QUESTION: "Other than abstinence, what can I tell my daughter about safe sex?" D.D. from Davenport. ANSWER: Condoms with education can decrease one's risk for sexually transmitted disease and pregnancy.
• MidCoast Fine Arts last week was recognized with the Arts Build Communities Award for Arts Organization representing the entire state of Iowa. The award was presented by the Iowa Arts Council as part of the 2002 Iowa Arts Awards at a ceremony on February 20 in Des Moines.
In the name of security, Iowa-American Water Company has asked for and received a rate hike without going through the normal rate-case process - and without customers knowing what they're paying for. Between the terrorist attacks of September 11 and November, Iowa-American spent approximately $900,000 on security measures, according to K.
• Because of reductions in revenue streams such as the hotel/motel tax, local-option sales tax, and interest, the City of Bettendorf is contemplating a levy increase of 25 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation.
Now in their sixth year, the River Cities' Reader's Best of the Quad Cities awards have become an institution, and some of our winners are approaching that status, too. Biaggi's, for example, swept the major restaurant categories and ended up with five awards, in only its second year of operation.
Alto saxophonist Jack Scott and his singer wife Gwen gave up chances for worldwide fame in the jazz world to raise their family - three boys and one girl. Scott, who was born in the Quad Cities and spent much of his life playing here, died in Gilbert, Arizona, on January 22.
Remember the book Chariots of the Gods? by Erich Von Daniken? Published in the early '70s, it was the first book to introduce the shocking theory that aliens had visited ancient Earth. Von Daniken supposedly unearthed thousand-year-old navigational charts, landing strips from ancient Egypt, and giant spaceports in the Andes.
• Supportive Housing for Single-Parent Families, a program offered by Humility of Mary Housing, Inc. (HMHI) to bring affordable housing and supportive services to single parents and their children, has received an Audrey Nelson Community Development Achievement Award.
In its 20-year history, Mississippi Valley Neighborhood Housing Service stayed focused on a single east-Davenport neighborhood. When it was awarded Community Development Financial Institution status by the U.S. Treasury in August, its mission and target area grew to seven counties, extending north to Clinton and south to Keokuk and reaching across the river to Rock Island County.
Some Iowa legislators are targeting lenders who change outrageous fees and interest rates (typically higher than 12 percent annually). A handful of bills in the Iowa General Assembly have been or are about to be introduced, and some might have a decent chance of passage.

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