• The Iowa Homeland Security & Management Division has received $520,612 from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to enhance protection efforts at key sites and deter threats of terrorism aimed at those facilities.
On June 6, Davenport Mayor Charlie Brooke vetoed a resolution that used the city's power of eminent domain to grant an easement for a sanitary sewer. The city council had decided by a 6-4 vote to condemn the property in question to assist a condominium project developed by longtime city-government critic Niky Bowles.
• The Mississippi Hotel is currently being emptied in preparation for construction of the expanded Adler Theatre stage. All refrigerators, stoves, air conditioners, and furniture is being removed from the hotel rooms that will be impacted by the stage-expansion project.
• The Rock Island Beautification Commission is looking for the most beautiful yards in the city. The 31st annual "Tell on Your Neighbor" residential-beautification awards contest has opened nominations for the most attractive and best-kept lawns in Rock Island.
A.J. Wacaser is fond of a slogan by activist Jeremy Rifkin: "Eating is the ultimate political act." There's certainly a political component to the new Buy Fresh Buy Local campaign, which Wacaser is helping to coordinate.
• The cities of Davenport, Moline, and Rock Island are in the process of developing a joint Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing Choice, a requirement of the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development for all Community Development Block Grant entitlement communities.
• The Blue Grass Fire Department is among the busiest all-volunteer units in Scott County. Last year, Blue Grass firefighters answered a record 247 calls for service. They've already answered 114 calls through April of this year.

BRAC Attack

In 1995, community backers of a military base in a very arid part of the country offered to take drastic measures to satisfy the U.S. military, which had difficulty getting the water it needed and as a result wanted to shift some functions to different military bases.
• The Family Museum's award-winning Street Heat program began a new project last month by enlisting the help of six students from Davenport's Lydia House and the surrounding neighborhood. Participants will sculpt a "QC Tree" that is scheduled for "planting" on June 13 in the Hilltop Association Park on Harrison Street in Davenport.
Judith DeSarno does not want to be part of the never-ending abortion debate. "I'm the birth-control gal," said DeSarno, president of the National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association in Washington, D.

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