Recent Articles

Orascom Hotels and Development – a sister company to the Egyptian firm that recently received $110 million in state tax incentives to build a fertilizer plant in southeast Iowa – was featured in Sunday's New York Times for its construction of a $1.92 billion exclusive Swiss resort for the world's wealthiest jet set.

Orascom Hotels and Development, part of Orascom Group, is building the five-star resort at Andermatt, Switzerland, and the first of five hotels will have a 4,500-square-foot penthouse that will rent for $43,000 a night, according to the Times article. Prices for villas in the development start at $1 million for a studio or one-bedroom of about 732 square feet, the Times reported.

The Iowa League of Cities will get its day in court next week to argue the U.S. Environment Protection Agency (EPA) revised municipal sewage treatment regulations without proper rule-making and has sought to avoid judicial review of "illegally revised regulatory requirements."

Attorneys for the league and the EPA will make their oral arguments before the three-judge U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit in St. Louis Tuesday, November 13, more than a year after filing suit to challenge the EPA's regulation of so-call "bypass" sewage.

The status of the planned Interstate 74 Bridge project through downtown Bettendorf will held from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday (Nov. 7) at Bettendorf City Hall, 1609 State Street. Specific items on the meeting agenda are the status of the right-of-way acquisition for the project, timing of construction and the status of the realignment of State and Grant Streets.