The Channel Cat water taxi season opens Friday, May 24, 2013.

The Channel Cat takes passengers between four Quad Cities stops along the Mississippi River.  Ports are in Moline, Illinois behind the iWireless Center at John Deere Commons and at the Celebration Belle Landing at 2501 East River Drive; at Isle of Capri Casino, 17^th Street and Isle Parkway in Bettendorf, Iowa and at the Lindsay Park Marina at 2100 East River Drive in the Village of East Davenport in Iowa.

Tickets for an all-day ride are available at Centre Station under the clock tower at John Deere Commons.  Tickets cost $6 for adults, $3 for children ages 2 to 10 and free for children under two who are accompanied by an adult.

For more information and schedules for the Channel Cat water taxi, click here.

The Quad City Honor Flight started its 23rd flight to Washington D.C. Thursday.

The Quad City Honor Flight is taking 94 veterans to Washington D.C. Thursday. 80 of the veterans going are Korean War veterans while 14 of them World War II veterans.

For the first time Thursday, a group of veterans from Cedar County, Iowa is heading down to Washington D.C. too. Some of the vets say they are excited to go to Washington D.C., but some of them are nervous too.

The Honor Flight group gets back to the Quad Cities at 10 p.m. Thursday. They’re flying into the Quad City International Airport.

If you’re looking to sign up a veteran, click here to sign up. There are still three more Honor Flights this season.

The next Honor Flight is August 29th. The group says it still has 750 Korean War Veterans that are still waiting to go on a flight.

Illinois school districts are slashing budgets, teachers, programs and in some cases, closing schools. A conservative think tank called the Illinois Policy Institute says districts should require teachers to pay toward their pensions, instead of having the district and taxpayers, pick up the tab.

“Its called the pension pick-up. Most people don’t know about this. It’s a hidden little secret that nobody wants to talk about,” said John Tillman, head of the Illinois Policy Institute out of Chicago.

“What’s happening in these local school districts, in Moline for example, is the school district is paying the employees share, the teachers share, so the teachers are actually paying zero towards their own retirement. The taxpayers are paying all of it,” Tillman said.

Tillman says it’s the policy in about 48 percent of school districts in the state.