• Five new vehicles have recently joined the City of Davenport's CitiBus fleet. The five buses are part of the normal fleet-replacement process and bring to 21 the total number of buses in the CitiBus fleet. Each vehicle cost $241,068, with the Federal Transit Administration funding 80 percent of the replacement cost and the City of Davenport funding the remainder.
• Renovation has started on the Great River Plaza, covering Second Avenue from 17th to 19th streets in downtown Rock Island. The Plaza was constructed in 1978 and has not had any major renovations since. The east block of the Great River Plaza will be re-constructed in two phases, with work finished by early summer.
• The Davenport City Council has approved plans for an amusement park with go-carts, bumper boats, and miniature golf in one of the city's busiest and most expensive retail areas. John Colson of Brother Development Partners said Thunder Ridge Adventure Park should open in June.
• The Quad City Audubon Society contributed to the preservation of a local historic landmark and wilderness area with a bequest left to the society by member Ann Barker. The $5,000 donation, which was made at the March meeting of the Audubon Society, will benefit the Schuetzen Park Historic Site in west Davenport.
• The City of Davenport has announced that more than $18 million in federal tax credits have been awarded by the Iowa Finance Authority (IFA) to help produce 168 affordable and market-rate housing units in Davenport.
• The Davenport Community School District Board is seeking candidate letters of interest to fill the board vacancy left by the resignation of Anne Losasso. The letter should be addressed to the school board and include the candidate's name, home address, phone number, e-mail, personal and/or professional background, and the reason he or she is interested in serving on the board.
• A proposal was unveiled in the Iowa Senate to replace Iowa's individual income-tax system with a single income tax rate of 3.5 percent, instead of the current "progressive" system with different rates for different income levels.
• At a Buffalo City Council meeting in January, city leaders voted to seek funding for the Buffalo Mississippi River Trail. The trail would become an integral part of two nationwide trail systems: the headwaters-to-the-gulf Mississippi River Trail and the coast-to-coast American Discovery Trail.
• The Quad Cities affiliate of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation has announced its 2003 grant recipients for projects supporting breast-cancer education, screening, and treatment of the medically undeserved.
• According to a General Accounting Office (GAO) report evaluating the long-term effectiveness of the DARE program, DARE does not influence graduates to refrain from experimenting with illicit drugs. DARE receives an estimated $230 million in federal and corporate subsidies to offer its curriculum in approximately 80 percent of public schools.

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