• The Davenport Community Schools Board has extended an employment offer to Bernard Oliver, one of four finalist candidates for the superintendent position. According to President Patt Zamora, the board last week entered negotiations with Dr. Oliver, who is currently an assistant superintendent with the Virginia Beach Public Schools system. This latest search process began in the fall, and a recent round of interviews with the finalist candidates took place in late January. Other candidates included I.V. Foster of Rock Island, Yvonne Payton of Peoria, and David Stuckwisch of Portsmouth, Virginia, who eventually withdrew from consideration. An earlier search conducted in the spring of 2004 ended without a hire. Should Dr. Oliver accept the district's offer, he could be in place as soon as July. According to Zamora, it is expected that Interim Superintendent Dr. Norbert Schuerman will stay on for a transition period into Dr. Oliver's tenure. The search began when former Superintendent Jim Blanche retired from the district and took a new position in the Chicago area.
• Ghostlight Theatre has announced that Laurence and Hope Juber, the composer and the lyricist of Gilligan's Island: The Musical, will attend the Quad Cities premiere production of the show on March 4. An artist reception will immediately follow the performance in the lobby of the Capitol Theatre and will be attended by the Jubers, as well as members of the cast and production team. The reception is open to audience members and to Ghostlight Theatre subscribers and contributors. For more information on the artists, visit (http://www.laurencejuber.com). You can get more information on Ghostlight Theatre at (http://www.ghostlighttheatre.org).
• Davenport Municipal Airport will receive $340,100 to rehabilitate taxiways as part of 45 grants from the Federal Aviation Administration totaling nearly $27 million in Iowa. The Federal Aviation Administration maintains a national plan of airport requirements; administers a grant program for development of public-use airports to assure and improve safety and to meet current and future airport-capacity needs; evaluates the environmental impacts of airport development; and administers an airport-noise compatibility program with the goal of reducing non-compatible uses around airports. It also develops standards and technical guidance on airport planning, design safety, and operations, and provides grants to assist public agencies in airport-system and master planning and airport development and improvement.
• The Mississippi Valley Writers Colony (MVWC) has received grants from Humanities Iowa and Quad City Arts for its "World Lives, Prairie Living" project to publish stories by refugees living in the Quad Cities. "World Lives, Prairie Living" is a yearlong project to foster community connections between longtime Quad Citians and recent immigrants. MVWC is collaborating with Quad Cities social-service agencies and sponsoring churches to recruit participants. The program is free to participants. Anyone interested in sponsoring a refugee by helping with transportation and child care, or participating as a story coach, can contact MVWC by phone (563-359-4154) or e-mail (mvwc@qconline.com). For more information, visit MVWC on the Web at (http://community.goqc.com/MVWC).
• The Moline Library now subscribes to Literature Online, a fully searchable database of more than 350,000 works of English and American literature, 147 full-text literature journals, and other key biographical and literary-criticism resources. For more information, contact the reference library at the Moline Southeast Library at (309)736-5737.
• United Way of the Quad Cities Area and Habitat for Humanity-Quad Cities have announced a special partnership that will result in a brand-new home for a local Quad Cities family. The Quad Cities area's first-ever "women build" is set to break ground on March 19, but not without the help of a few fundraisers and many volunteers. Trainings for volunteers helping with the home are scheduled for February 19 at 3 p.m., February 22 at 7 p.m., and February 26 at 10 a.m. and will be held at the United Way office. Contact Habitat for Humanity at (563)359-9066 to sign up for a training.
• The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) reports that researchers at the University Hospital of Munich have begun the first-ever clinical patient trial examining the efficacy of cannabis extracts as a treatment for Crohn's disease, according to a press release issued by the hospital. Crohn's disease is a chronic inflammation of the intestine, characterized by severe abdominal pain, nausea, and weight loss. Clinical research published last year by the Max Planck Institute for Psychiatry in Munich found that cannabinoids prevent an experimental inflammation of the colon in animals. Researchers in Italy had previously speculated that modulating "the endogenous cannabinoid system could provide new therapeutics for the treatment of a number of gastrointestinal diseases," including gastric ulcers and Crohn's disease. For more information, look at (http://www.norml.org).
• Ghostlight Theatre has announced that Laurence and Hope Juber, the composer and the lyricist of Gilligan's Island: The Musical, will attend the Quad Cities premiere production of the show on March 4. An artist reception will immediately follow the performance in the lobby of the Capitol Theatre and will be attended by the Jubers, as well as members of the cast and production team. The reception is open to audience members and to Ghostlight Theatre subscribers and contributors. For more information on the artists, visit (http://www.laurencejuber.com). You can get more information on Ghostlight Theatre at (http://www.ghostlighttheatre.org).
• Davenport Municipal Airport will receive $340,100 to rehabilitate taxiways as part of 45 grants from the Federal Aviation Administration totaling nearly $27 million in Iowa. The Federal Aviation Administration maintains a national plan of airport requirements; administers a grant program for development of public-use airports to assure and improve safety and to meet current and future airport-capacity needs; evaluates the environmental impacts of airport development; and administers an airport-noise compatibility program with the goal of reducing non-compatible uses around airports. It also develops standards and technical guidance on airport planning, design safety, and operations, and provides grants to assist public agencies in airport-system and master planning and airport development and improvement.
• The Mississippi Valley Writers Colony (MVWC) has received grants from Humanities Iowa and Quad City Arts for its "World Lives, Prairie Living" project to publish stories by refugees living in the Quad Cities. "World Lives, Prairie Living" is a yearlong project to foster community connections between longtime Quad Citians and recent immigrants. MVWC is collaborating with Quad Cities social-service agencies and sponsoring churches to recruit participants. The program is free to participants. Anyone interested in sponsoring a refugee by helping with transportation and child care, or participating as a story coach, can contact MVWC by phone (563-359-4154) or e-mail (mvwc@qconline.com). For more information, visit MVWC on the Web at (http://community.goqc.com/MVWC).
• The Moline Library now subscribes to Literature Online, a fully searchable database of more than 350,000 works of English and American literature, 147 full-text literature journals, and other key biographical and literary-criticism resources. For more information, contact the reference library at the Moline Southeast Library at (309)736-5737.
• United Way of the Quad Cities Area and Habitat for Humanity-Quad Cities have announced a special partnership that will result in a brand-new home for a local Quad Cities family. The Quad Cities area's first-ever "women build" is set to break ground on March 19, but not without the help of a few fundraisers and many volunteers. Trainings for volunteers helping with the home are scheduled for February 19 at 3 p.m., February 22 at 7 p.m., and February 26 at 10 a.m. and will be held at the United Way office. Contact Habitat for Humanity at (563)359-9066 to sign up for a training.
• The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) reports that researchers at the University Hospital of Munich have begun the first-ever clinical patient trial examining the efficacy of cannabis extracts as a treatment for Crohn's disease, according to a press release issued by the hospital. Crohn's disease is a chronic inflammation of the intestine, characterized by severe abdominal pain, nausea, and weight loss. Clinical research published last year by the Max Planck Institute for Psychiatry in Munich found that cannabinoids prevent an experimental inflammation of the colon in animals. Researchers in Italy had previously speculated that modulating "the endogenous cannabinoid system could provide new therapeutics for the treatment of a number of gastrointestinal diseases," including gastric ulcers and Crohn's disease. For more information, look at (http://www.norml.org).
