27
May
2003
• It's spring again and time for another round of grants from the Riverboat Development Authority (RDA) and the Scott County Regional Authority (SCRA), the organizations that hold the gambling licenses for the two Iowa Quad Cities riverboats. RDA recommended $1,304,800 in grants, with notable winners including the City of Davenport with $100,000 for the River Renaissance Walkway, the Mississippi Regional Blood Center receiving $40,000 for a West Nile Virus Study, and Friends of Vander Veer receiving $75,000 for a stone fountain. You can see the complete list of grant winners at (http://www.riverboatauthority.com/awards.htm). The SCRA awarded $2,000,187 this grant cycle, including $671,402 for educational awards, $654,228 for governmental awards, and $654,577 in awards to not-for-profit organizations. You can see the details at its Web site at (http://www.scottcountyregionalauthority.com/awards.html).
• The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) reports that Republicans Ron Paul (Texas) and Dana Rohrbacher (California) and Democrats Barney Frank (Massachusetts) and Jane Schakowski (Illinois), along with 21 co-sponsors, have re-introduced the States' Rights to Medical Marijuana Act. This bill has been introduced in each of the past six legislative sessions, and has gained increased support and co-sponsorship each time around. This bill would re-schedule marijuana under federal law so those states that wish to legalize the medical use of the drug under state law could do so without federal interference. If the bill is approved by Congress, federal prosecution of patients who qualify for medical use under state law will end, and states can actually provide medical marijuana to qualified patients. You can learn more about NORML at its Web site at (http://www.norml.org).
• Recently introduced in the U.S. Senate, the Meat & Poultry Pathogen Reduction Act of 2003, known as Kevin's Law, would give the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) the authority to enforce food-safety and -sanitation standards that have been under serious attack in the federal courts. The bill is named after Kevin Kowalcyk of Mount Horeb, Wisconsin, who died in 2001 at the age of two and a half from E. Coli poisoning. A companion bill was released in the House by Representatives Anna Eshoo (D-California) and Phil English (R-Pennsylvania). Kevin's Law gives USDA the authority to enforce existing standards for pathogens such as salmonella and E. Coli. It requires the USDA to set standards for the food-borne pathogens based upon the best available science and reasonably available technology to reduce contamination. The law also makes clear that USDA has the authority to enforce basic sanitation requirements in meat and poultry plants.
• Young artists from Fillmore Elementary School in Davenport recently unveiled Prairie Life Circle, a ceramic installation telling the story of the Iowa prairie. The project was funded by the Isabel Bloom Art Education Fund and administered by the Community Foundation of the Great River Bend. The five-foot-diameter ceramic circle describes changes in Iowa's prairie from virgin grassland to today's landscape. Artist Rob Lipnick worked with kindergarten through third-grade students to create the narrative piece for this permanent installation in the school library. Students learned techniques for working with clay as they applied their knowledge of the relationships between plants, animals, and people on the changing Iowa prairie. Fillmore Elementary is a first-year recipient of a grant from the recently established Isabel Bloom Art Education Fund. Grants from this fund are meant to further the education of local children and art instructors, foster greater appreciation of the visual arts, and enhance the quality of life in the Quad Cities.
• On Saturday, May 31, Habitat for Humanity-Quad Cities will break ground for its 27th home, at 1071-15th Street "A" in Moline. This home is for the partner family of Cynthia Conyers and her sons Mike and Allen, which will purchase the home from Habitat. The build is sponsored by Whitey's Ice Cream, The First United Presbyterian Church, and First Congregational Church in Moline. These organizations will raise the funds to build this home - approximately $55,000 in all. For more information about Habitat for Humanity-Quad Cities, look on its Web site at (http://www.habitatqc.org) or call (563)359-9066.
• While waiting on one of the various bridges that connect the Quad Cities, you might consider what all those idling cars are doing to the environment. The Quad Cities, through the Quad Cities Air Quality Task Force, are participating in the U.S. Department of Transportation and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency "It All Adds Up to Clear Air" initiative with spring-specific public educational materials. You can get it directly at(http://www.italladdsup.gov/community_partners/spring.html). Locally you can find about the level of clear air and suggestions for making it cleaner at the Bi-State Regional Commission Web site at (http://www.bistateonline.org).
• Responding to an appeal by a group of Ames restaurants and truck stops, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled May 7 that Ames couldn't enforce its new anti-smoking ordinance because it reaches beyond state law. The Ames ordinance prohibits restaurant operators from designating smoking areas. According to the Supreme Court ruling, Ames defended its ordinance based upon the home-rule power provided in the Iowa Constitution, but that provision specifies that local governments cannot pass ordinances "inconsistent with the laws of the General Assembly." Iowa's home-rule statute (Iowa Code Chapter 364) echoes the constitution in this regard. What finally sunk the Ames ordinance was a sentence at the end of the Iowa statute on smoking prohibitions, a "pre-emption clause" that explicitly prohibits local governments from enacting smoking prohibitions that are substantially different from state law. The Supreme Court said that, given the caveats noted in home-rule law, Ames couldn't defy the state's pre-emption clause. The pre-emption clause in Iowa's smoking-prohibitions statute has for years been a thorn in the side of Iowa anti-smoking advocates, who have regularly sought its repeal, so far without success.
• The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) reports that Republicans Ron Paul (Texas) and Dana Rohrbacher (California) and Democrats Barney Frank (Massachusetts) and Jane Schakowski (Illinois), along with 21 co-sponsors, have re-introduced the States' Rights to Medical Marijuana Act. This bill has been introduced in each of the past six legislative sessions, and has gained increased support and co-sponsorship each time around. This bill would re-schedule marijuana under federal law so those states that wish to legalize the medical use of the drug under state law could do so without federal interference. If the bill is approved by Congress, federal prosecution of patients who qualify for medical use under state law will end, and states can actually provide medical marijuana to qualified patients. You can learn more about NORML at its Web site at (http://www.norml.org).
• Recently introduced in the U.S. Senate, the Meat & Poultry Pathogen Reduction Act of 2003, known as Kevin's Law, would give the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) the authority to enforce food-safety and -sanitation standards that have been under serious attack in the federal courts. The bill is named after Kevin Kowalcyk of Mount Horeb, Wisconsin, who died in 2001 at the age of two and a half from E. Coli poisoning. A companion bill was released in the House by Representatives Anna Eshoo (D-California) and Phil English (R-Pennsylvania). Kevin's Law gives USDA the authority to enforce existing standards for pathogens such as salmonella and E. Coli. It requires the USDA to set standards for the food-borne pathogens based upon the best available science and reasonably available technology to reduce contamination. The law also makes clear that USDA has the authority to enforce basic sanitation requirements in meat and poultry plants.
• Young artists from Fillmore Elementary School in Davenport recently unveiled Prairie Life Circle, a ceramic installation telling the story of the Iowa prairie. The project was funded by the Isabel Bloom Art Education Fund and administered by the Community Foundation of the Great River Bend. The five-foot-diameter ceramic circle describes changes in Iowa's prairie from virgin grassland to today's landscape. Artist Rob Lipnick worked with kindergarten through third-grade students to create the narrative piece for this permanent installation in the school library. Students learned techniques for working with clay as they applied their knowledge of the relationships between plants, animals, and people on the changing Iowa prairie. Fillmore Elementary is a first-year recipient of a grant from the recently established Isabel Bloom Art Education Fund. Grants from this fund are meant to further the education of local children and art instructors, foster greater appreciation of the visual arts, and enhance the quality of life in the Quad Cities.
• On Saturday, May 31, Habitat for Humanity-Quad Cities will break ground for its 27th home, at 1071-15th Street "A" in Moline. This home is for the partner family of Cynthia Conyers and her sons Mike and Allen, which will purchase the home from Habitat. The build is sponsored by Whitey's Ice Cream, The First United Presbyterian Church, and First Congregational Church in Moline. These organizations will raise the funds to build this home - approximately $55,000 in all. For more information about Habitat for Humanity-Quad Cities, look on its Web site at (http://www.habitatqc.org) or call (563)359-9066.
• While waiting on one of the various bridges that connect the Quad Cities, you might consider what all those idling cars are doing to the environment. The Quad Cities, through the Quad Cities Air Quality Task Force, are participating in the U.S. Department of Transportation and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency "It All Adds Up to Clear Air" initiative with spring-specific public educational materials. You can get it directly at(http://www.italladdsup.gov/community_partners/spring.html). Locally you can find about the level of clear air and suggestions for making it cleaner at the Bi-State Regional Commission Web site at (http://www.bistateonline.org).
• Responding to an appeal by a group of Ames restaurants and truck stops, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled May 7 that Ames couldn't enforce its new anti-smoking ordinance because it reaches beyond state law. The Ames ordinance prohibits restaurant operators from designating smoking areas. According to the Supreme Court ruling, Ames defended its ordinance based upon the home-rule power provided in the Iowa Constitution, but that provision specifies that local governments cannot pass ordinances "inconsistent with the laws of the General Assembly." Iowa's home-rule statute (Iowa Code Chapter 364) echoes the constitution in this regard. What finally sunk the Ames ordinance was a sentence at the end of the Iowa statute on smoking prohibitions, a "pre-emption clause" that explicitly prohibits local governments from enacting smoking prohibitions that are substantially different from state law. The Supreme Court said that, given the caveats noted in home-rule law, Ames couldn't defy the state's pre-emption clause. The pre-emption clause in Iowa's smoking-prohibitions statute has for years been a thorn in the side of Iowa anti-smoking advocates, who have regularly sought its repeal, so far without success.
