Next Generation Entertainment Presents: Shallow Side with special guest Elisium, Nongrata, and High Five Sinners May 28 at Moline’s rock emporium Rascals! Want tickets? Here’s the lowdown: $15 in advance (Tickets available at Rascals Music Pub or rascalslive.com) $20 Day of Show Ages 21+ Doors 7pm Showtime 7:30pm Shallow Side- A rock band through and through. Combining the driving rhythms that push the core of pop music with aggressive guitar work, carefully constructed bass passages, and a voice that smashes into focus atop the platform laid down by the music, Shallow Side has crafted... Read More

MACOMB/MOLINE, IL – The newly-established Anti-Racism Task Force (ARTF) at Western Illinois University, which was formed by a charge from WIU President Guiyou Huang, began meeting in February 2022 to begin its work to identify anti-racism initiatives, with the goal to eradicate racism at WIU, and start building a diversity plan for the University. The WIU ARTF is led by co-chairs, Lorette Oden, interim dean of the Centennial Honors College and health sciences and social work chair, and Sterling Saddler, assistant to the president for diversity and inclusion. The full membership can be found at... Read More

BREAKING NEWS: Illinois is in the midst of a massive covid-19 resurgence, as cases are up 174 percent over the last month and the state is averaging more than 6,000 new probable and confirmed covid-19 cases per day, with hospitalizations also beginning to climb across the state. Illinois is averaging 6,065 new cases of COVID per day over the last week, marking the first time the state has eclipsed the 6,000-case barrier since Feb. 9, according to the latest data from the Illinois Department of Public Health. In the last seven days, the state’s daily average of new COVID cases has gone up by 17.7%,... Read More

With summer comes the sound of live outdoor music in our downtowns! Enjoy this free summer concert series every Thursday night from May 19th – August 11th in Downtown Moline! Moline Centre’s Thursday Night Summer Concert Series takes place from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. on the Plaza at Bass Street Landing. All you need to bring is a lawn chair! There will be food and beverages are available for purchase but no outside food or beverages allowed. Learn more here: FACEBOOK  Read More

Congresswoman Cheri Bustos (IL-17) voted to pass two bipartisan bills to help families affected by the nationwide baby formula shortage. Through the Infant Formula Supplemental Appropriations Act, Bustos voted to allocate $28 million to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to boost baby formula supply and prevent future shortages. And by passing the Access to Baby Formula Act of 2022, vulnerable families would have improved access to baby formula under the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). “Due to the recent formula shortage, families have found... Read More

Today, Congresswoman Cheri Bustos (IL-17), a member of the powerful House Appropriations Committee, announced that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has awarded Project NOW an additional $1.6 million in federal funding for Head Start programs. Project NOW is a Community Action Agency serving Rock Island, Henry and Mercer counties in Illinois. Bustos announced an initial $1.6 million in funds for the organization in February 2022. “For more than 50 years, Project NOW has been working to improve living standards for low-income families and seniors in our community – and their... Read More

The Moline-Rock Island Quad-Cities were ranked among the best places to live in Illinois — second best behind Peoria — and among the best places to live in the United States, according to U.S. News & World Report magazine’s annual report of the Top 150 places to live in the U.S., based on affordability and relatively clean air. The publication’s list, released this morning, of its Best Places to Live, had Illinois cities Peoria, Moline-Rock Island, Chicago and Rockford among its top spots to call home. While it wasn’t on the list last year, Moline-Rock Island... Read More

MACOMB/MOLINE, IL – Western Illinois University’s undergraduate degree in cybersecurity has received a Program of Study Validation from the National Security Agency’s (NSA) National Centers of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense. The validation, which signifies that WIU’s program meets the demands of contributing to the protection of the National Information Infrastructure, runs through the 2027 academic year. “By having the NSA’s Program of Study Validation, we are on track to becoming one of the NSA National Centers of Academic Excellence in Cybersecurity (NCAE-C),”... Read More

MOLINE, IL – Fourteen years ago, members of the College of Arts and Sciences faculty at Western Illinois University – Quad Cities began awarding the annual Michaela Romano Scholarship, and the streak remains unbroken. While the award has been given since 2009, it was renamed seven years ago in remembrance of Michaela Rae Romano (1988-2014), daughter of Western Illinois University emeritus professors of biology Michael and Susan Romano. A cum laude graduate of Knox College, with a major in anthropology-sociology, and a minor in gender and women’s studies, Michaela was an exemplary student... Read More

BREAKING NEWS: Covid-19 numbers are starting to spike again in Illinois, as this week, the state was seeing an average of 5,154 new cases per day over the last seven days, IDPH data revealed. That represents an increase of 41.6% in the last week, climbing from 3,639 cases per day as of last Monday. Over the last month, daily case rates in the state have increased by more than 180%, according to IDPH data. While hospitalizations had been flat going into the spring, they’ve leapt over the past couple of weeks. They jumped 21 percent last week. There are 777 hospitalized patients in the state that... Read More