ROCK ISLAND, IL (01/21/2010)(readMedia)-- The artistic and musical talents of Augustana students will be the focus of the third annual Augustana Sights and Sounds at Bucktown Center for the Arts (225 E. 2nd St., Davenport) on Friday, January 29, from 6 to 9 p.m. The free event will feature distinctive student photography from both Augustana and Quad-City area high school students and a raffle fundraiser for the Fistula Foundation.

Augustana Photo Bureau students will display a series of photographs that highlight student life on the Rock Island campus, experiences in the Quad Cities or the world through international study programs. The event will incorporate the photography on display with several existing galleries and music. Three pieces of artwork will be raffled off by the Augustana Artisans to benefit the Fistula Foundation. These include two paintings from Augustana student Maria Ford and a photograph by Hunt Harris, a local businessman.

High school photographers who would like to be featured can submit their work in the categories of music, dreams, urban wilderness and portraits by January 18. Members of the Photo Bureau will judge the entries, and winners will receive scholarships to Augustana College.

Photo Bureau students featured in the show are Veronica Smith, Corynn Hanson, Dana Gustafson, Maren Mathisen, Mark Marogil, Matthew Peters, John Cairns and Grace Drenth. Smith, who serves as the Photo Bureau manager, assisted with planning the event. To view a students' work, click on each name to access a high-resolution photograph.

From your area this includes:

Mark Marogil, a sophomore from Moline, IL majoring business administration-advising.

Grace Drenth, a first year from Davenport, IA majoring liberal studies.

The Augustana Photo Bureau was established in 2005 to support the publications, events, news and online needs of the Office of Communication and Marketing. The bureau has grown to support other departments and special events on campus. Under the direction of their advisor, Marla Alvarado Neuerburg, the students have the opportunity to learn and apply photographic skills.

Midcoast Fine Arts is a non-profit agency created by artists to promote regional artists and cultural organizations that advance the quality of life and marketability within the Quad Cities. The Bucktown Center for the Arts opened in 2005 as a creative community for local artists.

The Augustana Artisans is a student organization created to appreciate, create and share the love of art. The club meets weekly to learn and create art and hold sales to raise money for charities such as the Fistula Foundation. The foundation is a non-profit organization that focuses on the treatment and prevention of fistula worldwide. Fistula is a hole that can develop between a woman's birth passage and one or more surrounding organs over many days of obstructed labor or as a result of sexual violence. To learn more about the organization, visit www.fistulafoundation.org/index.html.

The Augustana Photo Bureau and the MidCoast Fine Arts are coordinating the event during Bucktown's monthly Final Friday art show. For further information about the event, contact Marla Alvarado Neuerburg at (309) 794-7632 or marlaalvarado@augustana.edu.

About Augustana: Founded in 1860 and situated on a 115-acre campus near the Mississippi River, Augustana College is a private, liberal arts institution affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). The college enrolls nearly 2,500 students from diverse geographic, social, ethnic and religious backgrounds and offers more than 60 majors and areas of study. Augustana employs 226 faculty and has a student-faculty ratio of 11:1. Augustana continues to do what it has always done: challenge and prepare students for lives of leadership and service in our complex, ever-changing world.

New ten-part series premieres Monday, January 18 at 9pm ET on HISTORY

In the world of antiques, it takes an expert to turn rust into riches...

New York, December 2009 - Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz are on a mission to recycle America. Their job: to dig through junk piles, abandoned barns and neglected garages for hidden memorabilia. Sometimes they make a buck; and sometimes they walk away with little more than the history of an item. They love their work, and the open road is their office.

Part sleuths, part antiques experts, and part cultural historians? Mike and Frank, business partners of Antique Archaeology based in Iowa, are professional "pickers," trolling America's small towns to salvage rare collectibles and good junk from regular folks. AMERICAN PICKERS, a ten-part series from HISTORY, follows the adventures of Mike and Frank, through small towns and back roads for a glimpse at this little-known side of the antiques business. The all new series premieres Monday, January 18 at 9pm ET on HISTORY.

Buddies since 8th grade, Mike and Frank have an entertaining rapport and an instinct for unearthing relics of historical, collectible and pop culture value. Although buying and selling is their livelihood, the thrill is in the chase. Each treasure hunt leads them to fascinating, quirky characters - everyday people with stories about their artifacts and themselves that open a window into American life.

AMERICAN PICKERS follows the highs and lows of the "picking" trade as Mike and Frank get their hands dirty in search of weird and wonderful Americana. It takes amazing expertise to tell good junk from bad. Whether tracking down a one-of-a-kind Ferris wheel or sizing up a vintage Harley-Davidson, they must be prepared to verify an object's history and judge its value. The pressure mounts as they strike the ultimate deal, find just the right buyer and turn around the item fast. It's not uncommon for them to contend with a farmer's physical threats and verbal abuse one minute and laughing with him over a beer the next.

"We're caretakers of treasures and the stories behind them," says Mike.  Traveling along with the duo, viewers will meet an assortment of American originals and watch as a patchwork of history unfolds - one treasure at a time.

AMERICAN PICKERS joins the highly successful series, PAWN STARS, as part of HISTORY's powerful new "National Treasures" programming genre in which relics belonging to everyday people tell a history of America.

Washington, DC - In response to news that a long-standing cable dispute could leave 300,000 Iowans without Orange Bowl coverage, Rep. Bruce Braley (D-Iowa) sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski today encouraging him to step in and protect the interests of Iowa's families before January 5. In a game of significant importance to Iowans, the University of Iowa Hawkeyes will play the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets in the Orange Bowl as part of the Bowl Championship Series.

"On behalf of the hundreds of thousands of constituents in my district who would be affected by the Sinclair-Mediacom retransmission rights negotiations, I write to solicit the FCC to protect my constituents and the public good," Braley wrote. "The January 5^th Orange Bowl, in which the University of Iowa is playing their championship game with Georgia Tech, is on FOX.  Mediacom's broadcast area is highly populated with the fans and alumni of the University of Iowa, and hundreds of thousands of Iowans stand to lose their chance to watch their team in the Orange Bowl if the FCC does not take action to referee the Mediacom-Sinclair dispute.

"I do not write to ask the FCC to take sides in this contentious negotiation.  Rather, I ask that the FCC step in and take the appropriate actions to protect the public interest in the event that Mediacom and Sinclair are unable to come to terms on a retransmission consent agreement."

Sinclair Broadcasting Group is currently renegotiating their retransmission rights with Mediacom Communications Corporation.  A similar retransmission negotiation failed to reach a compromise back in 2007 and resulted in Mediacom customers losing Sinclair's Cedar Rapids based CBS station and Des Moines based FOX station. Local media reports have indicated that parties involved are pessimistic that a deal will be reached prior to January 5.

Braley joined other members of the Iowa delegation in sending a letter to Genachowski on November 23.  A full text of the letter Braley sent is attached.

###

Due to the extensive time required to make entries,  we are extending opportunities for entries to the following 2 dates below during our regular Independent Scholars' Evenings.

"Life on the Mississippi - the New Millennium" is a manuscript maintained by the Institute.  The manuscript records life along the Mississippi in  various voices and authorship in long-hand and archival ink.

The manuscript is kept safely under lock and key between entries, bringing it out periodically for entries as well as readings.

Please come in to make entries in the manuscript as well as review the recent entries made.

Obviously, when copies of  the manuscript are sold proceeds will be distributed

to contributors on a pro-rated basis.

7.00 p.m. to 9.00 p.m.

December 3rd and  December 10th 2009

in front of  the fireplace on the 2nd floor of  The Moline Club, 513 16th Street, Moline.

Please take this opportunity to visit the Phoenix Art Gallery on the 1st floor enter through the Fifth Ave door : 1530 Fifth Avenue, Moline.

The exhibit and sale going on is ...unattached.... by Talya Arbisser.

* The Independent Scholars' Evenings are sponsored by The Institute for Cultural and Healing Traditions, Ltd a 501©3 at state and federal level since 1996. Please visit www.qcinstitute.org for furt