25
Feb
2003
• A proposal was unveiled in the Iowa Senate to replace Iowa's individual income-tax system with a single income tax rate of 3.5 percent, instead of the current "progressive" system with different rates for different income levels. Senator Larry McKibben, a Marshalltown Republican who heads the Senate Ways & Means Committee, recently outlined his flat-tax proposal for committee members. McKibben said his plan would not reduce revenues in the next budget year, but taxes would be cut by $400 million annually by the time the plan was fully implemented in 2008. Other provisions of Senate File 165 include : eliminating itemized and standard deductions and establishing a new $2,000 deduction for each taxpayer and dependent, as well as an additional $1,000 deduction for taxpayers who are blind or older than 65; ending the deduction for payment of federal income taxes; raising the income threshold that Iowans must reach before they must file a tax return; phasing out the state tax on Social Security benefits and pension income over five years; and requiring approval of three-fourths of the members of both the House and Senate before a proposed tax-rate increase is adopted.
• WQPT, the Quad Cities' public-television station, and WQAD, the local ABC affiliate, are partnering to present "NOVA News Minutes," which are short segments of the PBS series NOVA. Each week, NOVA will bring science and technology content to ABC through short features designed to coincide with each week's NOVA broadcast. Mark Martin, Good Morning Quad Cities news anchor, and Lora Adams, WQPT's marketing director, appear in a short promo that will air with each NOVA broadcast, Tuesdays at 8 p.m. on WQPT. The following Monday, NOVA News Minutes will be featured on WQAD's Good Morning Quad Cities.
• House Resolution 685 has been introduced into the U.S. House of Representatives, seeking to repeal a provision of the Higher Education Act that denies federal financial aid to any student with a drug conviction. According to the Department of Education, 48,629 students lost their financial-aid eligibility during the 2001-2002 school year because of this provision, while an unknown number of others failed to apply because they believed that their past convictions would render them ineligible. It is projected that during the 2002-2003 school year, an additional 35,098 students will be denied aid. In total, 92,841 students have been denied financial aid since the Bush administration started rigorously enforcing this provision.
• Before you go out to eat anywhere in Scott County, you might want to fire up your Web browser and point it to (http://www.scottcountyiowa.com), then click on "restaurant inspections." Health inspections for every restaurant in Scott County are posted and updated weekly. Other than the health-inspection reports, you can use the database to find information such as addresses, phone numbers, and maps. The database also identifies establishments that don't allow smoking.
• Visitors to Symphony in Bloom at the RiverCenter on March 7, 8, and 9 will receive free admission to the Quad City Botanical Center, 2525 Fourth Avenue in Rock Island. Simply show your ticket stub at the botanical center to get free admission, or pick up a pass at the center's booth at Symphony in Bloom. The Quad City Botanical Center features a tropical Sun Garden, a 14-foot waterfall, and curving pathways around island garden beds with hundreds of exotic plants. For more information, visit the Web site (http://www.qcgardens.com) or call (309)794-0991.
• The American Red Cross has re-launched its national preparedness-information hotline - (866)438-4636 - to provide callers with disaster-safety and -preparedness information. The hotline, established in October 2001, offers easy-to-understand information for anyone looking to prepare for any type of disaster. More than 100 trained volunteers from Red Cross chapters around the country will be answering calls, providing common-sense information and referrals for anyone seeking advice on personal and family safety. The national call center will be open from 8 a.m. to midnight Eastern Standard Time seven days a week to answer questions from the public. Operators who speak Spanish will also be available.
• The Iowa House approved a measure this week to protect the privacy of Iowans by making it easier to prosecute cases of identity theft. The bill, House File 170, passed the House on a 100-to-zero vote. The bill closes a loophole in current law; prosecutors were finding it hard to get convictions when identification was obtained by accident and later used to commit fraud. Current law requires prosecutors to show that a perpetrator obtained another person's identification with the intent to commit fraud and then used the identification in a fraudulent manner. Under the current identity-theft statute, if the identify theft is used to acquire a benefit of $1,000 or less, the offense is an aggravated misdemeanor and punishable by up to two years in prison and a $5,000 fine. If the value obtained through fraud exceeds $1,000, then the offense is a Class D felony, which is punishable by up to five years in prison and a $7,500 fine.
• The Bettendorf Public Library has recently subscribed to an additional electronic resource. Contemporary Literary Criticism-Select is an extensive collection of critical essays on contemporary authors. Each entry contains a biographical/critical introduction, a listing of principal works, and sources for further study. This resource can be accessed from the library's Web page at (http://www.bettendorflibrary.com). Click on "24/7 Electronic Resources," scroll down to "Contemporary Literary Criticism-Select," and click on its icon. If working from home, the password for access is a Bettendorf Public Library card number. If working at any of several designated computers in the library, no password is required.
• WQPT, the Quad Cities' public-television station, and WQAD, the local ABC affiliate, are partnering to present "NOVA News Minutes," which are short segments of the PBS series NOVA. Each week, NOVA will bring science and technology content to ABC through short features designed to coincide with each week's NOVA broadcast. Mark Martin, Good Morning Quad Cities news anchor, and Lora Adams, WQPT's marketing director, appear in a short promo that will air with each NOVA broadcast, Tuesdays at 8 p.m. on WQPT. The following Monday, NOVA News Minutes will be featured on WQAD's Good Morning Quad Cities.
• House Resolution 685 has been introduced into the U.S. House of Representatives, seeking to repeal a provision of the Higher Education Act that denies federal financial aid to any student with a drug conviction. According to the Department of Education, 48,629 students lost their financial-aid eligibility during the 2001-2002 school year because of this provision, while an unknown number of others failed to apply because they believed that their past convictions would render them ineligible. It is projected that during the 2002-2003 school year, an additional 35,098 students will be denied aid. In total, 92,841 students have been denied financial aid since the Bush administration started rigorously enforcing this provision.
• Before you go out to eat anywhere in Scott County, you might want to fire up your Web browser and point it to (http://www.scottcountyiowa.com), then click on "restaurant inspections." Health inspections for every restaurant in Scott County are posted and updated weekly. Other than the health-inspection reports, you can use the database to find information such as addresses, phone numbers, and maps. The database also identifies establishments that don't allow smoking.
• Visitors to Symphony in Bloom at the RiverCenter on March 7, 8, and 9 will receive free admission to the Quad City Botanical Center, 2525 Fourth Avenue in Rock Island. Simply show your ticket stub at the botanical center to get free admission, or pick up a pass at the center's booth at Symphony in Bloom. The Quad City Botanical Center features a tropical Sun Garden, a 14-foot waterfall, and curving pathways around island garden beds with hundreds of exotic plants. For more information, visit the Web site (http://www.qcgardens.com) or call (309)794-0991.
• The American Red Cross has re-launched its national preparedness-information hotline - (866)438-4636 - to provide callers with disaster-safety and -preparedness information. The hotline, established in October 2001, offers easy-to-understand information for anyone looking to prepare for any type of disaster. More than 100 trained volunteers from Red Cross chapters around the country will be answering calls, providing common-sense information and referrals for anyone seeking advice on personal and family safety. The national call center will be open from 8 a.m. to midnight Eastern Standard Time seven days a week to answer questions from the public. Operators who speak Spanish will also be available.
• The Iowa House approved a measure this week to protect the privacy of Iowans by making it easier to prosecute cases of identity theft. The bill, House File 170, passed the House on a 100-to-zero vote. The bill closes a loophole in current law; prosecutors were finding it hard to get convictions when identification was obtained by accident and later used to commit fraud. Current law requires prosecutors to show that a perpetrator obtained another person's identification with the intent to commit fraud and then used the identification in a fraudulent manner. Under the current identity-theft statute, if the identify theft is used to acquire a benefit of $1,000 or less, the offense is an aggravated misdemeanor and punishable by up to two years in prison and a $5,000 fine. If the value obtained through fraud exceeds $1,000, then the offense is a Class D felony, which is punishable by up to five years in prison and a $7,500 fine.
• The Bettendorf Public Library has recently subscribed to an additional electronic resource. Contemporary Literary Criticism-Select is an extensive collection of critical essays on contemporary authors. Each entry contains a biographical/critical introduction, a listing of principal works, and sources for further study. This resource can be accessed from the library's Web page at (http://www.bettendorflibrary.com). Click on "24/7 Electronic Resources," scroll down to "Contemporary Literary Criticism-Select," and click on its icon. If working from home, the password for access is a Bettendorf Public Library card number. If working at any of several designated computers in the library, no password is required.
