In a tumultuous year of a new virus, it is understandable that neither Covid nor Corona made the list of most popular baby names in 2020 at Genesis BirthCenters. No TigerKings, Mandos or CobraKais either. Instead, new Quad Cities parents followed national trends when naming their babies. Olivia and Oliver were the most popular names for newborns at Genesis BirthCenters in Davenport and Silvis in 2020. There have been 19 Olivias born at Genesis in 2020. Oliver was the choice for 16 baby boys at Genesis. This is the first time Oliver has topped the annual Genesis list for boys. Olivia was also the... Read More

Saturday In The Arts is a comprehensive weekly feature looking at a trend, personality, or major subject involving the Quad-Cities arts and entertainment scene. Making it through nearly five months of a paralyzing pandemic was bad enough, but for those of us in Iowa and the Quad-Cities, Aug. 10, 2020 and the days that followed seemed especially cruel. I’ll never forget that Monday afternoon, working on my laptop in the basement, a prisoner in my home trying not to go insane during a crazy year. The power suddenly went out, as a freak inland hurricane (or “derecho” – duh-RAY-cho – as everyone... Read More

The following is a guest column from Craig Cooper, Senior Communications Specialist for Genesis Health System. QuadCities.com welcomes fact-based guest columns from healthcare professionals regarding health topics of interest. Message Sean@QuadCities.com for more information. Fear, shock, rising death numbers, mask requirements and reluctance to wear them, and recommendations of only limited public gatherings. This isn’t only a description of the relentless global COVID-19 crisis. We have been here more than once before as a country. Consider Christmas 1918 and the Spanish Flu pandemic. The pandemic... Read More

Want to give in a profound way for the holidays? It’s time for the Season of Giving blood drive at Quad City Botanical Center in Rock Island. It is time for our annual Season of Giving blood drive in Illinois! We’ll be at the Quad Cities Botanical Center on December 22 and December 23 from 2pm – 6pm. Each donor will receive their choice of gift card OR long-sleeved t-shirt. Appointments are required. Schedule yours here: bit.ly/2Lw9WCK For more info see here.  Read More

The long awaited “Save Our Stages” bill is part of the $900 billion that’s expected to be approved by Congress, providing economic relief to those affected by Covid-19. Congress has agreed to a new bipartisan relief package that allocates $15 billion in funding to independent movie theaters and concert venues. According to USA Today’s Nicholas Wu, the relief package incorporates the Save Our Stages Act. First introduced by Senators John Cornyn of Texas and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota over the summer, the act calls for six months of financial support to “keep venues afloat, pay employees,... Read More

The Quad-Cities, and the entire state of Illinois, has been on Tier 3 mitigation rules since Nov. 20. Have things gotten any better since then? Are we making positive progress to possibly get out of the mitigation zone? Governor JB Pritzker has already said that Illinois will not leave mitigations at least until after the new year, regardless of numbers, as a preventative measure. But if things continue to go in a positive direction, could we see any leeway after New Year’s Day? Despite a lot of bad news in regard to covid overall statewide, some encouraging signs have been seen in various... Read More

BREAKING NEWS: At long last, an over $900 billion covid stimulus deal has been reached by Congress, and will be finalized and voted on within the next 24 hours, according to various reports. According to reporting from CNN, as well as direct video on CSPAN, YouTube and other sources, House and Senate Democratic and Republican leaders have announced the deal will be voted on in the House tonight, and is expected to be passed by the Senate tonight or tomorrow and signed into law by the president by tomorrow at the latest, allowing direct stimulus payments and programs to go into effect immediately,... Read More

The YWCA Quad Cities is celebrating a surprise holiday gift this week. It is among 384 charities throughout the United States that have received a donation from MacKenzie Scott, a 50-year-old American novelist, billionaire, and venture philanthropist. She has donated $4.1 billion to nonprofit organizations in all 50 states, Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico, and the YWCA is just one of two recipients that serve the Quad-Cities – the other is Goodwill of the Heartland. “These 384 carefully selected teams have dedicated their lives to helping others,” Scott explained in a Dec. 15 post on Medium,... Read More

Today is yet another great day for the future of YWCA Quad Cities. “One of the biggest challenges that we deal with more often than not, is WANTING to provide bigger and better programming, but NOT having the funds available to do it,” says Julie Larson, President and CEO.  “Well, today that changes!” YWCA Quad Cities is 1 of 384 charities throughout the United States that has received a donation from MacKenzie Scott, American novelist, billionaire, and venture philanthropist. Ms. Scott worked with a team of advisors to help her accelerate her 2020 philanthropic giving through... Read More

With the first shipments of the covid-19 vaccine hitting Quad-Cities and U.S. hospitals yesterday and today, people began to see a slight ray of hope at the end of the tunnel of covid-19 and 2020. However, that light has been pushed further away by the Federal Government, with no reason given. In his public address Wednesday, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker said the next two shipments of the new Pfizer coronavirus vaccine to Illinois and other states have been “significantly reduced” by the federal government, and that the government and Pfizer “gave no reason” for the... Read More