Blog Archives - PACG - Progressive Action for the Common Good

Healthcare Reform Forum legislative visit - After Action Report

5/27/2025

Visit to Miller-Meeks office about Medicaid cuts - After Action Report

Healthcare Reform Forum

We met with Miller-Meeks staff about our concerns about the proposed Medicaid cuts to support tax breaks for billionaires. We presented the staff with facts and figures about the consequences of funding cuts, including costs to the state (Iowa), loss of coverage for people enrolled in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) due to Medicaid expansion, and loss of rural hospitals and providers.

Rael Slavensky (he/him)

June 2025 Green Drinks - Sustainable Farming PACG Event

5/27/2025

June Green Drinks - Sustainable Farming
Thursday, June 19th at 5:00 pm

Friends of MLK Interpretive Center
501 N Brady Street
Davenport, IA (map)

Environmental Forum

A sixth-generation farmer, Todd continues his family's 160-year-old legacy, growing corn and soybeans on Western Family Farms, the oldest Black-owned farm in Iowa. Todd will explain how modern, sustainable, and equitable practices are incorporated into their farming activities.

Susan Leuthauser (she/her)

!3th Annual Picnic and Pie Auction on June 29th, 2025 - PACG Event

5/27/2025

Register for the PACG 13th Annual Picnic and Pie Auction
Sunday, June 29th from noon to 3 pm

Fejervary Park
Shelter 1
1800 W 12th ST
Davenport, IA (map)

A Message from the Board

Invite your family and friends to PACG's Thirteenth Annual Picnic and Pie Auction from noon to 3:00 pm on Sunday, June 29th in Davenport.

The Picnic Committee is still working out the catering details but we always offer both vegetarian and gluten-free options of food.

Tickets are $15 per person and $30 per family. But if you bake a pie for our Pie Auction, your meal is free. Register for the event here.

Please bring your own cup, silverware, bowl, and plate so that we can practice good environmental stewardship.

Questions? Need more info? Contact us at

[email protected]
or 563-676-7580

PACG Book Club - "A Day in the Life of Abed Salama", July 2025

5/25/2025

PACG Book Club - A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: Anatomy of a Jerusalem Tragedy by Nathan Thrall
Monday, July 21st at 5:15 pm - in person
Edwards Congregational UCC
3420 Jersey Ridge Rd
Davenport, IA (map)

PACG Book Club

In July we will read A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: Anatomy of a Jerusalem Tragedy by Nathan Thrall. The book won a Pulitzer prize for general non-fiction. This is a timely read as it deals with the struggles of those living in Israel/Palestine.

Contact me for the Zoom link if you want to come that way.

Alta Price

Read more about the book at Goodreads:

"Immersive and gripping, an intimate story of a deadly accident outside Jerusalem that unravels a tangle of lives, loves, enmities, and histories over the course of one revealing, heartbreaking day."

"Five-year-old Milad Salama is excited for a school trip to a theme park on the outskirts of Jerusalem. On the way, his bus collides with a semitrailer. His father, Abed, gets word of the crash and rushes to the site. The scene is chaos—the children have been taken to different hospitals in Jerusalem and the West Bank; some are missing, others cannot be identified. Abed sets off on an odyssey to learn Milad’s fate. It is every parent’s worst nightmare, but for Abed it is compounded by the maze of physical, emotional, and bureaucratic obstacles he must navigate because he is Palestinian. He is on the wrong side of the separation wall, holds the wrong ID to pass the military checkpoints, and has the wrong papers to enter the city of Jerusalem. Abed’s quest to find Milad is interwoven with the stories of a cast of Jewish and Palestinian characters whose lives and histories unexpectedly converge."

"In A Day in the Life of Abed Salama, Nathan Thrall—hailed for his “severe allergy to conventional wisdom” (Time)—offers an indelibly human portrait of the struggle over Israel/Palestine and a new understanding of the tragic history and reality of one of the most contested places on earth."

Earth Day Every Day Celebration 2025 - After Action Report

5/24/2025

Earth Day Every Day Celebration After Action Report

Environmental Forum

The Environmental Forum of PACG offered their sixth Earth Day is Everyday Fair on May 17, 2025 at the Freight House Farmers Market. We were also sponsored by Living Lands and Waters and WVIK. We had 17 tabling organizations, including the Metrolink Electric Bus and Living Lands and Waters. The latter organization gave away over 50 hardwood trees! There were 4 musical performances throughout the day, and we provided free tables to our organizations. We estimate that over 1000 people attended the Market and our Fair throughout the day!

Lori McCollum (she/her)

Pride Month 2025 - What You Can Do Now

5/23/2025

Pride Month 2025 in the Quad Cities

Gender Equity Forum

As usual, our friends at Clock, Inc are doing great work listing various Pride events in the Quad Cities. This link to their website will continue to be updated. As of now they begin on May 28th with the acceptance of the City of Davenport's Pride Proclamation.

There are also a lot of Community Calendars that PACG links to on our website. Check those for other activities.

Clock, Inc was one of the recipients of the Dick Fallow Endowment for Social Justice that we presented at our Annual Holiday Party in December of 2025. Their work is important for our LGBTQ+ community.

Visit their website here and sign up for their newsletter at the bottom of the page.

Alta Price (she/her)

Healthcare Reform Forum legislative visit - After Action Report

5/21/2025

Healthcare Reform Forum legislative visit After Action Report

Healthcare Reform Forum

PACG's Healthcare Reform Forum met with staff at US Representative Mariannette Miller-Meeks' staff in Davenport on May 19th. We expressed our concerns about the proposed Medicaid cuts to support tax breaks for billionaires. We had a productive meeting and plan to do this again in the near future.

QC Civic Conversations - After Action Report

5/15/2025

QC Civic Conversations After Action Report

PACG, One Human Family-QCA, ICAN, QCI

The inaugural QC Civic Conversations event was very successful! Over 40 people attended the event on Friday, May 9th. Participants heard from three Iowa journalists who informed the audience about current trends in the journalism and news industries. A Question and Answer session was held and lasted over the allotted time. The audience was very engaged.

Allison Ambrose

Healthcare Reform Forum legislative visit - After Action Report

5/15/2025

Meeting with legislators After Action Report

Healthcare Reform Forum

On May 6th forum members participated in meetings at both Senators Grassley's and Ernst's offices in Davenport about potential cuts to Medicaid. We presented the staff with facts and figures about the consequences of funding cuts, including costs to the state (Iowa), loss of coverage for people enrolled in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) due to Medicaid expansion, and loss of rural hospitals and providers.

Rael Slavensky

2025 Rooting Out Poverty Book Club

5/10/2025

Rooting Out Poverty Book Club 2025 Schedule
4th Wednesdays

Moline Public Library
3210 41st ST
Moline, IL (map)

Project Now runs a book club at the Moline Public Library on the 4th Wednesday of the month. They read and discuss a book and then have a community forum related to the topic at the next meeting. They don't have a website with this information, but as a meeting nears they will send you an email. Contact Project Now at [email protected] to sign up for their emails.

Alta Price (she/her)