Hundreds of Quad-Cities arts, entertainment and leisure businesses and similar businesses statewide — including Rust Belt, Ballet Quad-Cities, RIBCO, Playcrafters, Black Box Theater and more — were given a helping hand today as Governor J.B. Pritzker announced more than $275 million for hard hit businesses across Illinois. Over 9,000 emergency assistance grants have been made to small businesses in over 600 cities and towns statewide through the Business Interruption Grants (BIG) program, according to the  Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO), making it the... Read More

It was 350 days ago when Illinois announced its first case of covid-19. Today, the state went over one million in cases, meaning almost one in 12 people in the state have tested positive for the virus, according to statistics from the Illinois Department of Health. As of Thursday night, 3,777 patients in Illinois were reported to be in the hospital with COVID-19. Of those, 780 patients were in the ICU and 422 patients with COVID-19 were on ventilators, according to statistics from the Illinois Department of Health. Illinois health officials reported 9,277 new COVID-19 cases and 126 deaths Friday. The... Read More

As Illinois hits its one-millionth case of covid-19, Governor J.B. Pritzker announced today that Illinois’ 11 regions could possibly lift Tier 3 restrictions as early as next week if they’ve hit the right metrics. “On Jan. 15, exactly one incubation period from New Year’s Day, any region that has met the metrics for a reduction of mitigations will be able to move out of Tier Three of our mitigation plan,” Pritzker said during his online press conference briefing on covid. Illinois has been in Tier 3 mitigations since Nov. 20. The restrictions shut down indoor dining and... Read More

BREAKING NEWS: As Iowa covid numbers rise, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds issued new, modified mitigation efforts Thursday evening. Reynolds’ new measures will be in effect through at least Feb. 6 and requires people to wear masks inside public places when unable to social distance. The rules are predominantly geared towards bars and restaurants, which have been shown to have a higher likelihood of spreading the virus. However, Reynolds did somewhat ease restrictions surrounding sports and recreational events for youths and teens. Starting today, Reynolds said, “A social, community, business... Read More

Though long-awaited funding for live-music venues is part of the federal Covid stimulus bill recently signed into law, several Quad-Cities entertainment spaces are taking a “wait and see” attitude regarding the reality. Scott Mullen, executive director of Moline’s TaxSlayer Center, said the $15-billion “Save Our Stages” act that was approved had included language noting some venue owners and arenas like his “don’t qualify due to a requirement they put in that says that 70% of the venue’s events must be artist performances, so buildings with sports tenants are excluded due to the... 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

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

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