Monday, March 7, 2011 ...

This past Saturday was exciting to see Iowa upset #6 Purdue to close out the Big Ten regular season. The Creighton Bluejays season ended at the hands of Missouri State in the semifinals, after beating UNI in the quarterfinals of the men's Arch Madness game in the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament.

Washington High School had WPA on Thursday night. We enjoyed the pre-dance festivities involving many youngsters and parents.

We are less than two months away from the May 3Rd Local Option Sales Tax vote. How should a flood protection system be funded by the City of Cedar Rapids? Should local option sales tax money be used to help fix our roads that have been hit with deferred maintenance? It is an important community conversation.

The Rotary Club of Cedar Rapids on Monday, March 7Th had a program on the new Events Center for Cedar Rapids. The U.S. Cellular Center and Five Season's Hotel will be renovated and a new convention center will be added, with additional parking.

Last week, the Washington Warriors saw the ladies fall in the First Round of the girls State basketball tournament. On Wednesday, the boys will play Linn-Mar in the First Round of the boys State basketball tournament.

We received this week's R&P Report by fax, so it's not as easy to pass on.

In Washington D.C., the Federal Government voted to extend the government for another two weeks. Will legislation be hammered out that will avoid a government shutdown at the end of the week?

The U.S. House passed H.R. 4 Small Business Paperwork Mandate, which will repeal the 1099 reporting expansion to include payments of $600 or more to corporations. The bill now goes to the Senate.

H.R. 662 Highway Funding passed the U.S. House last week. This is a multi year law reauthorizing extension of federal-aid highway, highway safety, transit and other programs funded out of the Highway Trust Fund.

Preview of this week in Washington ...

• Arab Pro-Democracy: Democrat sponsored legislation pushing for more aid for Arab pro-democracy movements.
• Abortion Funding: H.R. 3 to prohibit taxpayer funded abortions. The bill would not pertain to cases of rape, incest or when the mother's life is danger.
• Rewriting No Child Left Behind
• Medicare Accountability
• Defense of Marriage Bill: H.R. 875 would allow funds for the House to defend in court the Defense of Marriage bill, when on Feb. 23 the Obama administration announced that it would abandon its legal defense of the law.
• Patent Law Revision: S. 23 would make "first to file" - instead of "first to invent" - the guiding principle behind awarding patents.
• National Defense and Spending Cuts: Both political parties are in disagreement over extent of GOP proposed cutbacks to department funding

For more information, we recommend you join http:/www.NWYC.com. A great source for what is going on in Congress.

Robin Tucker