• The Quad Cities Convention & Visitors Bureau is encouraging people to take advantage of events, attractions, restaurants, stores, and hotels/motels in the Quad Cities area. The agency has scheduled the "Be a Tourist in Your Own Backyard" promotion for the weekend of January 14 to 17, asking residents to take a mini-vacation in the Quad Cities. The Quad Cities Convention & Visitors Bureau and the Quad Cities Lodging Association are promoting special prices and activities for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend. More than 20 hotels/motels are offering special rates and packages for the weekend. Other businesses and restaurants are offering discounts, from The Captain's Table and Centro to Michael's Fun World and Fireworks pottery. Go to (http://www.visitquadcities.com) for a list of all the specials and discounts for the weekend, or call (563)322-3911 to request a free "Be a Tourist in Your Own Backyard" brochure.
• Sally Pederson, chair of the Iowa Democratic party and also the state's lieutenant governor, has named consultant Mike Milligan the party's permanent executive director. Milligan had been serving as interim executive director since November 2004. Milligan, a native of Wellsburg, Iowa, and graduate of Iowa State University, has been active in state Democratic politics since 1996, when he worked on Senator Tom Harkin's re-election campaign. Milligan served as the deputy campaign manager during the Vilsack-Pederson 2002 gubernatorial campaign and political director for Iowans for Vilsack-Pederson in 2003. Until Milligan agreed to serve as the party's executive director, he ran a political consulting firm, Milligan Consulting.
• DavenportOne was recently presented with an "excellence" award for its 2003-4 annual report and a "superior" award for its community-image advertisement "Where the Mississippi Celebrates." The awards were given during the Mid-America Economic Development Council (MAEDC) conference in Chicago. MAEDC recognizes organizations that have developed outstanding marketing and communications materials focused on the competitive positioning of their communities. The organization represents hundreds of economic- and community-development professionals across Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. To learn more about MAEDC, visit (http://www.maedc.net). To learn more about DavenportOne, visit (http://www.davenportone.com).
• The City of Davenport is holding town meetings on the city's budget. Sessions are slated for: Wednesday, January 12, at 7 p.m. at Duck Creek Lodge; Tuesday, January 18, at 7:30 a.m. at DavenportOne; and Thursday, January 20, at 7 p.m. at either Wood Intermediate or North High School. For more information on the meetings, contact Steve Ahrens at (563)326-1581 or Jennifer Nahra at (563)326-6151.
• The Iowa Cattlemen's Foundation recently presented the Iowa National Guard Officers' Auxiliary with a check for $5,000. The Iowa National Guard Officers' Auxiliary will use the funds to assist families of deployed National Guard soldiers with financial emergencies. In addition, the organization has coordinated the "Beef'n Up the Troops" campaign, which since May 2004 has raised more than $61,000 for the manufacture and shipment of beef sticks to Iowa National Guard troops and Iowa Reservists deployed overseas. The Iowa Cattlemen's Foundation is a not-for-profit, tax exempt, charitable organization. For more information on the Iowa Cattlemen's Foundation, call (515)296-2266.
• Ghostlight Theatre, Davenport's resident professional theatre company, has been awarded a $7,100 Organization Project Grant by the Iowa Arts Council. The grant will support Ghostlight's next production, the Quad Cities premiere of Gilligan's Island: The Musical, to be presented March 3 through 13 at the Capitol Theatre in downtown Davenport. Ghostlight Theatre was the only Quad Cities-based recipient of an Organization Project Grant in the fall cycle. For more information, visit Ghostlight's Web site (http//www.ghostlighttheatre.org) or call (563)505-7507.
• DRCNet (http://stopthedrugwar.org) reports that the Food & Drug Administration has approved a pilot study to examine whether MDMA - better known as the popular club drug Ecstasy - can help terminal cancer patients come to grips with end-of-life anxiety and depression. Pending final approval by the Drug Enforcement Administration, the study, led by Harvard Medical School researcher Dr. John Halpern, is set to begin this spring with 12 cancer patients at the Lahey Clinic and McLean Hospital in the Boston area. According to Dr. Halpern, Ecstasy is an "empathogen," a substance that can reduce stress and increase empathy. Unlike LSD, said Halpern, Ecstasy is "ego friendly," and unlike many pain medications, it does not make people groggy or over-sedated. Instead, according to anecdotal reports, people with terminal illnesses who have taken the drug found it easier to talk to friends and families about death and other uncomfortable subjects. The study is being sponsored by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (http://www.maps.org), an organization headed by Rick Doblin that has almost single-handedly engineered the resurgence in research into psychedelics. The group plans to raise $250,000 to fund the study. The Harvard study marks the second time in a few months that the FDA has approved research into the use of Ecstasy for therapeutic purposes. Last year, the agency gave final approval to a South Carolina study of Ecstasy's efficacy in treating patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/304/maps.shtml). Other studies testing the efficacy of psilocybin, the active ingredient in psychedelic mushrooms, for people with anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorders are also underway.
• Sally Pederson, chair of the Iowa Democratic party and also the state's lieutenant governor, has named consultant Mike Milligan the party's permanent executive director. Milligan had been serving as interim executive director since November 2004. Milligan, a native of Wellsburg, Iowa, and graduate of Iowa State University, has been active in state Democratic politics since 1996, when he worked on Senator Tom Harkin's re-election campaign. Milligan served as the deputy campaign manager during the Vilsack-Pederson 2002 gubernatorial campaign and political director for Iowans for Vilsack-Pederson in 2003. Until Milligan agreed to serve as the party's executive director, he ran a political consulting firm, Milligan Consulting.
• DavenportOne was recently presented with an "excellence" award for its 2003-4 annual report and a "superior" award for its community-image advertisement "Where the Mississippi Celebrates." The awards were given during the Mid-America Economic Development Council (MAEDC) conference in Chicago. MAEDC recognizes organizations that have developed outstanding marketing and communications materials focused on the competitive positioning of their communities. The organization represents hundreds of economic- and community-development professionals across Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. To learn more about MAEDC, visit (http://www.maedc.net). To learn more about DavenportOne, visit (http://www.davenportone.com).
• The City of Davenport is holding town meetings on the city's budget. Sessions are slated for: Wednesday, January 12, at 7 p.m. at Duck Creek Lodge; Tuesday, January 18, at 7:30 a.m. at DavenportOne; and Thursday, January 20, at 7 p.m. at either Wood Intermediate or North High School. For more information on the meetings, contact Steve Ahrens at (563)326-1581 or Jennifer Nahra at (563)326-6151.
• The Iowa Cattlemen's Foundation recently presented the Iowa National Guard Officers' Auxiliary with a check for $5,000. The Iowa National Guard Officers' Auxiliary will use the funds to assist families of deployed National Guard soldiers with financial emergencies. In addition, the organization has coordinated the "Beef'n Up the Troops" campaign, which since May 2004 has raised more than $61,000 for the manufacture and shipment of beef sticks to Iowa National Guard troops and Iowa Reservists deployed overseas. The Iowa Cattlemen's Foundation is a not-for-profit, tax exempt, charitable organization. For more information on the Iowa Cattlemen's Foundation, call (515)296-2266.
• Ghostlight Theatre, Davenport's resident professional theatre company, has been awarded a $7,100 Organization Project Grant by the Iowa Arts Council. The grant will support Ghostlight's next production, the Quad Cities premiere of Gilligan's Island: The Musical, to be presented March 3 through 13 at the Capitol Theatre in downtown Davenport. Ghostlight Theatre was the only Quad Cities-based recipient of an Organization Project Grant in the fall cycle. For more information, visit Ghostlight's Web site (http//www.ghostlighttheatre.org) or call (563)505-7507.
• DRCNet (http://stopthedrugwar.org) reports that the Food & Drug Administration has approved a pilot study to examine whether MDMA - better known as the popular club drug Ecstasy - can help terminal cancer patients come to grips with end-of-life anxiety and depression. Pending final approval by the Drug Enforcement Administration, the study, led by Harvard Medical School researcher Dr. John Halpern, is set to begin this spring with 12 cancer patients at the Lahey Clinic and McLean Hospital in the Boston area. According to Dr. Halpern, Ecstasy is an "empathogen," a substance that can reduce stress and increase empathy. Unlike LSD, said Halpern, Ecstasy is "ego friendly," and unlike many pain medications, it does not make people groggy or over-sedated. Instead, according to anecdotal reports, people with terminal illnesses who have taken the drug found it easier to talk to friends and families about death and other uncomfortable subjects. The study is being sponsored by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (http://www.maps.org), an organization headed by Rick Doblin that has almost single-handedly engineered the resurgence in research into psychedelics. The group plans to raise $250,000 to fund the study. The Harvard study marks the second time in a few months that the FDA has approved research into the use of Ecstasy for therapeutic purposes. Last year, the agency gave final approval to a South Carolina study of Ecstasy's efficacy in treating patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/304/maps.shtml). Other studies testing the efficacy of psilocybin, the active ingredient in psychedelic mushrooms, for people with anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorders are also underway.
