A non-profit charitable organization – organized and run by powerful telecommunication industry interests in Washington, D.C. – has collected nearly $33 million of taxpayer money to push its vision of expanding broadband communication strategies around the country including Iowa, paying six-figure salaries to its top officials and spending millions each year on advertising, legal and management fees, research and travel.

The tax-exempt 501(c)3 organization – Connected Nation, Inc. – has received $32.7 million to date in federal stimulus money, forming dozens of state spin-offs – including Connect Iowa – that develop broadband coverage maps and push its mantra that expanding the availability of high-speed Internet services to "overlooked" and "underserved" people and places will lead to "great economic and social advantages."

In the organization's most recent 990 federal tax return required of public charities, Connected Nation directors included the president of the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) in Washington, D.C., the CEO and president of CTIA - The Wireless Association and a vice president of World Ahead, an Intel Corporation subsidiary formed with the express purpose to expand broadband and technology around the world.

More than 50 business owners attended a meeting at the QC Waterfront Convention Center Monday (1/13) to hear how road realignment during construction of the new Interstate 74 bridge will impact traffic in downtown Bettendorf in the coming years.

The Bettendorf Business Network sponsored the session, in cooperation with the Isle of Capri Casino, Inc. and the City of Bettendorf.

A private dekhockey operator is seeking a 10-year lease of Crow Creek Park property – at essentially no cost – under an agreement to be considered by the Bettendorf Park Board Wednesday (1/15).

While the lease calls for QC Dekhockey to pay $4,000 per year for the use of park land, the city is required under the lease to construct a second rink and install lighting at an estimated cost of $37,500.

The required outlay by the city does not include the cost of building additional parking adjacent to the rinks, which was estimated at more than $10,000 in discussions of the proposed lease last fall.

Also under terms of the proposed lease, the city would pay for electricity used by the two dekhockey rinks.

Greenhouse gas emissions which are blamed for global warming declined 3.27 percent in Iowa in 2012 compared with the previous year, according to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (IDNR). However, even with the decline, greenhouse gas emissions in the state last year were more than 8 percent higher than seven years ago.

The lower emissions in 2012 were attributed to utilities generating less electricity from coal-fired power plants and the impact of the drought on the state's agricultural sector.

Greenhouse gas inventoried by the IDNR include carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), perfluorocarbons (PFC), hydrofluorocarbons (HFC) and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6).

"The majority of CO2 emissions (98 percent) are from fossil fuel combustion," the IDNR report said. "The majority of all N2O emissions (85%) are from agricultural soils, and the majority of CH4 emissions (78%) are from enteric fermentation and manure management in the agriculture sector."

After a dozen neighbors turned out to voice opposition to a proposed outdoor patio at the The Clubhouse Bar near 18th St. and 53rd Ave., the Bettendorf Board of Adjustment last week (12/12) once again denied a special use permit that would have allowed the outdoor serving area.

More than a year ago, the bar with video golf equipment asked the board for a special use permit for a patio at the rear of the building. The business is adjacent to residential homes along Lindenwood Drive. That request was denied after many of the same neighbors described repeated calls to police complaining about the loud noise from the establishment.

This time around, the operators of the bar/video golf facility requested a special use permit for an outdoor patio in the front – rather than the rear – of the building. The permit consideration initially was scheduled for the board's meeting in September, but was delayed until the December meeting.

After an hour-long hearing, board members voted 3-1 against the permit for the same reasons as last year, expressing concerns about the outdoor serving area creating even more noise problems for neighbors.

The Isle of Capri Casinos, Inc. announced Tuesday (12/3) it posted a 20 cents per share profit in the second quarter ended October 27, and in remarks to financial analysts company executives talked about moving its riverboat casino operation in Bettendorf into a land-based facility.

According to an article Wednesday in the Quad City Times, President Virginia McDowell told analysts in a conference call that the company was finalizing selection of an architectural firm for a land-based casino in Bettendorf.

The Isle is in the process of selling its Rhythm City Casino in Davenport to Dan Kehl, president of Scott County Casino LLC, which plans to build a $110-million casino/hotel and entertainment facility along I-80 in Davenport. The Isle has agreed in principal to sell the Rhythm City to Kehl for $51 million.

Last month not only resulted in Thanksgiving turkey leftovers, but some financial leftovers from Bettendorf's fiscal 2012-13 budget year which ended June 30.

City Finance Director Carol Barnes walked the city council through the year-end financials at its November meeting and a few items deserve a second look to compare the "hoped for" of last year's budget projections and the cold reality of the end-of-year numbers.

• Despite five years' of significant gambling revenue declines, last year's budget projected an increase in gambling dollars for city coffers. That turned out to be a bad bet.

The city received just $1.58 million in gambling revenue last year, a nearly 6 percent drop from the previous year. Gambling revenue in fiscal 2012-13 was the lowest amount since 1998 when the city take was $1.4 million.

Gambling revenues have fallen more than 30 percent since 2004 when the city's cut from the riverboat gambling hit a high of $2.27 million. The fall off also is noteworthy because it came despite added hotels rooms (to attract out-of-town gamblers) and the addition of a city financed entertainment facility (QC Waterfront Convention Center) that was seen as a way to attract more tourists to boost gambling revenues.

Despite environmentalists' calls for a faster schedule to lower fine particulate pollution in Muscatine, the latest Iowa Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) draft implementation plan would not require such emissions be within federal air quality standards until 2017.

At issue is the speed at which Grain Processing Corporation (GPC) – which currently emits 538 tons of particulate matter less than 2.5 microns (PM 2.5) annually – would be required to put in place dozens of pollution control improvements the firm has begun, but is not expected to complete until December 2016.

In its latest draft now being circulated, the IDNR says PM 2.5 emissions would be reduced by nearly 370 tons per year, with the majority of that reduction from GPC.

Quad City Times owner Lee Enterprises recorded a $171-million accounting charge to reflect the falling value of its business during the fourth quarter, turning a 25 cents per share gain into a $1.71 per share loss, according to financials released Monday (11/11) by the Davenport-based firm.

For the fourth quarter ended September 29, the company reported a net loss of $88.7 million, compared with a net loss of $7.7 million, or 15 cents per share, for the same period a year ago.

For the fiscal year ended September 29, Lee reported a loss of $78 million, 1.51 per share, compared with a $16.7 million loss, 34 cents per share, during fiscal 2012.

The large "non-cash impairment charge" more than offset what the company said would have been a 25 cent per share, $13.2 million, gain for the quarter.

Responding to calls by politicians and rural telecom lobbyists to give rural customers in Iowa and the nation equal access to high-speed Internet service, the U.S. Department of Agriculture rolled out its Broadband Initiatives Program (BIP) in 2010 and funded it with more than $3 billion in federal stimulus money.

More than $118 million was awarded in grants and loans to create jobs and to extend broadband* service to rural Iowans.

One of those grants was a $12.2-million award to Windstream (formerly Iowa Telecom) to install nearly 500 miles of fiber optic cable that would upgrade company services to customers in Dallas County, west of Des Moines. In its grant application, Windstream said the project would enable the company to boost broadband speeds from 3 megabytes per second (MBps) to 15 MBps and benefit "approximately 9,293 people" and "roughly 14,291 businesses." The company said the improvements would "provide a foundation for economic growth and job creation for decades to come."

Company official last month said the project is nearly complete and to date 500 new broadband customers have been added.

That's an investment of more than $32,000 per customer based on the $12.2 million to be spent by the USDA program, plus $4.1 million in matching funds from Windstream.