Isle of Capri Casinos, Inc. told shareholders today (6/19) it has signed an option agreement to sell its Davenport Rhythm City Casino for $51 million, subject to the new owner – Kehl Development-Scott County, LLC – obtaining "applicable gaming licenses and approvals and other customary closing conditions."

The Isle – owner of four Iowa casinos including the Bettendorf Isle of Capri Casino – reported in its filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that Kehl Development Corporation has until September 15 to exercise the option to buy the riverboat casino. The exercise period can be extended until October 15, or can be extended or terminated early by mutual agreement "upon occurrence of certain other circumstances."

For the first time, Pleasant Valley School District property owners will be paying a higher tax rate in the coming fiscal year than their Bettendorf school district counterparts.

The tax rate for Pleasant Valley homeowners will be $14.74 per $1,000 assessed valuation for fiscal 2013-14, up from $14.64 last year. Meanwhile, the Bettendorf School Board lowered the district's tax rate to $14.55 per $1,000 assessed valuation for the coming fiscal year, down from $15 last year.

The Isle of Capri Casinos, Inc. – owner of four gambling casinos in Iowa – reported Thursday (6/6) it lost $47.6 million during the fiscal year ended April 28 as company executives blamed the poor results on bad economic conditions, higher payroll tax rates and delays in gamblers getting income tax refunds.

On a per share basis, the fiscal 2013 loss amounted to $1.21 per share, which was an improvement over fiscal 2012 when the company lost $3.35 per share after writing down the value of two casinos it sold during that period.

Residents of Fremont County, Iowa, are pretty accepting of having a nuclear power plant in their backyard, so to speak. The folks in Woodbury County (Sioux City) not so much.

Those findings – buried between the transmission line and railroad access analysis of potential MidAmerican Energy nuclear power plant sites – are the result of a $44,000 public perception study sizing up how "accepting" residents of the six "finalist" communities would be to having a nuke plant built near them.

The survey conducted in November 2010 by Des Moines public relations firm Flynn Wright found the folks in Woodbury County would not be happy about the prospects of a nuclear plant nearby. And, on the opposite end of the spectrum, residents in the two "finalist" sites – Muscatine and Fremont counties – were found to be much more "accepting" of a nuclear plant being built nearby.

The survey details were among more than two dozen documents filed by the utility Tuesday (6/4) with the Iowa Utilities Board (IUB) when MidAmerican decided to pull the plug on its three-year, $15-million study. The state legislature gave MidAmerican permission to charge customers $15 million over three years to fund the feasibility study.

MidAmerican Energy abruptly ended its three-year nuclear power plant feasibility study Tuesday (6/4) – four months before a special surcharge on customers' electric bills was set to expire – saying it was premature "to pursue any additional site work on a future generation option, including a nuclear facility."

The utility said it plans to refund $8.8 million of the surcharge to Iowa customers and stop collecting the half-percent charge effective July 1, three months before the $15-million nuclear study fee was slated to expire.

A Bettendorf resident who ran unsuccessfully for alderman on a platform opposing expansion of city recreation trails is seeking a property tax exemption for half of his 10-acre residential lot located next to a new section of the Crow Creek Recreation Trail.

Chad Miller, of 4340 Tangelwood Road, has asked the Scott County Board to designate the land as "forest cover," thus making the property tax exempt under a 1990 Iowa law.

UPDATE: CLICK HERE to view clean-up of 6/14/2013

Nearly a year after the Bettendorf Fire Department burned down a vacant house on Elm Street in a training exercise, the charred foundation and debris remain untouched adjacent to the city's newest riverfront park/overlook and the new section of the Mississippi riverfront recreation trail.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) is taking a second shot at getting federal approval for a plan to reduce fine particulate (PM2.5) pollution in Muscatine.

The IDNR's first submission of a State Implementation Plan (SIP) to cut emissions of particulate matter less than 2.5 microns in diameter was found "substantially inadequate to maintain the 2006 24-hour National Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for PM2.5 in Muscatine." That finding in July 2011 by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 7 office required the IDNR to conduct air modeling to determine what facilities in the area were signficantly contributing to exceedances of the air quality standards.

"The Iowa DNR determined that three major sources of air pollution in the Muscatine area significantly contribute to predicted (modeled) PM2.5 exceedances of the standard in the vicinity of the Garfield School monitor," according to the new proposed SIP plant. "These facilities are Grain Processing Corporation (GPC), Muscatine Power & Water, and Union Tank Car Company."

According to the new SIP draft, the IDNR has worked with the three companies on measures "that will result in expeditious attainment of the 24-hour PM2.5 NAAQS through reductions of ambient air impacts of PM2.5 emissions from each facility."

The Bettendorf-based LED light assembly company planning to bring its operations from China has been approved to receive $130,000 in job training reimbursement through Eastern Iowa Community College (EICC).

The funds would pay for development of a customized training program for 15 employees of LED-O Holding, LLC who would have "an average wage of $17 per hour and benefits of health, life, dental, vacation, holiday pay initially," according to the LED-O agreement with EICC. The firm, now located at 6125 Valley Drive, "is planning to move its operations from China and eventually will locate in a 13,000-square-feet building that can be expanded to as much as 75,000 square feet over time," the agreement states.

The agreement between EICC and LED-O Holding was approved at the community college's April meeting.

LED-O Holdings is owned by the the same group of businessmen who obtained a 10-year Tax Increment Financing (TIF) incentive (valued at $537,000) from the city of Bettendorf for the development of the Interstate 74 Technology Park. The site is just east of I-74 and north of Tanglefoot Lane. LED-O Holding's' current location on Valley Drive is in a building also occupied by a lawn equipment distributor.

Two months after the U.S. Treasury sold out its preferred stock position in National Bancshares, Inc. at a $3.2-million loss to taxpayers, the Bettendorf-based banking firm announced it had been sold to a Texas financial holding company.

National Bancshares, Inc. – operator of The National Bank and 10 other branches in the Quad Cities – received $24.7 million under the U.S. Treasury's Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) in February 2009.

In return, the Treasury received preferred stock and warrants in the bank and was to be paid a 5 percent annual dividend. The bank paid a total of $2.3 million in dividends during 2009 and 2010. The bank had not repaid any of the initial loan amount and its last dividend payment to the Treasury was in November 2010.

Visit ProPublica, a public journalism web site, for a full listing of TARP program bank loans and repayments.