Quad City Arts has issued the second volume of the literary journal Buffalo Carp. This publication makes a nice gift for the literature-lover on your holiday shopping list, with some wonderful pieces of poetry and prose.
In 1899, the economist Thorstein Veblen coined the term "conspicuous consumption," describing the way the rich flaunted their wealth by buying expensive goods and services that people with less money couldn't afford.
• Iowa's public school enrollment is down by 1,639 students, or .34 percent, from a year ago, according to the Department of Education. Currently, 483,372 K-12 students are enrolled statewide. State education leaders expected the decline based on census data and enrollments that show outgoing high-school seniors outnumber incoming kindergarten students.
Last week, the River Cities' Reader sat down with Peter Hart, a national pollster with the firm of Peter D. Hart Research Associates who was in the Quad Cities as Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellow at Augustana College.

Gimme Shelter

Bali Guerrero is effusive, passionate, and energetic, and the only thing keeping her from her dream of being an "animal cop" is the prospect of euthanizing dogs and cats. Guerrero is a kennel tech at the Moline animal shelter, which is run by the city.
• Contained in the federal government's Fiscal Year 2005 Omnibus Appropriations Bill is $1.1 million for the I-74 bridge in Bettendorf. The City of Davenport will receive $1 million for a sewer separation project.

ADHD

For Gene Haislip, a former official of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), the perennial debate over Ritalin, the stimulant commonly prescribed for children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), is an aching reminder of a moral battle he fought - and lost - to big drug companies.
• Quad Cities PBS station WQPT has announced that Chad Pregracke: The River Rescuer - a film produced by WQPT staff members Lora Adams and Brad Mosier - won a prestigious CINE Golden Eagle Award. The CINE Gold Eagle recognizes excellence in professional and amateur works.
There's no getting around it. Shades of Noir, the new film by Max Allan Collins and Phil Dingeldein, is a patchwork. "It's a bit of a Frankenstein monster," Collins conceded last week, "but the Frankenstein monster gets its job done.
• Genesis Medical Center has announced that it will renovate the third and fourth hospital floors on its East Rusholme Street campus in Davenport beginning in January 2005. The focus of the 18-month project is improved patient care resulting primarily from enlarged and enhanced nursing stations, updated patient-care technology, and private patient rooms that are more conducive to rest and comfort.

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