Occupy Quad Cities has arrived

 Roughly a hundred people gathered on the lawn of the Rock Island County Courthouse Saturday afternoon all in support of the Occupy Wall Street movement.

People from all walks of life teamed up to show their frustration with corporate greed and political corruption.

One counter protester who believed that the Occupy movement was not doing anything to help the state of the financial and political worlds.

The participants began their march over the Centennial Bridge to Le Claire Park in Davenport.

The participants teamed up with the Iowa Quad Cities Occupiers in Le Claire Park, unifying the Quad Cities movement. 

In Le Clare Park, participants were given the option to voice their concerns with current political and corporate policies. First up was Davenport Mayor Bill Gluba.

1 dead after shooting in Davenport

Davenport Police investigate two separate shootings Monday afternoon. The house in the picture here is where 21 year old Demetrius Dawan Lewis Jr was shot and killed.

 

The cousin of the victim walks up and down the sidewalk across the street from the house passing along the sad news to family and friends.

  No one from the neighborhood is quite sure what to make of the situation.

 With guns drawn DPD makes their entry to the house were Demetrius Dawan Lewis Jr was shot Monday afternoon. 

 Crime Scene Investigators wrap up their investigation at the house at 426 W. 17th Street.

 

DPD is still searching for the shooters in both incidents.

Rebecca Smith live in front of DPD for the 10.

Occupy Wallstreet Movement comes to the Quad Cities

At least 40 turned out for a meeting between organizers from the Iowa and Illinois Occupy Quad Cities groups.
Trying to set a time and location to combine their efforts in collaboration with the nearly 120 other US cities also demonstrating not to mention the others all over the world.

 

The meeting at Schwiebert Park in Rock Island brought together all walks of life students, employed, un-employed and retired. It was quite a scene seeing such unity for a cause with such vastly different participants.

Everyone in the group shared their story and why they felt the need to participate in the OccupyMovement.

And though their beliefs were not all the same they worked to find common ground. Discovering they all were apart of the 99% for different reasons.

 

The group decided to march across Centennial Bridge to Le Claire park and combine their forces with the Iowa Quad Cities OccupyMovement. 

Davenport City Council and Fall is here

Busy night at Davenport City Council. New Davenport Fire Chief and the first female fire chief in Davenports history Lynn Washburn-Livingston was sworn in by Mayor Bill Gluba.

 Davenport Police Chief Frank Donchez giving the council updates on a string of burglaries and arrests made both in Davenport and Bettendorf.

The Davenport City Council voted down a measure to increase the mayors yearly salary from $45,000 to $55,668.

Residents had an opportunity to voice their opinion on the matter. The council voted the measure down 7-3.

 

Fall is in the air!

 

3 Alarm Fire and City Council Approves Layoffs

 Just after Midnight Tuesday Clinton firefighters found an abandoned house fully-engulfed. Within 10 minutes the house collapsed spreading the fire to the two neighboring houses seriously damaging them. 

 The 3 alarm fire was brought under control with the help of the Clinton, Camanche and Fulton Fire Departments. 

Neighbors and curious residents filled the sidewalk across the street, Staying til nearly 2am. 

 The glow from the flashing emergency lights illuminates the faces of on-lookers, not sure what the draw is of a 3 alarm fire at 2am.

It took crews nearly 2.5 hours to completely knock down the fire.

This is all that remains of the middle house that started all of this mess. It was literally burnt to the ground.

 

For a few of the Clinton firefighters this would mark one of the last fires like this that they would ever take part in as a member of the CFD. 15 hours later the Clinton City Council would weigh in on a budget plan that would call for the early retirement of 4 Clinton firefighters.

A last minute plea coming from Mike Reynolds from the Clinton City Planning Department. Asking the council to reconsider the budget plan that will do away with his position with the city. Unfortunately in a very close 4-3 vote the council approved the budget proposal.

Clinton Fire Chief Mark Regenwether and Clinton Police Chief Brian Guy react after the councils vote Tuesday night. Each will have to make cuts the their departments. 4 for the CFD and 3 for the CPD.

 

Reporter Rebecca Smith at the scene of the fire following the City Councils vote getting ready to shoot an "as live."

 

After a crazy morning in Clinton, IA it is sad that the departments shown in the picture here will have to make cuts to help balance a city budget.

Galesburg Teachers Rally For Contract

Galesburg Teachers unite making their voices heard outside the school board meeting Monday night. Nearly finished with the first quarter of the school year and still without a contract.

Hundreds turned out including teachers, students and members of the community.

Even the kindergarteners rallying for their teachers.

 

Contract-less since mid-August the staff has continued working, making this the longest that teachers here have worked without a contract since the late-70's. They are working with a mediator to try and work out a deal...

Afternoon in Tiskilwa IL

26 cars on the 131 car train derailed shortly after 2am Friday morning, in Tiskilwa IL. 

9 of the 26 were loaded with ethanol which exploded. 

On Saturday afternoon when these pictures were taken the wreckage was still attracting curious gawkers.


  We arrived at 3pm Saturday and people from all over Bureau County were stopping by to take pictures.

Two Tiskilwa firefighters on stand by sitting in lawn chairs watching the smoldering cars. 


People were stopping by this spot all day long. Best seat in the house right here.

Tiskilwa firetrucks containing foam sit on the other side of the tracks ready to respond to flare ups.

Reporter Pauli Mayfield preparing for her stand up.

 NTSB working to untangle the 26 cars. According to the lead investigator for the NTSB it could take 2 days to record and clean up the mess.

NTSB and local firefighters surveying the wreckage.

 Two locals taking in the noxious fumes.

And of course the amazing view of probably the biggest thing to happen in Tiskilwa.

All in all not a bad afternoon in Tiskilwa, the sights were amazing. Like a toy train set after an angry kid gets done playing with it. Miraculously no one was injured out of all of this mess.