Moline-based John Deere  — which started River Bend Food Bank in 1982 in response to the ’80s farm crisis — committed Thursday to donate $1.7 million to the Food Bank in 2021, part of a planned $7 million through the John Deere Foundation over the rest of this decade. In 2020, with Deere’s continued investment, the Food Bank distributed more than 23 million meals and served 160,000 people in 23 Eastern Iowa and Western Illinois counties. “Our history together goes back to the very beginning of River Bend almost 40 years ago,” Nate Clark, president of the John Deere Foundation,... Read More

Rock Island families can receive meals at no cost to them over the summer. Meal distribution will take place every Monday. The 5-day meal packs are for children 12 months-18 years regardless of income or school district enrollment. There will be a morning and an afternoon meal distribution. Meals must be pre-order by the Friday before. To preorder please call 309-581-2147. Five-day meal packs will be available on Mondays, starting June 7. Denkmann Elementary School –  7:30 a.m. – 8:30 a.m. 4101 22nd Ave, Rock Island Longfellow Liberal Arts –  10:30 a.m.-11:30 a.m. 4198... Read More

ROCK ISLAND HIGH SCHOOL WRESTLING TEAM ARE REGIONAL CHAMPS! Congratulations to the Rocky Wrestling Team! They will now advance to sectionals! #ThisHouseRocks  Read More

The annual Juneteenth festival in the Quad-Cities will be held Saturday, June 19, at TMBC at The Lincoln Center, 318 E. 7th St., Davenport, the former Lincoln Elementary School. Open since Feb. 1, 2021, TMBC stands for “Together Making a Better Community,” and the free Juneteenth event will be 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, including food and retail vendors, history and information booths, fun-filled games and entertainment for the whole family. TMBC is the hub for resources, professional services, programs and events for the African-American community in the Quad-Cities. The Juneteenth festival... Read More

Forty days before his wife Jen would turn 40, Ben Schrempf of Rock Island had a pretty big surprise waiting for her. Inspired by a video he saw last summer on TikTok, Schrempf for months enlisted family and friends to help get Jen 40 birthday presents. He hid them at his office – where he works in IT for Ruhl & Ruhl corporate in Davenport, until May 24th. “Our daughter had a softball game that night and I was strategically late coming home from the gym so she would have to take her to softball,” Ben recalled Monday, when the TikTok video he made of Jen’s reaction surpassed one million... Read More

The Peace Corps Fellows Program, within the Illinois Institute for Rural Affairs (IIRA) at Western Illinois University, learned this week it is one of 13 programs statewide receiving federal grant funding from AmeriCorps, the federal agency for national service and community volunteerism. The WIU program, the only downstate program to receive federal grant funding this fiscal year, will get $185,748, and an additional $76,140 in Segal AmeriCorps Education Award funding. The grant money helps the Peace Corps Fellows program recruit returned Peace Corps volunteers, who then enroll in one of 10 graduate... Read More

When Esmeralda Portillo crossed the commencement stage in May, at age 19, she became the youngest Latina woman to graduate from Western Illinois University in its history. Portillo, of Chicago Heights, IL, received her degree in Law Enforcement and Justice Administration (LEJA) during the University’s Commencement weekend May 14-16. Although age requirements to work for police departments prevent her from applying for a career position yet, since graduation she has been working as a records clerk at the Harvey (IL) Police Department. She will begin work toward a master’s degree in Fall... Read More

Call me a gamblin’ man, but I have a really strong feeling alt-rock legend Ani DiFranco is coming to Codfish Hollow and there’s going to be an official announcement soon. Tiff, the Queen of Codfish Hollow, posted on her Facebook last night, the following not-so-cryptic message: “Just confirmed the first show of the season with a musician whose name rhymes with Connie HiPlanko!!! Hint: she used my library once. Holy hell. It’s her first show back since covid too… and our first show. It’s true love!” Now, either there’s an incredibly underground and... Read More

BREAKING NEWS: Illinois will reopen tomorrow after over a year in various stages of covid lockdown! Governor JB Pritzker announced earlier this week that the metrics had been met to put Illinois into Phase 5, which is the least restrictive of all the mitigation phases for the pandemic. So what does that mean for you? How will your life change, for the better, with fewer restrictions? And what restrictions, if any, still remain? According to the Illinois Department of Health, under Phase 5 (the new phase), fully vaccinated people can resume activities without wearing a mask except where required... Read More

Two historic preservation projects in Davenport are among 11 in seven Iowa communities that have earned the state’s highest awards for historic preservation during this year’s Preserve Iowa Summit. The annual conference is presented by the State Historic Preservation Office, which is part of the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs. During the awards ceremony on June 3, the State Historical Society of Iowa Board of Trustees awarded two projects in Des Moines and two in Davenport with a Preservation Project of Merit Award, which recognizes projects that exemplify the best practices of historic... Read More