Coal Valley, IL- June 2, 2012 - Niabi Zoo is extremely happy to announce the birth of its second male giraffe calf on Friday, June 1, at 2:59 am. This is the fourth giraffe born at Niabi Zoo since 2007.

The baby giraffe, which has not yet been named, was born to Twiga, Niabi Zoo's 6 year old female. This is Twiga's second baby. Zuri, a female, was born in April of 2010. The father is Kenya, a 6 year old male. The baby weighed 152 pounds and stands about 6 feet tall.

"Twiga and her new son are doing very well," says Interim Zoo Director Marc Heinzman. "We're all very excited to have our fourth giraffe born here in only five years. We had been waiting for a long time for Twiga to have her baby, so it's great to have him here finally."

Twiga and her son will be kept off display for a few days to allow the two giraffes time to bond in a quiet setting. Later this week she will be out for public viewing.

The giraffe, Giraffa camelopardalis, is the world's tallest mammal. Average height for an adult giraffe is 14-19 feet and the average weight is 1,800 - 3,000 pounds. They are herbivores, using their 18 inch tongues to help pull leaves from the branches of tall trees. Although their necks are unusually long, they have only seven neck vertebrae, just like humans.

After a gestation of approximately 14 months, giraffes give birth standing up. The calf drops five to six feet to the ground. This fall helps the calf take its first breath. Calves can stand usually within a few hours and run with their mothers within ten hours. Six feet tall a birth, calves normally weigh 100 - 150 pounds and can grow as much as one inch per day.

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The German American Heritage Center is proud to share the importance of civility in our community by bringing Jim Leach, Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, to Davenport's Saint Ambrose University on Saturday June 16th at 12p.m. Leach's visit is part of the American Civility Tour, a 50-state tour he launched in November 2009, shortly after starting his four-year term as NEH chairman.

During his visit, Leach will deliver a public lecture at 12 p.m. in the Galvin Fine Arts Center at SAU titled "Civility, With A German Immigrant Accent." In addition to his key comments on civility in American discourse, Leach will refer to the always lively, sometimes rowdy role of German immigrants in the 1860 election of Abraham Lincoln. The event is free and open to the public.

Leach's Civility Tour seeks to call attention to the need for civility in public discourse. He worries that America's leaders and citizens have increasingly resorted to extremist rhetoric, abandoning civil debate and discourse for name-calling, and provocative actions. We must reverse that trend, he says, if we are to continue to earn the respect of each other and the nations around the world.

"Civilization requires civility," Leach says. "Words matter. Little is more important for the world's leading democracy in this change-intensive century than establishing an ethos of thoughtfulness and decency of expression in the public square."

Leach began his four-year term as NEH chairman in August 2009 after serving in the U.S. House of Representatives for 30 years. As a congressman representing southeastern Iowa, he chaired the Banking and Financial Services Committee, the Subcommittee on Asian and Pacific Affairs and the Congressional-Executive Commission on China. He also founded and co-chaired the Congressional Humanities Caucus.

Please visit gahc.org or call 563-322-8844 for more information. The Galvin Fine Arts Center is located at 518 W Locust St. in Davenport.

This event is sponsored by the German American Heritage Center, Quad City Times, St. Ambrose University, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Created in 1965 as an independent federal agency, the National Endowment for the Humanities supports research and learning in history, literature, philosophy, and other areas of the humanities by funding selected, peer-reviewed proposals from around the nation. Additional information about the National Endowment for the Humanities and its grant programs is available at: www.neh.gov.

Summer Reading starts Monday, June 4 at all Rock Island Libraries, and with themes such as Reading is So Delicious, Feed Your Mind: READ and Books are Brain Food, the library is cooking up a summer stacked high with fun and reading.

The library is "serving up" food-themed reading contests and more than 103 events for children, teens and adults. Activities begin Monday, June 4, with reading logs and entries due back to the library by Friday, July 27.

To see the entire list of events, see "Summer @ Your Library" on the library website.

Summer Reading events and prizes sponsored by Friends of the Rock Island Public Library, Milan-Blackhawk Area Public Library District (Southwest Branch events) and the Rock Island Public Library Foundation (summer art and drama.)