Rand Paul making series of Iowa campaign stops this week

Republican presidential candidate Rand Paul will be making more than a half dozen stops in Eastern Iowa at the end of the week.

Paul, a U.S. senator from Kentucky, will begin his two-day campaign swing on Friday, with an 8:30 a.m. meet and greet in Waterloo; then, at 11:45 a.m., he'll be in Williamsburg; at 1:30 p.m., he'll be in Washington, Iowa, and then he'll go to Tipton for a 3:30 p.m. event.

Paul will cap the day with a 6 p.m. rally outside the RiverCenter in Davenport.

On Saturday, Paul will hold a coffee at the Iowa 80 Truck Stop in Walcott at 8 a.m., then he'll headline a 'New Ideas Forum,” in Davenport, the first in what organizers say is a series of events aimed at encouraging presidential candidates to talk about creative initiatives.

The forum is sponsored by the Quad Cities Chamber of Commerce, St. Ambrose University and the Quad-City Times. It will be at 10 a.m. at Modern Woodmen Park in Davenport.

Paul proposed an overhaul of the nation's tax code in June, and organizers of the forum say that he will speak about his tax plan at the forum. The senator gained some attention last week when he posted a video showing him destroying a copy of the tax code by setting it afire, putting it in a woodchipper and using a chain saw.