News

One rural village in Illinois isn't waiting for a big company to improve phone, television, and internet services. The Viola Home Telephone Company will begin a project to bring the speed and bandwidth of fiber optic cable to its customers.

Cutting spending, programs, and jobs - that's how Western Illinois University is trying to survive the two year state budget impasse.

Snakes, turtles, toads, and frogs in Louisa County may not notice, but the Iowa DNR is their new landlord. This month, the Natural Resources Commission decided to buy 135 acres two miles north of Columbus Junction.

Andy Robbins is a Wildlife Management Biologist at Lake Odessa. He says the bottomland is adjacent to the Cedar River. It will become part of the only Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Area in the US. Known as the ARCA, it runs from Cedar to Lee counties.

The president of Western Illinois University says the state budget impasse has forced the school to act like a private university. 

A week from Thursday, Monseigneur Thomas Zinkula will be ordained as Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Davenport. 

For this week's Big Story in the Quad-City Times, reporter Deirdre Baker profiles the Bishop-elect.