Free Republic

The lead contractor for a Mississippi River bridge is involved in a now-public feud with the state of Iowa over whether the bridge is buildable. The I-74 bridge is meant to replace a bridge on the same location connecting Moline, Ill, and Bettendorf, Iowa. Known as the Iowa-Illinois Memorial Bridge, the bridge is a pair of suspension bridges located near the geographic center of the Quad Cities. The original bridge was designed by engineer Ralph Modjeski. The first span opened in 1935 as a toll bridge. In 1961, an identical twin span, built from the same blueprint, opened to facilitate...

Quad City residents are now witnessing the creation of an architectural marvel with the construction of the new Interstate-74 bridge. Two of the world’s largest mobile cranes are employed in the project, along with hundreds of workers, and we are now seeing the concrete base of the center arch rise out from the river bottoms. This remarkable project is made possible by a federal and state government funding partnership that guarantees a dignified wage to the men and women who have been working throughout this brutally cold winter. Called "Davis-Bacon" protections, they were named after two Depression-era Republican congressmen who...

Police said Gordon grabbed a flight attendant by the arm so hard she pulled the attendant onto her lap, then slapped her when the attendant refused to serve Gordon a drink, The Dallas Morning News reported. Gordon also got out of her seat and headed to the front of the plane, where she banged on the cockpit door several times, demanding to talk to the pilot, police said.

Fourth of July Tea Party!

DAVENPORT, Iowa -- With 27 days left until the caucuses, presidential candidates are hitting the campaign trail in Iowa and promise to be here from now through the holidays. This afternoon Republican Fred Thompson was at Thunderbay Grill in Davenport reaching out to conservative voters and dismissing the importance of polls that show him trailing behind both Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee. An Associated Press poll released today shows Thompson with just 10-percent of the vote in Iowa and Huckabee taking the majority with 39-percent. But Thompson's not slowing down. While Thompson trails in the polls, many of the people...

Focus returns to Reynolds murder as Kolb trial opens By Kurt Allemeier, kallemeier@qconline.com Tony Reynolds was first angry, then distraught, when he reported his 16-year-old daughter missing one Friday in January. He looked for her and hoped she would come home. She never did. What happened to Adrianne Leigh Reynolds on that day and the events that followed -- the discovery of the girl's dismembered and burned body and the arrest of three teens -- will be heard in court this week. One of the teens, Sarah Anne Kolb, 17, of 1003 W. 10th St., Milan, is to go on...