Quad-City Times from Davenport, Iowa • 1

BUSINESS: Q-C's Art at the Airport program takes offA7 KiHionsirefclongy $9,500 Inside Todayti i Friday, June 15,2001 Copyright 2001 Quad-City Times WWW.QCTIMES.COM 50 CENTS Final Edition Weather A12 tpfi ES3 58 SPORTS STORMS RAVAGE THROUGH THE QUAD-CITIES Capital fund a Hi Kill III, i Photos by John SchultzQUAD-CITY TIMES Shawn Patterson lifts one of the rafters from what was his roof In the kitchen area of his Blue Grass, Iowa, home while surveying damage caused by a tornado that ripped through portions of the Scott County town about 6 p.m. Thursday. His wife and three children, who were home at the time, escaped Injury. Only a few pieces of china were damaged In the hutch. TTT i L- i 3 M(oJi) EJ jpj Irwin takes early lead Tiger Woods never said winning another U.S.

Open would be easy He also never envisioned chasing a man more than twice his age. Eleven years after becoming the oldest U.S. Open champion, 56-year-old Hale Irwin showed he has plenty of game left Thursday with momentum-saving pars and an unlikely birdie on the tough 18th hole for a 3-under 67, "My purpose here this week is not to be ceremonial. It's to be competitive," Irwin said. "And I think today established those 1 bona fide cre- dentials." Story: IM It Hale Irwin fin the lead at 3-under Senate decision backs Scouts Bill may pull funds from schools who deny facilities use WASHINGTON (AP) The Senate voted narrowly Thursday to withhold federal funds from school districts that deny use of their facilities to the Boy Scouts because of the organization's exclusion of homosexuals.

The vote INSIDE Presidents of Scout councils in 9 large cities want gay ban lifted: A3 came on an amendment by U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms, to President Bush's education legislation. Democrats said they were hoping for final passage of the package by day's end regardless of the outcome of the controversy trig Senate passes education bill that mandates tests: A3 gered by a Supreme Court ruling last year that upheld a national Boy Scouts policy banning gay members and leaders. The House approved an amendment last month similar to Helms'.

Michael Resnick, associate executive director of the National School Boards Association, said the measure means school districts could lose the right to decide who uses their facilities. "Now we have a piece of legislation in which the Congress is dictating to school districts and school principals all across the SENATE Please turn to Page A14 145th Today's Times Ann Under .65 Business A7-9 Classified C4-14 Comics B5-6 Lottery A2 Movies B4 Nation A3, 6, 13 Obituaries C2-3 Opinion A4 Record C3 Sport Dl-6 State A5 Television B3 Weather A12 World A3, 10 Wundram A2 jt No. boost Davenport-based fund also taps 'giant's' expertise By Tom Saul QUAD-CITY TIMES With the announcement that Davenport will be home to a major venture capital fund, the city may have hooked a big fish in a state where seed money for new companies is hard to come by. Those familiar with the availability of venture capital in Iowa say that The Great INSIDE A short rundown of what venture capital is and how it works: A2 River Capital Fund, an arm of Dresdner Kleinwort Capital of London, England, will provide the scarcest type of investment financing there is. "Seed money for start-up companies' and capital for first-stage business A look at trends and statistics in the venture capital world: A2 development is very hard to get because most investors don't want to take the risk," said Gregg Barcus, the president of Emerging Growth Group, a for-profit technology business incubator in Des Moines.

The Great River Capital Fund will specialize in providing financing to new and growing companies involved in agriculture, biotechnology, media, energy and high-tech endeavors, according to a statement released after Wednesday's announcement about creation of the fund to the Vision Iowa Board. Creation of the $100 million fund "answers the growing call from the region's academic and business leaders for the funding with which to build and to launch new technology ventures and to take advantage of the Quad-Cities' untapped human capital," according the release. 'Wasteland' Barcus called Iowa "a venture capital wasteland." Iowa traditionally ranks among the lowest 10 percent of states in the nation in the availability of capital to get new business off the ground. It is far from the venture capital hot spots in New York, New England and Silicon Valley in California, where about 90 percent of the country's venture capitalists invest their money, he said. Pricewaterhouse Coopers FUND Please turn to Page A2 jt a f-Z 5 1' for QC AREA DAMAGE -Blue Grass, Iowa A tornado damaged more than two dozen homes and destroyed another six.

The storm destroyed the city's municipal building, uprooted trees, seriously damaged the police station and snapped utility poles, leaving the entire Scott County town without power. Rock Island The storm ripped through the Rock Island Industrial Park, where walls collapsed and roofs were lost from several warehouses. Valley Construction, a John Deere warehouse and the Teamsters Union Hall were damaged. Bettendorf A swath of damage that was caused by either straight-line winds or a tornado started at the intersection of Grant Street and Interstate 74 and headed northeast. The roof of one home was taken off in the area of 18th and Brown streets.

Windows in some downtown businesses were blown out. Davenport Westside Assembly of God, 3908 W. River Drive, was hosting its annual Mississippi Valley Gospel Sing Jubilee when heavy winds blew over a tent. An elderly woman was injured slightly and hospitalized as a precaution. r.i It Tas i i Storm hit quickly; devastation was left in its wake By Thomas Geyer and Ann McGlynn QUAD-CITY TIMES The first confirmed tornado to hit the Quad-City area in about five years cut a wide, but seemingly random swath Thursday night, damaging dozens of homes and businesses, uprooting trees by the score and shutting off power to about 25,000 utility customers.

No serious injuries were reported from the series of storms that pounded the region several hours after a heavy downpour had drenched much of the Quad-City metro area. The storm also wreaked havoc on traffic as drivers tried to cope without streetlights and traffic signals and with trees, limbs and other debris strewn about the streets. In the metro area, Betten-dorf and Rock Island including its industrial park seemed to absorb the brunt of storms, but struck earliest and hardest may have been the small Scott County town of Blue Grass, Iowa. The tornado hit between 6 and 6:15 p.m., the National Weather Service said. Officials with the American Red Cross of the Quad-Cities Area said six homes there were STORM Please turn to Page A12 Pat Curtis, right, of Blue Grass, Iowa, hugs her mother, Janice Sellgman, after arriving at her home and seeing the damage a tornado caused as It ripped through portions of the town Thursday night.

The entire garage and most of the roof were blown away and belongings were scattered throughout the neighborhood. DOTs explore options to relieve bridge congestion Warning system for 1-74 span may reduce backups By Jennifer DeWitt QUAD-CITY TIMES Like a disease in which early detection can be critical, transportation officials believe that warning drivers of a problem on the Interstate 74 bridge could help steer them away from what quickly becomes a traffic do is warn people there is congestion so they can find another bridge," Rick added. "We just have to get something going to see if there is any better way to manage the lanes before we get any more lanes." How to give drivers an early warning is one of the issues the ITS study will explore. Rick said the warning could come in many forms, from warning signs to instantaneous updates on the Internet or through the DOT Please turn to Page A14 "We're looking at whether there is something we can do now with today's technology to alleviate some of the congestion problems," said Doug Rick, the area engineer for the Iowa Department of Transportation, or DOT. Still in pursuit of a new Mississippi River bridge as a permanent answer to curbing the congestion, the Iowa and Illinois DOTs plan to collaborate on an Intelligent Transportation Systems, or ITS, study.

"One of the things we want to QUAD-CITY TIMES FILE PHOTO Congestion on the 1-74 bridge may be somewhat alleviated If a high-tech monitoring system is used..