The Quad-Cities is one of the top 15 places where covid cases are increasing the fastest in the United States, according to new statistics released today. Among metro areas with at least 50,000 people, the Iowa/Illinois Quad-Cities ranks number 13 among the fastest risers, almost doubling its number of cases within the past week, from 1,476 to 2,922. According to a report in the New York Times today, the daily average of new COVID-19 cases in the country this past week has gone up 64 percent in two weeks, hitting 116,448 today. Helping to spike the numbers were a one-day record of 131,420 cases... Read More

With all of the election stress this week, we could all use some GOOD news, am I right? And every month, we at QuadCities.com, along with our media partners at KWQC-TV6’s “Paula Sands Live,” present What’s The Good News, a look at some of the awesome people and positive news happening around the area! So, what’s the good news for November? Here ya go… Quad City Arts Visiting Artist Series Takes On An Online Educational Tone Quad City Arts has launched its new collection of online educational materials for the 47th-annual Visiting Artist Series that’s designed to help people during... Read More

Is “Tiger King” coming back too? With covid numbers spiking again, general unrest about the election and the political and economic landscape, and more state restrictions looming this week, the familiar spectre of dwindling supplies on shelves — particularly toilet paper — is starting to loom in some area stores. A visit to four area locations — a Target, a Walmart, and two HyVee stores — showed that shelves in some are starting to look a little short, and one store — the Moline Target on John Deere Road — has already put up signs limiting customers... Read More

EXCLUSIVE — Illinois Quad-Cities businesses have been notified by the state to begin preparing for a shutdown and covid mitigation procedures beginning Wednesday, multiple sources who asked not to be identified told QuadCities.com today. The sources are all local small business owners, and were notified last night so they could begin preparing. An official announcement from Illinois Governor JB Pritzker will be forthcoming Monday. According to the sources, there will be a number of mitigation actions put in place, including no indoor dining, limits to the number of people gathered in any... Read More

To celebrate Halloween, I’m dropping multiple columns for your laughs and enjoyment. Hope you all have a happy and safe holiday! Is there a vampire workout video? You hardly ever see any fat vampires. They’re almost invariably beautiful, young (or young-ish) and ripped. Even the evil decrepit old vamps are at least skinny. So, I’m wondering, do vampires only “turn” fit people? Or do people make deals with vamps and tell them, “Hey hey hey… let’s wait a minute here, shall we? Give me six weeks to get into shape, and THEN you can suck out my blood and turn... Read More

To celebrate Halloween, I’m dropping multiple columns for your laughs and enjoyment. Hope you all have a happy and safe holiday! Do ghosts fart? Ever walk into your house after you’ve been away, or walk into a room and notice a strange smell? Of course, once you do, you have to try to find it, to try to get rid of it, because who wants a strange smell in their house? I’ll usually look for some dropped food or something behind or under furniture, and sometimes that’s the case. Some bit of stray potable that tried to escape and sadly discovered its motion was limited to whatever got it... Read More

To celebrate Halloween, I’m dropping multiple columns for your laughs and enjoyment. Hope you all have a happy and safe holiday! Are there Vampire businesses that are open all night? There are a lot of other businesses that amaze me with their tenacity to stay around. I never see anyone there. There are never any cars outside. They don’t advertise. They don’t seem to be particularly viable. Yet there they are, steadfast, inexplicable. Can these places be potential tax write offs or money laundering enterprises? Or do they have a set of clienteles that I’m not privy to, since... Read More

To celebrate Halloween, I’m dropping multiple columns for your laughs and enjoyment. Hope you all have a happy and safe holiday! It’s Halloween weekend, and along with the tricks and treats, and little goblins and ghouls, there are other things that haunt me. Questions. Queries. Imaginings. Like bumps in the night, especially if they’re really freaking loud, these things keep me awake. And so, in the spirit of Halloween, I’m dropping a handful of columns this weekend like bite-sized candies. And our first very important question to be answered is… Can zombies swim? Whenever... Read More

Saturday In The Arts is a weekly look at a personality, place, trend or topic of interest to the Quad-Cities. It runs every Saturday morning on your site for fun, free, local entertainment and features, QuadCities.com. Already, 2020 has been an American horror story like no other, but apparently some people still long to be scared some more – during a haunted house season like no other. The Covid-19 crisis also has upended many other traditional Halloween activities. Coronavirus – which has caused 9,663 deaths in Illinois and 1,617 in Iowa (as of Oct. 23) — has led Illinois to become... Read More

I’m sick of the politics. I’m sick of the politicians. With more people struggling than ever, with more businesses closing, with the covid numbers increasing yet again, just like the scientists predicted (amazing how you can listen to intelligent, learned people and get accurate predictions on what’s likely to happen, isn’t it?), IT’S TIME TO PASS ANOTHER STIMULUS BILL TO HELP PEOPLE STRUGGLING FROM COVID. I wrote another story today, one of probably over 100 this year, about a business closing down due to covid. This time it was Big Swing, in downtown Rock Island,... Read More