Barack makes stop in Moline

Senator Barack Obama made an appearance at Black Hawk College to promote his bill to increase Pell Grant payments from $4,050 a year to $5,100. In keeping with the booming field of creative bill naming, this one is called the Higher Education Opportunity through Pell Grant Expansion, or Hope Act.
Whew! Someone earned their money coming up with that one. Not bad.

The rest of the article is devoted to Obama again meeting Cpl. Seamus Ahern of Silvis. Obama had met Cpl. Ahern previously at a campaign stop in East Moline. At the time Ahern was about to ship out for Iraq. A short time later, Obama imortalized him by mentioning Ahern in his now-famous speech at the Democratic National Convention. Cpl. Ahern is younger brother of Dennis Ahern, who is mentioned as a potential candidate for the 71st representitive district should Mike Boland step down to run for another office.

(I had earlier speculated that the Corporal was Dennis Ahern's nephew, though I wasn't sure and asked for correction if I was in error. Thanks to an alert commenter for getting it straight.)