29 Nov 2006

The Impending Gambling Arms Race

By Administrator

Last week's announcement that the Rhythm City Casino's parent company, Isle of Capri, was reconsidering its contentious casino-hotel project on the Davenport riverfront tells you all you need to know about the future of casinos in Iowa: It's bleak.

In Quad-City Times articles on Friday, Isle of Capri officials claimed that competition from the Riverside Casino & Golf Resort - which opened south of Iowa City on August 31 - has dramatically cut into admissions and revenues at the Isle's two Quad Cities properties. The Isle of Capri in Bettendorf and Rhythm City in Davenport saw their combined adjusted gross revenues drop by nearly 12 percent in September and October compared to those months in 2005.

From here gaming companies will engage in casino arms races in which they will need to continually build bigger, more extravagant facilities merely to maintain market share.

29 Nov 2006

Casino Karma

By Administrator

Last week, Isle of Capri (IOC) notified the City of Davenport that it was putting its 11-story casino hotel, to be located on the downtown riverfront, on hold while it studies alternatives to the current riverboat-casino model.

The screeching citizens are hearing is IOC's brakes slamming as it hits the predicted financial wall. During September and October, both properties (Isle of Capri in Bettendorf and Rhythm City Casino in Davenport) lost 12 percent of their combined revenues to the newly opened Riverside Casino & Golf Resort in Riverside, Iowa.

IOC is finally getting serious competition not only from Riverside, but also Jumer's Casino Rock Island, which is currently constructing a facility on Interstate 280 on the outskirts of Rock Island.

22 Nov 2006

What Makes Police Brutality Possible?

By Roderick T. Long

What should a large group of bystanders do if they see a handful of attackers unjustly assaulting and tormenting an unarmed individual?

The answer seems obvious: come to the victim's aid by disarming and overpowering the attackers.

But on November 14, when UCLA student Mostafa Tabatabainejad was assaulted in the university library, about 50 shocked and angry students stood by, protesting and shouting but not intervening, though the assailants were much fewer in number and were armed only with nonlethal weapons.

Why didn't the students intervene? Because the assailants were campus police.

22 Nov 2006

Making Prosperity a Realistic Goal

By administrator

With some regret, I have tendered my resignation to the River Music Experience (RME). The past two years have been a very interesting time for me. Certainly, I gained a fair share of life experience. The great people that I have met and worked with, through our educational programs, River Roots Live fest, and Redstone Room events, have time and again demonstrated their appreciation for our mission. I thank each of you for the opportunity to work and play together. My staff was awesome. I laud their passion for our purpose and their tenacity for hanging in there with me through thick and thin.

22 Nov 2006

Dems' Victory Celebration Sounds More Like Sniping

By Administrator

Illinois Democrats won a historic victory at the polls this month. Not since the Franklin Roosevelt landslide of 1936 have Democrats controlled every statewide office, both chambers of the General Assembly, and the Illinois Supreme Court.

But you'd never know it if you were in Springfield last week. Instead of bringing them closer together, the landslide has driven them further apart.

15 Nov 2006

RME Public Statements

By administrator

Editor's note: The following was posted on the River Music Experience (RME) Web site in the days after the organization's president and CEO, Lon Bozarth, resigned.

 

Over the past 20 months, there has been a purposeful transition of the RME from a museum-based tourist attraction to a mission-based organization that supports the idea that original and diverse live-music performances are a needed component of a modern community.

15 Nov 2006

Personal and Positive Campaigning Work

By administrator

A couple of notes now that the election is over:

Positive campaigning works: See Elesha Gayman's win.

Negative campaigning fails: See Mike Whalen's loss.

15 Nov 2006

State GOP Can't Blame National Landslide for Woes

By Administrator

Last week's election gave Illinois Senate President Emil Jones more bragging rights than anyone else at the Statehouse.

Jones' Democrats picked up five seats on Tuesday, giving them one more than the minimum needed for a veto-proof majority. Jones' 37 seats compare to just 22 for the Senate Republicans.

To say that the Senate Republicans are now irrelevant for at least the next two years would be putting it mildly. The Senate Republicans won't be able to stop anything, including bills for new state construction-bond programs, which require a minimum of 36 votes.

07 Nov 2006

Douglas Park Place Aims to Reunite Recovering Addicts with Their Families

By Brad Vidmar

Ametra Carrol spent the better part of a decade addicted to crack cocaine, and it almost killed her. After completing a detox and rehab program, she found herself unable to stay clean when she returned to her old neighborhood - and the friends with whom she got high.

"Its true what they say: You need to stay away from people, places, and things [associated with addiction] until you get strong enough," said Carrol, now a community activist.

That lesson has pushed Carrol to work with Rock Island leaders to develop the Douglas Park Place recovery home, designed to help Quad Cities-area mothers and their families overcome the challenges she once faced with substance abuse.

07 Nov 2006

Americans Protect America

By Administrator

How many times have you watched some movie or TV show depicting the villain as extreme governmental control, with severe abuse of innocents as the cause of rebellion? We sit through these horrors, reassuring ourselves that this would never happen in America. Why? Because, we tell ourselves, we would never allow things to deteriorate to such a degree that the level of control and abuse we are witnessing could occur.

Well don't be so sure. How do you think those film scenarios were conceived? Certainly from lively imaginations, but also from history; mankind has a long tradition of cruel, suppressive conduct toward his fellow human beings.

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