• Quad Cities-based filmmakers and University of Iowa juniors Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, both 21 years old, have been selected as two of the five finalists in MTVu's Best Film on Campus: Trailer Challenge competition, in which college filmmakers across the nation create a two-minute film trailer.
• The Channel Cat Water Taxi recorded 35,578 riders from Memorial Day to Labor Day this year for a 10-percent increase over the previous season. The taxi service runs two boats between five docks in Moline, Davenport, Bettendorf, and East Moline.
Bill Wiseman leans back in his battered desk chair, contemplating the killing scheduled for tomorrow. His cluttered home office is dim and quiet on this late spring afternoon, the venetian blinds pulled shut against the dense Oklahoma heat.
• Officials at Augustana College held a groundbreaking ceremony last week to mark the official beginning of construction of a new residence hall. The three-story building will be located at the northwest corner of 38th Street and 11th Avenue in Rock Island and will open in the fall 2006, in time to welcome students for the new academic year.
In a large room of a warehouse, countless cardboard boxes sit on the floor and along the walls, overflowing with televisions, computer monitors, wire, and various computer components. An adjoining room has bales of compressed pieces of plastic stacked three and four bundles high that look as if they're ready for the junkyard.
Conventional wisdom says that incumbents are in trouble in Davenport's November 8 election. In primary competitions for nine seats on October 11, incumbent office-holders fared poorly. Steve Ahrens, an at-large alderman running for mayor, finished second, trailing Ed Winborn by more than 900 votes.
• The Family Museum of Arts & Science in Bettendorf is now offering WiFi access to its guests. Visitors to the museum can take advantage of the wireless-Internet capabilities in the museum's Great Hall. Connecting to the Internet through the Family Museum's WiFi is as simple as going on-line with your PDA or laptop computer; no password is necessary.
Although the Illinois legislature earlier this year passed wide-ranging reforms meant to lower medical-malpractice-insurance rates, representatives of the business community and doctors are advocating for further changes.
Welcome to the inaugural Quad Cities Dining Guide, published by the River Cities' Reader. These 20 pages are meant to answer one deceptively simple question: What's for dinner? The fact is that there are many issues tied up in those three words.
The City of Davenport and its Abandoned Housing Task Force are soliciting proposals to rehabilitate abandoned houses located primarily in the central city. The concept for the HAPPEN program is to protect, preserve, and revitalize established central-city neighborhoods.

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