31 Mar 2009

Firefighters Set for Hockey Matchup

By Joe Collins

The Quad City Fire Hockey Team, composed of more than 25 firefighters from local fire departments, will play at the i wireless Center on Friday, April 3, at 3 p.m. The team will host the Chicago Fire Department in the contest prior to the Quad City Flames' 7:05 p.m. game with the Chicago Wolves. From each special ticket package sold, $7 will be donated to the Robert Juarez Relief Fund. Juarez is a 20-year veteran of the Davenport Fire Department who was paralyzed in the line of duty after falling from a ladder.

The Quad Cities Comic Book Convention will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, April 4, at the Ramada Inn, 3020 Utica Ridge Road in Bettendorf. Admission is free. Dealers from three states specializing in comic books new and old, toys, and related collectibles will be on hand to buy, sell, and trade. For more information, contact Alan at (309)657-1599 or visit EpGuides.com/comics.

Young musicians from around the Quad Cities area auditioned for judges on Sunday, March 22, as they vied for the opportunity to perform with the Quad City Wind Ensemble and earn money toward music education in the 21st-annual Quad City Wind Ensemble Young Performer's Solo Competition. For more information about the Quad City Wind Ensemble, visit FreeWebs.com/quad-city-wind-ensemble.

Rivermont Collegiate will present Much Ado About Will: A Celebration of the Words of Shakespeare on Thursday, April 2, and Friday, April 3, at 7 p.m. in Becherer Hall Auditorium on the Rivermont campus. Antics from A Midsummer Night's Dream serve as bookends to this journey through Shakespeare. This production will be performed by Rivermont students in eighth through 12th grades. Tickets are $5 at the door, and the event is open to the public. Rivermont is located at 1821 Sunset Drive in Bettendorf, off 18th Street behind K&K Hardware.

TOPS (Take Off Pounds Sensibly) Club recognizes the temptation of emotional overeating and the health problems caused by it. This is particularly timely in April, Emotional Overeating Awareness Month. With support and education from TOPS, weight-loss warriors can take steps to control those emotional cravings. Visitors are welcome to attend their first TOPS meeting free of charge. To find a local chapter, visit TOPS.org or call (800)932-8677.

The novel Monster Behind the Wheel and the poetry collection Attack of the Two-Headed Poetry Monster, both written by Mark McLaughlin and Michael McCarty, are now on the final ballot for Bram Stoker Awards for works published in 2008. The Bram Stoker Awards are presented each year by the Horror Writers Association, an international group that includes hundreds of writers, editors, publishers, and members of the film industry.

The Moline Public Library invites teens and adults to the Creating Connections Volunteer Expo on Saturday, April 18. The free expo will be held in the library's meeting rooms from 2 to 4 p.m.

Residents and organizations in northwestern Illinois and southeastern and eastern Iowa received $333,697 in fraternal assistance from Modern Woodmen of America members in 2008. Modern Woodmen members in these areas are organized into 69 local chapters (called "camps") and 27 youth service clubs. In 2008, area Modern Woodmen members contributed 20,927 volunteer service hours to their communities.

The Musser Public Library in Muscatine will host the Iowa Egg Council's 2009 White House Easter Egg display throughout April. The 19 decorated eggs in this display were entered in the 2009 White House Easter Egg Decorating Contest, held during the 2008 Iowa State Fair. This contest invites Iowa artists to decorate an egg to depict a special feature, theme, icon, or location in Iowa. The winning egg is then sent to Washington, DC, to be displayed at the White House during the Easter season.

Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts can register through April 10 to attend the sixth-annual Earth Week Fair on Saturday, April 18, at the QCCA Expo Center, 2621 Fourth Avenue in Rock Island. The fair is open to scouts and the public from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Scouts can visit booths and participate in activities to work toward several environmental badges. Separate workshops will also be held for Boy Scouts and Junior Girl Scouts to earn all of the requirements for their "Geology" and "Rocks Rock" badges. To register, visit QCEarthWeek.org and click on "Earth Week Fair" and "Scout Registration."

24 Mar 2009

Corps Approves Armory Demolition Plan

By Joe Collins

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has approved the City of Rock Island's plans for flood protection during the Armory Park construction project. This permits Williams Construction Management/Valley Construction, the city's construction manager, and its subcontractors to proceed with starting the permanent flood-protection system north of the existing Armory building and then demolishing the Armory. The first step in the process is to install steel sheet piles on the north side of the Armory, followed by demolition of the Armory building. No date has been set for the demolition. The project is expected to be completed in 2010.

18 Mar 2009

RIP, the Daily Paper: As Headlines Document the Death of Print Media, How Will Quad Cities Newspapers Survive?

By Jeff Ignatius

Denver's Rocky Mountain News closed in February. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer published its last print edition on Tuesday, and the threat of closure has been levied against the San Francisco Chronicle - which lost more than $1 million a week last year.

Earlier this month, Time magazine identified the "10 major newspapers that will either fold or go digital next."

And the Associated Press summarized in a March 15 article: "Four newspaper companies, including the owners of the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune and The Philadelphia Inquirer, have sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in recent months."

17 Mar 2009

Black Hawk College and WIU Sign Agreement

By Joe Collins

The new "2+2" agreement between Black Hawk College and Western Illinois University will allow students enrolled in engineering, nursing, and liberal-arts-and-sciences degree programs to complete courses at both schools simultaneously. Students who receive financial aid can save up to 25 percent over four years as they earn a bachelor's degree. Studies have shown that community-college students who simultaneously take university courses have a 15- to 20-percent higher rate of success. For more information, call the Western Illinois University Quad Cities campus at (309)762-9481 or Black Hawk College at (309)796-5100.

11 Mar 2009

The Can Can: Great River Brewery Debuts Its Beers, but Bottles Aren't on Tap

By Jeff Ignatius

Great River Brewery's Roller Dam Red

If you ask brewmaster Paul Krutzfeldt about bottling his beer, prepare to be dismissed.

"Speak of that no more," he said in the "brewer's lounge" of the new Great River Brewery, near the foot of the Arsenal bridge at 332 East Second Street in Davenport.

It's not that Krutzfeldt doesn't want his brews available in stores or bar coolers. It's just that he's a fan of the can.

"Cans are where it's at," he explained. "You have less oxygen tolerances, so the beer won't go bad. No light gets in. And you have a lot more accessibility to take them places - boating, camping. They're more easily recyclable."

Brewmaster Paul Krutzfeldt

He later cites the slogan of the Minnesota-based Surly brewery: "Beer for a glass, from a can."

This is the summary of what Krutzfeldt said is a trend in the suds industry: good beer being delivered in a container that has historically been the marker of bad beer.

He said he's not concerned about the association of cans with bland, watery, mass-produced beer. "What good beer have you had the opportunity to buy in cans?" he asked.

But the can is the wave of the future because of the protection it offers and its portability, Krutzfeldt said: "Cans are becoming king."

Although he said that he expects cans to eventually represent the bulk of his business, for the time being he's filling kegs.

10 Mar 2009

Davenport Voter Turnout Barely Tops 20 Percent

By Joe Collins

Of the 70,312 registered voters in Davenport, only 15,961 (22.7 percent) voted in the March 3 election for Ward 2 alderman and the citywide Local Option Sales Tax/Davenport Promise referendum. Of those who voted on the referendum, 6,235 (39.1 percent) voted yes, and 9,717 (60.9 percent) voted no. For more information on the election, visit ScottCountyIowa.com.

04 Mar 2009

Remembering John Kiley

By Cathy Bolkcom

Cathy Bolkcom and John KileyEditor's note: John Kiley, a well-known community leader and lifelong Quad Citian, died of natural causes on February 15 at the age of 58. The eulogies that were read at his funeral are published in their entirety at RCReader.com/news/john-kiley/.

So many things have been said or written over the past two weeks about John Kiley and his huge role in the life of our community. Stories, snapshots in time, memories. "Remember" is from the Latin (so fitting) for "recall to mind." One of the things that weighs heavy on my heart is that John has become part of memory. I share what I remember, the mindfulness of John in my life and the lives of the friends who were so important to him.

John's life was like a Venn diagram of intersecting circles: lifelong friends from his days at Holy Family and Assumption, the Saint Ambrose mafia, the Youth Service Bureau (YSB) crowd, the running world, music and film lovers, the public-service circles, and above all Kathy, Joanne, and Julia.

03 Mar 2009

St. Ambrose Moves Into Downtown Davenport

By Joe Collins

St. Ambrose University has established a new downtown-Davenport presence in the NewVentures Center, located at 331 West Third Street. St. Ambrose will initially use office space and state-of-the-art "smart classrooms" to administer the Master of Organizational Leadership degree program and offer several MBA courses. St. Ambrose will continue to develop a strategic vision for its downtown presence, including other business and leadership-development initiatives. Already in place, a collaboration between St. Ambrose and the Figge Art Museum has resulted in several exhibits, and other joint projects and initiatives are under consideration.

25 Feb 2009

Endangered Species: The Vanishing Washington Regional Reporter

By Jennifer Dorroh

Plucked from the bulletin board of George Condon's office in the Copley News Service Washington bureau are 21 pink index cards, each representing a completed chapter of "The Wrong Stuff: The Extraordinary Saga of Randy 'Duke' Cunningham, the Most Corrupt Congressman Ever Caught." The bureau's reporters broke the story of the California Republican's bribe-taking, and in the process won a Pulitzer for Copley and its flagship paper, the San Diego Union-Tribune.

25 Feb 2009

New Corps of Engineers Office Opens

By Joe Collins

The Quad Cities Mississippi River Project Office's new administration building was recently opened in Pleasant Valley, Iowa, near Lock and Dam 14. It is the largest project office in the Rock Island District and the largest U.S. Army Corps of Engineers presence in Iowa. The roughly $2-million facility will serve as the planning and operations center for 314 miles of the Mississippi River from Cassville, Wisconsin, to south of Hannibal, Missouri. It will be responsible for managing roughly 300 federal employees and more than 96,000 acres of federal land, including 55,000 acres of natural floodplain forest, 12 lock-and-dam sites, and 26 recreation sites.

Pages

more

Subscribe & Listen to Reader Podcasts

On Stands Now

 

Tagged Content

Two Ways to Subscribe

1. Subscribe to free weekly e-mail content updates.

You'll get both the current official narrative challenge and What's Happenin' in the Quad Cities.
(Did you know we publish a new Real Astrology and RCR Crossword every week?) 

Subscribe!

* indicates required

2. Get 12 monthly issues mailed first class for $48

Get 12 issues mailed monthly for $48 per year.

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 Subscribe now.

 
 

Meetings Calendar