• With $220,000 left to raise for the $1.425-million community library, the LeClaire Community Library Board of Trustees has kicked off the public phase of its JOIN IN Capital Campaign. The campaign cabinet will be broadening its solicitation efforts to ask all LeClaire resides for their financial support for this project. Fundraising for the new library - the only library being constructed in Iowa this year - began several years ago when the City of LeClaire was gifted by a bequest made by longtime Bettendorf residents Merle and Adeline Barkhuff. The bequest, requiring a dollar-for-dollar match, leveraged nearly $1.0 million toward the Phase I fundraising efforts. To date, nearly $220,000 has been raised in Phase II. The LeClaire Community Library remains on schedule to open July 1. For more information, call Kim Boynton Kietzman at (563)289-2788.
• Wal-Mart stores cost federal taxpayers more than $2,100 per employee to supplement low wage levels, according to a congressional study released by U.S. Representative George Miller. For a store with 200 employees, the report estimates that taxpayers each year pay $36,000 for free and reduced-cost school lunches; $42,000 for housing assistance; $125,000 for low-income tax credits and deductions; $100,000 for services to at-risk students; $108,000 for health-care subsidies; and $9,750 for low-income energy assistance. You can find a copy of the report for yourself at (http://edworkforce.house.gov/democrats/WALMARTREPORT.pdf).
• A decade ago, the union of two Davenport hospitals gave birth to Genesis Health System. In conjunction with its 10th anniversary, Genesis will undergo a corporate re-branding and establish a unified identity for the many services it offers. To make the health system more customer-focused, the word "Genesis" will become the dominant name used by all entities, followed by an entity descriptor and a geographic locator. For example, DeWitt Community Hospital will be known as Genesis Medical Center, DeWitt; Genesis Medical Center's East Campus will become Genesis Medical Center, East Rusholme Street, Davenport; Genesis Medical Center's West Campus will become Genesis Medical Center, West Central Park, Davenport; Illini Hospital will do business as Genesis Medical Center, Illini Campus. For more information, visit the company's Web site at (http://www.genesishealth.com).
• On Monday, June 7, six new ABC M1030 30-foot medium-duty buses replaced the City of Bettendorf's existing fleet of 15-foot light-duty buses that had reached over twice their useful life cycle. The buses were purchased using Federal Transit Administration dollars from Section 5307 grants. Each bus cost $117,588, with the federal funding level at 83 percent. The new units are equipped with LED destination signs and ADA accessible in-step lifts, and can carry 27 passengers, or 18 passengers with two wheelchairs aboard. In addition, the city announced a new Utica Ridge/53rd Street route (number five) that will begin running in late June or early July. Matt Simaytis, the city's transit manager, explained that his department has been saving funds from the federal grant programs for five years to make the upgrade acquisition for the city. Simaytis was also responsible for managing a maintenance program that kept the newly retired units running well past their normal life cycle.
• Texas constitutional scholar Michael Badnarik has won the Libertarian Party's presidential nomination. Badnarik, 49, of Austin, Texas, won 423 votes - or 54 percent - from delegates at the Libertarian Party's national convention in Atlanta on May 30. Coming in second was movie producer Aaron Russo, followed by longtime radio host Gary Nolan. Badnarik's victory was considered a shock because he had been beaten in the polls and primaries by both Nolan and Russo. According to some political analysts, the Libertarian nominee could cost President George W. Bush key votes in the November election by attracting frustrated Republicans in swing states such as Wisconsin, Oregon, and Nevada. In a separate vote, delegates chose Richard Campagna as their vice-presidential nominee. Campagna, 52, is an attorney in Iowa City, Iowa. Badnarik has a Web site at (http://www.badnarik.org), but it's rather sparse. For more information, visit (http://www.lp.org).
• Dot Richards officially announced her candidacy for the Iowa House last week, stressing her small-businesses experience in talking about job creation. If elected, Richards - a Republican - would represent District 85, which includes western Davenport and is currently represented by Democrat Jim Lykam. Richards is currently the legislative officer of ABATE of Iowa District 15. She previously received an award of appreciation from the Bi-State Motorcycle Awareness Council, for which she served as assistant director. Richards was joined on her announcement tour by House Majority Leader Chuck Gipp of Decorah.
• Applications for the Bettendorf Jayees' Fourth of July Parade are now available at K&K Hardware, Herbert D. Goettsch Community Center, and City Hall. For more information, call Don Wells at (563)823-0191.
• For the 31st straight year, the number of Americans in prison has increased, leaving the nation with an all-time high of nearly 2.1 million people incarcerated at the end of June 2003, according to an annual report released by the Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics. Despite sentencing reforms and other measures to trim state prison budgets in recent years, the number of people behind bars grew by 57,600, a 2.9-percent increase and the largest in four years. Growth was fastest in the federal prison system, which swelled by 5.4 percent to more than 170,000 prisoners (more than half of them drug offenders), compared to a 2.6-percent rate of increase in state-prison populations. Not only is the absolute number of prisoners continuing to rise, the bureau found, but incarceration rates are still climbing. At midyear 2003, 718 out of every 100,000 Americans were behind bars, up from 701 the previous year. With recent amnesties for prisoners in Russia, that country's incarceration rate is 584 per 100,000. England's rate is 143, Canada's is 116, Germany's is 96, and Japan's is 54. The Bureau of Justice Statistics report, "Prison & Jail Inmates at Midyear 2003," can be found at (http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/cp02.htm).
• Wal-Mart stores cost federal taxpayers more than $2,100 per employee to supplement low wage levels, according to a congressional study released by U.S. Representative George Miller. For a store with 200 employees, the report estimates that taxpayers each year pay $36,000 for free and reduced-cost school lunches; $42,000 for housing assistance; $125,000 for low-income tax credits and deductions; $100,000 for services to at-risk students; $108,000 for health-care subsidies; and $9,750 for low-income energy assistance. You can find a copy of the report for yourself at (http://edworkforce.house.gov/democrats/WALMARTREPORT.pdf).
• A decade ago, the union of two Davenport hospitals gave birth to Genesis Health System. In conjunction with its 10th anniversary, Genesis will undergo a corporate re-branding and establish a unified identity for the many services it offers. To make the health system more customer-focused, the word "Genesis" will become the dominant name used by all entities, followed by an entity descriptor and a geographic locator. For example, DeWitt Community Hospital will be known as Genesis Medical Center, DeWitt; Genesis Medical Center's East Campus will become Genesis Medical Center, East Rusholme Street, Davenport; Genesis Medical Center's West Campus will become Genesis Medical Center, West Central Park, Davenport; Illini Hospital will do business as Genesis Medical Center, Illini Campus. For more information, visit the company's Web site at (http://www.genesishealth.com).
• On Monday, June 7, six new ABC M1030 30-foot medium-duty buses replaced the City of Bettendorf's existing fleet of 15-foot light-duty buses that had reached over twice their useful life cycle. The buses were purchased using Federal Transit Administration dollars from Section 5307 grants. Each bus cost $117,588, with the federal funding level at 83 percent. The new units are equipped with LED destination signs and ADA accessible in-step lifts, and can carry 27 passengers, or 18 passengers with two wheelchairs aboard. In addition, the city announced a new Utica Ridge/53rd Street route (number five) that will begin running in late June or early July. Matt Simaytis, the city's transit manager, explained that his department has been saving funds from the federal grant programs for five years to make the upgrade acquisition for the city. Simaytis was also responsible for managing a maintenance program that kept the newly retired units running well past their normal life cycle.
• Texas constitutional scholar Michael Badnarik has won the Libertarian Party's presidential nomination. Badnarik, 49, of Austin, Texas, won 423 votes - or 54 percent - from delegates at the Libertarian Party's national convention in Atlanta on May 30. Coming in second was movie producer Aaron Russo, followed by longtime radio host Gary Nolan. Badnarik's victory was considered a shock because he had been beaten in the polls and primaries by both Nolan and Russo. According to some political analysts, the Libertarian nominee could cost President George W. Bush key votes in the November election by attracting frustrated Republicans in swing states such as Wisconsin, Oregon, and Nevada. In a separate vote, delegates chose Richard Campagna as their vice-presidential nominee. Campagna, 52, is an attorney in Iowa City, Iowa. Badnarik has a Web site at (http://www.badnarik.org), but it's rather sparse. For more information, visit (http://www.lp.org).
• Dot Richards officially announced her candidacy for the Iowa House last week, stressing her small-businesses experience in talking about job creation. If elected, Richards - a Republican - would represent District 85, which includes western Davenport and is currently represented by Democrat Jim Lykam. Richards is currently the legislative officer of ABATE of Iowa District 15. She previously received an award of appreciation from the Bi-State Motorcycle Awareness Council, for which she served as assistant director. Richards was joined on her announcement tour by House Majority Leader Chuck Gipp of Decorah.
• Applications for the Bettendorf Jayees' Fourth of July Parade are now available at K&K Hardware, Herbert D. Goettsch Community Center, and City Hall. For more information, call Don Wells at (563)823-0191.
• For the 31st straight year, the number of Americans in prison has increased, leaving the nation with an all-time high of nearly 2.1 million people incarcerated at the end of June 2003, according to an annual report released by the Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics. Despite sentencing reforms and other measures to trim state prison budgets in recent years, the number of people behind bars grew by 57,600, a 2.9-percent increase and the largest in four years. Growth was fastest in the federal prison system, which swelled by 5.4 percent to more than 170,000 prisoners (more than half of them drug offenders), compared to a 2.6-percent rate of increase in state-prison populations. Not only is the absolute number of prisoners continuing to rise, the bureau found, but incarceration rates are still climbing. At midyear 2003, 718 out of every 100,000 Americans were behind bars, up from 701 the previous year. With recent amnesties for prisoners in Russia, that country's incarceration rate is 584 per 100,000. England's rate is 143, Canada's is 116, Germany's is 96, and Japan's is 54. The Bureau of Justice Statistics report, "Prison & Jail Inmates at Midyear 2003," can be found at (http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/cp02.htm).
