Now in their fifth year, the Celtic Highland Games of the Quad Cities continue to expand. While the authentic Scottish athletic competition - seven events, one of them involving throwing a 12-foot-long, 100-pound pole - was the novel appeal of the event when it got started, the festival is fast becoming a celebration of all things Celtic.
The office of Steve Bahls, the new president of Augustana College, is filled with images of Themis, the goddess of Justice. That's no surprise, because Bahls came to Augustana after nine years as dean of the Capital University Law School in Columbus, Ohio.

At the end of an interview last week, Bahls showed off one particular image: a print of Justice by Pieter Bruegel the Elder from the 16th Century. In it, Themis - blindfolded and holding her scales - is surrounded by all manner of bad behavior, including torture. "She has no idea what's going on," he said of Themis.

Bahls wants to ensure that the same can't be said of Augustana College, the private Lutheran liberal-arts college in Rock Island. The new president, who replaced retiring President Thomas Tredway on July 1, is committed to making Augustana College, its faculty, and its 2,200 students active participants and leaders in the community. There will be no Augustana ivory tower on his watch.

Bahls' tenure at the Capital University law school, also a Lutheran institution, suggests that he'll stay true to that vision.
When you're already hauling in 400 tons of sand, adding another 20 to the mix is no big deal. That's the thinking behind one of the new additions to the Ya Maka My Weekend festival this week in The District of Rock Island.
One of the big changes to this year's ArtStroll event this Friday will be something those in attendance probably won't notice. But the emergence of a performing-arts coalition as one of ArtStroll's organizers signals a new commitment to help the arts grow in the Quad Cities.
When the City of Davenport submitted its application for Vision Iowa funds, one project was called the AgTech Venture Capital Center. Now it's known as the New Ventures Initiative, and the concept has been expanded: It will become a full-service development center for emerging technologies.
Last week, the City of Davenport hosted a different type of tour, spotlighting locations that officials would usually prefer residents and tourists didn't see: the old city dump between West River Drive and Marquette Street, blighted commercial and industrial areas further to the west on River Drive, and a pocket of abandoned commercial buildings on Dittmer Street.
The final chapter of a Rock Island County saga wraps up on Saturday, June 28, with a public auction of the contents of Poplar Grove. The secluded riverfront tavern was operated for nearly 80 years in the same location by the Bernard family of Moline.
In two weeks, the Davenport city council will take a largely symbolic vote on the mixed-use development with the romantic-sounding name Prairie Heights, on the land formerly known as 53rd and Eastern. That will be one of the earliest - and easiest - steps in what's expected to be an arduous process for the city council.
In the classroom of the 42-foot-long barge/houseboat that serves as the operations center of Living Lands & Waters, the 40 or so teachers assembled in the Quad Cities last Friday were naturally disappointed when told at the beginning of the day that Chad Pregracke would not be joining them just yet.
Two years ago at Gumbo Ya Ya, the festival included a kids' cooking clinic with Chef Eudell Watts III, at which children learned to make gumbo. But adults were drawn as much as children, and therein was the germ of an idea.

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