QCA.news - Quad Cities news and view from both sides of the river

Fallen tree blocks roadway in Moline

Police ask motorists to find an alternative route.

LIVE BLOG: Severe weather Wednesday

The First Alert Weather team is tracking unseasonable warmth, humidity and strong to severe thunderstorms Thursday.

Tree blocks roadway in Davenport

Police are on the scene.

Flash Flood Warning from WED 8:45 AM CDT until WED 2:45 PM CDT

Flash Flood Warning in Northwestern Illinois Until 2:45 PM CDT

Tree blocks 12th Avenue, Moline

A post on the Moline Police Department's Facebook page says high winds have caused a tree to fall into the roadway on 12th Avenue, east of 19th Street. 12th Avenue will be closed between 19th and 25th Streets while Moline Public Works clears the area. Drivers are asked to use alternate routes around the area.

Severe Thunderstorm Warning from WED 7:35 AM CDT until WED 8:30 AM CDT

Severe Thunderstorms with Damaging Winds Impacting Northwestern Illinois and East Central Iowa Until 8:30 AM CDT

Marine Highway 35 Workshop to spotlight freight, jobs and investment

Marine Highway 35 Workshop to spotlight freight, jobs and investment to unite river community and municipality leaders.

Orion trustees delay band shell repairs until after Fall Fest

Orion trustees discussed the odds of being able to repair and repaint the band shell before the Aug. 1 celebration of the nation's 250th anniversary.

Concrete

This is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.It's there, everywhere. Our skyscrapers rest on it, it lies under the wheels of our cars from New York to San…

'Rejected': How federal prisons stonewall grievances and deny care for years

People who go to prison keep one important right — to file a grievance over their treatment: from abuse to denied medical care. But in the vast majority of cases, those efforts go nowhere, according to an analysis of federal data by The Marshall Project and NPR.

El Niño is here, so what does it mean?

An El Niño has formed amid the warmer-than-normal waters in the tropical Pacific. Now it's a question of how intense the phenomenon will be, and where effects like heat and drought will strike.

Trump's Iran agreement dominates G7 but big questions remain

The U.S.-Israel-led war in Iran has rocked the global economy and decimated Trump's standing at home

Severe Thunderstorms Expected Today in Quad Cities: Two Rounds of Storms Bring Hail, Wind, Tornado Threat

First Alert Day issued as a strong weather system brings damaging hail, gusty winds and isolated tornado potential through Wednesday evening

UN chief visits Haiti, where a new 'gang-suppression force' will be deployed

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres's visit to Port-au-Prince comes as gang violence persists. According to U.N. data, 2,300 people have been killed in Haiti this year, with another 100 kidnapped.

U.S. strike on an alleged drug boat kills 1, leaves 2 survivors

The U.S. military attacked a boat accused of smuggling drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean on Tuesday, killing one man and leaving two survivors. This brings the number of people who have been killed in boat strikes to at least 208.

Illinois End of Life Options Act faces challenge from lawsuit

HENDERSON, Ky. (WEHT) - A lawsuit has been filed to attempt to stop a controversial assisted suicide bill from becoming a law in Illinois. The Illinois End of Life Options Act would allow doctors to prescribe lethal medication to certain terminally ill patients. It is scheduled to become a law on September 12. However, a [...]

High school baseball and softball: June 16th

Watch highlights from Pleasant Valley vs Ankeny Centennial, Cal-Wheat vs Central DeWitt baseball, and Muscatine vs Central DeWitt softball.

River Bandits fall to Timber Rattlers 11-6

The Quad Cities River Bandits fall to Wisconsin Timber Rattlers 11-6 in game one of the series.

Florida’s GOP AGs used to intervene in utility rate cases, but no longer

Duke Energy Florida's office located in St. Petersburg. (Photo via Duke Energy's website)As electricity cost increases outpace other measures of inflation, attorneys general around the country have intervened to stop what they consider exorbitant rate hikes: Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes stepped in after Arizona Public Services asked to raise rates by more than 14% last fall. In Michigan, Attorney General Dana Nessel filed testimony in March to slash an 85% rate hike by energy provider DTE. And in North Carolina, Attorney General Jeff Jackson just urged state regulators to reduce Duke Energy Carolinas’ proposed rate increase. But after Florida Power & Light hit its 12 million customers with a nearly $7 billion rate hike last year, Florida Attorney General James Uthemier made no such move. Neither had his predecessor, now-U.S. Sen. Ashley Moody, when rates from Florida’s four investor-owned utilities (IOUs) soared during her six years in office. How much? From December 2020 to January 2026, Tampa Electric raised its utility bills by 86%, Duke Energy by 49%, and Florida Power and Light (FPL) by 45%, according to Food & Water Watch. (The fourth IOU is Florida Public Utilities Co., a much smaller provider serving North Florida). The first line of defense for Florida energy ratepayers is supposed to be the Florida Public Service Commission (PSC), a five-member board appointed by the governor. He selects those members from a pool of nominees submitted by a joint state House-Senate committee subject to confirmation by the Senate. Critics contend the panel has been toothless in fighting such increases for decades, however. That’s when an attorney general can wield the power of his or her office to intervene. “As attorney general, I sued utility companies,” said former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist when speaking at a St. Petersburg mayoral forum last week. “I sued power companies,” he continued. “I sued insurance companies. Why? Because the Public Service Commission was supposed to regulate them, [and] was not regulating them hardly at all. They would rate virtually every rate increase that came to the Public Service Commission to receive. Now, suing them probably was popular among constituents, but it sure wasn’t popular with those companies. But I’m proud to have done it.” “Florida is in the midst of an affordability crisis, and that includes housing and insurance and people’s utility bills. And we’ve watched the utility bills for Florida rate payers go up and up and up,” said Susan Glickman of the CLEO Institute, a nonprofit that works to advance clean energy policies across Florida. Although the PSC is statutorily charged with protecting consumers, “the attorney general becomes the backstop for this continued gouging of ratepayers,” Glickman said. “So, it would be really vital for our state attorney generals to do what they’re doing in North Carolina and Michigan and intervene in these rate cases to protect people.” There is no evidence that Moody ever contemplated doing so when she was attorney general, even though her tenure saw more than $1.25 billion in rate hikes. That included PSC approval of a $692 million rate hike by FPL effective in 2022 and another $560 million effective in 2023, as reported by the News Service of Florida. Her campaign did not reply to a request for comment. When Florida GOP AG’s intervened in rate cases In 2009, then-Florida Republican Attorney General Bill McCollum supported the Florida Office of Public Counsel’s petition to oppose FPL’s proposal to increase base rates by approximately $1.3 billion annually over two years. The result was a freeze of base rates paid by customers through the end of 2012. (That office represents ratepayers in PSC cases.) In 2005, when Crist served as attorney general, he filed petitions with the PSC to intervene on behalf of Florida consumers and taxpayers to oppose rate hikes proposed by FPL and Progress Energy Florida (which later became Duke Energy). FPL ultimately agreed to freeze rates for four years. “The utility companies are entitled to make a profit,” Crist said at the time, “but not exorbitant profit borne on the backs of our people and our businesses.” Florida U.S. GOP Sen. Ashley Moody speaking in St. Petersburg at the Florida Holocaust Museum on June 15, 2026. (Photo by Mitch Perry/Florida Phoenix) Like many elected officials in Florida, Moody has received significant campaign contributions from the major investor-owned utilities since she began her first campaign for attorney general in 2017. Campaign records show that the utility industry spent nearly $300,000 to support her runs for attorney general in 2018 and 2022. And she has raised more money from the electric power utilities (around $90,000) than any other candidate for Senate this election cycle, according to Open Secrets, a D.C. nonprofit that tracks money in politics. All told, Moody has received $431,000 in campaign contributions from the IOUs, according to a report released in February by the CLEO Institute. Although formidable, that’s well below the amounts taken by Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson ($1.86 million) and U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, the Florida GOP’s leading candidate for governor ($1.13 million). “Ashley Moody is a corrupt career politician who never challenges a utility rate hike because the utility monopolies keep spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to elect her,” said Alex Vindman, one of her Democratic opponents in the race for U.S. Senate. “Moody is fighting for large corporations and not you. While the large corporations and special interests continue to bankroll her Senate campaign, I refuse to take a dime in corporate PAC money because my focus is on lowering costs for Floridians and ending the corruption in D.C.” One Florida Republican incumbent who hasn’t taken in any major contributions from Florida’s public utilities is Uthmeier. His PAC shows contribution from FPL of $5,674 for in-kind services from April of 2025. All told, Florida investor-owned utilities have donated more than $23 million to the Republican Party of Florida since the 2018 election cycle, according to the CLEO Institute report. Those companies have given about $3.7 million to the Florida Democratic Party and its affiliates during that period. Can an intervention by the attorney general really make a difference? Bradley Marshall is an attorney with Earthjustice, a nonprofit environmental legal organization. His group is appealing FPL’s nearly $7 billion rate hike, which went into effect in January, to the Florida Supreme Court. “The AG’s office certainly has resources that we and other intervening parties lack, even compared to the Office of Public Counsel (which is pretty small given the size of the State),” Marshall wrote in an email. “That being said, it would depend on whether the AGs intervened in the rate case to truly fight for consumers or to make a utility-friendly ‘settlement.’ If the AGs had intervened to truly fight for Florida consumers, I do think it would have helped and potentially made a difference. How big of a difference would be just speculation on my part, though.” Former Miami-Dade Democratic state Sen. José Javier Rodríguez will face Uthmeier in the election for attorney general in November. He says it’s not just a campaign slogan, but part of the job description, that the attorney general is supposed to be “the people’s lawyer.” “That is not a partisan statement,” he said. “Before General [Pam] Bondi, it was routine for our attorney general, even if some were more robust than others in terms of bringing legal actions, at least if there was a case in front of the PSC, they would show up and do something. Advocate on behalf of the people.” The Uthmeier campaign did not return a request for comment. The current members of the Florida Public Service Commission via the PSC’s X account. The last time the PSC denied FPL a base rate increase was in 2010. In response, then FPL Group Chairman and CEO Lew Hay lashed out, accusing the commission of reinforcing “investor perceptions that the regulatory climate in Florida continues to deteriorate and is increasingly hostile to investment.” The net effect of that vote was that four of those five PSC members were gone within months. Other attorneys general boast of saving ‘billions’ in rate hikes The work by attorneys general around the country to stop rate hikes saved ratepayers real money. In March 2025, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced that she had helped save Michigan ratepayers $41 million after successfully arguing before the Michigan Public Service Commission in two cases. Her office said earlier this month that she has saved Michigan consumers more than $4.6 billion by intervening in utility cases since taking office in 2018. In Connecticut, Attorney General William Tong announced last month that his office was “going to scrutinize every profit, every bonus, every perk and every padded expense” in a $503 million rate increase for 2027 that Eversource Energy, the state’s largest public utility company, has requested. In North Carolina, Attorney General Jeff Jackson testified before the North Carolina Utilities Commission earlier this month against Duke’s request for a 10.95% return on equity (ROE), arguing instead that it should earn a 7.4% return. Meanwhile, in Florida, FPL’s four-year rate plan approved by the PSC was guaranteed a midpoint ROE of 10.95%, with an allowed fluctuation ranging between 9.95% and 11.95%. The Phoenix reached out to Duke Energy, FPL, and TECO for comment. “All political contributions made by Duke Energy come from shareholders, not customers. Each contribution is done in accordance with campaign finance laws and are publicly reported,” a spokesperson for Duke told the Phoenix. “Duke Energy Florida is implementing its third rate reduction of 2026 from June through September, lowering residential customer bills by a total of approximately $50, or 25%, for every 1,000 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of energy used when compared to January.” A spokesperson for TECO declined to comment. FPL did not respond at all. Courtesy of Florida Phoenix

Bettendorf City Council approves construction of new pump track at Middle Park

The new attraction will be designed by the American Ramp Company.

Inflation drives Davenport Mexican restaurant to raise its Taco Tuesday prices

Azteca Bar and Grill near 53rd and Brady has been serving 99 cent tacos for over a dozen years.

Man pleads guilty in fatal 2020 East Moline stabbing

Kerry Clark has pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the 2020 death of 64-year-old Rodney Griffin.

What's ahead as Gov. Pritzker signs $56 billion budget?

Gov. JB Pritzker signed a $56 billion budget into law, promising relief for working families.But some House Republicans say the money in the budget won't go to the right places. Illinois Capitol Bureau chief Alex Whitney takes a look at what could be ahead for the biggest budget in state history.

Moline plans to move forward with acquisition of RiverStation Building, discusses financing

Tuesday night, at a committee of the whole meeting, city leaders talked about the next steps for acquiring the building located at 1601 River Drive.

Rain along Gulf Coast could become the first named storm of Atlantic hurricane season

The National Hurricane Center in Miami says the system is expected to bring intense rain to southern states including Texas and Louisiana this week.

Illinois 40 Bridge, Hennepin Canal Trail closed for construction

Construction started Tuesday and will replace the bridge deck, according to a media release.

Rock Island man pleads guilty to 2020 murder of East Moline man

A man involved in the 2020 stabbing death of a 64-year-old East Moline man has entered a guilty plea and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Illinois bets on biodiesel: Expanding the market for domestic soybeans

The surge highlights how global oil shocks, brought on by the U.S. war with Iran, and trade uncertainty have increased interest in homegrown energy alternatives.

New Illinois e-bike regulations go into effect next month

Starting on July 1, there will be regulations on high-speed motorized bikes on sidewalks. At the start of 2027, vehicle registration enforcement will go into effect.

Rock Island man arrested, charged with sexually abusing 13-year-old girl

A 20-year-old LeClaire man is facing charges after authorities allege he sexually abused a 13-year-old girl over the course of 45 days between March 1 and May 25.

Blackhawk Bank & Trust reopens Valley Center branch, Moline

Blackhawk Bank & Trust has reopened ts Valley Center branch at 4100 44th Ave., Moline, a news release says. The Valley Center location has undergone a complete rebuild, adding about 3,860 square feet to the facility and creating a modern banking environment designed to better serve customers and the surrounding community. The updated branch features [...]

Georgia Rep. Collins will challenge Ossoff in high-profile Senate matchup

The Collins-Ossoff matchup will be closely watched nationally as the major political parties vie for control of the Senate.

Georgia results: Collins will face Sen. Ossoff; Trump's pick loses governor runoff

In an upset, Georgia Republican voters rejected President Trump's preferred nominee for the competitive open governor's race. They also picked Rep. Mike Collins to face Sen. Jon Ossoff.

Humane Society of Scott County faces overcrowding; adoption fees waived through July 3

The Humane Society of Scott County says overcrowding has become an issue at the shelter. Since June 1, 210 animals have come through the shelter doors. Of that number, only 124 have been returned or welcomed into a new home. According to a Facebook post, within 48 hours, the shelter took in 53 animals. "Not [...]

Davenport Speedway will host summer nationals in mid-week racing

On Wednesday, June 17, the DIRTcar Summer Nationals late models return to the Davenport Speedway for the 31st running of the Iowa Governor’s Cup. The year 2026 is the 40th anniversary for the DIRTcar Summer Nationals. This year’s tour started June 9th. Thus far, race wins have gone to Shannon Babb(2), Jason Feger, and Brian Shirley. The [...]

Galesburg donates retired police SUV to student training program

A retired Galesburg police SUV is getting a second life, this time as a hands-on training tool for students exploring careers in law enforcement.

Lee County passes data center moratorium

No data centers will be built within the county for at least a year.

Demolition begins on 2 buildings in downtown Muscatine due to structural issues

A road closure is in place while crews work on bringing the buildings at 201 and 203 East 2nd St. down.

Advocates say WIC funding cuts could impact thousands of Iowa families

Millions of dollars that support children and pregnant women in low-income households are at risk after the U.S. House passed a cut in funding that would impact WIC benefits.

Rock island man arrested in connection with Tuesday homicide in East Moline

Officers were sent to the Crowne Forest Apartment complex in East Moline at 6:30 a.m. Tuesday to investigate a report of a man who had been shot.

QC Severe weather chances rising for Wednesday

There's a moderate risk for severe storms with tornadoes around a large part of Illinois on Wednesday. All modes of severe weather will be possible, including tornadoes around the Quad Cities.: Similar to last Thursday, our afternoon and evening severe weather threat will depend on what happens Wednesday morning:

Anti-tethering bill for companion animals advances in NC House, but its future is uncertain

Duke, the dog H657 is named after, was found chained up outside next to another dog that had died. (Photo: People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.)A bill that would establish minimum standards of care for domestic dogs and cats unanimously passed the North Carolina House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, but its future is uncertain as the session moves toward its end.  House Bill 657 would require owners to provide care, exercise, food, shelter, space, water, and veterinary treatment for “companion animals,” which the bill defines as only domestic dogs and cats.  The bill was named after Duke, a dog who was rescued after being found chained outside next to another dog who had starved to death. H657 would prohibit owners from tethering animals outside in extreme weather conditions, including in temperatures below 32 degrees and above 85 degrees Fahrenheit.  A first violation would be a class three misdemeanor, and a second violation would be elevated to a class two misdemeanor, neither of which involves jail time or significant fines.  Committee members questioned whether the punishment is sufficient, since under the state’s current animal cruelty law, depriving animals of “necessary sustenance” is a more serious class one misdemeanor.  “I think people who are cruel to animals are cut below the rest of us, just to be blunt about it, and I’d like to see some of them tethered to a tree for a couple three hours, just to see what it is like,” Rep. Abe Johns (D-Wake) said during Tuesday’s committee meeting.   Rep. Stephen Ross (R-Alamance), one of the bill’s primary sponsors, said he worked with various organizations with concerns about the bill to create exceptions for dogs used for hunting, sport or shepherding. The committee also passed an amendment that allows domestic companions to be tethered by veterinarians or groomers when needed. Despite those carve-outs, Nathen Honaker, an attorney representing the North Carolina Sporting Dog Association, told the committee the group remain concerned about the ambiguity of the bill and doesn’t think it’s necessary because current law should cover the problem.  Senator to constituent: Puppy mills bill will be blocked to punish supporters “We’ve got standards in this bill that mention what’s appropriate for the age of the species, or what’s appropriate for an animal with this particular type of muscle tone. There’s a lot of ambiguity in those standards,” Honaker said. “The current standard is, if you’re causing an animal pain, you’re guilty of a serious misdemeanor.”  Laws that would set minimum standards for care or breeding of domestic animals have faced an uphill battle over the years at the General Assembly. An attempt to outlaw puppy mills in 2013 died in the state Senate, despite the backing of the governor and his wife. Groups that advocate for breeders, farmers and hunters who hunt with dogs have also objected to animal welfare bills over the years. A spokeswoman for The American Kennel Club said they need to evaluate the amendments made to the bill Tuesday before taking a position on it. Duke was rescued by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. (Photo: PETA) PETA, one of the largest animal rights advocacy organizations, is backing the proposal.  “North Carolinians have been sounding the alarm for years about inadequate animal protection standards,” said PETA Senior Vice President Daphna Nachminovitch. “With dogs throughout the state being left to suffer on chains and in pens outdoors 24/7 through all weather extremes, Duke’s Rescue Act is a long-overdue step in the right direction.”  Courtesy of NC Newsline

To fight elder fraud, a top Utah law enforcer is meeting with seniors around the state

Mark Hirata, an assistant U.S. attorney for Utah, gives out stress balls at the Midvale Senior Center on June 16, 2026. (Annie Knox, Utah News Dispatch) Utah’s top federal prosecutor took the stage inside a senior center Tuesday to warn that artificial intelligence is helping scammers target older adults in increasingly sophisticated ways, impersonating their banks, the IRS and even their grandchildren.  Addressing the crowd of about 50 at the Midvale Senior Center, U.S. Attorney for Utah Melissa Holyoak said AI is “supercharging” scams. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX. The Tuesday stop would be unusual for a high-ranking federal official if it weren’t one in a series Holyoak is making around the state. She’s already made the same pitch in 13 other Utah counties and plans to have hit all 29 come July, her office said.  U.S. Attorney for Utah Melissa Holyoak speaks at the Midvale Senior Center on June 16, 2026. (Annie Knox/Utah News Dispatch) She’s focusing on prevention to help turn the tide on skyrocketing financial losses to fraud targeting adults over 60.  Nationally, the total reported by victims in the age group climbed from $600 million in 2020 to more than $3 billion in 2025, according to the Federal Trade Commission. The change was driven in part by large individual losses of more than $100,000.  Holyoak was FTC commissioner from 2024 to 2025 and said she worked with the agency on the initiative to raise awareness in Utah. She said imposter and investment schemes are responsible for most of the financial damage, but romance scams are also common.  Speaking to the mostly gray-haired audience as they tucked into plates of meatballs and salad, Holyoak made a case for skepticism. She urged them to stay calm and ask for detailed information when someone calls or writes seeking financial information, including when the voice on the other end sounds urgent, legitimate or even like someone they know.   “They want you to be panicked, so that you will give them information, give them money, give them whatever you need to do to have this problem go away,” Holyoak said.  Sally Smith is pictured outside the Midvale Senior Center on June 16, 2026. (Annie Knox/Utah News Dispatch) According to the FBI’s 2025 internet crime report, Utah ranks 27th for its total of losses reported by those over 60 years old, at nearly $66 million. Across all ages, Utah’s rate of complaints ranked 18th.  Mark Hirata, an assistant U.S. attorney, led the Midvale group Tuesday in a game of “fraud bingo” with squares containing warnings such as “Beware of random calls claiming you owe money” and “Ask to have information sent. Check it out!”  Sally Smith, 79, of Midvale, asked a question during the event about how people can prepare and protect themselves against AI scams. But her concern about the rapidly advancing technology and its effects on society, politics and everyday life are bigger, Smith said afterward.   “To me, it’s not just a matter of not clicking on it,” Smith said. “It’s, how do you know what is real or not real?”  The event followed a global day of awareness for elder abuse on Monday. For tips on protecting yourself from fraud and information about what to do if it happens, read the IRS warning about elder fraud.  SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE Courtesy of Utah News Dispatch

New Mexico lawmakers eye ‘really robust’ Children’s Cabinet under next governor

Legislative Finance Committee program evaluators Josh Chaffin, left, and Sarah Dinces, right, present before the interim Legislative Health and Human Services Committee about the state's 32,000 disengaged young people on June 16, 2026 in Albuquerque. (Joshua Bowling/Source NM)As members of a New Mexico legislative committee Tuesday afternoon discussed the troubling finding of a recent report — that some 32,000 young people statewide neither work nor go to school — longtime state lawmakers in the room broached the idea that New Mexico’s next governor could revitalize the state’s Children’s Cabinet.SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX. The April Legislative Finance Committee report said that many of the disconnected New Mexicans between ages 16 and 24 are more likely to navigate the criminal justice system, make lower salaries and experience worse health outcomes. Surveyed youth cited housing instability, a lack of skills or training, health conditions and disabilities, low wages and obligations to care for relatives as the main five reasons why they weren’t seeking employment. At an interim Legislative Health and Human Services Committee meeting in Albuquerque, LFC program evaluators who worked on the April report told lawmakers that the majority of the state’s efforts focus on preventing youth from becoming disconnected rather than reconnecting those who have already dropped out of school or left the workforce. “These agencies are working in silos and they’ve never had a mandate to work together on this issue,” LFC program evaluator Josh Chaffin told state lawmakers, adding that the report’s recommended goal of reconnecting 3,200 youth statewide to schooling or the workforce is more than feasible. In the full report, Chaffin and his colleagues wrote that while New Mexico has a Children’s Cabinet that brings together agency heads from several state departments to discuss child well-being policies and priorities, it’s primarily focused on early childhood, public schools and family stability and it “does not explicitly target or organize services around disconnected youth ages 16 to 24.” Committee Vice Chair Sen. Linda López (D-Albuquerque), who first assumed office in the late 1990s, said the report was a “validation” of what many New Mexicans have seen anecdotally. “I know when this came out in the news, here’s a validation of what many of us have known over the years. Here it is in black and white,” she said during the committee hearing.  She added that she has seen the state’s Children’s Cabinet — which was established under Democratic Gov. Bill Richardson as a conglomeration of state agency heads who would review and offer policy recommendations regarding the state’s children — vary in effectiveness. Former Republican Gov. Susana Martinez effectively dismantled it, López said. “So we had eight years of nothing,” she said of Martinez’s tenure, adding that when a new governor takes office next year, state lawmakers could “get the fire lit” under that person to assemble a strong Children’s Cabinet and work toward solving the disconnected youth issue. Rep. Elizabeth “Liz” Thomson (D-Albuquerque) had the last word on the topic and admonished her colleagues to pursue the matter regardless of who wins the Nov. 3 general election. Democratic nominee and former U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland is set to face Republican nominee and former Rio Rancho Mayor Gregg Hull in the November election. Former longtime Las Cruces Mayor Ken Miyagishima is running for the office as an independent. “Let’s all commit to encouraging the next governor to have a really robust Children’s Cabinet,” she said. Courtesy of Source New Mexico

Man faces first-degree murder charge in East Moline homicide

Early Tuesday morning, officers found a victim with multiple gunshot wounds at an East Moline apartment complex.

Iowa astrophysicist part of team making breakthrough white dwarf discovery

For the first time, a NASA X-ray space telescope has captured the innermost surroundings of a white dwarf star. Here's what it means for future scientific research.

Fired nursing home whistleblower drops lawsuit against her former employer

Marvin 'Pete' Jacobs died Feb. 19, 2023, at the Fonda Care Center in northwest Iowa. According to state inspectors, he died after the care facility staff failed to suction his airway. (Facility photo via Google Earth; inset photo courtesy of the Jacobs family) An alleged whistleblower who reported she was fired from a nursing home after being instructed to “keep your mouth shut” about a resident’s death has dropped her lawsuit. Tylene Schultz had sued the Fonda Specialty Care nursing home, its parent company, Care Initiatives, and licensed practical nurse Becky Manning in Pocahontas County District Court. In April 2025, the portion of the lawsuit dealing with Manning was dismissed. Recently, Schultz’s attorney, Molly Hamilton, filed papers with the court dismissing the remainder of the lawsuit. Hamilton said Tuesday the lawsuit was dismissed due to a recent agreement between the parties that includes a confidentiality provision. The case had been scheduled to go to trial in August 2026. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX. In her lawsuit, Schultz had alleged that in the summer of 2022, she was hired at Fonda Specialty Care by its then-administrator, Jennifer Blair, to work in the home as a certified nursing assistant. On Feb. 18, 2023, according to the lawsuit, the home scheduled a temp-agency nurse, Manning, to work the overnight shift due to a shortage of staff nurses. During the shift, a resident with a tracheostomy died about 2:25 a.m., the lawsuit claims. State records indicate the resident who died was 87-year-old Marvin “Pete” Jacobs, who had undergone a tracheostomy and needed regular suctioning of his airway. The lawsuit alleged Jacobs died because throughout the shift, Manning refused to numerous requests to suction Jacobs’ airway. “Despite multiple requests by Schultz to suction the resident — over 10 times, from 6 p.m. on Feb.18, 2023, to 2:25 a.m., Feb.19, 2023 — Manning would not suction the resident, nor did she attempt to use the suction machine,” the lawsuit claims. Schultz alleged she tried to call “supervisory level staff” who worked for the home, but none of the individuals answered the calls. She also alleged she asked that someone call 911, but Manning told her no physician was available at that hour to provide an order for a hospital evaluation. In her lawsuit, Schultz alleged she and another CNA remained with Jacobs as he “pointed to his neck, coughed, gagged, struggled to breathe, and turned colors from the lack of oxygen, until he finally passed away.” According to the lawsuit, after Schultz left the home at the end of her shift, Blair told her, “Keep your mouth shut and keep your opinions to yourself,” along with instructions that she should not communicate with Jacobs’ family. Later that day, Schultz was summoned to a meeting with Blair at Fonda Specialty Care. During the meeting, the lawsuit claims, Blair — who was allegedly was aware Schultz planned to call state regulators and report her concerns with Jacobs’ care — informed Schultz she was being fired due to “resident complaints.” In her lawsuit, Schultz alleged she was “fired for making a complaint to the ombudsman and the Iowa Department of Inspection of Appeals due to the suspected abuse and/or neglect of the resident … and not based on any resident complaints.” The state subsequently cited Fonda Specialty Care for “failing to ensure that a resident who needs respiratory care, including tracheostomy care and tracheal suctioning, is provided such care,” and fined the home $10,000. The penalty was then reduced 35%, to $6,500, due to the lack of an appeal in the case. Manning was criminally charged with felony wanton neglect of a resident of a health care facility and later pleaded guilty to misdemeanor wanton neglect. Manning also entered into an agreement with the Iowa Board of Nursing in which she agreed to indefinitely suspend her practice of nursing. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE Courtesy of Iowa Capital Dispatch

NU regents to consider Clarkson-Nebraska Medicine next steps, 4.25% tuition increase

University of Nebraska President Dr. Jeffrey Gold, right, speaks with state senators and NU regents after a forum with dozens of Nebraska state senators regarding NU's proposal to buy out the share of Nebraska Medicine owned by Clarkson Regional Health Services. At center is Dr. Bill Lydiatt, Clarkson's CEO, and at left is State Sen. Mike Jacobson of North Platte. Jan. 14, 2026. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner)LINCOLN — The University of Nebraska Board of Regents will move one step closer Thursday to becoming the sole owner of Nebraska Medicine while considering whether to increase tuition as part of NU’s next annual budget. The regents will consider two related agenda items that would effectively reduce the $500 million needed to proceed with sole Nebraska Medicine membership to $300 million. Nebraska Medicine is the hospital, clinical and medical services partner to the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Rather than paying the full sum to Clarkson Regional Health Services for its 50% stake in the nonprofit, the other $200 million would serve as an “in-kind donation” back to NU. The University of Nebraska Board of Regents. Dec. 5, 2025. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner) Regents and Clarkson had originally agreed that, as part of the deal, Clarkson would donate $200 million back to NU, earmarked for the $2.19 billion “Project Health,” a longstanding NU endeavor to build up the future of health care and train the next generation of professionals. NU will still be on the hook for the full $500 million because of the earmark. NU has also agreed to pay Clarkson another $300 million to purchase related properties. Asked whether NU had raised enough funds in the past five months to close the transaction by June 30, the NU spokesperson said yes but did not elaborate. The spokesperson did not respond to multiple requests to confirm how the funds were raised. NU President Jeffrey Gold, in January, said raising funds would include debt restructuring and monetization of real estate bought under the agreement. Dr. Gold and regents committed to lawmakers that no taxpayer dollars, tuition or research funds would be diverted for the deal. ‘Everything’s lined up’ The deal is still expected to close by June 30. An NU spokesperson said regents might have to meet one more time this month to vote on amended nonprofit governance documents. “I think everything’s lined up, far as I know,” NU Regent Paul Kenney, board chair, told the Nebraska Examiner on Tuesday. “I think everything’s progressing as it ought to.” Regent Paul Kenney of Amherst, chair of the NU Board of Regents. April 23, 2025. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner) NU leaders and regents first announced the Nebraska Medicine deal Jan. 2 after more than a year of behind-closed-doors conversations, which were subject to multiple nondisclosure agreements. After initially setting a vote for one week after the announcement, state lawmakers requested more time. Regents delayed to Jan. 15, when they unanimously voted in favor of the deal. At the time, the now-former leaders of the Nebraska Medicine Board of Directors protested the transaction and filed a lawsuit the following week seeking to block the deal. Gold, the regents and Clarkson leaders shortly after replaced most board members and inserted Gold, Clarkson CEO Dr. Bill Lydiatt and another Clarkson representative alongside interim UNMC Chancellor H. Dele Davies as chair. All supported the deal, and the judge overseeing the case accepted a Nebraska Medicine-led motion to drop the suit. The Jan. 15 vote effectively allowed NU to proceed toward closing the deal while consolidating much of the future ins and outs of the transaction in the hands of Kenney. Kenney said his message to Nebraskans who might have asked questions over the past five months has been informing them about the history, status and success of Nebraska Medicine. a nonprofit under the NU-Clarkson banner since 1997. Third-straight tuition hike? Also Thursday, regents will consider approving NU’s $1.14 billion operating budget for the next year. The budget includes a legislatively approved 0.6% increase in state appropriations and a proposed 4.25% tuition hike. This would be the third straight year that regents have raised tuition after freezing tuition rates for three academic years during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Regents increased tuition by 3.5% in 2024 and 5% last year. The then-leaders of Nebraska Medicine, including Dr. Michael Ash, the nonprofit’s CEO, at right, and Lance Fritz, now-former chair of the Nebraska Medicine Board of Directors, hosted a forum Thursday with dozens of state lawmakers ahead of a University of Nebraska Board of Regents vote to buy out the 50% share of Nebraska Medicine co-owner, Clarkson Regional Health Services, the next day. Jan. 14, 2026. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner) NU Regents Kathy Wilmot of Beaver City and Rob Schafer of Beatrice opposed the budget last year in part due to the tuition increase. Gold, in a media statement, said raising tuition isn’t a decision made “lightly” and that NU strives to “deliver an extraordinary educational experience for each of our students. “The budget the board is set to consider reflects that commitment,” Gold said. “It preserves and strengthens our need- and merit-based scholarship programs, while ensuring we can continue providing an outstanding education that remains among the most affordable within our peer university group.” The budget would maintain free tuition for undergraduates whose families make $65,000 or less and appropriate an additional $1.5 million to expand the “presidential scholars” program, a free ride plus $5,000 annual stipend for high-performing Nebraskans based on the ACT. Kenney said regents looked across fellow Big Ten universities when examining tuition. He said NU campuses, compared to peers, would still have the second-lowest rates in the Big Ten. Said Kenney: “We want affordable tuition, but we also have to be able to compete in the marketplace.” Other agenda items This year, regents also hope to fund salary increases for UNMC and University of Nebraska-Lincoln faculty, plus staff across NU, after freezing salaries amid budget cuts. The latest proposal calls for 3% merit salary bumps for non-union employees.  Interim University of Nebraska Medical Center Chancellor Dele Davies. Jan. 15, 2026. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner) Faculty at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and the University of Nebraska at Kearney, who are unionized, will receive raises subject to collective bargaining contracts. After finalizing more than $40 million in cuts last year, NU’s latest proposed budget calls for another $8 million in cuts. An NU spokesperson said the expected reductions include previously approved voluntary faculty separations and other past approved spending cuts.  The spokesperson did not specify how much in new cuts would be needed. Also on Thursday’s agenda: A detailed proposal to move forward with an NU system-wide institute on advanced artificial intelligence. Confirmation of Dr. Davies as UNMC’s next permanent chancellor. Davies has served as interim chancellor since July 2024, when Gold assumed the presidency after 10 years as the medical center’s chancellor. Major renovations to UNL’s Selleck Quadrangle housing complex and dining hall. The project, estimated to cost $368 million, would be funded through internal bonds and cash reserves. Construction would begin next year with the first phase done by August 2030 and the second and final phase completed by August 2032. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX. Courtesy of Nebraska Examiner

Illinois bill would ban drivers from wearing smart glasses

An Illinois bill would ban drivers from wearing smart glasses. Illinois is the first state in the nation to ban drivers from wearing the AI-powered glasses. Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias says distracted driving is the 'drunk driving' of our generation. In 2024, more than 3,200 people were killed and 315,000 hurt in crashes involving [...]

Economy, healthcare costs among top concerns for rural Iowa communities

A declining rural economy and the high cost of healthcare are top concerns for rural Iowans, according to a panel of community leaders. Pictured here is the town of Exira in western Iowa. (Photo by Cami Koons/Iowa Capital Dispatch)A panel of rural Iowans said Tuesday that a declining rural economy and high cost of healthcare are top concerns as the nation celebrates its 250th anniversary.  The community leaders spoke as part of the Rural Listening Project-250, a multistate research project assessing what rural Americans care about, and said strong community involvement will be the best way to influence change. In a series of polls and listening sessions, researchers asked rural communities in Alaska, Iowa, Utah, Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska, Colorado, Indiana, and Montana questions about urgent challenges facing rural America, concerns of federal overreach, modern functioning of the U.S. Constitution and the state of politics.  Overall, respondents expressed concerns of executive overreach, a desire for age and term limits in office, a feeling that corporate money in politics was a “major threat” to decision-making and distrust in both major political parties.  SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX. The majority of Iowa panelists said that while they have been independents in the past, they have recently aligned themselves with one of the major parties.  Tammara Baker, a small business owner in Chariton, said she registered as a Democrat to vote in the recent primary election, but also because she was “very frustrated and disgusted” with the “extraordinary and frivolous spending” of the currently Republican-dominated government.  Doyle Turner, a retired farmer from Woodbury County, said he recently registered as a Republican to vote in the primary election, after nearly 20 years as an independent.  “The super majority that the Republicans have in our state Legislature is really hurting us,” Doyle said as explanation for his decision. “They don’t work across the aisle at all.”  Independent voters, who comprised 36% of respondents in the research project, said both Democratic and Republican parties are responsible for an “authoritarian trend” in the country. Seventy percent of independent voters in the research said the country has been “moving in a more authoritarian direction ‘over the last couple of decades.’” Larkin Christy, a city council member from Kellogg, said rather than a political party, he wanted to vote for someone who actually cared about the issues that he feels are plaguing his community: education, health and cost of living. “We all are one nation under God. It’s always been that way,” Christy said. “It should be that way, but for some reason, in our country, in our 250th year, it seems like we are being pushed to believe this narrative that it’s red versus blue … you just vote all red or you vote all blue, and you hope that one of those parties fixes the problems.  “For far too long we’ve been able to see the results don’t work out that way, so I think this is a good year for us, as Iowans, to flip that script,” he said. Rural economy Christy said as a 26-year-old homeowner in rural Iowa, he is living part of the American dream. But, he said those opportunities are drying up in Iowa as it becomes more difficult to make it in a small town.  He said as the cost of living increases, rural towns have fewer job opportunities to make up the difference. Corporations outcompete the local companies and as more businesses close down, families leave town, school districts shrink and are less able to meet the educational needs of Iowans.  Baker, a 65-year-old living in Chariton, said the effects are also felt on older Iowans on fixed incomes. She said they want to stay in their rural towns, but often can’t find local jobs to pay for the increases in their property taxes and insurance premiums.  “I feel a lot of people in this area feel like the government is not listening to all of us and people are really struggling,” Baker said. “It’s a very difficult situation for all of us in rural Iowa – we love the lifestyle, but it also does not offer a lot of opportunity, unfortunately.”  Turner, a farmer and rancher, said the agricultural economy has also contributed to the rural decline. He blamed the government subsidies for row crops, the vertical integration of livestock industries and a general trend to scale up the family farm.  “We need to get back to where we’re adding value to our products, because that’s where the real profit is, and that’s where the opportunity is, and that’s where we can bring our kids back and keep our kids here,” Turner said. Rural health Christy said Iowa water quality and its potential ties to the high cancer rates, is a factor affecting people’s decisions to stay in the state or move elsewhere.  Jesica Santana Colon, a cancer survivor, nurse and mother of a child with cancer, said she doesn’t know if the high nitrate levels in her well water caused her cancer, but she does know that the cost of treating her cancer and keeping it at bay is high.  Santana Colon said she had to travel over and hour from her hometown of Logan to get adequate care, and she has struggled to find health insurance that will accept her preexisting conditions.   “I don’t have the answers at this moment on what we need to fix, but I can tell you, as a nurse that’s employed dealing with cancer, taking care of people with cancer, we definitely have an epidemic here,” Santana Colon said.  Abi Calvert, a medical social worker from Sioux City, said she worries the changes to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act authorized by the 2025 enacted One Big Beautiful Bill Act, will “make it harder to get the care that we need.”  A KFF analysis estimates roughly 80,000 more people in Iowa will become uninsured because of the law. Calvert said this will impact all Iowans as they deal with higher health insurance premiums across the market and busier hospitals when uninsured Iowans can no longer access routine care.  “I shouldn’t have to beg my leaders to help me and my family members for the healthcare that they deserve,” Calvert said. “I feel like our leaders have been letting us down – by taking away the care that we need – to score political points. We need leaders to step up and just put everyday Iowans first.”  The Rural Listening Project found that across the board, respondents were “eager” for major reforms, like term and age limits, to repair political institutions. The project also found that rural voters said money and corporations have too much sway in politics, with many saying politicians are corrupt and “only care about staying in office.”  The panelists from rural Iowa said they believe the problems in their communities will be “solved from the bottom up.” To them, that means more community pride, greater involvement in their local governments and a willingness to speak up.  “You can only ignore people with small voices for so long until those small voices come together and create one big voice,” Christy said.  SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE Courtesy of Iowa Capital Dispatch

Rock Island man faces first-degree murder charge in East Moline homicide

Early Tuesday morning, officers found a victim with multiple gunshot wounds at an East Moline apartment complex.

University of Iowa researcher helps with breakthrough study on white dwarf stars

Dr. Dustin Swarm discussed why the white dwarfs are so difficult to study and what the team learned about them thanks to a high-powered x-ray telescope.

Prosecutors say a Davenport couple severely abused a child. Now, the biological mother wants him back

New court documents detail allegations that a 10-year-old Davenport boy was secretly confined, deprived of basic needs and physically abused, leading to injuries doctors say could have been fatal without immediate care.

Man no longer missing Rock Island police say

The Rock Island Police Department is asking the community for help in finding a man reported missing.

NJ panel OKs bill to boost state oversight of struggling hospitals

Lawmakers advanced a bill Monday to increase penalties and state oversight of struggling hospitals in New Jersey following the closure of Heights University Hospital in Jersey City earlier this year. (Photo by Anne-Marie Caruso/New Jersey Monitor)The state health commissioner would have far more power to regulate and significantly fine struggling hospitals in New Jersey under a proposal advancing in the state Assembly in the wake of a Jersey City hospital closure earlier this year.  Democrats who make up the majority of the Assembly Health Infrastructure Committee voted in favor of a bill Monday that would allow the health commissioner to block operations at healthcare facilities that are facing bankruptcy or major regulatory violations.  The bill would also permit the state to ask a court to appoint someone to run the facility if the owners don’t take prompt action to address problems. It would prohibit future hospitals from being developed on land they lease through certain arrangements, and it calls for some regulatory violation penalties to be increased by nearly 50,000%, from $25 to $12,500.   Republicans on the committee abstained, echoing concerns raised by the New Jersey Hospital Association that the bill, introduced June 1, is overly broad and unnecessary, given extensive state regulations already in place. A Senate version of the bill has yet to have a hearing. A similar measure introduced in the Senate in May was also inspired by the Jersey City hospital closure . Assemblywoman Katie Brennan (D-Hudson) said the shuttering of Heights University Hospital in Jersey City highlights the need for additional state controls. Heights University, long known as Christ Hospital, closed in March in a way the state alleges violates state law. The state Department of Health is now in court with its owners, Hudson Regional Health, with the two sides clashing over the state’s hospital closure process. Assemblywoman Katie Brennan (Photo by Anne-Marie Caruso/New Jersey Monitor) Brennan testified Monday that Jersey City is “now considered a healthcare desert.” “Its closure creates concerns about reduced healthcare access, longer emergency room wait times at neighboring hospitals, increased travel time for patients, and greater strain on the remaining Hudson County healthcare facilities,” she said. Brennan said Hudson Regional ignored the state’s closure process, depriving Jersey City residents, workers, community leaders, and policymakers of a chance to plan for future healthcare needs. The bill would ensure this process takes place in the future, she said.  But Christine Stearns, representing the hospital association, said New Jersey already has a robust system of acute care oversight and many of the proposed new controls in the bill lack specificity. The association is most concerned about the plan to allow judges to appoint a temporary operator or receiver of a hospital, she said, something that could “destabilize” complex hospital operations and erode the care the state aims to protect.   “Closure of Christ Hospital did raise important questions about hospital oversight, financial stability, and continuity of care. However, one hospital’s experience should not define the regulatory framework for every hospital in New Jersey,” she said.   Hudson Regional Health, which runs three other hospitals in Hudson County — several on sites it leases in ways the bill would prohibit going forward — has insisted Heights University was financially unsustainable without more state support. A spokesman did not immediately return a request for comment on the bill.  SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX. Courtesy of New Jersey Monitor

Kennedy, Turner tout Trump policies during stops with Barrett in Mid-Michigan

U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner and U.S. Rep. Tom Barrett (R-Charlotte). June 16, 2026. | Photo by Kyle Davidson/Michigan AdvanceAfter hosting U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright in Lansing the day prior, U.S. Rep. Tom Barrett on Tuesday welcomed the heads of the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Housing and Urban Development to the Lansing area to make the case for the Trump Administration’s policies. DHHS Secretary and anti-vaccine advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sat down with the Charlotte Republican at Country Mill Farm for a discussion with members of the Michigan Farm Bureau hosted by the America First Policy Institute. The panel largely centered on Kennedy’s food-as-medicine approach to health, with Kennedy speaking out against ultraprocessed foods, promoting locally grown fruits and vegetables and pointing to the Trump Administration’s efforts to promote nutrition in medical education. U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at an event hosted by the America First Policy Institute in Charlotte, Mich. June 16, 2026. | Photo by Kyle Davidson/Michigan Advance “If it comes in a package, you probably shouldn’t be eating it, particularly if it looks like it belongs in the package and that it will last many hundreds of years in that package. Those are not things you should be putting in your body,” Kennedy said. “And then the other thing I would say is, you know, patronize local farms, buy local produce, go to the farmers market, encourage your school to your kids’ schools to develop programs where they can get fresh apples and fresh cherries and buy them directly from the farmers, because that’s what’s going to keep farms like this in production and in profit.” Near the end of the discussion, two individuals were escorted out by security for challenging Kennedy on Medicaid cuts and the high cost of health insurance.  @michiganadvance Two women were escorted out of a panel discussion featuring DHHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and U.S. Rep. Tom Barrett (R-Charlotte) for challenging the secretary on Medicaid cuts and insurance costs. #rfkjr ♬ original sound – Michigan Advance While the One Big Beautiful Bill Act cut spending on Medicaid by nearly $1 trillion over the next decade, Kennedy falsely said “we cut nothing from Medicaid,” pointing to a report from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office which estimates Medicaid spending would increase 47% over the next 10 years. Health policy experts told FactCheck.org, a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center, that this increase is due to population changes and increasing healthcare costs, and that increased spending does not mean there were no cuts to begin with. Responding to the question of health insurance, Barrett pointed to his Care Over Profits Act which would require insurance companies to use 85% of revenue from insurance premiums on medical care and quality improvement and penalize agents and brokers who fraudulently create or modify Affordable Care Act marketplace plans without a patient’s consent. Following Kennedy’s stop in Charlotte, Barrett toured The Residences at Walter French alongside Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner, Michigan House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Township) and Lansing Mayor Andy Schor.  A former middle school, the building was redeveloped into affordable apartments, with 19 units reserved for residents who were formerly unhoused. The project broke ground in 2023, before opening its doors in January 2025. Turner told reporters the Trump Administration is focused on ensuring Americans can achieve the dream of homeownership, while Barrett discussed efforts in Congress to improve access to housing, noting he had cosponsored legislation to bar large companies from purchasing single-family residences.  Barrett also pointed to his American Dream Act, introduced alongside Rep. John McGuire (R-Va.), which incentivizes older Americans to sell properties valued under $500,000 to first-time homebuyers. Lansing Mayor Andy Schor, U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner, U.S. Rep. Tom Barrett (R-Charlotte) and Michigan House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Township) at a tour of The Residences at Walter French. June 16, 2026. | Photo by Kyle Davidson/Michigan Advance Blitz of cabinet visits signals White House buy-in for Barrett Michigan’s 7th Congressional District, which Barrett represents, is one of the most politically competitive congressional districts in the nation, with the nonpartisan Cook Political Report rating the district as a “toss-up.” Speaking with Michigan Advance Tuesday afternoon, Andrea Bitely, a political consultant and the owner of Bitely Communications, said while the cabinet secretaries’ visits were not campaign stops, they were designed to showcase to residents of the district what Barrett’s been working on and that he has support from the White House. From energy to housing to healthcare, the White House is focused on bringing people to the Lansing area that are relevant to the major issues Michiganders are facing, Bitely said. While the Democratic primary to challenge Barrett is heavily competitive, with former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink, retired Navy SEAL Matt Maasdam and political organizer William Lawrence competing for the nomination, Barrett is unopposed.  “There is no Republican primary, which means Barrett is the candidate, and so the Trump administration is doing everything they can to hold on to the U.S. House,” Bitely said, noting that it’s common for presidents to send cabinet-level secretaries to stops in highly competitive seats. Courtesy of Michigan Advance

Suspect faces 1st-degree murder charge after fatal shooting in East Moline

A 21-year-old man is being held in Rock Island County Jail on a charge of first-degree murder after gunfire in East Moline, according to a news release from the East Moline Police Department. At 6:30 a.m. Tuesday, June 16, East Moline police were dispatched to the Crown Forest Apartment Complex, 1275 45th Ave. Court, for [...]

Ben Newcomb, former Augustana athletic director and head football coach, dies at 91

Newcomb led the Vikings to the CCIW title and their first-ever berth in the NCAA Division III playoffs in 1975.

NC lawmakers seek $5 million to study psychedelic medicines

Psilocybin mushrooms hold promise for some suffering from PTSD or severe depression. Senate Bill 1018 would establish a Breakthrough Therapies research fund and appropriate $5.4 million to study similar psychedelic medicines. (Photo: iStock/GettyImages)Long before Rep. Allen Chesser (R-Nash) was a member of the North Carolina House of Representatives, he was a member of the U.S. Army National Guard. He completed over 100 combat missions in Iraq as a turret gunner. “I was fortunate enough to make it home, but many of us didn’t make it home. And even those of us that did make it home still fight battles on a daily basis, and unfortunately, some of us are still losing those battles,” said Chesser. Chesser said the country loses between 17 and 44 veterans to suicide every single day, which underscores the need for newer, better interventions for mental health. He believes psychedelic drugs could help. Senate Bill 1018, which has bipartisan backing, would establish a Breakthrough Therapies research grant fund and appropriate $5.4 million to study psychedelic medicines to treat military veterans, first responders and other trauma-impacted populations. Rep. Allen Chesser (R) is joined by a bipartisan group of lawmakers and advocates at a June 16, 2026 press conference to support the research of psychedelics. (Photo: NCGA livestream) “Psychedelic-assisted therapy, chemical compounds like MDMA for PTSD, and psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression have shown in clinical trials results that traditional medicines cannot match,” Chesser told reporters during a Tuesday press conference. Sen. Bob Brinson (R-Beaufort), a U.S. Army veteran, is a primary sponsor of the bill in the Senate. Brinson said momentum is building at the federal level to cut through the red tape and speed up research, review and access to breakthrough therapies. President Donald Trump in April signed an executive order for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to fast-track the review of psychedelic medicines for severe cases of depression and anxiety. “We know not every veteran is broken. But we also know that for veterans who do need help, no single treatment works for everyone,” Brinson said. “I believe scientifically proven medical treatment should be an all-of-the above opportunity for those who need them.” Sen. Sophia Chitlik (D-Durham) signed onto the bill when a combat Marine with persistent PTSD in her own district told her he had to leave the country to get access to breakthrough therapies. “Study after study, including from our own NIH, have shown that psychedelics can yield durable, measurable results for treating trauma and depression,” said Chitlik. “I watched for years these incredible scientific developments scale. In some cases, just two to three supervised sessions of MDMA have effectively cured PTSD.” With 600,000 veterans living in North Carolina, Chitlik said it makes sense for the state to play a leading role in advancing innovative treatments when the “inevitable reclassification of psychedelics” occurs at the federal level. Gina Giorgio, founder of the advocacy group Carolinas for Care, said the FDA has already designated seven psychedelic medicines as breakthrough therapies and more than 30 states are advancing legislation to be ready. Beyond medical marijuana, a bipartisan group of NC legislators wants to study psychedelics “For the North Carolinians who have spent years cycling through medications and therapies that haven’t worked, hope is the thing that keeps them here. Psychedelic-assisted therapies are giving that hope back to people,” said Giorgio. Chesser pushed to pass similar legislation three years ago, only to see the bill stall in committee. He’s hopeful that as more members have had a chance to learn more about the benefits of psychedelic medicines, they will find the funding to study them. Courtesy of NC Newsline

Kick off summer fun at the Henry County Fair

It's a sure sign of summer as the sights and sounds of rides, food, exhibitions and animals fill the Henry County Fairgrounds! Bradleigh Reed joined Our Quad Cities News with all the fun of the Henry County Fair. For more information, click here.

21-year-old arrested on murder charge after shooting

A 21-year-old Rock Island man was arrested on a murder charge after a shooting in East Moline Tuesday.

New study finds New Mexico underestimates, fails to investigate federal food assistance fraud

These two New Mexico smoke shops each received more than $400,000 in 2025 in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Payments, according to the Legislative Finance Committee. (Photo courtesy Legislative Finance Committee)New Mexico legislative analysts tasked with assessing fraud among state recipients of federal food assistance reported Tuesday that the state’s low fraud rate may be misleading and stems from a failure to collect data and investigate fraud allegations. The Legislative Finance Committee’s 78-page report, six months in the making, resulted from a $50,000 appropriation Republican state legislators secured in November. At the time, the Legislature had just agreed to allocate up to $162.5 million in state funding to pay Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits amid a federal government shutdown. New Mexico has the nation’s highest SNAP reliance rate — 21.5% — of any state in the country and typically oversees more than $90 million a month in federal SNAP benefits that go to more than 445,000 New Mexicans, or roughly one in five. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX. The Legislative Finance Committee’s report, which analysts presented to lawmakers on Tuesday during an interim Legislative Committee meeting in Ruidoso, found that New Mexico’s fraud rate was .04%, far less than the national average of between 1% and 2%.  But analysts stressed that figure underestimates the state’s actual fraud rates and buttressed their assertion by providing examples of “high-risk” SNAP transactions they said the New Mexico Health Care Authority, including its inspector general’s office, should have caught.   “The HCA Office of the Inspector General is under-investigating and under-identifying potential SNAP fraud,” LFC analyst Clayton Lobaugh told lawmakers. The transactions the LFC flagged include an estimated $85 million annually that New Mexico SNAP recipients spend in other states. While recipients can spend SNAP dollars wherever they like, repeated out-of-state SNAP spending likely means recipients are violating the state’s requirements that recipients live in New Mexico.  The LFC review also found two smoke shops in the state that each collected more than $400,000 in SNAP payments in 2025 — suspiciously high amounts for businesses that don’t primarily sell food. The LFC did not name the smoke shops but included photos of them, including one with a large sign announcing that it accepted SNAP debit cards.  The federal USDA authorizes SNAP retailers, though analysts said the state could have flagged the smoke shops to the USDA. In addition to those specific cases, the report also looked closely at how the HCA’s Office of the Inspector General handled fraud allegations it received through a state telephone and email tipline.  Between fiscal years 2018 and 2023, the office received 9,953 tips but completed only 312 investigations, according to the report, which amounts to roughly 3%.  The HCA also disqualifies the smallest percentage of SNAP recipients after findings of potential fraud than any other state in the country, according to the report.  For instance, in fiscal year 2023, only 18 SNAP recipients were disqualified, amounting to 0.004% of the state’s SNAP recipients.  That same year, the national average disqualification rate was 0.1% — a rate 250 times higher than New Mexico’s.  Early results of NM SNAP study show few fraud cases brought to court HCA Secretary Kari Armijo told lawmakers that she largely agreed with the LFC report’s findings, including that the inspector general’s lack of fraud investigations “is an area that the agency needs to do better on.” But she said the inspector general’s office often doesn’t investigate cases that allege small amounts of fraud, based partially on local prosecutors’ unwillingness to bring criminal charges unless large amounts of money are stolen. And investigating fraud takes a long time, which also means the agency might be trying to only go after major cases. “We have an investigation backlog right now,” she told lawmakers. “Investigations don’t get cleared quickly. They take a lot of time.” Republicans in both chambers of the Legislature said the report shows New Mexico’s food system “is broken” and accused the HCA of willfully enabling fraud. A system that rarely verifies, seldom audits, and barely investigates fraud is a system designed to fail,” House Republicans said in a statement Tuesday morning. But LFC Chair Nathan Small (D-Las Cruces) noted during Tuesday’s hearing that the median income of SNAP households is roughly $30,000, less than half the $77,000 median salary statewide. SNAP fraud that comprises a fraction of overall spending should not be used as reason to restrict eligibility, he said.  “These are households — without this help — their ability to sort of go and make it through a day, much less a week, much less a month, much less a year, is very, very challenging,” he said, “particularly as we see elevated fuel costs, which are going to translate into elevated food costs, because of the war on Iran.” Courtesy of Source New Mexico

Burlington man sentenced to 10 years in prison for having over 9.5 pounds of meth

Michael A. Patoir, 48, was sentenced on June 10 for possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine, according to a media release.

Treasury officials harangued over switch to new tax platform that delayed state refunds

Michigan Deputy Treasurer Kavita Kale answers questions during a Michigan House Oversight Committee meeting in Lansing, Mich. June 16, 2026 | ScreenshotIssues with the state’s new tax processing system, which was transitioned away from a 40-year-old legacy system to an updated platform last year, were at the center of a tense Tuesday meeting of the House Oversight Committee. Members of the committee from both sides of the aisle aired numerous grievances with the new GenTax platform and some of the headaches it had caused this year for their constituents — namely, late or delayed tax refund payments and incorrect tax adjustment letters. Meanwhile, Kavita Kale, the state’s deputy treasurer, noted that the platform had enhanced tools to mitigate risk, prevent fraud and offer more system integrity than its aging predecessor. Kale, who was joined by Theresa Newtown, the state’s director of revenue compliance, and Katina Litterini, Michigan’s director of the tax administration services division, did, however, acknowledge flaws in the system and some of the issues facing taxpayers in the year following the system update. Officials from the department promised improvements, and pointed to a notice on the department’s website acknowledging the setbacks. They also told House Oversight members that they would waive penalties for affected taxpayers.SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX. “We have heard your concerns regarding delayed refunds, difficulty reaching the department, and the resulting strain on your offices and your constituents,” Kale said. The GenTax software, produced by Fast Enterprises, is described as an “off-the-shelf” product, which typically means that it does not need heavy customization to fit the tax or accounting needs of governments, businesses or organizations. Litterini said it was a national leader in tax system modernization, and is used in half of the U.S. state revenue agencies. Litterini said the new system provided the state with e-services for taxpayers and filers, like document uploads, but also offered new avenues for residents to reach out directly to specific Michigan Department of Treasury divisions. Out of the 5 million returns it collected during the 2025 tax season, which were due in April, the new system paid out more than $3 billion in refunds. Of those 5 million returns, Litterni said the system processed 90% of those returns automatically, which means a tax department official did not have to manually intervene in processing. Only 10% of those returns required intervention, mostly on the basis of needing more information or an identity check. In terms of fraud prevention, Litterini said the new system was an improvement for the department in identifying reporting inconsistencies or physical address match errors. That said, Litterini did say that the department, through its implementation of the new system, experienced customer service issues.  According to a report published Monday by WDIV-TV, 5% of tax filers were still waiting on refunds from the department, and that amounted to nearly 250,000 people. Melissa Snyder, the division administrator with the individual income tax division, told the TV station that the changes were necessary but were not without their growing pains. Katina Litterini, Michigan’s director of the tax administration services division within the Michigan Department of Treasury, answers questions during a Michigan House Oversight Committee hearing in Lansing, Mich. June 16, 2026 | Screenshot There were also at least 27,000 erroneous notices sent to taxpayers this year from the Treasury department, with some noting that filers owed taxes when they did not — another system growing pain due to faulty fields or mismatched information. Some of the withheld refund issues had less to do with the program itself, Litterini said, than it dealt with the way the federal Internal Revenue Service initiated its state income tax levy program. Litterini noted that the federal program is used to send existing tax debts to the states, and automatically applies Michigan refunds toward that debt. It had been paused during the COVID-19 pandemic and the debt exploded to $18 billion this year. Michigan offset $8 million of that debt thus far. “The impacted taxpayers may not receive a refund, or the refund may have been reduced as a result,” Litterini said. The adjustment letters were caused by a calculation field that was misread by the new system, Litterini added, and while 27,000 letters were issued, that represented just 1% of Michigan taxpayers. A jam up in their customer service division occurred as they fielded complaints on those issues. This year, Litterini said that there was one instance of 65 individuals who each called more than 100 times, resulting in 11,000 phone calls.  In an effort to field more phone calls with faster resolutions, Litterini said the state was moving to another upgraded system with a streamlined process and quicker responses. The department also took what it called was immediate action on the erroneous letters. “We have listened to their feedback, we have taken a lot of recommendations, and we’ve worked collaboratively to come up with a better solution for 2026 this upcoming 2027 year for the notice of adjustment letters,” Litterini said. Lawmakers on the House Oversight Committee were not necessarily impressed. Several noted that they had received hundreds of complaints from constituents on the full spectrum of issues that had plagued the new GenTax system, and that they still couldn’t get relief. House Oversight Chair Rep. Jay DeBoyer (R-Clay) said the problem really boiled down to people expecting money from the state when they needed it most, and that the delays were hurting low-income families. “One of the individuals contacted through another representative, they were going to be evicted because they were expecting that money to come to them,” DeBoyer said. “The official response from Treasury was, ‘well, there’s no court case filed yet for eviction, so we don’t see that as a hardship.’” Michigan House Oversight Committee Chair Rep. Jay DeBoyer (R-Clay) questions members of the Michigan Department of Treasury during a House Oversight Committee meeting in Lansing, Mich. June 16, 2026 | Screenshot DeBoyer also said that while taxes are often complex, not all of the returns filed with the state are that complicated, and that even easy returns were jammed up due to missing field information or problems with the new system. “The issue we’re seeing is that you have individuals who’ve received a letter that are uncertain whether or not they owe or they don’t owe,” DeBoyer said. “Then they receive letters that may say that they owe right after the fact of the erroneous letter, and then they’re saying that you owe that money, and here’s the penalty and interest on the late payment.” Kale said that the department has heard the concerns and solved many of the problems, but she admitted that in some cases, the department was not entirely clear on what was happening with those returns. “It did not work out well for the 27,000 letters, but we were proactive, and we want to be good fiscal stewards,” Kale said. “And to that end, we met with our partners, sorted it out within 30 days, we rectified the issues, and then followed up with those communities. … It’s not picture perfect, we get that, but we’ve also done everything we can to do better.” When asked if the department would consider waiving penalties and interest on the erroneous tax demands as they are sorted, Litterini said yes, the department already considered that for those negatively affected by the letters, and that residents were made aware. Courtesy of Michigan Advance

At 250, the Declaration of Independence still sparks hard questions in class

At 250, the Declaration of Independence still sparks hard questions in classAmong longtime history teacher Karalee Wong Nakatsuka’s most prized possessions are two nearly identical T-shirts with very different meanings.One comes from Philadelphia’s Museum of the American Revolution, celebrating the Founding Fathers’ signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and their fight for freedom from the British Crown.The second is from Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C., where an assassin killed President Abraham Lincoln 89 years after the Declaration’s signing. The Civil War, fought to free the nation’s nearly 4 million enslaved people, had effectively ended five days before the president was shot.Both T-shirts bear the slogan: “Created Equal.”It’s not lost on Nakatsuka, the child of Chinese immigrants, that the nation took its time bestowing the same universal gift from the Declaration — “All men are created equal” — on African Americans.And this isn’t an abstract concept to her mostly Asian eighth-grade students at First Avenue Middle School in Arcadia, California, who are struggling to process news about birthright citizenship, ICE arrests and deportations in their Los Angeles suburb.“From the beginning,” she said, “we talk about the Declaration.”As its 250th anniversary nears, teachers like Nakatsuka face the challenge of bringing the nation’s founding documents and the Revolution alive while presenting an accurate account of what happened — and what it all means today.Add to that the task of teaching in a politically divided nation that now holds a microscope to the founders, casting them as less-than-heroic slaveholders and capitalists even as advocates for patriotic education urge teachers to exalt them as godlike heroes.At East Kentwood High School in western Michigan, history teacher Matthew Vriesman takes an approach similar to Nakatsuka’s, challenging his students to look past their preconceptions of documents like the Declaration and ask: “Who was it originally for? Who is it for now?”The 250th, he told The 74 for this article, is a perfect time to get students to think deeply about the Declaration’s vision of “all men created equal” and ask: How’s that experiment going?“If you really think about it, high school history class is an incredible opportunity,” Vriesman said. “This is the last time where people in this country are forced to sit and think and write about the founding values. This is the last time.”Civics teachers ‘are not OK’Americans in 2026 — and this generation especially — could probably use a lesson in those values.Just 47% of adults in a recent survey could correctly identify why the original 13 Colonies declared independence from Britain in 1776. And in a recent survey of Gen Z, the youngest of whom are now in high school, researchers at Tufts University found that they hold troubling attitudes toward democracy. Nearly 1 in 3 displayed “dismissive detachment,” with low confidence in our governing system and higher-than-average support for authoritarianism. Nearly two-thirds displayed a “passive appreciation” for democracy, saying they trusted the government but were complacent about politics.As the Declaration’s 250th anniversary looms, teachers say they’re working in a climate of increased scrutiny and uncertainty. In a recent iCivics survey, more than half said teaching basic civics concepts now feels “difficult,” with nearly 6 in 10 worrying about potential backlash for teaching something the “wrong way.” About 20% said they’ve experienced actual backlash for lessons they’ve taught. More than 1 in 3 said they’ve changed or removed lessons they typically teach because of the climate in their school or community.“Civics teachers are not OK, and that stinks, no matter what year it is,” said Emma Humphries, chief education officer of the nonprofit group iCivics, which produced the survey. “But it’s really awful when we should be in a more celebratory mood.”The group designs curricula and games about civic education and history. In preparation for the anniversary, iCivics created a campaign called We Can Teach Hard Things, which features the tagline, “We don’t stop teaching algebra when working with polynomials gets hard. Nor should we stop teaching civics when explaining the rule of law gets hard.”Despite the pressures, teachers say they’re diving in, with about 8 in 10 saying the Revolutionary period and the founding documents are “high priorities” for their classrooms. The founders, the Declaration and the American Revolution are by far teachers’ favorite historical topics, according to a 2024 survey by the American Historical Association.Teaching ‘historical empathy’As her fifth-graders toured the hushed galleries of the Revolution Museum in Philadelphia one recent morning, teacher Samantha Dowis watched as they thrilled to the muskets, the outfits and to Gen. George Washington’s actual tent, even if they were light on how it all fit together.Their tour guide led them from room to room, and the students could easily tell her who Washington was and that he’d crossed the Delaware River to their native New Jersey. But at the Battle of Trenton exhibit, when asked who the Hessians were, not a single hand went up. They were German mercenaries hired by the British to fight the Colonists.Dowis said she wasn’t worried. They’d barely begun learning about the Revolution, and were only now getting a sense that 2026 is somehow a significant anniversary. Greg Toppo // The 74 For younger students, she and others said, the challenge in teaching history turns on getting and keeping their attention and emphasizing compelling narratives built around political ideals — while often battling against misinformation or just random bits they encounter online.“I feel like we teach them more now than when we were younger,” Dowis said. “They learn more content now than I remember from when I was in school.”From an early age, kids understand concepts like voting rights, she said. So when the lessons turn to the colonies, realizing “they didn’t have a say in government” and rebelled, that resonates.Dowis, who grew up nearby in the Philadelphia neighborhood of Bridesburg, said her students occasionally want to talk about fraught issues of race and slavery. She avoids politics if she can, but if students ask questions about how different races or groups of people experienced history, “we definitely talk about it,” she said. “We make sure to hear everybody’s perspective, and not just one voice.” By the time they leave Dowis’ fifth grade classroom in Maple Shade, New Jersey, they’ve learned about enslavement not just in the American colonies, but among the Mayan, Incan and Aztec cultures, among others.While many adults learned history with a heavy emphasis on names, dates and significant battles, educators now often say they take a more story-centric approach that invites students to experience what’s often called “historical empathy,” putting people into the shoes of those who lived history.“The more we can put it in terms of everyday people, and help people relate to those individuals, we find, the more successful we can be,” said Michael Hensinger, who oversees K-12 education for the Revolution Museum. “It can be really hard to relate to a general, a king, queen, somebody like that, which is often the lens through which a lot of history was taught when I was growing up.”So the museum frontloads stories of everyday people, soldiers and citizens alike, who found themselves caught up in war, such as Joseph Plumb Martin, a Connecticut teenager who joined the state militia in 1776 and defended New York City before re-enlisting for the war’s duration.The museum also highlights the story of London Pleasants, an enslaved 15-year-old in Virginia who in 1781 joined Loyalist forces under the command of Benedict Arnold. Two years earlier, the Crown had offered protection to slaves who fled to the British lines.“I think a lot of young people aren’t necessarily hungry for Revolutionary War history, but they are really fascinated by stories,” said Tyler Putnam, the museum’s senior manager for gallery interpretation.“Kids are curious,” said Lauren Tarshis, author of the young adult novel “I Survived The American Revolution, 1776.” “Right now, they’re going on YouTube and watching real stories about these things,” she said, not all of them historically accurate.Tarshis’ deeply researched “I Survived” series has grown to 25 books since 2017. Instead of shying away from difficult topics in history, she said, young people invite them in if there’s hope at the end.The Digital History Group’s Reading Like a Historian program leverages their curiosity with primary sources — maps, letters, paintings, diary entries — to help students answer key questions such as: Who actually shot first at the Battle of Lexington on April 19, 1775?Students start with a painting commissioned 200 years later by the Lexington Historical Society that offers a heroic image of colonists fighting back against the British. Then they examine a 1775 engraving by one of the American fighters showing colonists fleeing the scene. After that they read an account from a British officer who admits his men were firing without orders but who believes the colonists shot first. Finally, they read an account from colonists who, unsurprisingly, blame the British. Students must wrestle with competing accounts to try to make sense of it all.“History has never been uncontested,” said Joel Breakstone, a former Stanford History Education Group director who co-founded the group.‘A fundamentally good country’In 2026, teachers like Vriesman, whose district sits south of Grand Rapids, Michigan, must also help students understand U.S. history through the lens of new federal immigration policies that undermine their sense of “created equal.” The area has seen several immigration raids and arrests, prompting students recently to walk out of school in protest.Nonetheless, he said, each year he is impressed with his students’ willingness to embrace the Declaration’s ideals before he even tackles the document itself. His school district is among the most diverse in Michigan, with students from around the globe, bringing different religions, worldviews and life stories to class. But when pressed to share their beliefs, he said, virtually all hold “basic Enlightenment values.”All of his students, “from Somalia to farm country,” say they agree that people should be able to raise their families how they’d like and not be afraid to live in a society based on who they are or where they hail from.Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness — “They literally create this before they even know what the Declaration of Independence really is,” he said.That’s despite the fact that many students when they’re younger learn something more akin to a “founding myth” than actual U.S. history, said one of his students, 18-year-old Christina Le.“The founders are really seen as mythological figures in a sense, and they’re portrayed as more heroic,” she said. “But when you start studying them more, you see them more as flawed human beings who eventually brought that into the Constitutional Convention, even though they were trying to create these ideals.”Le, whose parents emigrated from Vietnam around 1999, said it’s important to understand the founders as “men who were created through the context of the Revolutionary War.” They fought the war based on ideals of liberty, she said, but refused to acknowledge the broader issue of whose liberty they were fighting for. “And we’re kind of still seeing the effects today.”Her classmate, 17-year-old Hawathiya Mulual, said she began thinking deeply about liberty and equal rights in middle school. She was just 11 in 2020, when police in Minneapolis killed George Floyd, triggering a racial reckoning nationwide around the use of police force on people of color.The child of Sudanese and Ethiopian refugees, Mulual said her interest in U.S. history and government took root “when you saw justice was so hard to achieve. Why was it so hard to condemn those police officers involved?”The 250th anniversary takes place at a time when history itself is under extreme political pressure. President Donald Trump last year signed an executive order pushing schools to promote “patriotic education,” and the U.S. Department of Education recently announced grants designed to promote “informed patriotism and love of country.” Matthew Hatcher // Getty Images Museums have protested as the administration pushes to rewrite historical displays to downplay the role of slavery. In Philadelphia, the National Park Service in January removed a set of large explanatory panels detailing the U.S. slave trade at the President’s House Site, where both George Washington and John Adams once lived. The city sued, and a federal judge, likening the administration to the propaganda-spewing Ministry of Truth in George Orwell’s “1984,” ordered the display to be reinstated while litigation over the move continues.While 2026 may seem for many a far cry from the U.S. bicentennial celebration in 1976, when the nation came together for fireworks, concerts and parades of tall ships, the Revolution Museum’s Putnam noted that politics divided those celebrations, too. The festivities of 1976, he said, fell on the heels of massive American traumas, such as the 1960s fight for civil rights, the end of the Vietnam War in 1975 and the Watergate scandal, which forced President Richard Nixon to resign in 1974. Tony Korod // Sygma via Getty Images What’s perhaps different, he said, is that this time around, a generation of historic scholarship has uncovered narratives of Native American, Black and women’s voices as part of the nation’s founding. “Even though those people were advocating for inclusion in 1976, there wasn’t the sort of social or scholarly body of material to say, ‘Oh, you’re interested in Black soldiers? Here’s a book that will help you tell a Revolutionary story.’”All the same, Trump has taken the opportunity to assert that U.S. students are “taught in school to hate their own country, and to believe that the men and women who built it were not heroes, but villains,” placing teachers in a political bind that’s mostly undeserved, said Brian Kisida, an associate professor at the University of Missouri and codirector of its Arts, Humanities, & Civic Engagement Lab.Kisida recalled giving a recent keynote address to the Missouri Council for Social Studies and wandering around the conference, listening in on teachers’ talks. “I thought there would be a little bit more left-wing-coded stuff” on offer, he recalled. “I didn’t see any of it.”Actually, he said, he was impressed with many of the presentations. “I would categorize most of the stuff as actually really damned good,” he said.Kisida’s recent research suggests that how U.S. history is taught these days can’t easily be reduced to a definitive narrative. On the one hand, a 2025 Education First survey found more than 1 in 3 high schoolers say their teachers “often” or “almost daily” argue that America is a fundamentally racist nation. But more than half say their teachers regularly discuss the progress made toward racial equality since the 1970s.He has also found that teachers, as a group, are actually more pro-America than the general public with 62% saying the U.S. is “a fundamentally good country.” Just 55% of adults overall said the same. The Education Next survey led by Kisida also found that 82% of teachers say it’s important for kids to learn about the U.S. Constitution and its core values, versus 75% of adults more broadly.But Kisida, who studies civics education, said familiarity with the Constitution is not enough. Holding up a pocket-sized Constitution, he said, “The people that stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, lots of them had these in their pockets.” Brent Stirton // Getty Images To go deeper, he said, we’ve got to understand why it’s important to enshrine ideas such as the separation of powers. “We have to do a better job of explaining why these principles embedded in the Constitution and other American values are actually essential to democratic life and sustaining the American experiment.”‘The whole story of our founding’Vriesman, the Michigan history teacher, said that while teachers in most places worry about the school board looking over their shoulder, on a day-to-day basis they’re more worried about keeping students engaged. And most students, he said, can easily see through patriotic narratives. “If we describe a world to them that doesn’t actually resonate with their reality — some of the overly patriotic, ‘You have to know about these 10 guys who solved all the world’s problems’ — that’s not a compelling argument.”His student Le laughed when asked about “patriotic history.” “I don’t really know how else to put it, but I think it’s stupid,” she said. Part of the fun of studying history is studying “struggle and resistance” — and the art, music and culture that they produce.“You don’t really love America and American ideals if you decide to ignore everything that America has done to rectify these issues that have been there since the beginning,” Le said. “I think that’s really the beauty of history. How boring would it be to only see one perspective, only one idea, that America has always been like this?”By now, most students are well aware of the founders’ inconsistencies, said Will Colglazier, a history teacher at Aragon High School in San Mateo, California. They know that many were slaveholders who espoused equality but had a narrow conception of who it was for.To deepen their understanding, he asks his students to double down on the details and read “a ton of documents” that, for instance, juxtapose Thomas Jefferson’s views on liberty with his views on slavery and race. They read a letter in which he writes of whipping one of his slaves.“You can’t unsee that,” Colglazier said. “You can’t un-know that once you read it. And I think that is something that’s new to them. It becomes more real and interesting.”All the same, those details shouldn’t become a roadblock to learning about the founders, said Ian Rowe, CEO and co-founder of Vertex Partnership Academies, a charter school in New York’s South Bronx neighborhood. Courtesy of Matthew Vriesman In response to what he and others saw as incomplete portrayals of U.S. history, he helped create 1776 Unites, which highlights stories of Black achievement from throughout our history. Rowe is also a senior fellow at the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute, but the curriculum is not associated with the overtly conservative 1776 curriculum developed by Hillsdale College.“You have to tell the whole story of our founding,” Rowe said, “warts and all. And you have to show how documents like The Declaration, the Bill of Rights, the Constitution, all of it, have enabled the country to move in a direction that is unparalleled in the world.”At Vertex, students each morning stand and recite the preamble to the Constitution: “We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”Those 52 words are key to the school’s mission of self-improvement, said Rowe. They point to a key truth: “We are active participants in the development of our society,” he said. “We are active participants in securing the blessings of liberty. It’s not left to someone else.”This article was co-published with The 19th, a nonprofit newsroom reporting on gender, politics, policy and power.This story was produced by The 74 and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.

The Other Brothers, June 28

Fronted by guitarist, harmonica player, and vocalist Eli Clark, who performs alongside bassist Johnny Parrish and drummer Jason Kadiwhompus, the acclaimed blues artists of The Other Brothers perform at Davenport's Gypsy Highway Bar & Grill on June 28, their exhilarating concert set co-presented by the Mississippi Valley Blues Society.

Radkey, June 27

Performing locally in support of their sophomore album Green Room and singles including "Games (Tonight)," "Better Than This," and "Strays," the sibling punk rockers of Radkey headline a June 27 concert at Rock Island's RIBCO, the young musicians praised by Atwood magazine for their “thick, slick rock and roll sound built on power chords and hypnotic vocal melodies.”

“Dancing Queen: Songs of ABBA,” July 1

On July 1, audiences at Rock Island's Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse are invited to sing, dance, and relive the golden age of pop with Dancing Queen: The Songs of ABBA, a celebration of joy, sparkle, and nostalgia featuring such unforgettable tines as "Waterloo," "The Winner Takes It All," "Fernando," and the timeless "Mamma Mia."

“Go Your Own Way: A Tribute to Fleetwood Mac,” July 2

Celebrating the beloved pop and rock band responsible for sales of more than 120 million to date, the touring concert event Go Your Own Way: A Tribute to Fleetwood Mac comes to Rock Island's Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse on July 2, taking audiences through a tour of the ensemble's classics from their Great Britain origins to their American debut and the addition of Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham.

Julie Doiron, June 26

Hailed by Pitchfork as an artist who "has remarkable control over her voice, folding simple sentences like origami to reveal surprising detail," Canadian singer/songwriter Julie Doiron headlines a June 26 concert at Davenport's Raccoon Motel, The Guardian adding that in her most recent album I Thought of You, Doiron's "smoky vocals blend hope with pain on this laid-back album of lost love and new beginnings."

Iraqi soccer fans celebrate end of 40-year World Cup drought

The Iraq national men's team hasn't played a World Cup in 40 years; a drought that ends Tuesday night, to the excitement of soccer fans in Dearborn, Michigan, home to a large Iraqi diaspora.

Pa. school nurses push for more staffing support, funding

Rep. Lisa Borowski (D-Delaware) pushes to increase school nurse staffing on June 16, 2026. (Photo by Whitney Downard/Pennsylvania Capital-Star) Natalie Javitt is a Pennsylvania Legislative Correspondents’ Association intern. Middle school nurse Kacie Blum said she had nearly 12,000 visits to her office this past academic year, seeing 60 to 75 students a day.  Blum’s local urgent care sees around 35 patients a day with multiple providers on staff, she said.  Providing care for students with diabetes, cystic fibrosis and cerebral palsy, along with working on individualized health plans and clinics, are a few things Blum is tasked with each day. But she said it’s only possible for her to deliver consistent and reliable care if she has the time and capacity to do it.  “There’s little room for a bathroom break, a lunch break or the planning periods I’m supposed to have for the administrative side of my day,” said Blum, who received the 2025-2026 School Nurse Excellence Award for Pennsylvania’s South Central Region. Pennsylvania is one of 12 states that has a school nurse staffing mandate. Other states like Alabama and Vermont require there be one school nurse for every 500 students. Blum, who works at York Suburban Middle School in York County, was one of 20 school nurses who traveled to the Capitol Tuesday to demand an update to Pennsylvania’s 75-year-old public school code governing nurse-to-student ratios and state funding for medical needs. A House bill proposed by Rep. Lisa Borowski (D-Delaware) would increase reimbursement rates and the required number of nurses per student in schools.   Currently, the code prescribes one school nurse per 1,500 students. That ratio would be cut in half to one nurse for every 750 students under Borowski’s House Bill 2285, bringing it in line with CDC recommendations.  Pennsylvania reimburses public schools for health service costs with a flat funding structure. The bill also seeks to increase this reimbursement rate by 30% per the average number of students to offset rising medical and service costs.  And it proposes limiting reimbursement to the school’s cost for providing care.  Borowski proposed the bill after meeting Leigh Ann Coary, a school nurse in the Tredyffrin/Easttown School District, that raised her concerns about nurses being stretched too thin. On an average day, Coary said, she sometimes sees more than 100 students, making it challenging to meet their individual needs and multitask.  “If I’m dealing with a medically-fragile student, I cannot also be in another hallway responding to an allergic reaction,” Coary said. “If I’m on the phone with a parent about a student in crisis, I cannot simultaneously be running to an emergency. When we are shortstaffed the question becomes, ‘Who is left waiting?’” Coary said school nursing laws should be updated to better reflect the unpredictability and variety of health crises students experience today.  The bill modernizes reimbursement instead of relying on an outdated funding system, but  policies won’t matter if staffing shortages aren’t addressed, she said.  Coary continued that nurses need to be recruited and retained by school districts so they don’t have to cover as many students.  Delaware County school nurse Leigh Ann Coary raised concerns about staffing ratios to Democrat Rep. Lisa Borowski, inspiring proposed legislation. (Photo by Natalie Javitt/Pennsylvania Capital-Star) The nursing shortage is a national issue felt in the state, with a survey finding a 19% vacancy rate for registered nurses in Pennsylvania hospitals.  Borowski said she expects the shortage to factor into lawmakers’ deliberations over the bill. But she said the staffing ratio ensures children have access to care even amid the shortage, and increasing funding would improve care by actually covering costs.  “I don’t know how one person can accommodate the needs of so many students in one day,” Borowski said.  Blum said increasing reimbursement rates is more cost effective than paying litigation costs should something go wrong if there aren’t enough nurses to help in an emergency.  She said Pennsylvania’s school code is archaic and written for a different era, as the last time the reimbursement structure for school health funding was updated was in 1991.  “The work I do inside the walls of my school trickles out into my students’ homes and the streets of their neighborhoods,” said Whitney Roach, a nurse from Philadelphia County. “School nurses are uniquely qualified and trusted to improve the health and well being, not just of schools, but of entire communities.”  The House Education Committee passed the bill with a party line vote in March. Courtesy of Pennsylvania Capital-Star

Neptune's Core, June 27

With the artists, according to WLUW, "bringing young, bright energy to the Chicago music scene," the alternative rockers of Neptune's Core headline a June 27 concert at Davenport's Raccoon Motel, the band's latest album Called Upon praised by Unclear Magazine as "a collection for growth, pain, joy, and everything in between."

Carolina Liar, July 2

With the band's album Coming to Terms hailed by Consequence of Sound as a recording that "screams like a banshee leaping out of it’s cage and tasting freedom for the first time," vocalist/guitarist Chad Wolf and drummer Brian Ulery bring their touring outfit Carolina Liar to Davenport's Raccoon Motel on July 2, Blender adding that the artists' debut LP was "a handful of skyscraping, modern-rock behemoths."

Resignation, rescinded: Health and Human Services Secretary Richard Charest to stay on

Richard Charest is shown at a Rhode Island House Committee on Finance hearing on Feb. 3, 2026, related to the sale of Roger Williams Medical Center and Our Lady of Fatima Hospital to the Centurion Foundation. (Photo by Michael Salerno/Rhode Island Current)Rhode Island Health and Human Services Secretary Richard Charest isn’t retiring after all. At least, not on July 3, as McKee’s office previously announced. Details of the reversal were first reported in a June 10 social media post by the Providence Journal’s Katherine Gregg and confirmed independently by Rhode Island Current. Kerri White, a spokesperson for the umbrella health and human services agency, said the decision came from “thoughtful discussions” between the agency and McKee’s team about the need for continuity in the leadership team.  “With major priorities underway – including new federal laws impacting Medicaid, the Rural Health Transformation Project, and the long-term acute care hospital work – maintaining stable leadership is important,” White said in an email. Charest was unavailable to comment. McKee said he asked Charest, 74, to “stay as long as he could,” praising his cabinet leader for his five-year record with the state, first at the Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals, and then as head of the sweeping health and human services agency that encompasses a $5 billion Medicaid program along with social and health programs for some of the state’s most vulnerable residents: children, low-income families, veterans and people with mental health needs and disabilities.  “I asked him to come on for a year, it’s been five years so he’s given me more than I asked for,” McKee said in an interview Friday. “But I said, ‘Look, stay on as long as you can, we’ve got some things we need to address.’” As he continues in his $238,597-a-year job, Charest will be charged with keeping track of state spending of the $156 million federal grant for rural healthcare, along with implementing massive policy and funding changes for federal Medicaid and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance programs.  In announcing his retirement in April, McKee’s office praised Charest for distributing grants to primary care practices, coordinating overdose prevention efforts and setting up an outpatient behavioral health program. But Charest faced criticism last fall for reaching out to Prime Healthcare, his former employer and owner of Landmark Medical Center in Woonsocket, to gauge its interest in buying Roger Williams Medical Center and Our Lady of Fatima Hospital when a deal was already pending to another operator.  Charest served as president and CEO of Landmark from 2007 to 2017, including through its receivership and sale to Prime.   McKee on Friday referenced their shared Woonsocket connections — the governor ran a health and fitness center in Woonsocket for 30 years — as the start of their relationship. “I know him personally,” McKee said. “He’s done good work.” The McKee administration had not begun interviewing candidates to replace Charest, with the temporary plan to promote someone internally as an acting secretary akin to the Rhode Island Department of Transportation, McKee said. Bob Rocchio took over as interim director of the transportation department in March after longtime director Peter Alviti Jr. retired. McKee did not say how long Charest will extend his tenure with the state but suggested it may be short. “We’re going to extend it a little bit and we’ll see what happens,” he said. A new timeline for Charest to retire has not been determined, White said in an email Monday. Charest, who has a bachelor’s degree in pharmacy from Northeastern University and a master’s degree in health care administration from Bryant University, also runs his own consulting firm, 180 Degree Solutions LLC, according to his 2025 financial disclosure statement filed with the Rhode Island Ethics Commission.   SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX. Courtesy of Rhode Island Current

The Heavy Heavy, July 1

Their 2024 debut album One of a Kind hailed by No Frills Reviews as "an impressive tribute to classic psych pop" and "a sun-drenched blend of psychedelic folk-rock," The Heavy Heavy headlines a July 1 concert at Maquoketa's Codfish Hollow Barn, Paste magazine adding that the duo makes "rock 'n 'roll music that is a colossal motley, soulful, rollicking delight."

Journey Live Production's “Funky Soul,” June 26 through 28

A powerful stage play inspired by the soul of Marvin Gaye that explores love, music, and the moments that shape us, the world premiere of Funky Soul enjoys a June 26 through 28 run at St. Ambrose University's Galvin Fine Arts Center.

“Seussical,” July 2 through 12

With the New York Times lauding the show as "85 minutes of sweetness, humor, and energetic high spirits," the Tony Award-nominated Broadway musical Seussical continues the summer season at the Clinton Area Showboat Theatre July 2 through 12, the musical's recreation of beloved storybook characters and situations brought to life by Tony-winning composers Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty.

Young Footliters Youth Theatre's “The Music Man Jr.,” June 26 through 28

A student-performed version of the Broadway classic whose original production earned five Tony Awards (including Best Musical) and the first-ever Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album, The Music Man Jr. enjoys a June 26 through 28 run at the Coralville Center for the Performing Arts, the Toung Footliters Youth Theatre presentation treating audiences so such timeless show tunes as “Seventy-Six Trombones, “(Ya Got Trouble,” and “Till There Was You.”

PHOTO GALLERY: Touch-a-truck... and-a-helicopter

Walcott families knew they were going to be able to touch a truck Saturday morning. But did they know they would be sitting behind the wheel of a high-clearance sprayer? Leaning on the horn of a skid loader? Watching a MedForce helicopter drop from the sky and lift back up—with a chance to climb aboard in between? Walcott’s first touch-a-truck event was a hit Saturday morning, June 12. Youngsters had the chance to explore several fire trucks, police trucks, public works vehicles, local tractors and sprayers, and yes, a blue-and-yellow MedForce emergency helicopter—a surprise even to The North Scott Press. Walcott city staff began planning the event late this winter, when the council decided it would not continue its summer camp program for young residents. The police department’s new Ford squad vehicle arrived the morning of the event—just in time. NSP words and photos by Noah Glasgow

2026 John Deere Classic, July 1 through 5

Designed to bring some serious swing into the summer, the John Deere Classic returns to Silvis' TPC at Deere Run from July 1 through 5, with this professional golf tournament on the PGA Tour, in its 55th year, enjoying coverage on the Golf Channel and CBS Sports, and featuring youth activities, clinics, concert events with international superstars, and a climactic awards presentation.

“Davenport Civil Rights Movement,” July 1 through 31

With guests of the German American Heritage Center invited to explore the powerful stories, struggles, and triumphs that shaped the fight for equality in our community, the fascinating traveling exhibition Davenport Civil Rights Movement will be on display at the Davenport venue from July 1 through 21.

“Hamburg-on-Mississippi: Davenport's Germans & the Musical Mecca of the West,” June 28

Local history, 19th-century innovations, and figurative and literal harmony will blend at the German American Heritage Center on June 28 in the Davenport venue's Hamburg-on-Mississippi: Davenport's Germans & the Musical Mecca of the West, with Davenport native Gates Thomas delivering this latest presentation in the popular “Kaffee und Kuchen” series.

“Urban & Williams,” June 26 through August 7

With the latest Quad City Arts Center exhibition taking on a very specific theme, and a seasonally appropriate one, at that, a pair of Midwestern artists will have beautiful works displayed in Urban & Williams, with the Rock Island venue, from June 26 through August 7, treating patrons to bike photography by Ken Urban and bike illustrations by Jeff C. Williams.

Bettendorf looks to add a mental health co-responder to its police force

Bettendorf received a federal grant to hire a mental health co-responder to help respond to situations like mental health crises and death notifications.

North Scott Press — June 17, 2026

Community Foundation Cedar County awards $150,000 in grants

The Community Foundation of Cedar County has awarded $150,950 to local organizations that enhance and improve the educational, cultural, recreational and economic environment in Cedar County. The Community Foundation of Cedar County, a geographic affiliate of the Quad Cities Community Foundation, helps donors make positive, local impacts by offering a variety of giving tools to [...]

Maine awarded $16 million in federal funding to bolster development in rural communities

The iconic Lewiston Hopeful sign by artist Charlie Hewitt. (Photo by Maine Morning Star)More than $16 million dollars in federal funding has been awarded to economic development projects across rural Maine, state officials announced on Tuesday. The funding comes from the Northern Border Regional Commission, a federal-state partnership established in 2008 to alleviate economic distress and encourage job creation in northeast border states, and the projects include a wide range of initiatives. Several of the recipients will focus on expanding childcare access in underserved areas — a significant impediment to building a rural workforce.  SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX. Lewiston nonprofit Tree Street Youth was awarded $1 million to build a new 7,500-center that will offer 120 new affordable childcare slots, youth workforce training and a community meeting space. The Town of Albion was granted $100,000 to conduct a feasibility study into whether the former elementary school could be redeveloped into a flexible civic space that could potentially serve as a regional hub for childcare, training, and other economic needs.  Other projects were aimed at supporting infrastructure that will ultimately bolster economic development.  For example, the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry was awarded $1 million to construct a pedestrian and snowmobile bridge over the Sandy River, extending the 14-mile Whistle Stop Trail into downtown Farmington. Matinicus Isle Plantation was awarded over $70,000 to acquire approximately three acres comprising the island’s only airstrip to preserve transportation to the island community. Similarly, the commission’s Timber for Transit Program announced several awards last week, including $2.5 million for Main Street Skowhegan to continue construction of a riverfront promenade that connects the Kennebec River to downtown, enabling access to trails and the river’s whitewater rapids. The projects, all of which can be viewed here, were recommended for funding by Gov. Janet Mills after a review process conducted by the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development. “Rural Maine is my home, and I know firsthand that our rural communities have the people, the work ethic, and the ideas to build a stronger future,” said Mills in a statement. “What they have not always had is the investment necessary to turn promise into progress.” The federal investments, she added, “will help give communities across rural Maine the resources they need to create good jobs, strengthen local businesses, expand workforce housing, improve critical infrastructure, and support industries that are vital to our state.”  U.S. Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King issued a joint statement highlighting the investments, saying they “will help communities address local needs, create jobs, and expand economic opportunity for Mainers.” Courtesy of Maine Morning Star

EFD votes to remain independent

After news the Eldridge Volunteer Fire Company voted to remain an independent organization and increased its financial demands on the city, council members Monday expressed disappointment and frustration with the process. Over the last year, representatives of the department and the city have been engaged in discussions about the future of the department, with some of those talks centered on the possibility of the Eldridge Fire Department coming under the control of the city. The city received the news late Friday afternoon that members voted unanimously June 2 to remain independent and received a revised financial request from the department that substantially increased its previous ask. The department is now asking the city for $766,516 for FY27, $785,954 in FY28 and $805,393 in FY29. Previously, the department had asked for $476,670, $531,500 and $679,839. While the department has made an increased request for financial backing in FY27, the council approved the FY27 budget back in April, and that budget has already been certified by the state. The department has also retained a public relations firm. In a press release sent to The NSP on Monday morning by Cedar Rapids-based Plaid Swan Inc., department officials said that the membership voted unanimously at its June 2 meeting to remain an independent organization. Members apparently “expressed concerns that significant organizational changes could result in the loss of experienced volunteers at a time when volunteer recruitment remains a challenge for fire departments across Iowa and the nation.” The release said the membership believed remaining independent would offer the most “practical and cost-effective approach to maintaining service continuity while minimizing disruption to emergency response operations.” “Our firefighters believe maintaining an independent department is the best path forward for preserving the level of service Eldridge residents expect and deserve,” said firefighter Andrew Doyle in the release. The press release said the increased financial request focused on four areas: staffing and operational support; facility improvements to support volunteer recruitment and retention; replacement of ageing equipment; and long-term financial stability and capital planning. The department gave the city until July 15 to respond regarding support for the funding plan and the independent model. “The firefighters of this department have dedicated countless hours serving this community,” Doyle was quoted as saying in the release. “We are prepared to continue that commitment. The question now is whether the City is prepared to make the investments necessary to support the level of service Eldridge residents expect.” Eldridge mayor Scott Campbell brought up the fire department during his mayor’s report during Monday’s city council meeting. He expressed surprise at the department, saying he and other members of the council, as well as city staff, had been pleased with the direction the discussions were taking, but added that the city received no contact from the fire department between April 8 and the department’s announcement to the city last Friday. He said there were at least five meetings with representatives of the department between January and April of this year. During those discussions, it was determined that for FY27, the city would fund approximately 76.4% of the department’s budget, about $364,000 from property taxes and gas franchise fees. According to Campbell, that represented an approximate increase of $100,000 over FY26. The contribution from the county amounted to approximately $62,000.  “We felt we were making great progress,” said Campbell. “They said they needed to go back to the membership for a vote and then they’d be in touch. For more than two months, it’s been radio silence.” Campbell said city staff has not yet been able to fully evaluate the proposal from the department but said it was vastly different from what was discussed at the last meeting on April 8. He particularly expressed surprise at the substantial increase in the financial request. He also brought up conversation from a joint meeting between representatives of the fire department and the city council in May of 2025. “If you remember, when the department was here a little more than a year ago and they asked us to take it over, they clearly stated it was not about the money. It was all about burnout, and they were worried they would no longer be able to respond to calls unless they had a paid fire chief.” Campbell said at the April 8 meeting, “counting our $364,000 and the county’s contribution of $62,000, we were roughly $85,000 apart from what they said they needed to be an independent department. Now, in their email last Friday, they are asking for $766,516, $785,000 the following year, and $805,000 in FY29. This is after we told them we couldn’t sign a three-year agreement because of the budget unknowns from year-to-year. “A year ago, the decision to become a city entity wasn’t about the money. It was about burnout. Now, it appears it is all about the money.” Campbell said city staff was also not aware the department hired a public relations firm until they were notified about the press release on Monday afternoon by the media. He said he could pinpoint though, when the tone of the discussions began to change. “In all honesty, the negotiations seemed to change drastically when we told them that fire chief Keith Schneckloth would not be a viable candidate as chief if the city were to take over the department, for the simple reason that he would be ineligible to hire after being dismissed from his job as city mechanic. We also expressed concerns to the EVFC that if they hired Schneckloth as fire chief, that the working relationship with the city would be strained and could negatively impact the success of an ongoing relationship with the fire department as an independent agency funded primarily by the city. “I’m just disappointed that this is where we’re at today. I’m disappointed that there hasn’t been any communication for two months. I’m disappointed that it came in an email. I’m disappointed that they’ve hired a public relations firm to start some kind of PR campaign, and that we’re left with somewhat of an ultimatum to make a decision by July 15.” Council member Ryan Iossi, who has been a member of the city’s discussion team, expressed frustration. “I think as someone that’s been involved with the process, I’ll just be honest and say I took that as a demand letter on Friday. And the other question I had was, they had that vote on June 2, I believe. Why 12 days or whatever it was in between? Why didn’t they send it out? Why didn’t they reach out?” Iossi said he believed the city had put all its cards on the table during the discussion process, and he felt the fire department had not done the same. “We were talking about their budget, but the bottom line is, I cannot support what they’re requesting in that letter. It’s double what we’ve been putting in.” Campbell said, after the April 8 meeting, it was the city’s position that they could make the financial request at that time work with just a little more discussion. “And all of the sudden, they nearly double what they want from the city?” Iossi credited city staff with putting in extensive work in getting more information on how much it costs for other comparable communities to run their fire departments, including LeClaire. He said he was bothered by the fact that the department chose to reopen communications with what he perceived as an ultimatum. Council member Brian Dockery asked Campbell if he thought the tenor of the discussions had changed in any way because the fire department changed the personnel on its negotiating team. “Yes,” said Campbell. “I’ll say it right here, publicly, we had great discussions when Dave Engler and Tim Martinek were involved. Great discussions.” “And they were truly burned out,” agreed Iossi. “They were burned out, but they were passionate, and they came to the table, willing to talk, willing to discuss honest conversations,” said Campbell. “Things changed drastically when they left the table and the fire department’s negotiating team changed.” “I think, too, they’ve got all of those years of experience,” said Iossi. “They did not want to just walk away, and I respect them for that. That was one of their goals, was to try and find a solution. But at some point, they just became so tired.” “The new negotiating team came in with some pretty strong demands,” said Campbell. “And they weren’t really willing to listen to us too much. It was their way, and they thought they had us over a barrel.” “They do have us over a barrel to a certain degree,” said Dockery. “However, it’s unfortunate, and I hate to see it – we’re playing a poker game at a public meeting. I think that’s terrible.”  Campbell agreed, saying it was unfortunate that fire department members had chosen this public tack when behind-the-scenes discussions had been productive from the city’s standpoint. “Well, I think it’s got to come down to a few individuals over there, because why do people volunteer to help the community?” said Dockery. “I think as it goes forward, if it’s still a volunteer fire department or if it’s part of the city – they can say they’re all leaving, but people do that to service a community. I’d be curious on what the retention would be if the city did take it over. Is it going to be similar, addressing burnout?” Campbell said some of those concerns had been discussed in previous meetings. “But it comes back to, exactly, it’s about community service. That’s the bottom line. And if you’re a volunteer fireman and if you’re taken over by the city, you can walk out and leave your city empty-handed and unprotected, what does that say about you?” Dockery cautioned against painting the department with a single brush, which Campbell conceded, although he did point out that the department’s vote to remain independent was unanimous. Dockery also asked if this meant the door was closed for other options, and Campbell and Iossi said that was their impression from Friday’s communication. “That’s just horrible,” said Dockery. Iossi said the city and the department went over the budget repeatedly, trying to determine needs and wants. “Where all that fluff came in there now, I don’t know.” Council member Jeff Ashcraft said he understood the department wanting to remain independent, because coming under the auspices of the city would completely change the culture of the department. “What I don’t get is this budget,” he said, holding up a sheet of paper laying out the department’s monetary ask. “Well, this isn’t a budget. It’s very minimal in what it is actually sharing with us. And as you’ve already said, the doubling of the budget is outlandish. How can we negotiate on anything? One, how can we negotiate on this number? Two, how can you negotiate when our budget has already been approved and set, and it’s been certified? We can’t. We’re stuck. “I mean, that’s honestly terribly disappointing, and negotiating in poor faith.” Campbell said the most difficult thing for him to swallow was the fact that the department was asking for three-quarters of a million dollars in taxpayer money, and the city would have no say-so in how it was being spent. Ashcraft agreed. “We don’t have enough detail from their budget numbers to know what they’re really doing.” Council member Adrian Blackwell said, regardless of whether the fire department ultimately remains independent, the city should budget accordingly for increases in funding. That said, he added that the city needs to ensure it is being fiscally responsible to the taxpayers, while also ensuring the safety of citizens. Iossi said that giving an independent fire department a substantial sum of money with no oversight didn’t seem to him to be fiscally responsible. “There’s things that I saw on the budget, and I brought up and asked why it was on the budget because it’s also on the FEMA grant. (They said) because of the FEMA grant, if we happen to not get that check that year, we can still buy that. And some of those things were wants and some of them were needs. But Davenport, Bettendorf, Camanche – those cities don’t pay for things out of the budget knowing they’re in a SAFER grant. If the SAFER grant doesn’t come through, guess what? It stops. “Budgeting, sometimes you have to make decisions that you’re not fond of. And we went through that budget over two different meetings and tried narrowing that down to close that gap.” Dockery suggested the city needs to start investigating its options “if this goes totally sideways, because we have an obligation to provide fire service.” Campbell said that process had already begun. City attorney Allison Wright, who was present at the meeting on unrelated business, said the city did have some options for oversight on the money, but this would require a robust 28E agreement with the department. “So, it’s not, we’re just giving you this bucket of money. They would be our service provider, and they’d have to comply with the terms of the contract in the 28E agreement.” Dockery and Ashcraft said they would support such a 28E agreement.     

Eldridge clerk resigns Monday

Eldridge is once again looking for a new city clerk following the resignation of Tracy Northcutt on Monday. At Monday’s council meeting, members went into closed session pursuant to Iowa Code 21.5(1)i “To evaluate the professional competency of an individual whose appointment, hiring, performance, or discharge is being considered when necessary to prevent needless and irreparable injury to that individual’s reputation and that individual requests a closed session.” The council did not take action following the closed session, and Northcutt was not present at the meeting. Following the meeting, city administrator Nevada Lemke told The North Scott Press Northcutt tendered her resignation at 4:30 p.m. Monday. She declined to elaborate further on the reasons for the resignation at this time. Northcutt was hired in October of 2025, having previously served as the city clerk in LeClaire. She was sworn in as clerk in early November.

Council discusses future Eldridge growth

After several meetings’ worth of discussion regarding commercial and industrial development in Eldridge, mayor Scott Campbell called for a special committee of the whole meeting on Monday to discuss a not-so-simple question. What are Eldridge’s priorities when it comes to development? Campbell said he was inspired to call for the meeting in response to a comment from council member Brian Dockery at an earlier meeting. “We really have no idea when commercial and industrial development will come to the area, and I think his comment was, it could be 30 years. We just don’t know.” He said he also wanted to call for the meeting because some of the newer members of the council, including himself, had never had discussions on how they feel about growth. “So, I thought it was good for us tonight to maybe just have a discussion about what growth looks like and how we would move forward with that.” Campbell said he had done some research on industrial growth in Eldridge and said a major change in how the community viewed growth came in the mid-1960s, when city officials began to talk about annexing land. This became especially important when Caterpillar announced plans to build a plant in Mount Joy in 1965. The city council, and later residents, voted to annex that land into Eldridge, which eventually led Davenport and Eldridge to call for a 10-year moratorium on annexation. As soon as the moratorium expired, Caterpillar asked to voluntarily annex into Davenport instead, concerned that Eldridge could not offer what the company viewed as the proper amount of necessary services. This led to a lawsuit from the City of Eldridge. “It was ugly, as both communities understood the importance of being able to collect those tax dollars to help feed their city coffers,” said Campbell. “And I think this is all pertinent to share because we are facing some of those same issues today. Commercial and industrial growth is vital to the stability of our community, especially considering the 2% cap the state has placed on us for our general budget.” Campbell then read from a 1976 editorial written by Bill Tubbs, then-editor of The North Scott Press, where he pointed out that residential growth was not in and of itself beneficial to municipalities, saying single-family homes were more of a tax liability than an asset. “Instead, single-family homes come short as far as paying for city services like sanitation, sewer, water, police and fire protection.” Campbell went on to say that in 1976, Eldridge’s comprehensive plan called for extending sanitary sewer to the south edge of the city. “Those forefathers had a vision, and now, 50 years later, I think we as a council need to either reestablish that vision or create a new vision,” he said. Dockery said, years ago, there was an approximately 50/50 split between residential and commercial/industrial growth in Eldridge. He said he believes the city needs to consider additional voluntary annexation processes to the west and north of the current city limits. Council member Scott LaPlante said he thinks the city needs to ensure potential opportunities don’t go along the wayside. “They are our future, and they’re going to tell our residents that we’re willing to have that balance in our budget that we’re asking the industry to pay for part of what we do here in the city. The growth is needed, and for us to have a good future, we need to have that investment today.” Council member Adrian Blackwell said he was in favor of both additional annexation and looking for ways to offset the burden to residential taxpayers, although he said he didn’t want to rush either process. “When you rush things, you make mistakes.” Blackwell said he also hoped that the Eldridge Planning & Zoning Commission would take a look at future commercial/industrial growth to ensure it is beneficial to the community. He said that a major convenience store chain and at least one grocery store chain have also expressed an interest in Eldridge, particularly along LeClaire Road. Blackwell said he thought perhaps if there was development in the northern part of town, other developers might begin to express more interest in the southern part. “I think we need to look at it strategically and also think very hard as to why some of the larger developments have not chosen us. What feedback can we get … why were we No. 2 and not No. 1? Because lately, it appears to me it’s occurring.” Blackwell wondered if there was anything Eldridge could do to be more proactive in attracting industry. Assistant city administrator Jeff Martens, who handles economic development for Eldridge, said there were several reasons developers had decided to go elsewhere. In one case, the city lost out on a development because the eventual winning community straight up gave the developer the necessary land. Martens said other communities, including Bettendorf, have been willing to give tax increment financing (TIF) at a higher rate over a longer period of time. Martens said, at the moment, Eldridge is pretty solid, sewer wise. But some of the proposals he’s filled out have water capacity needs that exceed what the city can currently offer. Public works director Tony Rupe, who served as city administrator for a time, also said that Eldridge lost out on another development because of railroad constraints. “One of the other constraints we have is basically every railroad car that comes to Eldridge has to pass over a bridge in the Village of East Davenport that’s not only historic, but it also has a capacity limit and a size limit on it,” said Martens. He said that wasn’t necessarily a big deal for a company like Sterilite, which hauls plastic pellets, but could be a limitation for a company hauling anything with substantial weight. Blackwell asked if there was any way the city could incentivize companies for hauling over the road on Highway 61 or Interstate 80, or work on an incentive for Davenport to provide more options for rail. Martens said typically when it comes to rail use, these companies seem to have reasons truck hauling won’t work well for them. Martens added that rail transport is also a concern at John Deere Davenport Works, and the company has attempted to work with the railroad. However, for Davenport’s part, the city knows that Deere is really the only company on the north side that utilizes rail in a large capacity. Most of the other rail traffic that crosses the Village of East Davenport bridge comes to Eldridge, so Davenport doesn’t have much of an incentive to increase capacity. “Railroads are difficult to find the right people to talk to,” said Martens. “There doesn’t seem to be a great desire, other than Davenport Industrial Rail, which controls the Eldridge railway, and the Transload facility just south of Slopertown. They’re greatly concerned about it.” Campbell asked Martens if a lack of infrastructure in the southern part of town had been detrimental to attracting industry. “There are other communities – I know Clinton has an industrial park that’s ready to go,” said Martens. He said developers are more likely to pick a site that will be shovel-ready sooner. Martens also said that at Thursday’s meeting of the Eldridge Planning & Zoning Commission, they will be reviewing a two-acre plot in the Avery property, just east of Highway 61, near Molo Oil and Lewis Machine & Tool. The infrastructure on the site is already built out, and Martens said the city is starting to see a lot of interest in properties there. He said he felt within the next four to five years, that area would start to fill in with development. However, the south side of town does not have as much infrastructure development, especially west of Buttermilk Road. A study conducted by Shive-Hattery indicated that the city will need to install at least two lift stations in this area. While that cost could eventually be passed along to a developer, the city will also need to think about ways to incentivize growth in that area. Does Eldridge want mega projects? Dockery brought the conversation back around to annexation, saying it was important to him to ensure the city annexes land now to avoid another fiasco like what happened with the Caterpillar plant. “And that raises another question. We as a council need to decide – mega projects are big and glamorous and over the rainbow stuff. But the community learned their lesson well when Caterpillar shut down. I mean, it about crushed the school district. To me, I’d rather have smaller projects. They don’t have to be small small, but I’d rather have multiple small projects to diversify our tax base versus a mega project.” Martens agreed, saying a mega project wouldn’t necessarily be better for Eldridge. “You know, when you see a data center that’s supposed to be coming to Davenport, and is supposed to have been coming now for several years and it’s still not there. I know MidAmerican is still several years out on power for a project like that. Some communities are requiring them to generate their own power.” Martens said that the council should also decide if it wants to have policies on mega projects, in case there are any existing ordinances that will need to be changed. Looking at the big picture Council member Ryan Iossi said he was concerned the conversation was starting to get too in the weeds with discussion of existing infrastructure and he wanted to get an overall big picture of what the council wants for the community. “I think we’re in agreement that we want some growth. The question is, how do we get there?” Iossi said the council had already had a presentation from Charlie Armstrong and Rick Schaefer from Ruhl Commercial last September about potential growth for the community. “The people are not coming because the ground’s not ready. If we make that ground ready, they’re going to start coming, and they’re going to come quicker, because it’s not shovel-ready.” While he said Dockery made a good point about focusing on growth in the northeast part of Eldridge, where infrastructure is ready, Iossi said it was possible for the city to focus its attention there and on the south side of town. He also said it was important to educate the public on the benefits of industrial and commercial growth versus residential growth, which he asked city administrator Nevada Lemke to explain. She said, residential taxation value is typically about 45% of the assessed value of the property, while industrial and commercial is 90%. “So, if you look at $1 million of assessed value in residential, you’re going to be looking at about $450,000 coming in for property taxes,” said Lemke. “That same $1 million of assessed value on a commercial or industrial property is going to give us $900,000 in property taxes annually” “If we set a path to growing, knowing and understanding that that commercial tax base is what benefits Eldridge,” said Iossi. “We all want to keep taxes as low as we can. Eldridge has done everything they could. Sometimes there’s a cost to that, because you have to play catch-up certain years.” He said he believed it could be easy to annex land to the north of Eldridge, which Dockery said could be a benefit, as Eldridge could then potentially be able to gain another interchange to Highway 61 to the north. “And I like that,” said Iossi. “I still think that southwest corner is our sweet spot right now. That is where we need to be growing. And if we do it a step at a time, I don’t know if we’re going to get there in time.” Dockery said he preferred a systematic approach for the taxpayers. “You don’t have a concern though, that as we stair step it, knowing that studies have come back on our immediate needs, that we’re still going to be going back after the taxpayers for more and more each year to try to do that because we’re building in baby steps on that commercial site?” asked Iossi. The conversation turned to infrastructure for several more minutes before council member Jeff Ashcraft chimed in. “What I cannot do is support the status quo, because the status quo isn’t paying off in the way that I think I’m hearing from a visionary perspective we would like to see a payoff.” He said that, while he wasn’t sure if there was more benefit to development in the northeast or south side of town, “I know this: we have a lot of farmers around us who know that what they have to do every year is prepare for rain. And what that means is they have to work the field, they have to have the dirt ready to go. They have to have the seeds in the ground so that when it rains, they’re ready. “We’re not ready. We need to have a plan in place and we need to aggressively go after that plan … what we need to do is figure out which direction we want to go. Make a decision, and the rest is just logistics. We’re spending a lot of time here talking about the logistics. We need to figure out where we want to go and then aggressively go after it.” “Well, good point,” said Dockery. “But we also have to envision where do we see Eldridge and Long Grove in 40 or 50 years? Is there going to be a gap between us?” “You know, everybody talks about that small town feel, hometown,” said Iossi. “We don’t want to lose that, and in some certain ways, that’s unavoidable. But if we have the commercial, industrial infrastructure in place, that will offset the cost of what we have to raise taxes, to do the things that we need done. Just the needs, not the wants. That’s where I’d be more comfortable at. Right now, we’re not there. “We’ve got a lot of things that the city needs, infrastructure wise, facilities wise, we don’t have the money to pay for it. We’re going out for a bond referendum, and we’re trying to explain to the community why we need this, and why, all these years, we’ve been the lowest tax rate, but now here we are, asking for more money. That industrial and commercial tax base would help offset that. That, to me, is a no-brainer. If we had the perfect situation, I’d want it to be, like you said, 50/50. That would be perfect, and then we’d get the best of both worlds.” Future projects Campbell brought up the existing strategic and comprehensive plans, asking council members if they would like to see an update to either or both. Lemke said some conversations had been ongoing internally over the last year about updating the plans, although the process seems to keep getting pushed to the back burner. “We need to update both of those plans and make sure we are still in line with the overall comprehensive plan and then develop an updated strategic plan, because we’ve grown out of the last one that we’ve had quite some time ago.” Lemke asked the council if members would like her to start exploring options for consultants to conduct updated plans. Consensus was for her to move forward. Martens also brought forward a proposal for an Urban Renewal Area or TIF district in the southern portion of town, which largely encompasses the undeveloped area that is already partially for sale. Martens said there were landowners willing to sell in that area, and if the city was serious about development, it would make sense to start on the process sooner rather than later.

Water tower design approved

A pair of strawberries will adorn Long Grove’s refurbished water tower. The city council approved designs tower Tuesday, June 9. Contractors will paint the name of the city above a large strawberry on each side of the tower head. Council members preferred that design with an alternative that would have seen strawberries replace the Os in Long Grove. The council approved a $288,000 bid for tower refurbishment from O&J Coatings of Hurst, Tex. on April 14. Water treatment costs No members of the public objected to Long Grove City Council’s to divide the cost of its new water treatment plant between utility bills and tax revenues. The council hosted a pair of public hearings Tuesday, June 9, on its proposal to borrow $2 million in low-interest state loans and an additional $1 million at market rates. Utility revenues will back the state loan, and property taxes will back the market-rate loan. Long Grove had initially hoped to place the full cost of the treatment plant on a state loan—but cost overruns up to $700,000 have led the council to spread the expenses across multiple streams of revenue. The cost of the plant, including interest payments, is expected to near $4 million dollars. City Engineer Jason McKenzie told the council Tuesday that he expected construction to begin in the coming weeks. Guyer to be retained Long Grove will retain former city clerk Rose Guyer as a part-time finance and administration specialist, so long as she agrees to pay the city back for a share of her professional development costs. Guyer left Long Grove in May with several months left on a five-year contract, in which the city had agreed to cover a range of professional trainings and certifications. The council agreed Tuesday that Guyer should cover half of the professional development costs remaining on the contract, about $700. “I think it's fair to take it and split it down the middle,” Councilman Chad Ulrich said. Fellow council members Nancy Herrin and Amy Shannon agreed. The council will pay Guyer $29 per hour as a finance and administrative specialist. She will help new city clerk Lucas Syoen adjust to his role over the course of the coming year.

Tina’s Dance Studio becomes The Movement Collective

Crystal Winston and Savannah Roseman ushered in a new era of dance in Eldridge Sunday with a ribbon cutting for their newly renamed studio, The Movement Collective. The pair, who were longtime instructors at Tina’s Dance Studio, bought the studio from Tina Lindle last year. As they transitioned into the new ownership, they also began to discuss their vision for the studio, which included the new name. Roseman said she and Winston wanted a name that reflected more than just their dance offerings. “We wanted something more universal that kind of fit what we’re offering to the community.” Although dance will continue to be an important part of The Movement Collective, the studio also offers tumbling, gymnastics and Pilates. Roseman said she and Winston hope to add yoga and adult classes soon, too, and expand the gymnastics program. “Hopefully, we can grow our gymnastics program more, to offer more levels and more ages.” It’s a busy time at the studio, as summer camps are going on, and the competitive teams for the 2026-27 season were recently announced. Sunday, studio members also performed at the Strawberry Festival in Long Grove before gathering at the studio for the ribbon cutting, where some recent remodeling projects were also unveiled.  The Movement Collective remains at 2100 E. LeClaire Road in Eldridge. For more information and updates, visit The Movement Collective Facebook page or call 563-285-2222.

Rock Island police asking for public's help locating missing man

The Rock Island Police Department said 64-year-old Nathan McDowell was last seen on June 9.

Princeton solar bidding delayed

It may be several months before the city of Princeton hears bids on a solar array that could power its sewer treatment plant. Councilwoman Lori Maher reported last week that the city is waiting for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources to guarantee that the project would be eligible for a low-interest state loan designed to help cities pay for infrastructure improvements. The city would need that guarantee before it could evaluate bids, Maher said. Maher, Councilman Brandon Forristall, Princeton Planning and Zoning Chair Tim Ruser, and project engineer Bryce Johnson will assess bids when they arrive and present a recommendation to the council. Princeton is not bound to award the contract to the lowest bidder, but will evaluate which bid best meets city needs and DNR requirements, Maher explained. Princeton has been at work on the social project for over a year. The council tabled several bids last spring amid worries that the project would cost more than it would save in electricity bills. But news that the array would qualify for a state revolving fund loan—at nearly half market interest rates—and persistent worries about the rising cost of electricity reinvigorated the project this year.  

Dixon names Manrique clerk

Nicholas Manrique of Dixon took off one city hat and put on another when he switched from council member to clerk earlier this month. Manrique, who serves as finance director for the city of Clinton, was one of four applicants for the clerk position. Fellow councilmen Matt Stolley and Zach Phares agreed to hire Manrique at the city council meeting June 3. He assumed the role June 8. Former clerk Meghan Ganzer resigned in April, and former councilwoman Amy Flynn has served as interim clerk since. Manrique said he believed that his accounting experience would benefit the city. He told The North Scott Press that he intended to hold the role “for the foreseeable future.” “We have had some very long tenured clerks in the past,” he said. He said he hoped to strengthen the council’s understanding of government accounting and revamp the city website. Manrique faced some scrutiny from residents in November, who alleged that he stirred conflict with a neighbor. Fellow council members support Manrique and said he brought valuable experience to the city. The council plans to fill Manrique’s vacancy at their next meeting, July 8. Any residents interested in filling the seat can contact the city, Mayor Steve Laughlin, or councilmen Phares or Stolley. 

North Scott Rotary awards $55K in community grants

The North Scott Rotary Club has announced the recipients of its 2026 Community Needs Grant Program, awarding a total of $55,000 to 15 nonprofit organizations serving the Quad Cities region. This year’s grant cycle saw more than 60 applications requesting over $300,000 in funding, reflecting both the growing needs within the community and the strength of local nonprofit efforts. After a thorough review process led by the club’s Community Needs Committee, 15 organizations were selected for funding based on their impact, innovation, and alignment with local priorities. Grant Recipients • GiGi’s Playhouse Quad Cities received $5,000 to support its Achiever’s Program Expansion • Humane Society of Scott County was awarded $5,000 for its Keeping Pets with Families initiative. • New Kingdom Trailriders received $1,000 for a Lean-to Shelter Project to support equine therapy programs. • The Third Place QC was awarded $4,000 for its Quad Cities Access Initiative: Transit and Essentials. • Big Brothers Big Sisters – $4,000 for School-Based Activity • Davenport Community Schools – $5,000 for Beds for Students in Crisis • Family Resources – $5,000 for Fresh Start Baskets • Soles for Children – $2,500 for Shoes, Coats, Hats & Mittens for Children • Friends of Donahue – $4,000 for Pickleball and Basketball Court Equipment • Hand in Hand – $5,000 for Inclusive Infant/Toddler Playground Upgrade • Quad City Symphony Orchestra – $2,500 for Students @ The Symphony • Neil Armstrong Elementary – $5,000 for a Therapy Dog program • Cancer Support Community – $2,000 for a 3-in-1 Game Table for Families and Kids • St. Ann’s Catholic Church – $3,000 for Night to Shine Support • Argrow’s House – $4,000 to Support for Domestic Violence Survivors The Community Needs Grant Program is a cornerstone of North Scott Rotary’s commitment to strengthening the region by investing in education, health, accessibility, and family support services. “Our community continues to demonstrate both significant need and incredible compassion,” said North Scott Rotary President, Deanna Jensen-Valliere. “We are proud to support organizations that are making a real difference in people’s lives every day.” The North Scott Rotary Club is dedicated to service above self, supporting local and global initiatives that improve lives and build stronger communities throughout the Quad Cities.  

Drainage school in August

The Agricultural Engineering team with Iowa State University Extension and Outreach will hold the Iowa Drainage School Aug. 25–27 at the Northwest Research Farm, located at 6320 500th Street, Sutherland, Iowa. The three-day program will focus on the design, installation and maintenance of drainage systems. The school features classroom lectures and discussions combined with team problem-solving and field exercises. Student teams will survey and design a drainage system for a sample area of the host farm using concepts learned during classroom discussions. By attending this school, participants will be able to plan and lay out subsurface drainage systems and work out project costs. In-field demonstrations of equipment and drainage tile installation will also take place. Class size is limited, and pre-registration is required. Registration is $500 per person if registered by midnight on Aug. 17; registrations will not be accepted after that time. Registration includes meals indicated on the agenda, refreshments, a course notebook and drainage reference materials. For more information, contact Kapil Arora at pbtiger@iastate.edu or Kris Kohl at Kkohl1@iastate.edu.

Iowa Swine Day June 25

Iowa Swine Day will be held Thursday, June 25, at the Gateway Hotel and Conference Center in Ames. Hosted by the Iowa Pork Industry Center at Iowa State University, the Iowa Swine Day conference is designed with swine producers in mind and offers the most current information on topics critical to today’s pork industry. New and returning attendees can expect to hear from pork producers, industry leaders and researchers presenting the latest recommendations in swine health, facility management, new technology and more. Topics are selected by a planning committee of swine producers and industry representatives based on current industry challenges and opportunities to ensure the content remains relevant.  The morning session will begin at 8 a.m. with a welcome from David Cook, president of Iowa State University. Plenary session speakers will offer insights into gene editing, artificial intelligence in swine production and innovative leadership in a changing industry. Following lunch, attendees will choose between applied and research-focused sessions covering topics such as nutrition, operations, animal welfare, sensor technology and more. The cost to attend is $115, and registration will be accepted until June 25 or until capacity is reached. All attendees registered for Iowa Swine Day are welcome to attend a preconference networking social on Wednesday, June 24, from 5:30 to 7 p.m., at the Hansen Agriculture Student Learning Center, located at 2508 Mortensen Road in Ames.  The full program, registration information and directions to the venue are available on the Iowa Swine Day website. For more information, contact Stacie Matchan at sgould@iastate.edu.

Farmers market vendor resources available

The Food Innovation and Business Hub, part of the Iowa State University Extension and Outreach Farm, Food and Enterprise Development team, has released two resources to help food business owners prepare for farmers market days and better understand production costs, pricing strategies and profitability. The resources, “First Farmers Market Checklist” and “Food Product Cost and Pricing Calculator,” are available on the Extension Store at no cost. With the summer farmers market season underway, current vendors and those planning to join later in the season can download the “First Farmers Market Checklist” for a comprehensive guide to market-day essentials. It covers supplies and considerations for booth setup and weather, food safety and compliance, organization and operations and more. “Remember that every market is a learning experience that helps you improve for the next one,” said Alex Van Alstyne, food business extension specialist at Iowa State and author of both resources. “This checklist is designed to help make setup easier by giving you a starting point of commonly used items and helpful supplies that vendors can forget the first time around.” The “Food Product Cost and Pricing Calculator” helps food entrepreneurs understand their costs, set prices and make informed business decisions. It includes three pricing calculators, allowing users to input their specific recipe costs to guide pricing decisions. Van Alstyne says the resource helps address a common question for food businesses. “Many small businesses struggle to accurately calculate what their products truly cost to make and often overlook labor, packaging, overhead or fluctuating ingredient prices,” he said. “The goal is to help take the guesswork out of pricing so businesses can stop asking themselves, 'What should I charge for this?' and instead make pricing decisions backed by real numbers.” For more information, contact Van Alstyne at 515-294-3041or alexv@iastate.edu.