02
Sep
2003
• The Habitat ReStore is now presenting an improved image to the community, thanks to the work of two young Quad Cities artists. Earlier this summer, Nancy Foster, a ReStore director, approached students employed in the Quad City Arts Metro Arts program. The ReStore director was seeking someone who could draw attention to the storefront in an attractive way that was consistent with the store's mission to divert building materials from the landfill and support Habitat for Humanity-Quad Cities. College students Jessi Black and Michelle Garrison worked with ReStore directors to create and paint a new design for the storefront. To see their work in person, visit the store at 3629 Mississippi Avenue in Davenport. Store hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday and Friday and 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday.
• September is National Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month. Ovarian cancer is still the deadliest of the gynecological cancers and is often thought of as a silent killer, even in the medical community. According to the American Cancer Society, an estimated 25,400 American women will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2003, and 14,300 are expected to die from the disease. The five-year survival rate for patients whose disease is detected in late stages is only 25 percent, yet if diagnosed before the cancer has spread outside the ovaries, a woman's chance for five-year survival rises to 90 percent. For more information about ovarian cancer, contact the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance at (202)331-1332 or visit (http://www.ovariancancer.org).
• Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller announced that his office is sending out notices to 3,531 people telling them they are eligible to share in payments totaling $1.49 million from Household International, Incorporated, one of the largest sub-prime mortgage lenders in the United States. Household mortgage-loan customers who wish to participate in the settlement payments will have to complete and return a simple claim-and-release form no later than October 14 to receive a refund. The Iowa payments are part of a nationwide settlement last December of a predatory-lending case brought by Iowa and other states against Household International and its subsidiaries. The states alleged Household overcharged borrowers and misled them about loan terms such as pre-payment penalties, credit insurance, and interest rates. Household agreed to pay a total of $484 million to residents in all 50 states, the largest direct-restitution amount ever in a state or federal consumer case. Household mortgage-loan customers who have questions about the settlement-payment procedures can call (888)780-2156 or visit the administrator's Web site at (http://www.household-beneficial-settlement.com).
• According to the Coalition on Donation, more than 82,000 men, women and children currently await life-saving transplants. Another name is added to the national list every 13 minutes. Though thousands of transplants are successfully performed each year, there are not enough organs available for everyone who is waiting, and there is no national registry of organ and tissue donors. For more information about organ donation, call the Iowa Donor Network at (800)831-4131 or visit its Web site at (http://www.iadn.org). In Illinois, contact the Gift of Hope Organ & Tissue Donor Network at (630)758-2600 or visit (http://www.robi.org).
• Type in "Fair Tax Act of 2003" into your favorite Web search engine and you'll see information that has set the anti-IRS Internet establishment on fire. The Fair Tax Act of 2003, or HR25 as it's also known, has a stated purpose "to promote freedom, fairness, and economic opportunity by repealing the income tax and other taxes, abolishing the Internal Revenue Service, and enacting a national sales tax to be administered primarily by the states." Under the proposal, there would be no income tax, for either individuals or businesses. Also, all laws providing for payroll taxes for the funding of Social Security and Medicare would be repealed, and a constitutional amendment repealing the 16th Amendment would be sent to the states for ratification. A retail sales tax of 23 percent would replace all payroll and federal income taxes. Your questions can be answered by pointing your Web browser at (http://www.fairtax.org).
• One property owner in each Iowa county will win up to $500 as part of an effort to encourage online property-tax-paying. Credit-card users are charged a 2-percent transaction fee. Electronic transfers carry a $2 charge. Unlike businesses, governments can't build those fees into prices. Online payment is available in all 99 counties. The Iowa State County Treasurers Association, using money from a private grant, will pay for credits to the randomly selected winners and handle marketing for the promotion. The prize comes in the form of credit to the winner's bill. The winning taxpayers cannot receive more than the amount due. Treasurers' office employees and those affiliated with the treasurers association are ineligible. One winner in each county will be selected next month, and another in March when the second tax bill is due. Look at (http://www.iowatreasurers.org) for more information.
• The Vital Interdiction of Criminal Terrorist Organizations Act of 2003, or Victory Act, includes significant portions of the so-called PATRIOT Act II that caused such outrage when it was leaked to the press earlier this year. The Victory Act seems to be an attempt to merge the war on terrorism and the war on drugs into a single campaign. It includes a number of provisions increasing the government's ability to investigate, wiretap, prosecute, and incarcerate money-launderers, fugitives, "narco-terrorists," and nonviolent drug dealers. The bill also outlaws hawalas, the informal and document-less money-transferring systems widely used in the Middle East, India, and parts of Asia. A June 27 draft of the bill, authored by Senator Orin Hatch (R-Utah) and co-sponsored by four fellow Republicans on the Judiciary Committee, has been circulating in Washington.
• AIDS Project Quad Cities (APQC) has a new and improved Web site well worth checking out. Some parts are still under construction, but you can still see news, some of the people who work for APQC, events, and more. See for yourself at (http://www.aidsprojectqc.org).
• September is National Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month. Ovarian cancer is still the deadliest of the gynecological cancers and is often thought of as a silent killer, even in the medical community. According to the American Cancer Society, an estimated 25,400 American women will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2003, and 14,300 are expected to die from the disease. The five-year survival rate for patients whose disease is detected in late stages is only 25 percent, yet if diagnosed before the cancer has spread outside the ovaries, a woman's chance for five-year survival rises to 90 percent. For more information about ovarian cancer, contact the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance at (202)331-1332 or visit (http://www.ovariancancer.org).
• Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller announced that his office is sending out notices to 3,531 people telling them they are eligible to share in payments totaling $1.49 million from Household International, Incorporated, one of the largest sub-prime mortgage lenders in the United States. Household mortgage-loan customers who wish to participate in the settlement payments will have to complete and return a simple claim-and-release form no later than October 14 to receive a refund. The Iowa payments are part of a nationwide settlement last December of a predatory-lending case brought by Iowa and other states against Household International and its subsidiaries. The states alleged Household overcharged borrowers and misled them about loan terms such as pre-payment penalties, credit insurance, and interest rates. Household agreed to pay a total of $484 million to residents in all 50 states, the largest direct-restitution amount ever in a state or federal consumer case. Household mortgage-loan customers who have questions about the settlement-payment procedures can call (888)780-2156 or visit the administrator's Web site at (http://www.household-beneficial-settlement.com).
• According to the Coalition on Donation, more than 82,000 men, women and children currently await life-saving transplants. Another name is added to the national list every 13 minutes. Though thousands of transplants are successfully performed each year, there are not enough organs available for everyone who is waiting, and there is no national registry of organ and tissue donors. For more information about organ donation, call the Iowa Donor Network at (800)831-4131 or visit its Web site at (http://www.iadn.org). In Illinois, contact the Gift of Hope Organ & Tissue Donor Network at (630)758-2600 or visit (http://www.robi.org).
• Type in "Fair Tax Act of 2003" into your favorite Web search engine and you'll see information that has set the anti-IRS Internet establishment on fire. The Fair Tax Act of 2003, or HR25 as it's also known, has a stated purpose "to promote freedom, fairness, and economic opportunity by repealing the income tax and other taxes, abolishing the Internal Revenue Service, and enacting a national sales tax to be administered primarily by the states." Under the proposal, there would be no income tax, for either individuals or businesses. Also, all laws providing for payroll taxes for the funding of Social Security and Medicare would be repealed, and a constitutional amendment repealing the 16th Amendment would be sent to the states for ratification. A retail sales tax of 23 percent would replace all payroll and federal income taxes. Your questions can be answered by pointing your Web browser at (http://www.fairtax.org).
• One property owner in each Iowa county will win up to $500 as part of an effort to encourage online property-tax-paying. Credit-card users are charged a 2-percent transaction fee. Electronic transfers carry a $2 charge. Unlike businesses, governments can't build those fees into prices. Online payment is available in all 99 counties. The Iowa State County Treasurers Association, using money from a private grant, will pay for credits to the randomly selected winners and handle marketing for the promotion. The prize comes in the form of credit to the winner's bill. The winning taxpayers cannot receive more than the amount due. Treasurers' office employees and those affiliated with the treasurers association are ineligible. One winner in each county will be selected next month, and another in March when the second tax bill is due. Look at (http://www.iowatreasurers.org) for more information.
• The Vital Interdiction of Criminal Terrorist Organizations Act of 2003, or Victory Act, includes significant portions of the so-called PATRIOT Act II that caused such outrage when it was leaked to the press earlier this year. The Victory Act seems to be an attempt to merge the war on terrorism and the war on drugs into a single campaign. It includes a number of provisions increasing the government's ability to investigate, wiretap, prosecute, and incarcerate money-launderers, fugitives, "narco-terrorists," and nonviolent drug dealers. The bill also outlaws hawalas, the informal and document-less money-transferring systems widely used in the Middle East, India, and parts of Asia. A June 27 draft of the bill, authored by Senator Orin Hatch (R-Utah) and co-sponsored by four fellow Republicans on the Judiciary Committee, has been circulating in Washington.
• AIDS Project Quad Cities (APQC) has a new and improved Web site well worth checking out. Some parts are still under construction, but you can still see news, some of the people who work for APQC, events, and more. See for yourself at (http://www.aidsprojectqc.org).
