• The Vickie Anne Palmer Foundation has announced the purchase of the three-story building at 300 Brady Street in Davenport. This building will become the Palmer Family Museum and headquarters for the foundation and operational offices for the World Leadership Institute.
• In June, 42,112 passengers boarded planes at the Quad City International Airport (QCIA), the first time more than 40,000 people boarded planes at the facility in one month. The new record replaced one set only a few months earlier; in March, the airport had 37,910 boardings.
In the eyes of Jim Bowman, Moline's downtown is full of "sales waiting to happen." With the Mark of the Quad Cities and various John Deere-related tourist destinations, the city's downtown should be thriving.
• You might not have heard of the American Community Survey (http://www.census.gov/acs/www), but you will. The new survey, unlike the traditional census every 10 years, will be taken every year at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars.
Nobody expected it to happen this soon, but the Iowa Values Fund is up for its first performance evaluation, and the results are mixed. The program - which was supposed to attract high-paying positions in natural areas of growth for Iowa such as agriculture - has brought new jobs, but not nearly as many as promised.
• If you want to make a difference for your children and your community, school-board service might be the answer. Nominations for the three upcoming vacancies on the Davenport Community Schools Board of Education can be filed through August 5.
As Rock Island and Davenport both undertake the issue of rental-property inspections, it will be worth following to see how similar - and different - their programs end up being. The issue is important because rental inspections are a major way a city can help maintain and even improve its housing stock.
• The November election looks to be contentious, and voters need to arm themselves with as much information as they can. Project Vote Smart has recently issued a report card on elected officials, featuring more than 100 groups with competing interests that turned in grades for the Iowa and Illinois congressional delegations.
Longtime fans of Rod Piazza know that the pinnacle for the harmonica-player and leader of The Mighty Flyers came with 1994's Live at B.B. King's Blues Club. After all, what better way to capture the blistering showmanship of this band than with a live record? "It's kind of a hallmark album for me," Piazza said.
• The Mississippi River Trail (MRT) is a 10-state cycling route in the process of development. It will travel more than 2,000 continuous miles between the headwaters of the Mississippi at Lake Itasca, Minnesota, and the Gulf of Mexico, winding its way through the states of Arkansas, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Tennessee, and Wisconsin.

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