• Supportive Housing for Single-Parent Families, a program offered by Humility of Mary Housing, Inc. (HMHI) to bring affordable housing and supportive services to single parents and their children, has received an Audrey Nelson Community Development Achievement Award. The honor was given in recognition of exemplary uses of Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds in addressing the needs of families, homes, and neighborhoods by the National Community Development Association (NCDA) at its January meeting in Washington, D.C. The program allows adults to work on self-sufficiency goals - such as education and training - that result in successful transition into the community.
• The State of Iowa and various private agencies are launching the "What Happens to the Children" campaign in Scott County to attract new adoptive and foster-care families, especially people of color. A conference will be held Saturday, February 23, for anyone interested in knowing more about foster care, adoption, and child-welfare issues facing the community. The conference will be held at Third Missionary Baptist Church in Davenport from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. For more information, contact the local office of the Iowa Department of Human Services at (563)326-8794, extension 8974.
• Some taxpayers have received an e-mail from a non-IRS source indicating that the taxpayer is under audit and needs to complete a questionnaire within 48 hours to avoid the assessment of penalties and interest. The e-mail refers to an "e-audit" and references IRS form 1040. The taxpayer is asked for Social Security numbers, bank-account numbers, and other information. The IRS does not conduct e-audits, nor does it notify taxpayers of a pending audit via e-mail. Do not provide the requested information, because it might be an identity-theft attempt. If you receive an e-mail of this nature, please contact the Internal Revenue Service office in your area.
• The Iowa Arts Council Board of Directors hands out Regional Arts Build Communities Awards every two years to recognize individuals, organizations, businesses, and communities "that have made outstanding contributions to the arts in Iowa." MidCoast Fine Arts was named one of two winners of the Arts Organization Award. Iowa programming that earned the recognition included ArtStroll, Art Under Glass, Arts Mecca, and Art-O-Mobile. The Davenport-originated First Presbyterian Church: Rejoice & Sing - A National PBS Broadcast won an Arts Program Award. To see more information about the Iowa Arts Awards, go to (http://www.culturalaffairs.org/iac). You can see more about the MidCoast Fine Arts at (http://www.midcoast.org).
• An Iowa House committee has approved a bill that would raise the speed limit on Iowa's interstate highways to 70 miles an hour for all vehicles except heavy trucks. Supporters say that motorists essentially have voted with their wheels, with highway speeds already well above the current 65-mile-an-hour speed limit. Critics say a higher limit would force speeds even higher, making roads more dangerous and wasting gasoline. The bill moved to the full House after the Transportation Committee approved the measure on a 13-7 vote.
• The Iowa House voted 92-0 recently for House File 2112, a bill that would require motorists to drive slower and change lanes when encountering emergency, towing, recovery, and highway-maintenance vehicles with flashing lights. Under the bill, violators of the new requirement would be guilty of a simple misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of $35. The bill next goes to the Senate.
• A study published in the Annual Review of Sociology in 1998 drew new attention recently when Prevention File, a journal of the drug-treatment and -prevention industry, interviewed its author and highlighted the study's conclusion that there is little evidence that using illegal drugs causes violent behavior. According to the Presley Center study, alcohol is "overwhelmingly" the drug most associated with homicides. "If you really want to have an effective policy related to substance abuse, if you want to have fewer bad outcomes in terms of health, welfare, and violence, the substance you want to focus on is alcohol," said the author. "The evidence is pretty powerful and pretty convincing if someone is willing to look at it." The report adds further weight to previous research. For example, a 1994 "Research in Brief" publication by the National Institute of Justice arrived at similar conclusions. You can see a copy of the study at (http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/GovPubs/psycviol.htm).
• It looks as if the legal threshold for drunken driving in Iowa might change this year. The Senate Judiciary Committee has voted to lower the blood-alcohol standard, significantly increasing the chance that it will become law this year. The bill would set the standard at .08 percent, down from the current .10 percent, and next goes to the full Senate. Legislators say that the bill has a better-than-50-percent chance of making it through the House. Governor Tom Vilsack and Attorney General Tom Miller, along with most of the law-enforcement community, have been pushing for a tougher standard, but lawmakers have resisted. Iowa would join 29 states that have adopted the .08 limit, including neighboring Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, and Illinois. Vilsack, who has recommended the change since becoming governor, maintains that lowering Iowa's blood-alcohol limit would save lives and keep insurance rates down. Critics say there is no proof that the lower limit would reduce crashes. Congress has approved legislation that cuts highway-safety funding, beginning next year, to states that don't adopt a lower standard.
• Think you have a knack for poetry and want to win some money? Enter your poetry in the 29th Annual Mississippi Valley Poetry Contest. Cash awards are given to winners in the nine poetry categories, with a top prize of $175. There is a special emphasis on encouraging kids in kindergarten through 12th grade to enter the contest, which draws entries from around the world. The entry fee is $5 for five poems for adults and $3 for students. The limit is 50 lines per poem, with an entry deadline of April 1. For more information, write: Mississippi Valley Poetry Contest; P.O. Box 3188; Rock Island, IL 61204.
• The State of Iowa and various private agencies are launching the "What Happens to the Children" campaign in Scott County to attract new adoptive and foster-care families, especially people of color. A conference will be held Saturday, February 23, for anyone interested in knowing more about foster care, adoption, and child-welfare issues facing the community. The conference will be held at Third Missionary Baptist Church in Davenport from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. For more information, contact the local office of the Iowa Department of Human Services at (563)326-8794, extension 8974.
• Some taxpayers have received an e-mail from a non-IRS source indicating that the taxpayer is under audit and needs to complete a questionnaire within 48 hours to avoid the assessment of penalties and interest. The e-mail refers to an "e-audit" and references IRS form 1040. The taxpayer is asked for Social Security numbers, bank-account numbers, and other information. The IRS does not conduct e-audits, nor does it notify taxpayers of a pending audit via e-mail. Do not provide the requested information, because it might be an identity-theft attempt. If you receive an e-mail of this nature, please contact the Internal Revenue Service office in your area.
• The Iowa Arts Council Board of Directors hands out Regional Arts Build Communities Awards every two years to recognize individuals, organizations, businesses, and communities "that have made outstanding contributions to the arts in Iowa." MidCoast Fine Arts was named one of two winners of the Arts Organization Award. Iowa programming that earned the recognition included ArtStroll, Art Under Glass, Arts Mecca, and Art-O-Mobile. The Davenport-originated First Presbyterian Church: Rejoice & Sing - A National PBS Broadcast won an Arts Program Award. To see more information about the Iowa Arts Awards, go to (http://www.culturalaffairs.org/iac). You can see more about the MidCoast Fine Arts at (http://www.midcoast.org).
• An Iowa House committee has approved a bill that would raise the speed limit on Iowa's interstate highways to 70 miles an hour for all vehicles except heavy trucks. Supporters say that motorists essentially have voted with their wheels, with highway speeds already well above the current 65-mile-an-hour speed limit. Critics say a higher limit would force speeds even higher, making roads more dangerous and wasting gasoline. The bill moved to the full House after the Transportation Committee approved the measure on a 13-7 vote.
• The Iowa House voted 92-0 recently for House File 2112, a bill that would require motorists to drive slower and change lanes when encountering emergency, towing, recovery, and highway-maintenance vehicles with flashing lights. Under the bill, violators of the new requirement would be guilty of a simple misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of $35. The bill next goes to the Senate.
• A study published in the Annual Review of Sociology in 1998 drew new attention recently when Prevention File, a journal of the drug-treatment and -prevention industry, interviewed its author and highlighted the study's conclusion that there is little evidence that using illegal drugs causes violent behavior. According to the Presley Center study, alcohol is "overwhelmingly" the drug most associated with homicides. "If you really want to have an effective policy related to substance abuse, if you want to have fewer bad outcomes in terms of health, welfare, and violence, the substance you want to focus on is alcohol," said the author. "The evidence is pretty powerful and pretty convincing if someone is willing to look at it." The report adds further weight to previous research. For example, a 1994 "Research in Brief" publication by the National Institute of Justice arrived at similar conclusions. You can see a copy of the study at (http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/GovPubs/psycviol.htm).
• It looks as if the legal threshold for drunken driving in Iowa might change this year. The Senate Judiciary Committee has voted to lower the blood-alcohol standard, significantly increasing the chance that it will become law this year. The bill would set the standard at .08 percent, down from the current .10 percent, and next goes to the full Senate. Legislators say that the bill has a better-than-50-percent chance of making it through the House. Governor Tom Vilsack and Attorney General Tom Miller, along with most of the law-enforcement community, have been pushing for a tougher standard, but lawmakers have resisted. Iowa would join 29 states that have adopted the .08 limit, including neighboring Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, and Illinois. Vilsack, who has recommended the change since becoming governor, maintains that lowering Iowa's blood-alcohol limit would save lives and keep insurance rates down. Critics say there is no proof that the lower limit would reduce crashes. Congress has approved legislation that cuts highway-safety funding, beginning next year, to states that don't adopt a lower standard.
• Think you have a knack for poetry and want to win some money? Enter your poetry in the 29th Annual Mississippi Valley Poetry Contest. Cash awards are given to winners in the nine poetry categories, with a top prize of $175. There is a special emphasis on encouraging kids in kindergarten through 12th grade to enter the contest, which draws entries from around the world. The entry fee is $5 for five poems for adults and $3 for students. The limit is 50 lines per poem, with an entry deadline of April 1. For more information, write: Mississippi Valley Poetry Contest; P.O. Box 3188; Rock Island, IL 61204.
