Chick-fil-A at Davenport and Heritage Church to Sponsor Financial Peace University

WHAT: The Chick-fil-A® restaurant at Davenport, Iowa, will partner with Heritage Church to sponsor a 13-week financial training course called Financial Peace University. The course is taught on video by author and nationally syndicated talk-radio host Dave Ramsey.

Course participants will meet each week to watch a video lesson and participate in discussion groups led by Deanna Glenn, unit marketing director for Chick-fil-A at Davenport. The video course is geared to teach individuals how to beat debt, build wealth, find bargains, invest for the future and give generously. The 13 sessions include the following topics:

· Lesson 1: Super Saving

· Lesson 2: Relating With Money

· Lesson 3: Cash Flow Planning

· Lesson 4: Dumping Debt

· Lesson 5: Credit Sharks in Suits

· Lesson 6: Buyer Beware

· Lesson 7: Clause and Effect

· Lesson 8: That's Not Good Enough!

· Lesson 9: Of Mice and Mutual Funds

· Lesson 10: From Fruition To Tuition

· Lesson 11: Working In Your Strengths

· Lesson 12: Real Estate and Mortgages

· Lesson 13: The Great Misunderstanding

Those interested in participating are invited to attend an informational meeting at Heritage Church: Bettendorf campus in Bettendorf, Iowa, on Sept. 20 at 6:30 p.m. The cost of Financial Peace University is $99.51 for an individual and/or couple, and covers the course and all necessary materials.

Registration fees are due by Sept. 27 and can be turned in to Chick-fil-A at Davenport or Heritage Church: Bettendorf campus. Checks can be made out to Chick-fil-A at Davenport. The course will be held at Heritage Church on Mondays beginning Oct. 11 at 6:30 p.m. Refreshments will be provided by Chick-fil-A for each session.

For more details about Financial Peace University and other courses offered by Dave Ramsey, please visit www.daveramsey.com.

WHEN: Informational meeting:

Monday, Sept. 20, 2010

6:30 p.m.

Registration fees due by:

Monday, Sept. 27, 2010

10:30 p.m.

Course begins:

Monday, Oct. 11, 2010

6:30 p.m.

WHERE: Chick-fil-A at Davenport

2945 E 53rd St

Davenport, IA 52807

(563) 355-1742

Website

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Heritage Church: Bettendorf campus

2700 Middle Rd, Bettendorf, IA 52722

Website

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Transloading facility will make QC more marketable to clean energy investments

Washington, DC - Congressman Bruce Braley (D-Iowa) announced today nearly $6.8 million for a new transloading facility in Davenport.  The award was granted to the City of Davenport and the Greater Davenport Redevelopment Corporation by the Economic Development Administration.

"As we continue to rebuild our economy, these infrastructure projects are key to creating jobs and stimulating private investment," Braley said. "This transloading facility will allow the Quad Cities to provide enhanced utilities and reliable rail access, allowing Eastern Iowa to attract new clean energy investments that bring high-skill, high-wage jobs to the our communities."

This EDA investment funds construction of a new transload facility, including all road, rail, water and sewer infrastructure, at the 114-acre, Interstate 80 airport industrial park.

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Eastern Illinois Project to Create More than 250 Jobs; Serve 7,000 Businesses, 700 Community Institutions

DANVILLE - August 31, 2010. Governor Pat Quinn today celebrated a $12 million federal award to expand broadband access in rural eastern Illinois communities. Supported by Illinois Jobs Now! capital funding, the federal award will enable Danville-based Cellular Properties, Inc. to expand broadband service, creating approximately 267 jobs, and serving more than 7,000 businesses and 700 community institutions.

"Building information infrastructure brings new jobs, education, health and public safety opportunities to underserved areas," said Governor Quinn. "These types of public-private partnerships are critical for our economy, and for our future."

The U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Utilities Service awarded Cellular Properties, Inc. more than $12 million in grant and loan funding toward the project, which will allow the company to expand its 3G wireless broadband service to 11 rural communities.

The nearly $24 million project received a $1 million boost from Governor Quinn's Illinois Jobs Now!  public works program. The state funding will be administered by the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. Cellular Properties will also contribute roughly $11 million in private investment for the expansion, which will nearly double its number of cellular towers by 2013.

The Danville-based project is one of 13 broadband expansion awards secured for Illinois since February. These awards represent more than $250 million of investment in the Illinois economy, including $167 million in federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds.

Thousands of institutions, including schools, hospitals, libraries, and police and fire stations, in more than 80 Illinois counties will directly benefit from these awards. In total, the projects will create or retain more than 2,000 new Illinois jobs.

A longtime advocate of broadband-based opportunities in Illinois, Governor Quinn made funding for technology projects a priority and included it in the Illinois Jobs Now! capital program. For more information, visit Broadband.Illinois.gov.

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Two-Thirds of Consumers Say They Have Been Surprised by Additional Fees at the Airport; Nearly Two-Thirds Said Fees Placed Unexpected Strain on Budget

Consumer and travel groups launch  MadAsHellAboutHiddenFees.com;  Announce "Mad As Hell Day!" on September 23rd to give travelers a voice on fees

Washington, DC - September 7, 2010 - The Consumer Travel Alliance (CTA), Business Travel Coalition (BTC) and American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) today released the results of an online survey of 1,396 travelers showing widespread surprise and anger over hidden airline fees for services such as checked baggage, advance seating and priority boarding.

Responding to traveler anger, the groups announced the launch of a new web site, MadAsHellAboutHiddenFees.com, that will allow travelers to tell their own hidden fee stories, create YouTube videos, and sign a petition to the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) urging it to take action to require airlines to disclose those fees in advance through every ticketing channel. The groups also announced that they were marking September 23rd as "Mad As Hell Day!" and planned to deliver thousands of traveler petitions to the U.S. DOT on that day.

"As we come to the end of one of the busiest air travel periods of the year, millions of Americans are returning from their summer vacations tanned, rested, and mad as hell," said Kevin Mitchell, Chairman of the Business Travel Coalition. "They are tired of arriving at the airport and finding huge unexpected costs for travel services they thought were part of the ticket price. It's time for consumers, corporate travel managers and travel agents to stand up and say 'we're not going to take it any more!'"

Conducted over the last two weeks before Labor Day, the hidden fees survey found:

• Two-thirds (66%) of respondents said they had been surprised at the airport by unexpected fees for things such as checking bags, requesting a seat assignment, getting extra legroom, or flying standby.

• Nearly a third (29%) said they were surprised often or nearly every time they travel via air by such fees.

• Nearly two-thirds (65%) said such fees placed some or a great deal of unexpected financial strain on their budget for the trip, while more than a quarter (26%) said that those fees placed a great deal of unexpected strain.

• A nearly unanimous 99% of respondents said that they think airlines should be required to disclose all of their fees in advance on every web site that sells airline tickets.

• When asked to rank the fees they found most annoying, respondents rated carry-on baggage fees the most annoying, with 91% calling those fees "very annoying," followed by seat reservation fees (88% very annoying), checked baggage fees (74%), and telephone reservation fees (67%).

"Hidden fees are a violation of a traveler's most basic right: to know how much they will have to pay for their trip," said Charlie Leocha, President of the Consumer Travel Alliance. "When two out of every three air travelers say they have been surprised by hidden fees at the airport, you know the current system is broken and needs to be fixed. Airlines should have to share their fees with every traveler, through every ticketing channel, to every point of sale."

The three groups have called on Congress and the U.S. Department of Transportation to take swift action to ensure that all ancillary airline fees are fully disclosed to travelers through every distribution channel in which carriers participate so that the total cost of air travel options can be compared among carriers.

"For a travel agent, comparing air travel costs without fee transparency is like trying to read a book with half the pages torn out," said Paul Ruden, Senior Vice President of Legal and Industry Affairs for the American Society of Travel Agents. "We must level the playing field to ensure that travel agents and their customers can make apples-to-apples comparisons of the costs of each trip."

Methodology

The survey was conducted among 1,396 air travelers from August 20 - August 31, 2010. Respondents were recruited from the readers of online travel newsletters distributed by organizations such as Consumer Traveler and the Consumer Travel Alliance, and the survey was conducted online via SurveyMonkey. Full results of the survey can be found at MadAsHellAboutHiddenFees.com.

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