided during the Open House, which will give current and prospective blood donors an opportunity to tour the location and learn about blood donation and the Blood Center's role in the community.

MVRBC is the provider of blood and blood components used for transfusion at all Quad City Area Hospitals. Working together with volunteer donors, MVRBC provides more than 25,000 units of blood and components each year to Genesis Medical Center hospitals in Davenport, DeWitt and Silvis; Hammond-Henry Hospital in Geneseo; Mercy Medical Center in Clinton; Select Specialty Hospital in Davenport and Trinity Regional Health System hospitals in Bettendorf, Moline, Muscatine and Rock Island. From its headquarters in Davenport, MVRBC serves a total of 75 hospitals in Illinois, Iowa, Missouri and Wisconsin. For additional information, see www.bloodcenter.org.

-end-

Pages