The Isle of Capri Casinos, Inc., announced plans Tuesday (April 6) to purchase the Vicksburg, Mississippi gambling casino and hotel from Bally Technologies, Inc. for $80 million cash.

The Pleasant Valley School Board is recommending a 5 percent increase in the district's property tax rate to help make up for a reduction in state funding.

At its March 22 meeting, the board approved a budget with an increase of 75 cents per $1,000 assessed valuation, which would bring the overall district tax levy to $14.7432 per $1,000 assessed valuation.

The union representing St. Louis Post-Dispatch employees has approved a new contract with Lee Enterprises which lowers wages 6 percent, provides three weeks of unpaid furloughs over the next three years, eliminates retiree medical coverage and freezes pension benefits.

Open Letter to Governor Culver,

According to the Wall Street Journal, MidAmerican Energy earned $1.7 billion for Berkshire Hathaway in 2008. And now the company wants state utility customers to pay $15 million to investigate the feasibility of building a nuclear power plant in Iowa.

Why the Iowa State Legislature approved such a backdoor rate increase is hard to understand, but it clearly has more to do with backroom lobbying than any real financial need on the utility's part.

The Bettendorf School District plans to increase property taxes 15 cents per $1,000 assessed valuation for the coming year, while Pleasant Valley school board members are looking at a property tax hike from 50 cents to $1 per $1,000 assessed valuation.

Both school boards also are looking at trimming expenses in the coming year as the districts seek to offset cuts in financial aid from the state.

The current property tax levy for Pleasant Valley schools is $13.99 per $1,000 assessed valuation, compared to Bettendorf's $14.85 per $1,000 assessed valuation.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources today (3/10) issued an air quality advisory for Clinton, Muscatine and Scott Counties because of elevated levels of fine particulate pollution.

A 24-hour reading of 35.5 micrograms per cubic meter was recorded Tuesday (3/9) in Davenport, and levels in the high 30's to mid 50's were expected as of noon today in the three counties.

“It’s time to put to rest the notion that economic growth and environmental protection are incompatible," U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa Jackson said today in a speech before the National Press Club in Washington.

If you've been thinking there have been more air quality alerts in recent months, you would right.

Air quality standards for fine particulate matter (particles less than 2.5 micrometers) in Iowa have been exceeded at 35 locations through Febuary 26, already surpassing the 34 exceedances of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards recorded during all of 2009.

And, the 35 exceedances don't include readings from last week when the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) issued air quality alerts for east central Iowa because of high levels of PM 2.5.

High fine particulate pollution in eastern Iowa has prompted the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to issue an air quality alert for east central Iowa Thursday (3/4) and extending into late today (3/5).

According to NASA, this photo of Earth is the most detailed true-color image of the entire planet to date.

Click on the image for a larger version, or visit NASA's "Visible Earth" site for a larger, more detailed version of this photo and many other images of Earth taken from space.