• At a dedication ceremony last Thursday, the Rock Island County Metropolitan Mass Transit District (MetroLINK) and the City of Moline unveiled a new compressed-natural-gas (CNG) fueling station. MetroLINK's 12 30-foot ElDorado CNG buses, which were put into use in late July, will now use the new fueling station, located at the Moline Public Works Facility.
• Quad Cities-based river-clean-up activist Chad Pregracke is currently participating in the World Summit for Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa. The conference began August 26 and runs through September 4.
• Davenport has had nine murders this year, three within a 16-day period. With a little over four months left in the year, the city is on pace to more than double the six homicides in the city last year. So far, Des Moines and Cedar Rapids, Iowa's largest cities, have not seen a growth in their homicide rates.
• According to a study published this month in the journal Health Education Research, the nation's three leading student drug-prevention programs are either ineffective or under-evaluated. Programs highlighted in the study include McGruff's Drug Prevention & Child Protection, Here's Looking at You 2000, and DARE.
• The Light of Life program, sponsored by Scott County TRIAD and Seniors & Law Enforcement Together, encourages seniors to obtain a special adapter that turns an ordinary light fixture or lamp into an emergency beacon.
• The Family Museum of Arts & Science in Bettendorf is now recognized as an official National Wildlife Federation (NWF) Backyard Wildlife Habitat site. The Family Museum's habitat area was organized under the direction of museum Education Coordinator Kathy Wierzba.
• Operation T.I.P.S. (Terrorism Information & Prevention System) is a new nationwide volunteer-reporting government program scheduled to begin in August. According to a government Web site, "The program will involve the millions of American workers who, in the daily course of their work, are in a unique position to serve as extra eyes and ears for law enforcement.
• Vera French Housing Corporation (VFHC) and Heartland Properties (the housing subsidiary of Alliant Energy Resources) have joined together to address the housing needs of persons with mental illness in Scott County with the construction of a 10-unit special-needs housing development for persons with mental illness.
• Governor Tom Vilsack and Lieutenant Governor Sally Pederson announced the appointment of Jamie Howard of Davenport to the Commission on the Status of African Americans. Howard currently serves as alderman at-large and mayor pro-tem of the City of Davenport.
• The pro-life Life & Family Educational Trust has announced the opening of the newly completed Women's Choice Center at 2711 Happy Joe Drive in Bettendorf. The Woman's Choice Center is a facility - located across the street from Planned Parenthood of Greater Iowa - providing information about pregnancy, fetal development, and related issues.

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