At a community meeting on Friday hosted by U.S. Senator Dick Durbin, an official from the Illinois Department of Transportation said that the state will soon make a formal request to Amtrak to study the possibility of bringing commuter train service to the Quad Cities. At the meeting at Rock Island's Abbey Station, Ray Lang (Amtrak's senior director of government affairs) said that Amtrak is aiming to double its ridership by 2020. Lang further said that commuter train service could start in the Quad Cities in as little as two years if Amtrak approves it.
St.
Ambrose University President-Elect Sister Joan Lescinski was
presented to the campus community during a welcoming ceremony last
week in the Rogalski Center. This
was the first visit to the campus by Lescinski since her selection
was announced by the university board of directors in December. The
first woman to lead the university in its 125-year history, Lescinski
will take office in summer 2007, succeeding Ed Rogalski, who is
retiring after 20 years as the university's president. For more
information on the university's next president, go to
(http://www.sau.edu/newpresident).
Environment Iowa is a statewide, citizen-based environmental-advocacy organization combining independent research, practical ideas, and advocacy to overcome opposition by powerful special interests and win results for Iowa's environment. Priorities include clean-energy policies, protecting waterways from factory farms, solving global warming, stopping new coal-fired power plants, and supporting local and organic foods. More information can be found at (http://www.environmentiowa.org).
The Competitive Enterprise Institute recently released a study claiming that Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan is one of the 10 worst attorneys general in the United States. In developing the list, the organization said that the worst attorneys general have overreached the constitutional authority of their offices: "Over the past decade, attorneys general have increasingly usurped the role of state legislatures and Congress by using litigation to impose interstate and national regulations and to extract money from out-of-state defendants who have little voice in a state's political processes." You can read the report for yourself at (http://www.cei.org/gencon/003,05726.cfm).
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has announced nearly $16 million in direct-assistance grants to 163 fire departments and first-responder organizations through the department's Fiscal Year 2006 Assistance to Firefighters Grant program. Additional phases will soon be announced that will total $485 million in grant awards to approximately 5,000 fire-related organizations nationwide. Locally, the McCauseland Volunteer Fire Department received $55,456 for operations and safety.
A record 911,522 passengers arrived at and departed from the Quad City International Airport in 2006. Traffic was up 6 percent compared to 2005 and broke the previous annual passenger record (from 2004) by more than 34,000 passengers. In 2006, 456,802 passengers were enplaned, and 454,720 were deplaned. Enplanements for every month in 2006 exceeded 2005 monthly totals.
The Family Museum of Arts & Science in Bettendorf has announced that Candice Graf has been appointed public-relations coordinator. She will oversee communications at the museum, coordinating with media and assisting with advertising and promotions. Graf relocated to the area from Des Moines, where she was previously employed by the Science Center of Iowa as a communications coordinator.
The Institute for Character Development at Drake University is accepting nominations for the 2007 Iowa Character Awards. The deadline for submitting nominations is Thursday, February 1. Iowa Character Awards honor nominees whose beliefs, attitudes, and actions have exemplified the "six pillars of character": trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring, and citizenship. Awards will be presented by former Iowa Governor Robert D. Ray at the Iowa Character Awards Banquet on April 20. Iowans are invited to nominate businesses, organizations, individuals, schools, educators, and athletic teams for an Iowa Character Award. Complete nomination information and nomination forms are available at (http://www.iowacharacter.org) or by calling (515) 271-2293.
The Mississippi Valley Callers Association will again be hosting the Mississippi Valley Calling Classic, a duck- and goose-calling competition and teaching clinic to be held on February 17 in Burlington, Iowa. It will be held at the Howard Johnson Inn at 2759 Mt. Pleasant Street. For more information, contact Randy Vorwerk at (319) 758-0873.
On January 25, more than 200 youth from nine area schools and three alternative school programs completed more than 20 community-improvement projects through the United Way of the Quad Cities Area's Youth Day of Caring. The day engaged youth in projects such as assisting pre-schoolers in the classroom, making blankets for children, and general facility updating.
IPSCO Steel of Muscatine will sponsor "Free Day at the Figge" from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, February 3. Everyone who visits the Figge will be admitted free that day.
Students from the Davenport Community Schools will have an opportunity to learn about local government up close and personal during the 27th Annual Local Government Day on February 8. The program is co-sponsored by the City of Davenport, the Mississippi Valley Regional Blood Center, and the Davenport Schools Secondary Social Studies Department and will feature a rotation for students as they see various aspects of local government.
Need community-service hours for college applications and scholarships? Want to make a difference in the community? If so, then join the Teen Volunteer Council on Monday, February 5, at 3 p.m. at the Fairmount Street Library. The Davenport Public Library offers the Teen Volunteer Council as a way to engage teens in library activities and outreach. For more information, call (563) 326-7900.
