A painting party will be held at Karpeles Museum, 700 22nd St., Rock Island, from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 22. Join us at the Karpeles Museum for a fun day of painting! I will guide you through each and every step of this beautiful fall landscape as you let your creativity flow! No experience is needed. This painting will be $30 per person. Please message us if you’d like to reserve a spot! Tickets can be purchased through Eventbrite or Venmo @karie-rauch. Preregistration is required to guarantee you a seat! Can’t wait to see you all there  Read More

The light on Hickey Brothers Cigars & Hookah Lounge is being snuffed out. This weekend will be the last in operation for the Rock Island fixture, which has been a part of the downtown for over two decades, according to a social media post. The business, owned by local entrepreneur Michelle Royal, had been struggling this year due to covid and the various restrictions put in place to combat the spread of the virus. On Nov. 3, they made an announcement on Facebook and started a funding drive to stay open, however, it unfortunately fell short. The announcement read as followed: Its with a... Read More

At Quad City Arts in Rock Island, it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, as the 35th anniversary of Festival of Trees will look different this year, but the holiday magic will continue in a whole new way. Kaleigh Trammell is in her second year of coordinating Festival of Trees at Quad City Arts, and while the focus for the first time will be online and on TV, there also will be a gift shop and window displays at the Rock Island Gallery from Nov. 21 to 29. “It has been a challenge,” she said recently. “When we made this decision, we were trying to look ahead to what November was going... Read More

Winter Nights Winter Lights begins lighting up the Quad City Botanical Center, 2525 4th Ave., Rock Island, this weekend! From Nov. 19 to Jan. 10, every night from 4 to 9 p.m. the outdoor gardens will be in winter bloom with over 130,000 glowing lights. Showcasing our largest light display yet, new areas of our outdoor gardens will be lit, including the Children’s Garden. Explore the lawns, pond and pocket gardens of our outdoor light exhibit. Open Christmas Eve, New Year’s Eve and the night of New Year’s Day. Closed Thanksgiving and Christmas. A small processing fee will be added to all tickets. All... Read More

Quad-Cities stores are far from flush with toilet paper. With new covid-19 restrictions in place for the Iowa and Illinois Quad-Cities, toilet paper is flying off the shelves again in local stores, although other staple food and supply items seem to be remaining stable on shelves. A visit to six area locations — two Targets, a Walmart, a Sam’s Club, and two HyVee stores — showed that shelves are barren in some, but still in ok shape in others. Iowa side stores seem to be in more of a frenzy, given Governor Kim Reynolds’ proclamations and immediate restrictions put in place... Read More

BREAKING NEWS: Illinois High School sports will be put on hold effective immediately, and could be delayed through 2020 and into spring 2021 due to covid-19 mitigations, according to a statement released this evening by IHSA Executive Director Craig Anderson. The statement was released following Illinois Governor JB Pritzker’s announcement of moving Illinois to Tier 3 mitigations for covid-19 starting Friday. There’s no set date for the return of sporting activities, however the statement says the IHSA remains “optimistic” for a return soon. The statement reads as follows: IHSA... Read More

For four years, the Quad-Cities nonprofit Lead(h)er has spread warmth through its “Strike a Match” mentoring program. Now, it has formally caught fire with its 103-year-old big sister, YWCA Quad Cities. The two nonprofits – which both work to empower area women – now share office space, at the aptly named Iowa Empowerment Center at One River Place, 1225 E. River Drive, Suite 110, Davenport. Leaders of Lead(h)er and YWCA will make a formal announcement of their new match on Dec. 1, at 1 p.m., which also will be livestreamed on Facebook. After months of discussion, the nonprofits decided... Read More

BREAKING NEWS (UPDATED): Illinois will be moving back to Tier 3 mitigations starting Friday, closing up restaurants and bars to indoor service, severely curtailing all businesses in the state, shutting down sporting events including youth sports, and more. Governor JB Pritzker announced the move in his coronavirus update at 2:30 p.m. today. “With COVID-19 spread now exponential in every region of the state, our statewide positivity rate at record highs and hospitalizations already surpassing our Spring peak, all 11 regions will move into Tier 3 effective November 20 at midnight,”... Read More

Today is the first day of Iowa’s new covid mitigation plan, but how does the new mandate impact you and your life? At midnight last night, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds implemented new rules to mitigate the spread of covid-19 in Iowa. The rules impacted all state bars and gathering places, eliminated all sporting events under high school age, and severely limited the number of people able to gather together. What are the rules and how do they potentially change your life and your family’s? Here’s the rundown: When in an indoor public space and unable to socially distance, masks are... Read More

The Quad-Cities has rocketed up to SIXTH among the top 10 worst covid outbreak spots in the nation, according to data from the CDC, the New York Times reported today. According to the data, the Illinois/Iowa Quad-Cities is now inside the top ten most rapidly spiking hot spots nationwide for a second week in a row, roaring from number 13 to number 7 to number 6 in just two weeks. The rising number of Quad-Cities covid-19 cases have put it consistently among in the top 10 worst covid hot spots in the United States over the past month, with other Iowa communities in the top 10. Iowa continues to be... Read More