• The pro-life Life & Family Educational Trust has announced the opening of the newly completed Women's Choice Center at 2711 Happy Joe Drive in Bettendorf. The Woman's Choice Center is a facility - located across the street from Planned Parenthood of Greater Iowa - providing information about pregnancy, fetal development, and related issues. It will offer pregnancy tests and ultrasound imaging for qualified patients. Clients will also receive counseling and information about abortion procedures with referral services to community organizations. During the capital campaign to build this facility, which lasted 14 months, the Life & Family Educational Trust - a not-for-profit organization that was formed from the Life & Family Coalition - raised $1.1 million. All services are without charge. The Women's Choice Center is supported solely by donations and is a member of The National Institute of Family & Life Advocates.

• The State Library of Iowa has recognized the Davenport Public Library for its high-quality service to customers by issuing a Certificate of Accreditation. The areas of library administration and services that qualified the library for distinction include governance, administration and funding, staffing, collection, services, and access and facilities. The Davenport library is one of 240 libraries in Iowa that currently meets the conditions stipulated by the State Library of Iowa's Public Library of Quality. The Certificate of Accreditation is valid until June 2005.

• Besides bugs and humidity, summer also brings unhealthy air to our area. According to the national Air Quality Index (AQI), pollution levels in the Quad Cities reached the orange or "unhealthy for sensitive groups" designation in two categories: ground-level ozone and particulate matter. The Department of Natural Resources is asking residents to consider simple voluntary actions during these very hot days to help prevent pollution, including postponing use of two-cycle engines and lawn mowers until the evening, avoiding unnecessary driving until evening, and avoiding burning trash, debris, and other wastes. Iowans can check air- pollution levels at (http://www.iowacleanair.com). The Bi-State Regional Commission is a local air-quality organization, and its Web site has more information on how you can prevent air pollution, and you can also check current levels. See for yourself at (http://www.bi-state-ia-il.org/aoa.shtml).

• All Iowa homeowners, renters, farmers, agricultural producers, and business owners who sustained damage as a result of severe storms and flooding that began on June 3, regardless of where they live, should register with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Seventeen Iowa counties - Allamakee, Benton, Buchanan, Cedar, Clayton, Clinton, Delaware, Dubuque, Fayette, Iowa, Jackson, Johnson, Jones, Linn, Muscatine, Scott, and Winneshiek - were included in President Bush's June 19 disaster declaration. It takes about a 15-minute phone call to the FEMA toll-free registration number at (800)621-3362. TTY service is available at (800)462-7585 for anyone who is hearing- or speech-impaired. Service is available from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. seven days a week until further notice. You can also learn more on FEMA's Web site at (http://www.fema.gov).

• River Bend Transit was named the top regional transit system in Iowa. Peggi Knight, director of the Iowa Office of Public Transportation, made the announcement at the annual Iowa Public Transit Association banquet held at the Radisson Quad City Plaza Hotel. River Bend Transit is one of 16 transit systems that operate in Iowa, and this is the second time it has been recognized as Iowa's best.

• The National Center for Policy Analysis notes that although U.S. gross domestic product grew some 5.6 percent last year, government is the fastest-growing component of the economy. In 2001, government at city, state, and federal levels grew by 6 percent, but the private sector grew at a rate of only 0.5 percent. The Cato Institute's Stephen Moore, who is also president of the conservative Club for Growth, estimates that federal spending will rise $150 billion to $200 billion this year - more than twice the amount raised by the entire venture-capital industry. You can see more by pointing your Web browser at (http://www.ncpa.org/iss/bud/2002/pd061102c.html) and at (http://www.ncpa.org/iss/bud).

• U.S. Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) recently joined a bipartisan group of senators, including Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), in introducing a bipartisan amendment to strengthen military facilities such as the Rock Island Arsenal. This amendment will continue the Arsenal Support Program Initiative (ASPI), which helps bring in commercial firms to use the available workforce, buildings, and equipment at the arsenal and thus helps pay for its costs. The amendment passed the Senate by unanimous consent last week. ASPI, which began as a two-year pilot program in 2001, was only funded with $7.5 million in the current fiscal year's Defense Appropriations bill. The bipartisan amendment would extend the program for two additional years, through 2004. It also would update reporting requirements to help Congress evaluate the program.

• The Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations passed a Statement of Conscience calling for "Alternatives to the War on Drugs." The religious denomination - representing more than 1,000 congregations throughout the United States - declared, "We do not believe that drug use should be considered criminal behavior." The comprehensive Statement of Conscience was passed at the 2002 General Assembly of the Boston-headquartered denomination by a two-thirds majority of delegates from the congregations. Recognizing that "the consequences of the current drug war are cruel and counterproductive," the statement calls for "alternatives that regard the reduction of harm as the appropriate standard by which to assess drug policies." To learn more, point your Web browser to the Web page (http://www.uua.org/main.html).

• Scott County emergency medical services (EMS) are always working, in rural county areas or Davenport and Bettendorf. The Scott County EMS Web site (http://www.scottcountyems.org), while a bit plain and still under development, has a wide variety of information on the service providers, the protocols under which they work, calendars for training and events, and much more. There's even an application you can print, fill out, and send in to volunteer.

Support the River Cities' Reader

Get 12 Reader issues mailed monthly for $48/year.

Old School Subscription for Your Support

Get the printed Reader edition mailed to you (or anyone you want) first-class for 12 months for $48.
$24 goes to postage and handling, $24 goes to keeping the doors open!

Click this link to Old School Subscribe now.



Help Keep the Reader Alive and Free Since '93!

 

"We're the River Cities' Reader, and we've kept the Quad Cities' only independently owned newspaper alive and free since 1993.

So please help the Reader keep going with your one-time, monthly, or annual support. With your financial support the Reader can continue providing uncensored, non-scripted, and independent journalism alongside the Quad Cities' area's most comprehensive cultural coverage." - Todd McGreevy, Publisher