What: "APEX '11" (APEX stands for Airport Exercise)  
Airport Mass Casualty Training Exercise  

Who: Quad City International Airport and supporting area mutual aid agencies-  including American Red Cross of the Quad Cities, local area hospitals, and area EMT's, to name a few.    

When: Tuesday, August 9, 2011, 8:00 a.m. prompt 
 (7:00 a.m. media arrival required at the site to participate)  

Where: Quad City International Airport-South Side  
Former John Deere Hangar Location, off of Indian Bluff Road  

Media interested in conducting interviews or taking photos of the drill should call 
Mike Swanson at (309) 757-1750 or e-mail: mswanson@qcairport.com   

Why: The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) requires that an Airport Mass Casualty Training Exercise is conducted every three years. The last exercise was held in 2008.  

History: A simulated air crash is designed to prepare the Quad City International Airport and area mutual aid disaster and support agencies for a real air disaster. The drill enhances the working relationship between all parties, including the airport, local area fire and law enforcement departments, hospitals, disaster services agencies, and many others. 

Other: The airport is still looking for volunteer "victims" to participate in the drill. Participants will be assigned a role to play as a crash victim. Please contact Mike Swanson if you are interested. Please allow a few hours to participate fully in the exercise. You will be asked to arrive at approximately 6:30 a.m. for moulage.  

Lunch will be provided upon the conclusion of the event.  

(Note: The public is not invited to this exercise unless they are participating as a volunteer victim.)  

LAMONI, IA (08/02/2011)(readMedia)-- As we prepare to welcome the Fall 2011 class at Graceland University in Lamoni, Iowa, we celebrate our graduates for the 2010-11 academic year. A total of 709 graduates this year represented 38 majors. There were 324 Master's degrees and 400 Bachelor's degrees conferred. The graduates hailed from 43 states and 15 countries.

Five-term, U.S. Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa presented the commencement address. Groundbreaking for Graceland's $13.8 million expansion and renovation of regional performing arts center, the Shaw Center, also took place commencement weekend. Forty-eight new student apartments and a new fitness center are also being built this year on the Lamoni campus for a total of $20 million in construction.

Graduates from your area include :

Rita Manwiller of Davenport, IA

Graceland University was established in 1895 as a non-sectarian liberal arts institution of higher learning. It operates campuses in Lamoni, Iowa and Independence, Missouri, and offers degree completion programs at three other sites - the Kirkwood Community College campus in Cedar Rapids, Iowa; the Indian Hills Community College campus in Centerville, Iowa; and the North Central Missouri College campus in Trenton, Missouri.

Students from 40 states and 35 nations choose from 50 academic majors and programs at Graceland. For information about attending GU, please view our website: www.graceland.edu, and follow the links to Admissions and Financial Aid, call 866-GRACELAND, or write to Graceland University, Admissions Office, 1 University Place, Lamoni, IA 50140. At Graceland University, our passion is your success!

Living Lands & Waters (LL&W) will host its annual Barge Party at the Lake Davenport Sailing Club on River Drive and Oneida Avenue in Davenport on Thursday, August 12 from 5:30p.m.to 9:00 p.m.  Chad Pregracke and his Living Lands & Waters' staff and crew will be on hand to celebrate thirteen years of river cleanups, environmental education workshops, river forest rest or ation projects, engaging communities in river stewardship.  During these thirteen years, Pregracke has been the recipient of many awards including the Jefferson Award, American Institute f or  Public Service; Heroes of Conservation Nomination, Field & Stream Magazine and The Alumni Award and Dedication of The Pregracke Center at Heartland Community College in Normal Illinois.   

Those in attendance will enjoy a true river feast with a fish fry & shrimp boil next to the beautiful  Mississippi River . The LL&W crew will give tours of the house and garbage barges and host a meet and greet where attendees can meet members of the LL&W crew.  There will also be a silent art auction, live music and a few words from Chad Pregracke and his crew to update you on the progress that has been made this year. "This event allows us to thank the Quad Cities and its residents for all that they do to help us in continuing to make the rivers a cleaner place.  It all makes a difference and everyone should be thanked and rewarded," says Chad Pregracke, Founder & President of Living Lands & Waters. Tickets for the event are $35 per person. Reservations can be made by calling the office at (309) 496-9848 or going to their website at www.livinglandsandwaters.org. 

Chad Pregracke started Living Lands & Waters in 1998 as a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the beautification and restoration of   America  's major rivers and to the education of people about environmental issues. From his single boat beginning, LL&W has grown to an internationally known organization with a fleet of barges and workboats, engaging thousands of volunteers each year in river cleanups, hands-on environmental education workshops, the Great Mississippi River Cleanup, Adopt-a- River-Mile programs and the Million Trees Project. "This thank you and fundraiser is a perfect example of how much momentum and teamwork has helped this project progress.  We have supporters flying in from all over the country to celebrate what we have accomplished so far", says Pregracke.      

For More Information:  

Contact: Natalie Linville-Mass  

Media Link, Inc.  

P: (309) 786-5142  

F: (309) 786-5143  

 natalie@medialinkinc.com   

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Center for Rural Affairs statement on debt ceiling and budget compromise

Lyons, NE - While President Barack Obama, Speaker of the House John Boehner, and other Congressional leaders worked to reach an eleventh hour compromise that would allow the national debt ceiling to increase in exchange for, potentially, as much as $2 trillion in long-term spending cuts, many in rural America continued to try to sort out what all the horse-trading will mean for their communities.

"Rural development funding for small towns and small business will face growing pressure under the federal budget agreement, which will reduce annual appropriations for all programs by nearly $1 trillion over the next decade," said Chuck Hassebrook, Executive Director of the Center for Rural Affairs. "But rural development funding has already been cut by more than one fourth, just since 2003."

According to Hassebrook, there is an alternative to reducing investments in the future of rural communities. "We should make the first cut by putting hard caps on subsidies to the nation's largest farms - subsides they use to drive mid-size farms out of agriculture," explained Hassebrook.

"The current policy of unlimited mega farm subsidies is so misguided that smart reforms could both save money AND strengthen rural America," Hassebrook argued. "It seems like a no-brainer for both parties - cut counter productive spending first."

A 2007 Center for Rural Affairs analysis demonstrated that USDA and Congress have severely over-subsidized the biggest and most powerful farmers while consistently under-investing in rural America's future, spending twice as much on subsidizing the 20 largest farms in each of 13 leading farm states as it invested in rural development programs to create economic opportunity for millions of people in thousands of towns in the 20 rural counties with the most out-migration in each respective state - (the full report - An Analysis of USDA Farm Program Payments and Rural Development Funding In Low Population Growth Rural Counties, a.k.a. Oversubsidizing and Underinvesting... can be viewed or downloaded at: http://www.cfra.org/node/603)