04
Jul
2001
• The number of candidates for Davenport Mayor has increased to five with announcements last week from Denise Hollonbeck and Charlie Brooke. Hollonbeck, who made her announcement in front of Davenport City Hall, served seven years on the Davenport School Board, including time as president. Brooke made his announcement in front of two boarded-up houses to signify his commitment to providing more affordable housing and rehabilitating vacant eyesore properties. He ran for mayor in 1999. The other candidates are John Waddell, Alderman At-Large Bill Sherwood, and Pamela Davis. A city primary will be held October 9 to whittle down the list to two candidates.
• Davenport Alderman Ray Ambrose is suggesting that cameras be positioned at traffic lights to photograph the license plates of cars running red lights. Nationwide, people who run red lights account for 260,000 crashes, 121,000 injuries, and 800 deaths each year. An Insurance Institute study found that violations dropped 40 percent in Farifax, Virginia, and Oxnard, California, after cameras were introduced. However, privacy advocates and civil libertarians argue there are problems with the cameras, including the number of mistakes and the amount of money made by cities. Another concern is the cost of the cameras - up to $50,000, which is more than enough to put another police officer on the street for a year. In addition, Iowa would need to enact changes in state law before such a system could be implemented in Davenport.
• Kaizen Company of America has pulled out of another facet of The Quarter, East Moline's riverfront-development project. The company, a partnership between Kent Pilcher and Chuck Ruhl, decided not to continue work on the $15 million to $25 million commercial development because studies indicate the market is slow for planned office space. Kaizen had previously pulled out of the residential portion of the development. That component has been taken over by Dial Quad Cities Inc., of Davenport. It is still hoped that construction will begin this year.
• The Des Moines Register and wire reports note that Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), one of the most outspoken critics of oil companies and high gasoline prices, has recently reported that his wife Ruth is on the board of directors of Conoco, the fourth-largest oil company in the U.S., and owns as much as $200,000 in stock in the company. Senators are required to disclose the holdings of spouses and dependent children. Two June 5 letters to the secretary of the Senate corrected the omission. Harkin says he is now in compliance, but he might still face ethics charges.
• Ann Hutchinson, the mayor of Bettendorf since 1988, says she's considering going after the job of U.S. Representative Jim Nussle, whose district will soon include Scott County because of the re-districting process. Hutchinson said she has been approached by members of the Democratic Party about switching her party affiliation and running against the incumbent Republican in the general election. She said she will make a decision in the next few months.
• While it's easy to delete unwanted e-mail, we are all paying for the increased bandwidth required to send millions of junk e-mail messages. One solution that seems to be working is to sign up at (http://www.removenow.org). Touted as the "Worlds Largest Interactive Junk-Mail Removal System," the Web site will add your e-mail addresses to a secure database to be removed from thousands of bulk-mail listings.
• A University of Iowa study has found that some people are prone to drug addiction because of damage to a key portion of the brain that controls decision-making abilities. Researchers tested more than 100 subjects, addicts and nonaddicts, and found a strong link between damage to a part of the brain called the ventromedial prefrontal cortex - which "puts the brakes on your behavior" - and the most severe cases of drug addiction. Drug addicts, the study says, need specialized counseling and medication to correct their decision-making deficiencies.
• Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack, a Democrat, has vetoed parts or all of 25 bills passed this legislative session - about 12 percent of the 210 bills approved by the Republican-controlled legislature. Governor Terry Branstad, a Republican, vetoed 11 percent of bills passed in 1992, when the Democrats controlled the legislature. The year with the lowest percentage of vetoes in the past decade was 1994, with less than 5 percent of bills vetoed under the leadership of a Republican governor and Senate and a Democratic House. Vilsack is the first Democratic governor in Iowa in 30 years. Next year should be even more interesting, because the governor and members of the legislature are up for election.
• Davenport Alderman Ray Ambrose is suggesting that cameras be positioned at traffic lights to photograph the license plates of cars running red lights. Nationwide, people who run red lights account for 260,000 crashes, 121,000 injuries, and 800 deaths each year. An Insurance Institute study found that violations dropped 40 percent in Farifax, Virginia, and Oxnard, California, after cameras were introduced. However, privacy advocates and civil libertarians argue there are problems with the cameras, including the number of mistakes and the amount of money made by cities. Another concern is the cost of the cameras - up to $50,000, which is more than enough to put another police officer on the street for a year. In addition, Iowa would need to enact changes in state law before such a system could be implemented in Davenport.
• Kaizen Company of America has pulled out of another facet of The Quarter, East Moline's riverfront-development project. The company, a partnership between Kent Pilcher and Chuck Ruhl, decided not to continue work on the $15 million to $25 million commercial development because studies indicate the market is slow for planned office space. Kaizen had previously pulled out of the residential portion of the development. That component has been taken over by Dial Quad Cities Inc., of Davenport. It is still hoped that construction will begin this year.
• The Des Moines Register and wire reports note that Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), one of the most outspoken critics of oil companies and high gasoline prices, has recently reported that his wife Ruth is on the board of directors of Conoco, the fourth-largest oil company in the U.S., and owns as much as $200,000 in stock in the company. Senators are required to disclose the holdings of spouses and dependent children. Two June 5 letters to the secretary of the Senate corrected the omission. Harkin says he is now in compliance, but he might still face ethics charges.
• Ann Hutchinson, the mayor of Bettendorf since 1988, says she's considering going after the job of U.S. Representative Jim Nussle, whose district will soon include Scott County because of the re-districting process. Hutchinson said she has been approached by members of the Democratic Party about switching her party affiliation and running against the incumbent Republican in the general election. She said she will make a decision in the next few months.
• While it's easy to delete unwanted e-mail, we are all paying for the increased bandwidth required to send millions of junk e-mail messages. One solution that seems to be working is to sign up at (http://www.removenow.org). Touted as the "Worlds Largest Interactive Junk-Mail Removal System," the Web site will add your e-mail addresses to a secure database to be removed from thousands of bulk-mail listings.
• A University of Iowa study has found that some people are prone to drug addiction because of damage to a key portion of the brain that controls decision-making abilities. Researchers tested more than 100 subjects, addicts and nonaddicts, and found a strong link between damage to a part of the brain called the ventromedial prefrontal cortex - which "puts the brakes on your behavior" - and the most severe cases of drug addiction. Drug addicts, the study says, need specialized counseling and medication to correct their decision-making deficiencies.
• Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack, a Democrat, has vetoed parts or all of 25 bills passed this legislative session - about 12 percent of the 210 bills approved by the Republican-controlled legislature. Governor Terry Branstad, a Republican, vetoed 11 percent of bills passed in 1992, when the Democrats controlled the legislature. The year with the lowest percentage of vetoes in the past decade was 1994, with less than 5 percent of bills vetoed under the leadership of a Republican governor and Senate and a Democratic House. Vilsack is the first Democratic governor in Iowa in 30 years. Next year should be even more interesting, because the governor and members of the legislature are up for election.
