• Redmond Jones II of Temple, Texas, is scheduled to start in mid-October as Davenport's affirmative-action officer and assistant to the city administrator. Jones will be the city's front-line person for equal-employment and affirmative-action programs and internal complaints of bias. Jones, 34, worked most recently as the assistant to the city manager in Temple and was previously a personnel analyst in Lee's Summit, Missouri, and a management intern in Fort Worth, Texas. He will fill an office that's been vacant since Bill Cribbs resigned as affirmative-action officer in September 2000. Jones' starting salary is $53,275 a year.
• St. Ambrose University this week began offering MBA classes in China as part of a new international program. St. Ambrose Professor Linda Brown began teaching 49 students Monday in Shenyang, China's fourth-largest city. Classes will be taught in intensive week-long sessions, with faculty rotating in for different courses. St. Ambrose officials said last week that they chose China because of the estimated 1.4 million MBAs the country will need over the next decade.
• Less than five percent of registered voters in Scott County bothered to vote in the September 10 school-board elections. Of the 109,791 registered voters, 5,411 (4.93 percent) cast ballots. You can see the results for yourself at Scott County's excellent Web site, specifically at (http://www.scottcountyiowa.com/auditor/election_returns.html). Only Davenport had contested races, with Alan Guard, Dan Portes, and Ann Losasso earning seats on the Davenport Community School District board.
• The Canadian Senate's Special Committee on Illegal Drugs, which has spent the past two years doing a comprehensive review of Canada's drug laws, last week called for an end to cannabis prohibition, with the suggestion that the country replace it with a legal, regulated marijuana market. The committee's final report, while not binding, will increase political pressure on the Liberal government of Prime Minister Jacques Chretien to address reform of Canada's cannabis laws, which the committee said are out-of-sync with popular practice and sentiment. According to the committee report, only cannabis-related activity that causes demonstrable harm to others - such as impaired driving or selling to people under 16 - or is related to an export trade in the weed should be prohibited. The committee also called for amnesty for all Canadians convicted of cannabis possession and recommended that Canada inform the United Nations it intends to seek to amend the UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs and related treaties, the legal backbone of the global-prohibition regime. The committee report, along with proceedings, testimony, research, and general information, can be accessed at (http://www.parl.gc.ca/illegal-drugs.asp).
• A recent addition to the Scott County Web site honors those from Scott County who died in wars. A memorial plaque is in the lobby of the Scott County Courthouse, and its names are now featured online. The memorial lists the names of those who died during World War I, World War II, the Korea War, and the Vietnam conflict. The Scott County web site is at (http://www.scottcountyiowa.com/), and you can access the memorial directly by going to (http://www.scottcountyiowa.com/memorial.html).
• The U.S. Senate has overwhelmingly passed legislation that will create a nationwide Amber Alert system to help track down missing children. The bill provides grants and incentives for states to establish the networks and creates an office in the Department of Justice to develop standards and guidelines for the networks and to coordinate the interstate efforts. The goal of Amber Alert is to quickly inform the entire community when a child under age 17 or a mentally or physically impaired adult has been abducted and appears to be in imminent danger. Under the plan, radio and television stations would use the Emergency Alert System, formerly called the Emergency Broadcast System, to air a description of the missing child and suspected abductor based on information from local law enforcement. The bill would also give the Amber network access to DNA and biographical information kept by the FBI's Combined DNA Index System to help identify and locate potential suspects in child-abduction cases. Amber Alert is named after nine-year-old Amber Hagerman, who was kidnapped and murdered in Texas in the early 1990s. Iowa does not have an established network, but Governor Tom Vilsack earlier this month announced the formation of a task force to study launching one. Last year in Iowa, there were 20 parental kidnappings, and since 1982, there have been eight children abducted by people other than family members.
• The 17th Annual Student Hunger Drive will begin on Thursday, September 26. Since 1986, high-school students participating in the drive have collected a total of 5,413,940 pounds of nonperishable food items, with a total cash value of nearly $11 million.
• The Kimberly and Eastern intersection construction recently switched from the westbound lanes to the eastbound lanes. This work is supposed to make the intersection safer by adding longer right- and left-turn lanes and interconnecting the railroad with the intersection signals. The project should be completed by the end of the year at a cost of $1.7 million.
• For the latest information about the West Nile Virus, fire up your Web browser and start at the National Institute of Health (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/westnilevirus.html). Another great place to look is the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention at (http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/westnile/).
• St. Ambrose University this week began offering MBA classes in China as part of a new international program. St. Ambrose Professor Linda Brown began teaching 49 students Monday in Shenyang, China's fourth-largest city. Classes will be taught in intensive week-long sessions, with faculty rotating in for different courses. St. Ambrose officials said last week that they chose China because of the estimated 1.4 million MBAs the country will need over the next decade.
• Less than five percent of registered voters in Scott County bothered to vote in the September 10 school-board elections. Of the 109,791 registered voters, 5,411 (4.93 percent) cast ballots. You can see the results for yourself at Scott County's excellent Web site, specifically at (http://www.scottcountyiowa.com/auditor/election_returns.html). Only Davenport had contested races, with Alan Guard, Dan Portes, and Ann Losasso earning seats on the Davenport Community School District board.
• The Canadian Senate's Special Committee on Illegal Drugs, which has spent the past two years doing a comprehensive review of Canada's drug laws, last week called for an end to cannabis prohibition, with the suggestion that the country replace it with a legal, regulated marijuana market. The committee's final report, while not binding, will increase political pressure on the Liberal government of Prime Minister Jacques Chretien to address reform of Canada's cannabis laws, which the committee said are out-of-sync with popular practice and sentiment. According to the committee report, only cannabis-related activity that causes demonstrable harm to others - such as impaired driving or selling to people under 16 - or is related to an export trade in the weed should be prohibited. The committee also called for amnesty for all Canadians convicted of cannabis possession and recommended that Canada inform the United Nations it intends to seek to amend the UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs and related treaties, the legal backbone of the global-prohibition regime. The committee report, along with proceedings, testimony, research, and general information, can be accessed at (http://www.parl.gc.ca/illegal-drugs.asp).
• A recent addition to the Scott County Web site honors those from Scott County who died in wars. A memorial plaque is in the lobby of the Scott County Courthouse, and its names are now featured online. The memorial lists the names of those who died during World War I, World War II, the Korea War, and the Vietnam conflict. The Scott County web site is at (http://www.scottcountyiowa.com/), and you can access the memorial directly by going to (http://www.scottcountyiowa.com/memorial.html).
• The U.S. Senate has overwhelmingly passed legislation that will create a nationwide Amber Alert system to help track down missing children. The bill provides grants and incentives for states to establish the networks and creates an office in the Department of Justice to develop standards and guidelines for the networks and to coordinate the interstate efforts. The goal of Amber Alert is to quickly inform the entire community when a child under age 17 or a mentally or physically impaired adult has been abducted and appears to be in imminent danger. Under the plan, radio and television stations would use the Emergency Alert System, formerly called the Emergency Broadcast System, to air a description of the missing child and suspected abductor based on information from local law enforcement. The bill would also give the Amber network access to DNA and biographical information kept by the FBI's Combined DNA Index System to help identify and locate potential suspects in child-abduction cases. Amber Alert is named after nine-year-old Amber Hagerman, who was kidnapped and murdered in Texas in the early 1990s. Iowa does not have an established network, but Governor Tom Vilsack earlier this month announced the formation of a task force to study launching one. Last year in Iowa, there were 20 parental kidnappings, and since 1982, there have been eight children abducted by people other than family members.
• The 17th Annual Student Hunger Drive will begin on Thursday, September 26. Since 1986, high-school students participating in the drive have collected a total of 5,413,940 pounds of nonperishable food items, with a total cash value of nearly $11 million.
• The Kimberly and Eastern intersection construction recently switched from the westbound lanes to the eastbound lanes. This work is supposed to make the intersection safer by adding longer right- and left-turn lanes and interconnecting the railroad with the intersection signals. The project should be completed by the end of the year at a cost of $1.7 million.
• For the latest information about the West Nile Virus, fire up your Web browser and start at the National Institute of Health (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/westnilevirus.html). Another great place to look is the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention at (http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/westnile/).
