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

Saturday, June 13th, 2026
	City of Sterling receives River Edge Redevelopment Zone designation Properties within the zone are eligible for state and local financial incentives for redevelopment and historic tax credits aimed at attracting private investment, according to a media release.
	Fourth of July fun in the Quad Cities area The Quad Cities area is celebrating the Fourth of July with lots of fun.
	'Women and the Land' conservation seminar scheduled in Milan The University of Illinois Extension and the Rock Island County Soil and Water Conservation District will host "Women and the Land: Spotlight on Conservation" from 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Monday, June 22, at the Illinois Extension office, 321 W. 2nd Ave., Milan, a news release says. This free seminar is designed to help women in agriculture strengthen [...]
	Speed limits on two-lane state highways increasing on July 1 Starting July 1, drivers will be able to legally drive 60 miles per hour on rural two-lane state highways - a change from the decades-long 55 mph speed limit.
	Bix weekend brings thousands of runners, music, family fun to Davenport As thousands of runners, spectators and visitors arrive in Downtown Davenport for the annual Quad-City Times Bix 7 race, the Downtown Davenport Partnership (DDP), in collaboration with community partners, will present a full lineup of free events and activities throughout the weekend. "Bix Weekend has always been about more than a race. It's a tradition that brings [...]
	The Movement Collective, under new ownership, to hold grand opening The Movement Collective, formerly known as Tina's Dance Studio, is under new ownership to hold grand opening Sunday, June 14.
	4 things to know about the new sunscreen ingredient the FDA approved The Food and Drug Administration approved a new sunscreen ingredient in the U.S. for the first time in 20 years. It's been used for decades in Europe and Asia.
	2026 Torch Awards celebrate integrity and ethics among businesses, students Two students and three businesses were celebrated at the Torch Awards on Thursday for their dedication to ethics and integrity.
	A plan to get lifesaving food to hungry kids was working well -- until it wasn't Through an innovative program, parents in Senegal had easy access to a therapeutic food that's a boon for malnourished kids. Now there are shortages. Health specialists say U.S. aid cuts are to blame.
	Memories of Muscatine: A flag from the Civil War This week for Memories of Muscatine: A flag carried by an Iowa regiment during the Civil War.
	Buffalo Bill This is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.Americans have always been fond stories reminding us of "how the West was won." A young boy from LeClaire, Iowa, just…
	COMIC: How excessive heat kills and how to stay safe Human bodies have a natural cooling system, but it can do only so much in high temperatures and humidity. Here's the science behind how heat kills. And how to protect yourself.
Friday, June 12th, 2026
	Keeping an eye on the New World screwworm from the Quad Cities Confirmed cases of New World screwworm are far away from the Quad Cities, but farmers are keeping it on their radars.
	Inside Iowa Politics: How Zach Lahn feels like his lt. governor choice will help Iowans Zach Lahn, the Iowa Republican candidate for governor, named state Rep. Derek Wulf as his running mate.
	QC actress realizes lifelong dream working as a Disney princess Savannah Bay Strandin is living her dream, performing as Cinderella in the newest Disney Cruise Line ship, the Singapore-based Adventure.
	Pope Leo XIV's flight home from Spain was grounded so the king came to his aid Leo's Iberia charter, due to take him back to Rome after a weeklong visit to Spain, was grounded by a technical problem Friday, prompting Spain's king to offer his private jet instead.
	Quad Cities organization marking 6 years of weekly rallies for racial equality Caryn Unsicker and Glenda Guster with Progressive Action for the Common Good began rallying after George Floyd's death. Organizers have met every Saturday since.
	Trump says U.S. military strike killed leader of Tren de Aragua gang President Trump said Friday that a U.S. strike has killed Hector Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, whom he called "the infamous leader" of the Tren de Aragua gang in Venezuela.
	Rock Island Arsenal Bridge to temporarily close for cleaning The bridge will be closed from 6:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. on June 19.
	1 injured after crash in Dubuque County 1 person was injured after a single-vehicle crash in Dubuque County.
	Virtual Ventures prepares for grand reopening at NorthPark Mall Virtual Ventures is preparing for its grand reopening at NorthPark Mall in Davenport, looking to change how people think of virtual reality through its theme park.
	Gene Shalit, longtime 'Today' show movie critic, dies at 100 Known for his puffy hair, oversized handlebar mustache and a love for puns, Gene Shalit joined Today in 1970 and became arts editor in 1973. He was a middle-of-the-road critic, known for his wit and intelligence.
	Trump's name is poised to be removed from the Kennedy Center A judge rejected a request to pause a court-ordered deadline of Friday to remove references to President Trump from the building. The institution appealed, an effort that was also rebuffed Friday evening.
	University of Idaho research center celebrates 100 years of agricultural development On June 12, 2026, the University of Idaho celebrated the centennial anniversary of the Parma Research and Extension Center. (Photo by Valentin Termite/Idaho Capital Sun)Crowds gathered Friday to celebrate the more-than 100-year anniversary of the Parma Research and Extension Center, a site established by the University of Idaho in 1925 to research new agricultural technologies and combat local conditions adverse to farming, such as invasive pests. The research grounds, spanning close to 230 acres of row crops, desert land and orchards, employ different research initiatives ranging from soil health analysis to irrigation system testing. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX. As researchers welcomed visitors to the center’s centennial celebration, informative booths and tents at the main station described many of its current projects. Their findings look to improve agricultural crops, among other production-oriented activities like fruit cultivation, to support local farming needs. Looking back at the past 100 years, researchers and state officials say it has been successful. “This partner research and extension center continues to deliver the University of Idaho’s land-grant mission by conducting world-class research and disseminating knowledge to our Idaho producers,” Leslie Edgar, J.R. Simplot Endowed Dean of the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, said in a speech delivered to attendants. Aside from the information presented in booths, the event also featured catered food offerings, a nearby pollination garden where different soil techniques were tested and guided tours across the facility. Presentations trace century of impact Speeches began around 1 p.m., as center director Chris Caron opened the floor with a harmonica rendition of the U.S. national anthem. Soon after, he traced the origins and development of the center to its troubled inception in 1925. At the time, local Parma farmers faced an infestation of alfalfa weevils, an invasive insect species that can latch onto farmland and cause damage to crops. These farmers called the University of Idaho, with its team of entomologists, to ask for assistance. One year later, the center was in operation. “From day one, this place was put here to serve this agricultural community,” Caron said in his opening speech. “It’s the growers, both big and small, and it’s the agricultural industry as a whole, that gives this station its purpose.” Caron’s speech was followed by Edgar, University of Idaho Senior Director of Government and External Relations Rachael Bickerton and Lt. Gov. Scott Bedke, each of whom celebrated the accomplishments of the past 100 years. Idaho Lt. Gov. Scott Bedke speaks to the crowd at centennial celebration for the University of Idaho’s Parma Research and Extension Center on June 12, 2026. (Photo by Valentin Termite/Idaho Capital Sun) Some of the state representatives present, including Bedke, agreed with Caron’s speech, highlighting that the interconnection of business and science made the center an integral part of local agriculture. “(The center) allows our producers access to cutting edge science, and we’re all competing in world, if not regional, markets where production efficiencies are paramount,” Bedke said in an interview with the Idaho Capital Sun. “It is really critical to our bottom line, and this gives us access to the latest in science.” Speaking of his own experience in farming, Bedke also said the research services provided by the center can bring large returns for investors and taxpayers. “As a young producer, very involved with the Extensions Office in Twin Falls, more in livestock but also in grasses in Aberdeen, I’m a fan,” he added. The bulk of said research pertains to “high-value cropping systems” in the area, including what Edgar described to the Idaho Capital Sun as vegetable seed production. These vegetable projects test new agricultural management techniques, as well as soil health, pollination or nematode – microscopic roundworms found in soil – application to increase crop resistance. According to Edgar, this means collaborating with local farmers to identify and address problems. With conditions around the state changing in accordance to the climate, such as drought, or through new demographics in the size of available farm land, Edgar said the center would become more and more critical. “In the next 100 years, neither you nor I will be here, but there’ll still be this footprint here that’s working directly with however agriculture looks at that time,” Edgar said. For now, the center is focused on restaffing many of its vacant research positions, according to Caron, who joined the team in 2025. “I want the one year report to my boss … (to say) that we have this place running at full capacity,” Caron said to the Idaho Capital Sun. “That’s my goal.” SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE Courtesy of Idaho Capital Sun
	Lavender farm treehouses featured in Iowa City Parade of Homes A lavender farm in eastern Iowa is drawing national attention after its treehouses were recognized as one of Airbnb’s most wish-listed destinations in the state.
	City-wide food drive takes place in Galesburg Volunteers collected nonperishable food items and monetary donations to support FISH of Galesburg, a local food pantry that has served the community for decades.
	New Davenport police chief says recruitment, finding efficiencies among top priorities New Davenport Police Chief Greg Behning spoke to media Friday afternoon after being announced as
	Former student of Quad Cities martial arts legend raises $10K for dojo Evin Ersan has completed his “100 Days of Morrow” challenge, honoring the late John Morrow. Along the way, he raised money for Morrow’s Academy of Martial Arts dojo.
	Justice Dept. approves Paramount's acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery The decision paves the way for a proposed $111 billion merger uniting two rival studio giants — Paramount, owner of CBS, and the much larger Warner, which includes HBO and CNN.
	Lahn, Sand pick running mates in race to be Iowa governor GOP candidate Zach Lahn chose state Rep. Derek Wulf and Democrat Rob Sand picked Dave Muhlbauer for the upcoming November governor's race.
	Electric pole down after crash involving city truck Police say everyone involved will be alright after a Davenport crash. News 8 is working to learn more.
	Multiple weekend events to take place in the Quad Cities Fifth annual Village Hops, Quad Cities Pet Expo, free yoga at the Figge and world wide Knit in Public Day events will be held over the weekend.
	Cat litter facility to employ 96 in Muscatine Kent Worldwide opened a new 174,000-square-foot facility in Muscatine to manufacture corn-based cat litter, adding 96 jobs to the local economy.
	Moline announces special July 2 celebration for America’s 250th anniversary Moline announced a special July 2 celebration at Bass Street Landing for America’s 250th birthday, featuring music, a picnic, and fireworks .
	New Mexico ranks low for quality of life in national report on the state of the states A hot air balloon pictured flying over Rio Rancho. (Patrick Lohmann/Source NM)A new report from the nonpartisan State of the Nation Project lists New Mexico near the bottom of national rankings for education, shootings, youth depression and a number of other factors that impact life satisfaction. However, researchers found that even states with higher scores are reporting similar declines. The organization produced the State of the States report, which gives in-depth scorecards to each of the 50 states and Washington D.C., ahead of the country’s 250th anniversary. A board of academics and advisers to the last five presidents created a list of 31 measures — ranging from youth depression, air quality and income inequality to social isolation, life expectancy and young adults employed or in school — and quantified those categories in each state.SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX. Among the team’s takeaways: Only a small handful of states show improvement on any measure of self-reported well-being; states are becoming more alike in many ways but diverging on issues that can drive feelings of division; and a stronger economy does not appear to be linked to higher scores of personal well-being. For total scores across the project’s categories, only Louisiana fared worse than New Mexico. In particular, New Mexico ranked 50th in the nation for hourly earnings growth; 49th for murder rate and academic test scores; 48th for children living with a single parent; 47th for shootings and suicide rate; 45th for youth depression and 44th for young adults employed or in school. Its highest score — for child mortality — was 20th in the nation. State leaders have recently focused on the exceedingly high number of young New Mexicans who neither work or go to school. A recent Legislative Finance Committee report found that 32,000 young New Mexicans do neither, costing the state some $623 million annually. “Almost all states are going downhill, or at least not improving, in the areas in the nation where the nation is going downhill,” Douglas N. Harris, a Tulane University professor leading the State of the Nation Project’s effort, told Source NM. “What’s different about New Mexico is that its levels are worse — you’re starting off at a low point, but also getting worse.” The new report indicates that states across the nation are broadly declining in these categories, regardless of their starting point. Minnesota, for example, ranked first in the nation and is showing some of the strongest improvements for economic output and productivity. But even some of its scores — 43rd for youth depression and 38th for net greenhouse gas emissions — are troubling. “States with higher income per-capita do not have higher personal well-being and life satisfaction or lower depression,” Harris said. “I think part of it is that we’re a nation of strivers. We’re never satisfied with what we have and if you’re never satisfied, then you’re never going to give positive responses on life satisfaction.” Harris said the team’s next project will be a series of reports examining why scores are declining across the nation. In general, he said he suspects that social media and smartphones have a role to play in answering those questions, particularly because of how easy it is to engage with polarizing content. He said he believes that is reflected in a troubling finding: low levels of trust in democracy across the nation. “That one is probably the most astounding to me,” he said. “The vast majority of countries have a stronger belief in democracy than the U.S. That’s just appalling and worrisome.” Courtesy of Source New Mexico
	Board imposes $5,000 fine on Iowa dentist (Photo by Peter Dazeley/Getty Images)The Iowa Dental Board has fined a Bettendorf dentist $5,000 for allegedly practicing in an unsafe manner. The board alleges that in January 2023 it received a complaint about licensed dentist Darrell Ginsberg, who was practicing in Albia at the time. According to the board, the complaint alleged Ginsberg was the dentist, working for the company named Byte, who oversaw treatment related to a patient’s bite retainer. The patient claimed she experienced joint pain and a bite misalignment as a result of the retainers she received from the company, but there was never any direct communication between her and Ginsberg, which the board says was contrary to Byte’s business model. The board recently charged Ginsberg with practicing dentistry in a manner that is harmful or detrimental to the public. The settlement calls for Ginsberg to accept a warning, pay a $5,000 civil penalty and complete an unspecified number of hours of educational training on ethics. Board records indicate Ginsberg, who has been an Iowa-licensed dentist since 2019, no longer works from home for Byte or any other direct-to-consumer bite alignment company. The Iowa Capital Dispatch was unable to reach Ginsberg for comment. In an unrelated case, the board recently imposed sanctions against dental assistant Cindy Roling of Farley. The board alleges that in October 2023, Roling self-reported consuming alcohol at work. She then signed a contract to participate in the Iowa Professional Health Program for impaired practitioners, which would have included routine substance testing. According to the board, Roling did not comply with the program’s testing requirements and then indicated her intent to withdraw from the program and surrender her license. The board has accepted Roling’s surrender of her license with the understanding that she will be eligible to seek reinstatement of the license in one year. Courtesy of Iowa Capital Dispatch
	Rock Island Arsenal bridge to close for cleaning The Rock Island Arsenal Directorate of Public Works will close the Government Bridge on Friday, June 19.
	Republican attorneys general urge EPA to classify mifepristone as water contaminant Fourteen state attorneys general are asking the EPA to classify the abortion medication mifepristone as a water contaminant. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)Republican attorneys general from 14 states and 19 GOP members of Congress are asking U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin to classify and regulate the abortion medication mifepristone as a water contaminant. Mifepristone is prescribed as part of a two-drug medication regimen to terminate a pregnancy. Studies have shown medication abortion to be safe and effective. In a letter last Friday, the state officials argued that mifepristone is “a growing threat to the country’s waterways.” The letter was signed by the attorneys general of Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Nebraska, Louisiana, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas. A concurrent letter, led by Republican Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey, made similar claims and was signed by 18 other GOP members of Congress. Environmental health science experts say there is no evidence that mifepristone in wastewater causes harm to the environment or to humans. “There’s no evidence that medication abortion is affecting U.S. water systems, including drinking water and aquatic wildlife,” the Center for Biological Diversity, which advocates for stronger environmental protections, says on its website. The GOP letters cite a 1996 FDA Center for Drug Evaluation and Research statement that said harmful environmental effects from mifepristone were “not anticipated,” while acknowledging that the drug may enter the environment via excretion or disposal of pharmaceutical waste. But drug trace amounts in water are a common occurrence, experts say, and state environmental agencies and scientists check for harmful contaminants in water as part of protocols and research. In 2025, state lawmakers in seven states introduced nine bills that included claims about medication abortion and its effects on the environment and water. State lawmakers also introduced legislation calling for testing for mifepristone in water systems. Last year, Republican members of Congress brought up similar concerns in a letter to the EPA. The U.S. Supreme Court decided last month to preserve telehealth access to mifepristone until after the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled on the merits of the high-stakes federal lawsuit Louisiana v. Food and Drug Administration. Medication abortion accounted for nearly two-thirds of all clinician-provided abortions in states without abortion bans in 2023, according to the most recent data available from the Guttmacher Institute, a research and policy organization focused on advancing reproductive rights. Stateline reporter Nada Hassanein can be reached at nhassanein@stateline.org. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE Courtesy of Stateline
	Honor fallen Clinton firefighter at Eric Hosette Memorial Ride Enjoy a great ride while you help first responders' families and honor a fallen Clinton firefighter. Jason Sharp and Korey Zigler joined Our Quad Cities News with details on the Eric Hosette Memorial Ride. For more information, click here.
	Two farmers vie for GOP nomination for Commissioner of Agriculture and Industries Douglas Mayor Corey Hill (left) and farmer Christina Woerner Mcinnis will face each other in the June 16 Republican primary runoff for Commissioner of Agriculture and Industries. (Photos by Anna Barrett/Alabama Reflector; Graphic by Andrea Tinker/Alabama Reflector)Republican voters will choose between two farmers to be the nominee for Commissioner of Agriculture and Industries. Corey Hill and Christina Woerner Mcinnis will face each other in the June 16 runoff. According to the Alabama Secretary of State’s office, Hill received 150,598 (35.20%) votes to Mcinnis’ 149,179 (34.86%) votes in unofficial returns. The winner will face Democratic nominee Ron Sparks, a former agriculture and industries commissioner, in the November election. A message seeking comment was left with Mcinnis Wednesday. According to her website, Mcinnis, who if elected would be the state’s first woman elected to the role, wants to expand the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to include rotisserie chicken. Rep. Donna Givens, R-Loxley, filed a bill last year to allow SNAP recipients to purchase hot rotisserie chickens with their benefits, but the bill did not make it to committee. Alabama House bill aims to let SNAP recipients buy hot rotisserie chicken Hill said in an interview Thursday afternoon that he has the advantage in the race because of his job as a farmer. “One thing I think that gets me the edge is because we farm full time in Marshall County, we grow the food you eat, we make our living in production agriculture,” he said. “I think as a society we want our farmers to be successful, because we’ve got to have them in business, and I can bring to the table that experience and relationships with farmers, so when decisions have to be made about if it’s good for them, it will help them or hurt them, I’ve got that experience.” Hill also wants to get a handle on data centers and solar farms in the state so farmers and producers keep their land. “We cannot lose our prime farmland to data centers or solar farms, or even subdivisions, to some regard,” he said. “And the Ag Commissioner has absolutely no role in data centers, solar farms. We don’t regulate it, can’t inspect them, nothing to do with that, unless the laws change, but we’ve got to find a way to incentivize people to keep their land in production, or if they sell it, to sell it to a farmer to be in production.” Meet the Candidates Corey Hill Age: 56 Residence: Douglas Occupation: Farmer Education: A.S. Business, Snead State Community College Party: Republican Previous political experience: Mayor of Douglas (2012-present) Campaign fundraising: Raised $530,200 and spent $527,800 as of Thursday evening. Efforts to reach Christina Woerner Mcinnis were unsuccessful. Courtesy of Alabama Reflector
	Iowa dairy farms, businesses receive $614,000 from Choose Iowa grants There are about 850 dairy farms in Iowa, ranging in size from 25 to 10,000 cows. (Photo courtesy of Iowa State Dairy Association)Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig announced Friday that 11 of the state’s dairy farms and businesses have received funding from the Choose Iowa Dairy Innovation Grant Program administered by the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship. Naig made the announcement during a Dairy Month visit to Gav-n-view Farm near Lansing. The program provides up to $100,000 in cost-share funding to assist Iowa dairy farmers in reducing labor and increasing on-farm production, according to IDALS. National Dairy Month, celebrated annually in the U.S. every June since 1937, celebrates and honors the contributions of farmers in the dairy industry. “These grants help dairy farmers add value to what they already do so well by expanding processing capacity, developing new products and adopting technologies that improve efficiency,” Naig said in a news release. “The result is more fresh, wholesome and nutritious Iowa-made dairy products on store shelves, stronger farm businesses and more dollars staying in local communities.” SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX. In total, more than $614,000 was distributed to 11 recipients statewide, with Lango Dairy from Hopkinton receiving the maximum award of $100,000. Recipients of the Choose Iowa Dairy grants include: Country View Dairy: Hawkeye Sweet Doe Company: Keota Frisian Farms Cheese: Leighton Dutch Girl Dairy, Inc.: Marion Moore Local: Maquoketa Bonert and Kennedy Farm LLC: Epworth Vellema Dairy: Harris Lango Dairy: Hopkinton Gav-n-view Farm: Lansing Dutchland Dairy: Rolfe Rolinda Acres Dairy: Waterville Since the program’s implementation in 2024, 46 Iowa farms and businesses have received funding from the Choose Iowa Dairy Innovation Grant Program. Robert Horst, president of the Iowa State Dairy Association, said in an IDALS news release that the organization is proud of the investment and of the results the grant program has produced in Iowa communities. “This investment in Iowa’s dairy industry has demonstrated a meaningful return by supporting dairy farm families, encouraging innovation and growth, and providing Iowans with greater access to dairy products made right here in our state,” Horst said. “It’s one of the few grant programs where Iowans can truly see, touch, and taste the results of the investment every day in their local communities.” Courtesy of Iowa Capital Dispatch
	Oregon backs off rule mandating adults watch kids under 14 at public pools A pool in a hotel is pictured. The Oregon Health Authority said that it would be “revisiting” a rule adopted in April 2025 that mandated some children have direct pool supervision. (Photo by Alexander Castro/Rhode Island Current)Ahead of the upcoming summer, Oregon public health officials won’t require adults to accompany their children under the age of 14 at public swimming pools. The Oregon Health Authority announced this week that it would “revisit” a rule adopted in April 2025 that required direct adult supervision for children at that age. The rules took effect in February. But in the wake of public backlash, the agency now only plans to adopt a temporary measure requiring public pools to post a sign with the message that state health officials recommend that supervision. The Oregon Health Authority will convene a “public process” in the fall to gather input about a permanent or different rule. “After hearing from parents and caregivers of older elementary and early middle school-age children, the Food, Pool and Lodging Health and Safety Program is proposing additional discussion with the community and regulated partners to gather more input, ensure equitable access to public pools and continue to keep kids safe,” Gabriela Goldfarb, manager of the Oregon Health Authority’s environmental public health section, said in a statement. The original rule aligned with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Model Aquatic Health Code, which provides federal guidance on preventing injury and illness at public pools using the latest scientific research. The health authority pointed to research from the CDC finding high levels of deaths in swimming pools through the age of 13, then a drop starting at the age of 14. Drowning is one of the leading causes of death for children aged 5 to 14 due to unintentional injury. But the state rule raised questions about implementation and whether it would keep kids from swimming. State and federal data has shown children in Oregon who die from drowning are often in lakes, rivers or other bodies of water on public lands, not in pools. Oregon public health officials said they would communicate the rule changes to pool operators and local health inspectors, and suggested they would consider swimmers’ concerns in developing an updated rule. Public health officials have stated that they are seeking a diverse range of views for a fall workgroup on public swimming safety rules. Oregonians who are interested in participating can email pool.safety@oha.oregon.gov. “Given the technical nature of most of the rules, OHA typically gets participation from pool facility operators and builders, and not the community members using the pool,” Goldfarb said. “Going forward, when CDC updates its model codes, we’ll work to identify proposed changes that need community conversations to find the right path for Oregon.” SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE Courtesy of Oregon Capital Chronicle
	Floyd County Medical Center secures $27.5 million USDA loan Floyd County Medical Center in Charles City. (Photo via Google Earth)The USDA is loaning $27.5 million to the Floyd County Medical Center in Charles City to help the hospital expand and renovate its facilities. The loan was announced Friday by U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development Iowa State Director Mike Sexton, who said the project includes construction of a one-story addition, renovation of most of the north wing, and the expansion and modernization of surgical, dietary and material-management departments. Once completed, the project will improve the quality of care and provide more space for healthcare providers and patients, Sexton said in a press release. “Access to critical care is essential to the health of Iowans,” Sexton said. “President Donald Trump and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins have made it a priority to ensure rural Iowa communities have the resources needed to thrive, and this project helps achieve that vision.” The USDA is administering the funding through Rural Development’s Community Facilities Direct Loan & Grant program, which offers direct loans, loan guarantees and grants to develop or improve essential public services and facilities in communities across rural America. More information on the USDA’s Rural Development investments can be accessed at Rural Data Gateway, an online tool that is intended to strengthen USDA partnerships with rural people, entrepreneurs and government officials by making investment data available to the public. Courtesy of Iowa Capital Dispatch
	New Illinois program will expand access by libraries to digital databases for research, education The Secretary of State’s office announced a program to give all Illinoisans access to a large number of online informational and educational databases through their library.
	McKee signs $15.2B FY27 budget to great fanfare from lawmakers and advocates Left-handed Gov. Dan McKee signs the fiscal 2027 budget at Children's Friend in Providence on Friday, June 12, 2026. (Photo by Nancy Lavin/Rhode Island Current)In a drab government conference room a year ago, Gov. Dan McKee blasted lawmakers for unnecessary taxes and fees as he explained to reporters why he refused to sign the state budget. On Friday, colorful blocks and signs adorned the Providence childcare center where McKee gave his John Hancock to the fiscal 2027 budget, with advocates, lawmakers and smiling toddlers looking on. The ceremonial signing at Children’s Friend marks the end to the six-month legislative session, in which executive and legislative branches work to craft and shape an annual tax-and-spend plan. The $15.2 billion budget, which takes effect July 1, doesn’t include everything on McKee’s wish list. But he praised lawmakers for keeping him in the loop during their revision process — which he said didn’t happen last year. More importantly, the governor said, the spending plan preserved his focus on affordability. “You can see by the excitement in this room, whether its the child tax credit I put on the table, whether it has to do with the Social Security tax, the Hope Scholarship is something that was very important to me, that was in there,” McKee said, speaking to reporters after the budget signing. “We are not backing away from our goals.” He acknowledged that he would have gone further on eliminating income taxes on Social Security benefits — legislators agreed to cut the minimum age requirement for retirees to bypass taxes but declined to take up McKee’s recommendation to phase out the tax entirely. Similarly, McKee’s $1 billion energy affordability plan was stripped of its central elements in favor of preserving climate change and energy efficiency programs. “I’ve put everyone on notice that I’m not done,” McKee said. His pledge to put tax relief for retirees and energy bills at the top of his priority list next year omitted the fact that his future in the executive office hinges on winning a tough reelection bid against Democratic primary challenger Helena Buonanno Foulkes. But the embattled incumbent used the budget signing as a de facto campaign speech, touting his office’s accomplishments on job creation, educational investments and support for working families. The fiscal 2027 budget features the state’s first permanent, refundable tax credit for low to middle-income families with children. The $47 million state program is projected to help 70,000 families, receiving an average of $330 per child per year. “That’s a big deal,” McKee proclaimed. The budget also includes a phased-in millionaire’s tax, a new inspector general’s office, and a historic $600 million bond package with proposed investments in higher education, housing and a state history center. Quotation I’ve put everyone on notice that I’m not done. – Gov. Dan McKee House Speaker Christopher Blazejewski and Senate President Valarie Lawson underscored McKee’s optimistic tone and emphasis on accomplishments, presenting a united front and crediting each other for a spirit of collaboration and inclusion. The tail end of the 2025 session was marked by tension between the two branches of government, with House Speaker emeritus K. Joseph Shekarchi criticizing McKee’s administration for accounting errors that led to last-minute gaps, and McKee firing back at lawmakers for raising taxes on gas and health insurance. McKee’s attempt to roll back last year’s 2-cent gas tax hike did not prevail in the final fiscal 2027 budget. But the $4 per person monthly health insurance fee that drew McKee’s ire last year will be short-lived. Legislators agreed with the budget office’s recommendation to repeal the health premium tax starting Oct. 1 due to concerns that it conflicts with federal mandates under H.R.1. “By law, we probably needed to do it, but it was certainly a priority of mine,” McKee said Friday. The fee was meant to fund a state assessment on healthcare needs. Even in its absence, the fiscal 2027 budget makes strides toward helping healthcare providers and patients afford and access care, including $39 million for hospitals to offset a rise in uncompensated care, $22 million for enrollees in the state health exchange, and $5 million to begin the process of establishing a state medical school at the University of Rhode Island. There is also $116 million to increase Medicaid reimbursement rates for home healthcare providers, as recommended by the Office of the Health Insurance Commissioner. “Medicaid rates are so important, especially with the cuts coming out of Washington,” Blazejewski said. Lawson highlighted the $3 million for the Rhode Island Community Food Bank among measures to address food insecurity, also expected to worsen under federal changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. “This budget represents what we believe is our strong commitment for working people in Rhode Island,” she said. Advocates hold signs highlighting various provisions of the fiscal 2027 budget, such as a child tax credit, during a ceremonial budget signing in Providence on Friday, June 12, 2026. (Photo by Nancy Lavin/Rhode Island Current) What about the charter schools? Not mentioned during the 30-minute event, but looming in the minds of educators and parents of school-aged children: the fate of a controversial three-year ban on new charter schools given final approval by the Rhode Island General Assembly less than 24 hours earlier. The teachers’ union-backed measure was lauded by proponents, including Lawson, as a way to prevent resources from being drained from traditional public schools, at least until policy experts can determine a better way to reform state aid to school districts. But opponents said a moratorium hurts families, including the 600 unable to send their children to a K-12 dual language charter school that already received preliminary approval, but is now on hold because it didn’t get the final OK. Chiara Deltito-Sharrott, executive director for the Rhode Island League of Charter Public Schools, sent out an email blast midday Friday, urging recipients to call McKee’s office and tell him to veto the bill. “The fight is not over,” she wrote in the email. “We can still stop this harmful bill from becoming law.” McKee, a longtime charter school proponent, softened his stance in recent weeks, agreeing to the merits of a moratorium. But he remained concerned about the legislation’s provision to reduce the statewide cap on charter schools from 35 to 28. He remained noncommittal Friday. “That is still a decision I’m going to make,” he said, though he noted the bill has a veto-proof majority in the General Assembly. He did not name any other bills he intends to veto when asked by reporters. A stack of leftover Cross pens sits on the table where Gov. Dan McKee signed the fiscal 2027 budget Friday. (Photo by Nancy Lavin/Rhode Island Current) SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX. Courtesy of Rhode Island Current
	4 Your Money \| Worth The Risk? Stocks continue to sustain their tremendous run. John Nelson, Financial Planner at NelsonCorp Wealth Management, provides insight on whether the risk is still worth the reward or if investors should consider a strategic reallocation away from stocks.
	Summer food benefits available for Montana children Grocery cart filled with nutritious fruits and vegetables. (Photo by greggavedon via Flickr/CC BY ND-2.0)Many kids in Montana are eligible to receive financial benefits this summer to access healthy food through grocery purchases. Montana is among 39 states administering the federal Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBR) program, known in Montana as “SUN Bucks,” which offers families a one-time financial benefit of $120 for each eligible child to be used on groceries during the summer. Montana Department of Health and Human Services administers the program, and said last year approximately 67,000 children participated in the program. A department spokesperson said benefits are expected to start going out in the next weeks, and the funds are available to use for 120 days after the EBT cards are issued. Children who receive free or reduced-price school meals, participate in Medicaid, and those enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Program, are automatically qualified for SUN Bucks and will receive a Montana EBT card that can be used at grocery stores, farmers markets and other locations that display the SNAP logo and have signs such as “EBT accepted here.” Other automatically qualifying criteria include children in foster care, in a migrant education program, or experiencing homelessness. To check if your child is eligible, use this online SUN Bucks tool. To apply for Montana’s SUN Bucks program, there is an online form through DPHHS. For questions about SUN Bucks in Montana, visit the Montana Department of Health and Human Services website or email SUNBucks@mt.gov. Montana’s back-and-forth The federal government launched the Summer EBT program in 2024, and Montana became one of the first states that participated in the program. But that decision was a 180-degree change from a previous state decision to not accept similar funds in 2023 — $10 million — through a federal Pandemic EBT program, citing administrative costs. During the 2025 Legislature, a budget subcommittee initially voted along party lines to cut out federal funding for a summer lunch program, but the funds were ultimately restored to the final budget. Courtesy of Daily Montanan
	Justices Kirkpatrick, Flanigan will be part of Supreme Court discussions on WV school vaccine case The West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals. (Photo by West Virginia Legislative Photography)The two newest justices on the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals will be involved in deciding how the court will proceed with a case at the heart of a fight over the future of the state’s strict school vaccination requirements. Justices Bill Flanigan and H.L. Kirkpatrick — who were elected in May — took their oaths of office Thursday and Friday, respectively. Public investitures for the two will come later, a spokesman for the court said. Former West Virginia Del. Bill Flanigan is sworn in as Supreme Court justice Thursday, June 11 in Charleston, West Virginia. (Courtesy West Virginia Judiciary) Flanigan, a former Republican state delegate who represented Ohio County, and Kirkpatrick, a retired Raleigh County Circuit judge, won over Thomas Ewing and Gerald Titus, Gov. Patrick Morrisey’s appointees to the high court. Flanigan officially resigned from the House June 9. Going forward, the two justices will be involved with the case of West Virginia and Raleigh County boards of education vs. Miranda G. and Carley H., which could be decided as soon as this summer or during the court’s fall term, said Jared Hunt, communications director for the court. School officials this week filed their reply brief in response to the arguments made by attorneys for Guzman and Hunter, the Raleigh County families suing for the ability to admit their children with religious exemptions to the state’s strict school vaccination requirements. Retired Raleigh County Circuit Judge H.L. Kirkpatrick takes the oath of office for the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals Friday morning in Charleston, West Virginia. (Courtesy West Virginia Judiciary) With the school board’s reply brief filed, Supreme Court justices may either decide the school vaccine case based on written arguments or schedule oral arguments in the case. The court adjourned its spring session Thursday. Hunt said justices could take up the case during the fall term, which starts Sept. 2, or hold arguments during vacation if they decide it requires more immediate attention. Every state requires school children to be vaccinated for a series of infectious diseases including measles, polio, whooping cough and chickenpox. West Virginia is one of only a handful of states that do not allow families to opt out of the requirements because they object to the vaccines for religious or philosophical reasons. The state allows only medical exemptions. Morrisey seeks to change that. He issued an executive order in January 2025 requiring the state health department to accept religious exemptions. His order is based on the 2023 Equal Protection for Religion Act, which says the government may not “substantially burden a person’s exercise of religion unless applying the burden to that person’s exercise of religion in a particular situation is essential to further a compelling governmental interest; and is the least restrictive means of furthering that compelling governmental interest.” Morrisey has not rescinded the order, even after the state Legislature rejected a 2025 bill that would have codified the religious exemptions. The state board of education has advised county boards to follow the school vaccine law as written, without religious exemptions. Two Raleigh County families are suing the school boards. Raleigh Circuit Judge Michael Froble ruled in November in favor of the families seeking to have their children admitted to class with a religious exemption. Froble issued a statewide ruling that prohibited the school boards from denying children admittance to school based on vaccination status. Froble’s ruling is on hold while the Supreme Court considers the case. In the school board’s reply brief, attorneys argue the 2023 Equal Protection for Religion Act applies only to laws that conflict with it, and therefore the law does not add religious exemptions to the vaccination requirements. The vaccine law does not burden or restrict religious exercise, attorneys argue, and therefore does not conflict with EPRA. Attorneys for the school boards called the Supreme Court case the “latest crucible for West Virginia’s most effective public health law.” “The law, evidence, and common sense all show that the Vaccine Law survives the challenge yet again,” attorneys wrote. “Appellees cannot dispute the Vaccine Law’s effectiveness. “For nearly a century, it has protected generations of West Virginians from dangerous diseases and outbreaks. Instead, Appellees identify perceived flaws, many of which are unsupported or contradicted by the record, and ask this Court to erode one of West Virginia’s workhorse public health laws. But a straightforward application of governing law shows this case ought to be the latest failed challenge to the Vaccine Law.” In its argument, the school board says West Virginia’s religious freedom act differs from the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act in that it does not include wording that the law applies to all federal laws adopted before or after the law was enacted. “Appellees do not rebut this point or explain why this Court should ignore the statutes’ differences. They bury in a footnote the claim that ‘EPRA’s clause is identical in all material respects to its RFRA’s [sic] parallel but is just more concise,’” they write. “That is categorically wrong. Under West Virginia law, EPRA’s notwithstanding clause displaces only statutes that conflict with EPRA — unlike RFRA’s broader language, which the Legislature considered and rejected.” Attorneys for the families have argued that EPRA’s beginning phrase “notstanding any other provision of law” means that the law supersedes other state laws. The school boards acted within their constitutional authority when they decided not to accept religious exemptions, the attorneys argue. “There is nothing ‘rogue’ or ‘defiant’ about applying the Vaccine Law as written,” they write. “The State Board of Education is constitutionally entrusted with ‘[t]he general supervision of the free schools of the State,’ and therefore ‘enjoys a special standing’ relative to ‘most other administrative agencies’ in the State. The Board is a constitutionally recognized entity whose authority derives from the West Virginia Constitution, not executive directive. It is therefore not bound by the unilateral actions of the Governor.” SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE Courtesy of West Virginia Watch
	What would it take to stop women from bleeding to death after childbirth? A newly published series of reports calls attention to a dire situation facing millions of women after childbirth — and the solutions that can prevent death from postpartum hemorrhage.
	The big summer trip is getting harder to pull off. What families are doing instead. The big summer trip is getting harder to pull off. What families are doing instead.Ask most Americans about their favorite summer memory, and water shows up somewhere — a lake at dusk, a boat rocking gently, quiet mornings with nowhere else to be. For a lot of them, that feeling has been easier to remember than recreate.As travel costs climb and traditional vacations feel increasingly complicated, the appeal of something closer to home has grown. Each year, 85 million Americans find it on the water, according to the National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA).Part of boating’s appeal is rooted in nostalgia and connection. Many people are drawn to the kinds of unplugged experiences tied to childhood — time outdoors, shared adventures and uninterrupted moments together. According to a Discover Boating survey, 85% of current boat owners say their fondest childhood memories involved being on the water, with nearly half recalling those experiences before age 13.The costs look different when stacked against a traditional vacation. According to NMMA, a week at an all-inclusive resort for a family of four runs around $5,000 to $8,000. Boat rentals run around $75 per hour, entry-level boat financing costs a few hundred dollars a month and boat club memberships offer access to multiple boats for a monthly fee, typically $150 to $375 after a one-time initiation fee. Many families are discovering that boating can offer multiple smaller vacations throughout the summer at a comparable cost.Those lower-commitment options are more than just a budgeting tool — they are a first step into the lifestyle. According to the survey, 45% of prospective boat buyers expressed interest in renting or chartering before committing to a purchase, while interest in boat clubs and fractional ownership also remained high. The survey further found that 49% plan to own within two years, and 46% are focused on boats priced under $50,000.For Americans deciding how to spend their time this summer, that flexibility may be part of boating’s growing appeal. It offers something many vacations promise but do not always deliver: the ability to truly disconnect and be present — not just once a year, but repeatedly throughout the season.The pull toward the water may be deeper than nostalgia. Research shows there’s a connection between water and well-being — the sight and sound of water can help people feel calmer, lower stress and support overall wellness. The concept of “Blue Mind” describes the mild meditative state associated with being near, in, on or under water. For families looking to unplug, boating offers a way to step away from screens, slow down and recharge.MethodologyThe quantitative survey was fielded Aug. 22, 2025 through Sept. 12, 2025. It included 500 boat owners and 500 prospective owners. Boat owners are defined as those who own (or used to own) a boat and consider their primary vessel a motorized/power boat or sailboat. Prospective owners are defined as 50% or more likely to purchase a motorized/power boat or sailboat in the future and not a current or lapsed owner. Note: All insights collected reflect opinions of surveyed boat owners and prospective owners only.This story was produced by Discover Boating and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
	Enjoy bluegrass on the grass at QC Botanical Center Enjoy live music surrounded by the beauty of the Quad City Botanical Center with the Culture Bright Summer Series. The botanical center is located at 2525 4th Avenue in Rock Island. The series starts with Bluegrass on the Grass. Railroad Earth and Yonder Mountain String Band will turn the gardens into one of the region's [...]
	Omaha Public Power District’s peregrine falcon chicks get named via community vote Omaha Public Power District's new peregrine falcon chicks, Yin and Yang. (Photo: Omaha Public Power District)OMAHA — The votes are in, and Omaha Public Power District’s newest peregrine falcon chicks officially have names. After inviting the public to help name the two new female chicks born this spring at OPPD’s North Omaha Station, roughly 1,000 customers cast their votes. Yin and Yang emerged as the favorites, earning nearly 40% of the overall vote, according to an OPPD press release. Thelma and Louise finished second with 13% of the vote, followed by Florence and Fontenelle with 10%. OPPD officials said the names are fitting for each of the chicks’ distinct personalities. Yin and Yang come from an ancient Chinese philosophy about opposing forces that can work complementary to one another. Yang embodies the bright, active force associated with her namesake, while Yin is the calmer counterpart of the falcon pair. Each falcon was given a black and blue band with an identification number. Yang was given band number 47/AS, and Yin received band number 48/AS. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE The names Yin and Yang will now be officially registered with the Midwest Peregrine Society. Peregrine falcons are the fastest animal in the world thanks to top diving speeds of more than 200 miles per hour. The species had been listed as endangered between 1970 and 1999, but steady conservation work helped repopulate the species. Lewis and Clark, Yin and Yang’s parents, have produced and raised numerous chicks since they began nesting at the North Omaha Station in 2015. From 2020 to 2026, the public has helped name roughly a dozen offspring — Storm, Flicker, Flash, Volta, Watt, Ohm, Ampere, Thunder, Lightning, Beak Randby, and now Yin and Yang. The public can continue following Yin and Yang as they grow, watching OPPD’s livestream at OPPD.com/FalconLive. To learn more about Yin and Yang, visit OPPDTheWire.com. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX. Courtesy of Nebraska Examiner
	To read more this summer, stop waiting for the perfect moment So you want to ignite a reading habit this summer. How do you get back into the groove? We talk to reading enthusiasts for their best tricks — like allowing yourself to read wherever, whenever.
	St. Mary’s hospital nurses choose union representation in NLRB election Nurses at St. Mary's Hospital in Madison, part of SSM Health. voted Thursday in favor of union representation by SEIU Wisconsin. (Wisconsin Examiner photo)Nurses at St. Mary’s Hospital in Madison voted Thursday for a union in the largest representation election in Wisconsin in at least a quarter century. According to a vote tally from SEIU Wisconsin, 511 St. Mary’s nurses voted for the union while 63 voted no — an 89% majority in favor of unionizing. SEIU Wisconsin is part of the Service Employees International Union. The vote Thursday was conducted by the National Labor Relations Board. A total of 754 nurses were eligible to vote, according to the union. St. Mary’s, part of the St. Louis-based nonprofit chain SSM Health, had campaigned against unionization. Union supporters said in interviews in the last month that concerns nurses had raised about procedures, staffing and compensation had not received an adequate response from SSM Health management. “The landslide election is part of a growing national trend of healthcare professionals — including nurses, doctors and others — organizing unions to have a strong voice in improving patient care, staffing and retention,” SEIU Wisconsin stated in a press release issued after the election. “With our union, we now have a strong voice to negotiate a contract with the policies, staffing, and retention we need,” St. Mary’s labor and delivery nurse Emily Berceau said in the union press release. In a statement distributed by Lisa Adams, communications manager in the SSM Health Wisconsin regional office, the organization acknowledged that management would have preferred to see the union lose, which it characterized as “an outcome that allowed for continued direct engagement with our nurses.” “Regardless, we remain committed to continuing to collaborate with our entire team to maintain a compassionate, high-quality, healing environment where we all can do our best work in living out our Mission to provide exceptional care for our patients,” the statement said. “It’s been our Mission for more than 100 years and one we hope SEIU Wisconsin will continue to respect.” In addition to the nurses whose votes were counted, the union and the hospital management disputed whether 82 charge nurses were eligible to vote. While SEIU contends charge nurses are part of the group to be covered by the union, the hospital argues that they are supervisors and therefore not eligible. The NLRB election order said the charge nurses’ eligibility would be decided later. The ballots of 66 charge nurses who voted were set aside as challenged and not counted Thursday. In its post-election press release, the union called on SSM Health to drop its objection to union coverage for the charge nurses. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX. Courtesy of Wisconsin Examiner
	Final rules for Medicaid work requirements are out. Here’s what you need to know. Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, speaks at the Department of Health and Human Services in Washington, D.C., in December. CMS this week released guidance on how states should implement new Medicaid work requirements. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)The Trump administration has issued final rules on how states should ensure that millions of Medicaid enrollees prove they’re working or completing other activities, such as job training, volunteering, or being enrolled in an educational program. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services released the rules on June 1. That deadline was set last year in the GOP tax-and-spending law known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which established a work requirement for certain people enrolled in Medicaid, the state-federal health insurance program for people with low incomes or disabilities. Medicaid agencies are scrambling to rework IT systems and make sure they have staff to effectively enforce the rules, while also keeping enrollees from losing coverage for administrative reasons, such as difficulty navigating state eligibility portals. The newly announced regulations offer a clearer picture of what roughly 18.5 million Medicaid enrollees will have to do to prove they qualify for benefits. Jim Torres, who helps people enroll in health coverage at the Samuel U. Rodgers Health Center in Kansas City, Missouri, said a “very small percentage” of his clients have heard of the changes coming to Medicaid. “These folks have very busy lives. They’re doing the best they can to get by,” he said. “It’s just not a top-of-mind thing for most of them.” Health policy researchers and consumer advocates said enrollees should keep a few things in mind as the Jan. 1, 2027, rollout approaches in most states. 1. The work rules won’t apply to everyone. The new rules will apply to people covered through what’s known as Medicaid expansion. Since 2014, more than 40 states and the District of Columbia have decided to allow more people into their Medicaid programs, generally low-income adults without dependents. Georgia and Wisconsin offer coverage to some people in this group, so they’ll be subject to the rules. Children and pregnant people, as well as individuals with disabilities who receive Social Security payments — all groups that already qualify for Medicaid — won’t be subject to the rules. Nor will people determined to be “medically frail,” or too sick to work. People subject to the work rules are “crowding out” people in the Medicaid program who are “truly in need,” CMS Director Mehmet Oz claimed during a June 1 press call. “Work requirements are going to turn this around, we hope.” The rules are set to take effect in most places in January. Nebraska started enforcing them in May. Montana plans to start in July but won’t kick people off until October. Arkansas will do a “soft” launch in July — it will start enforcing the rules but with no penalties until next year. 2. States will take your word that you’re too sick to work. For now. Federal officials have stressed that states should make the process of reporting hours and requesting exemptions as simple as possible for Medicaid enrollees by creating automated systems and using existing data sources, such as unemployment and education records. If states cannot determine you’re performing 80 hours of qualifying activities a month using those data sources, you may be allowed to “self-attest” to that in 2027, health policy researchers said. People will also be allowed to “self-attest” that they are too sick to work in 2027, and do so one time in 2028. Then states will start asking for proof, if they can’t find it through available data. But after the initial rollout, the burden of proof is likely to still fall on many enrollees, said researchers and consumer advocates. People may need to dig up pay stubs, medical records, and doctors’ notes and submit them for state review, said Morgan Henderson, who has studied Medicaid work programs in Georgia and Arkansas at The Hilltop Institute, a research center at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County. “The higher this manual reporting burden, the less people are going to do it,” he said. “That means that we’re going to see coverage drop-offs.” 3. The rules are tougher than expected for people too sick to work. One of CMS’ primary goals has been to “protect vulnerable populations” through “strong exemptions to make sure people who can’t reasonably be expected to work are not subject to the requirements,” Dan Brillman, a deputy administrator at the agency, said during the June 1 press call. Consumer and patient advocates, however, said the final rules’ exemptions are more restrictive than expected. Enrollees will eventually have to provide documentation, such as a statement from a medical professional, to prove that a health condition keeps them from working. And each individual state will have to determine the severity of beneficiaries’ medical conditions. “Someone could be medically frail in Nebraska but not medically frail in Delaware,” said Carolyn Sheridan, associate director of state policy for the National Organization for Rare Disorders, which lobbies for patients with rare diseases. She said her group had hoped the rules would offer a standardized definition of who counted as medically frail and not leave the decision up to states. Trump administration officials have publicly crusaded against fraud in government health programs, such as Medicaid, and states could face financial penalties for incorrectly granting people exemptions from the work rules, said Jennifer Tolbert, who researches Medicaid at KFF, a health information nonprofit that includes KFF Health News. “States may be more cautious,” she said. “That will likely lead to people losing coverage who may still be eligible.” 4. Only certain qualifying activities count. Enrollees can satisfy the rules by working 80 hours a month. They can also be enrolled in college courses, volunteer through a community organization, or do “in-kind” work that doesn’t result in pay. The rules set out, in detail, how many academic credit hours translate to 80 hours a month — students need to be enrolled in six credit hours per semester to meet the “half-time” requirement. An unpaid internship can count toward the 80 hours. People can also prove they’re volunteering with “a document from a community service organization.” Consumer advocates say it might be hard for people to obtain proof they’re performing these kinds of informal activities. But supporters of the rules say volunteerism can already be tracked. “If you run into trouble with the law and the judge says, ‘Hey, you need some volunteering and community service to serve your time,’ there are already ways that we verify that,” said Niklas Kleinworth, who works on state health policy for the conservative Paragon Institute. 5. You have time to prepare. Make sure your state Medicaid agency has your current mailing address and keep your eye on your mailbox, said researchers and consumer advocates. State Medicaid agencies must inform you in two ways if you’ll be subject to the rules — by either regular mail or email, and by one other form of communication, such as a text or phone call or by posting a notice online. “The important stuff comes by mail,” Henderson said. And check in with your state Medicaid agency, said researchers and advocates. Some states, including Arkansas, California, and Wisconsin, have already posted information about the work rules on their websites. If you can’t find what you’re looking for there, visit or call a local office. A caseworker should be able to tell you whether you’ll be subject to the rules. “Get ahead of this,” said Joan Alker, executive director of the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families and studies Medicaid. “So that you don’t end up going to the pharmacy one day and they say, ‘Oh, you’re not insured anymore’ when you’re trying to get your prescriptions refilled.” KFF Health News correspondent Samantha Liss and senior correspondent Rachana Pradhan contributed to this report. Have you tried to prove your eligibility for Medicaid under new rules that require people to show they are working, going to school, or participating in another qualifying activity? Click here to contact KFF Health News. KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF. This article first appeared on KFF Health News and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX. Courtesy of Alaska Beacon
	East Moline Library hosting Touch A Truck event The East Moline Public Library is hosting its annual Touch-a-Truck event on Saturday, June 20 from 10 a.m. – 12 p.m. at Runner’s Park, 742 15th Avenue. The event kicks off with Storytime in the Park at 10 a.m. Afterward, families can explore all the vehicles in the parking lot of Runner’s Park, including vehicles [...]
	Celebrate July 4 in Muscatine Muscatine is getting ready to celebrate America’s 250th birthday with a full day of hometown traditions, family activities, and a spectacular fireworks finale on Saturday, July 4. A news release from the city says the annual Fourth of July Parade, organized by the Greater Muscatine Chamber of Commerce & Industry (GMCCI), will start promptly at 4 p.m. in Downtown Muscatine. This year’s [...]
	Lawsuit claims Calvin Community owes $767,000 in unpaid bills Calvin Community, a 188-unit continuing-care facility on Des Moines’ Hickman Road. (Photo via Google Earth)A Des Moines nursing home that is already facing litigation over a proposed sale to New York investors is now being sued for $767,343 in allegedly unpaid bills. The federal lawsuit filed this week by Sodexo Operations, a nursing home management company, alleges that it in 2021 entered into an agreement with Calvin Community to manage the 188-unit, continuing-care facility on Des Moines’ Hickman Road. Sodexo says the contract called for it to provide the facility with housekeeping, linen and laundry services, operational and maintenance services and groundskeeping. Sodexo alleges that at some unspecified time last year, Calvin Community stopped paying for those services. In December 2025, Sodexo alleged it sent the facility notice that it was in breach of contract, specifying $424,145 in past-due service charges, plus $86,174 in interest that was accrued and owing, for a total balance of $510,319. On March 12, 2026, Sodexo now alleges, it sent Calvin Community a demand for payment of $767,343, which included additional expenses and accrued interest. None of that debt has been paid, the lawsuit claims. The lawsuit seeks damages for breach of contract unjust enrichment. Calvin Community has yet to file a response to the lawsuit and company officials have not responded to calls from the Iowa Capital Dispatch. Calvin Community is one of Iowa’s larger retirement communities and includes a 59-bed nursing home and an array of independent-living apartments and assisted-living units. Prospective buyer sues Calvin Community Last month, a separate federal lawsuit was filed against Calvin Community, seeking a judicial order to compel the nonprofit owner to sell the facility to Everview Group, which is a trio of New York-based investors who allege they have spent almost a year negotiating a purchase of the property. Court records indicate the Everview partners and potential buyers of Calvin Community are Isaac Moskowitz, David Herskowitz and Jeffrey Arem. According to Everview’s lawsuit against Calvin Community, plans for the sale involved Everview acting as a “placeholder” buyer, with management of the facility eventually transferred to a separate, fully vetted “high-quality successor operator” that would run the operation. Quotation Federal courts are public forums, and there is a strong presumption in favor of openness as to court records. – U.S. Magistrate Judge William P. Kelly As the planned date of closing drew near, Everview alleges, Calvin Community “abruptly sought to manufacture a termination of the parties’ agreements” so that it could accept “a more lucrative alternative offer received from a third party.” The lawsuit seeks an injunction blocking such a sale, in part to “protect the continuity of care for the facility’s residents.” The lawsuit also seeks a court order that would compel Calvin Community “to take all actions necessary to consummate” the planned sale to Everview. The lawsuit claims Everview and Calvin Community first entered into a purchase agreement in May 2025, through which the property was to be sold for $9.4 million. In January 2026, the agreed-upon sale price was dramatically reduced from $9.4 million to $6 million, the lawsuit alleges, “to account for the facility’s physical condition,” and to “account for funds previously mishandled” by Calvin Community. The price reduction, combined with $636,591 in assumed liabilities, resulted in an agreed-upon final sale price of $5,363,409, according to the lawsuit. Company asked court to seal records Calvin Community, Everview now alleges, had been “secretly negotiating with — and has potentially reached an agreement with — a third-party buyer to sell the property” for more than what Everview had agreed to pay. The lawsuit characterizes this as “a transparent effort” by Calvin Community to “escape its contractual obligations to Everview to pursue a more lucrative windfall.” In addition to an injunction blocking Calvin Community’s efforts to “shop the property and the facility to third-party buyers to secure a more lucrative deal,” the lawsuit also seeks damages and legal fees for alleged breach of contract. Calvin Community has yet to file a response to the lawsuit. On May 19, four days after the Capital Dispatch first reported on the lawsuit, Everview, with Calvin Community’s concurrence, asked the court to seal its complaint in the case, citing a need to protect “sensitive business information.” U.S. Magistrate Judge William P. Kelly refused, writing in his order that “federal courts are public forums, and there is a strong presumption in favor of openness as to court records.” Kelly stated that without further information regarding the nature of Everview’s interest in confidentiality and how it relates to the specifics of the lawsuit, the company had not met its burden for having the court records sealed. Courtesy of Iowa Capital Dispatch
	SC conservation agency taps forestry attorney as new director David Jones, an attorney for the Forestry Commission, is set to become director of the state Conservation Bank. (Photo courtesy of the South Carolina Conservation Bank)COLUMBIA — An attorney for the state Forestry Commission will take charge of the South Carolina agency overseeing land conservation, the Conservation Bank announced Friday. The agency’s oversight board selected 42-year-old David Jones to take the helm from director Raleigh West, who is leaving the role in July to establish his own law firm specializing in conservation. Over the past three years with the Forestry Commission, Jones has helped ink deals to buy and preserve land, often working across agencies and with legislators, according to a Friday news release. SC closes deal on largest-ever conservation easement He was one of three candidates the board interviewed for the job. “Mr. Jones possesses not only a deep technical understanding of complex real estate transactions but also has a passion for conserving South Carolina’s special places,” Peter King, chair of the Conservation Bank’s 16-person board of directors, said in a statement. Jones will continue working for the Forestry Commission until the Senate confirms him as the pick to oversee the Conservation Bank, which will likely happen when legislators return to Columbia next year. West’s salary is $146,000, according to the state’s salary database. If Jones is confirmed, he will oversee four full-time employees who coordinate projects that preserve land through taxpayer-funded grants, a task that lawmakers in both parties see as increasingly important in one of the nation’s fastest-growing states. Since 2019, when legislators made the agency permanent, the bank’s work has grown significantly, going from about 20 grants annually to around 150, as conservation grew as a priority, West said previously. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX. Courtesy of South Carolina Daily Gazette
	Rhythm City Casino celebrating 10 year anniversary this weekend The casino is celebrating its anniversary Friday and Saturday with giveaways each day.
	SC law bans recreational sales of nitrous oxide, or ‘whippets’ Left to right, Sen. Russell Ott, D-St. Matthews; Sen. Ed Sutton, D-Charleston; and Senate Judiciary Chairman Luke Rankin, R-Myrtle Beach, talk in Senate chambers on Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. Sutton was the lead sponsor on a bill Ott co-sponsored to ban sales of nitrous oxide. (Photo by Jessica Holdman/SC Daily Gazette)COLUMBIA — Recreational sales of nitrous oxide, which some people inhale to get high, are illegal in South Carolina under a new law. Nitrous oxide, which is used in doctor’s offices and kitchens, has a long history of use as a recreational inhalant. But that went to new levels in recent years when social media videos showed children inhaling flavored versions of the gas from colorful canisters, said Sen. Russell Ott, a co-sponsor. “The hope is to try to keep some of these products out of the hands of our kids,” the St. Matthews Democrat told the SC Daily Gazette on Friday. Both the House and Senate unanimously passed the bill, which took effect when Gov. Henry McMaster signed it into law May 18. Nitrous oxide has legitimate uses. Also called laughing gas, nitrous oxide is a sedative used for dental and medical procedures, often breathed through a mask or nosepiece. The gas is also what turns liquid cream into whipped cream inside a canister, which led to the inhalant being known as “whippets.” And mechanics sometimes use nitrous oxide for car repairs. Senators advance bill restricting sales of ‘whippets’ following pleas for help Outside of those purposes, though, anyone selling the inhalant can face increasing fines and potential jail time for each sale made. A first offense could lead to $1,000 and six months in jail, and three sales or more could mean up to $10,000 in fines and three years in jail for each offense. Under the law, people using nitrous oxide for automobile fixes must buy the product from a licensed car repair shop. Medical use outside of a doctor’s office or veterinary clinic requires a prescription. And home chefs can buy only nonrefillable cartridges containing up to 8 grams of the gas, which is typically the amount found in a can of whipped cream. Flavored versions of nitrous oxide, which comes in varieties such as cotton candy, vanilla cupcake and strawberry cream, are banned without exception. There’s no reason to sell flavored nitrous oxide except to inhale while getting high, bill sponsor Sen. Ed Sutton, a Charleston Democrat, said earlier this year as the bill advanced in the Senate. Large tanks, some with 3,000 grams of nitrous oxide each, are marketed online as convenient for large-scale restaurant and catering uses. But under the law, online stores must verify customers are at least 18 years old before selling them any sort of nitrous oxide product, including the canisters commonly used for cooking. People, especially teens, finding unregulated ways of getting high are not new, Ott said. But in recent years, the internet has made it easier to learn about and buy potentially harmful drugs, he said. “Over the last 20 to 30 years, if kids were going to buy drugs, it was clandestine,” Ott said. “But increasingly today, it’s out in front of everyone.” A 2024 social media trend that showed young people inhaling nitrous oxide on TikTok, YouTube and X drew millions of views. Popular brands that showed up in social media posts said their products were meant for cooking, not inhaling, but that didn’t stop young people from using them to get high. Inhaling nitrous oxide can cause people to suffocate, lose consciousness or experience psychiatric issues, such as delusions and hallucinations. Regular usage can cause chronic damage to a person’s spinal cord or brain, according to warnings from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. In extreme cases, inhaling nitrous oxide can be fatal. While it’s good that a law is in place to make it harder for children and teens to get their hands on nitrous oxide, other unregulated substances will likely take its place on the market, Ott said. Legislators are always trying to keep up with the latest trends and new, often dangerous drugs hitting the market without any regulation in place, he said. “It’s kind of like Whac-A-Mole,” Ott said. “You try to deal with one particular substance and another pops up.” Ott spearheaded a push to ban anyone under the age of 21 from buying kratom, a drug that can act as either a sedative or a stimulant depending on dosage. An effort to take last year’s law a step further, prohibiting anyone from buying versions of the leaf-derived substance that includes harmful chemicals and synthetic forms of the substance, failed to make it across the finish line this year. SC won’t put more restrictions on psychoactive herb this year, but effort will continue Ott said to expect that debate to return next year, echoing a similar sentiment from other legislators who felt a need to act but wanted to make sure they struck the right balance in regulating a substance some say helped them kick other addictions. Still up in the air is a bill that would regulate the sale of drinks and edibles infused with hemp-derived THC. Although marijuana remains illegal in the state, a loophole in the 2018 federal farm bill formed an industry for products that technically fall below the legally allowed concentration of the substance while giving users a high. A committee made up of senators and House members will attempt to form a compromise between the chambers’ widely varying versions. The committee has not yet the next meeting. The introduction of those drugs to the market in recent years shows legislators need to stay on top of substances created with evolving technology, sold through legal loopholes or popularized on social media, Ott said. “We’re going to continue to try and prevent our youth from having access to these types of drugs,” Ott said. “That’s the bottom line.” SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX. Courtesy of South Carolina Daily Gazette
	Zach Lahn names Derek Wulf as running mate Republican gubernatorial nominee Zach Lahn has announced that he will nominate State Representative Derek Wulf as his running mate in the race for Iowa Governor. Wulf is a fourth-generation Iowa farmer, rancher, businessman and chair of the Iowa House Agriculture Committee. He also served as a co-chair of the Farmers for Trump Coalition in Iowa. [...]
	Man arrested by ICE at Iowa City market sentenced to federal fraud charge A man arrested by ICE agents at the Bread Garden Market in Iowa City last year was sentenced on a federal fraud charge.
	The AI trend that's making financial advisors better at their jobs The AI trend that's making financial advisors better at their jobsHave you noticed a difference in your conversations with your financial advisor lately? New research points to a major uptick in the usage of AI tools for everything from notetaking to office admin. Though adoption levels vary from firm to firm, both advisors and clients are reporting a better client experience.According to the Ezra Group’s annual report on AI Notetakers for Financial Advisors, the tools have gone from novelty to near-ubiquitous in the last three years. There are more products than ever on the market, though some products claim a higher market share. Though overall adoption is high (70% of RIAs report using AI for notetaking), only 10% of AI-using advisors report its full integration into their overall business strategy. The category is maturing quickly beyond note-taking, with leading platforms handling tasks like CRM updates, compliance logging, workflow execution, and even surfacing intelligent client insights, Jump reports.Now advisors say they have more free time — and more data — thanks to these tools.Danielle Darling, founder and financial advisor at Darling Wealth Management, explains that these tools have “made the biggest difference by reducing the amount of time spent on administrative work and increasing the amount of time available for meaningful client conversations.”The data backs this up: A case study published in Investments and Wealth Review showed advisors at AI-adopting firms report saving one to three hours per day, and 80% reinvest that time in client-facing work.Darling says that she’s had approximately 450 meetings supported by her AI operating system. “If AI saves even 45 minutes per meeting,” she explains, “that equates to over 337 hours saved, or more than eight full 40-hour work weeks."Only a couple of years ago, advisors actually ranked last in AI adoption across 11 surveyed professions. Now over two-thirds use it daily, proving that these tools are earning their place by delivering visible, felt time savings."When technology is working the way it should, the advisor-client relationship becomes more efficient, proactive, and personal at the same time,” Darling says. Data from the 2026 Financial Advisor Insights Report shows that when advisors are more present in their conversations, the result is a better overall customer experience. Scoring advisors on emotional intelligence, measured by talk-time discipline, open-ended questions, expressions of empathy and emotional check-ins, the report shows that advisors with high EQ were shown to increase client sentiment by nearly 20% from the start to the end of meetings.With hours back and the proliferation of new AI capabilities, the advisor workday is changing. Beyond notetaking, AI is now handling the operational layer — the prep, the notes, the follow-up — and experts believe the fastest growing teams will pair agentic AI workflows with specialist human teams. Vaughn Bowman, head of wealth management at MassMutual, put it plainly in a recent InvestmentNews interview: "AI excels at narrow, well-defined tasks." A direct result, he argues, is that the complex parts, like reading a room, synthesizing competing priorities, and making judgment calls under uncertainty, still belong to the advisor. The tools handle the operational layer. The human handles everything that can't be automated."The best technology should not replace human connection,” Darling explains. “It should remove operational friction behind the scenes so advisors can spend more time doing the human side of the job well."Advisors are using their AI tools to go deeper than ever before, offloading the operational layer so they have more time and mental space for the conversations that actually move clients. Better prep means more present advisors. Cleaner follow-up means fewer dropped details. And when the administrative noise clears, what's left is a better relationship.This story was produced by Jump and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
	Muscatine Center for Social Action announces new executive director Naomi DeWinter, president of the Muscatine Center for Social Action Board of Directors, said the nonprofit is in good hands with Jason Dornbush at the helm.
	China arrests a U.S. scholar with a history of Myanmar activism, suspected of spying China's government said Min Zin, who heads a think tank focused on Myanmar, was detained on suspicion of engaging in "espionage and endangering Chinese national security."
	The future of compensation management: Trends in technology that will shape 2026 The future of compensation management: Trends in technology that will shape 2026Compensation has gone from being a support function to a top priority for boardrooms, with boards, investors, and executives now using it to directly drive a company’s resilience and competitive advantage. If done correctly, it helps keep employees engaged, promotes fairness in pay, and establishes employee trust, which is demonstrated in employee engagement and turnover rates. However, if done poorly, it creates liability for employers, employees, candidates, and regulators. Organizations that are doing it correctly in 2026 are those that have replaced manual, calendar-based processes with more intelligent, continuous, and defensible processes.Technological innovations that once seemed experimental (e.g., AI-supported decision-making, predictive analytics, dynamic benchmarking, and automated regulatory compliance) are becoming required. Simultaneously, new drivers (i.e., agentic AI, location-agnostic compensation models, and skills-based rewards) are increasing the rate of change. Organizations must leverage technology to create data-driven, transparent, and fair compensation strategies. However, as important as creating compensation strategies that utilize technology, organizations must also keep human judgment, interpretation, empathy, and context at the forefront of their compensation strategies.Leaders separate themselves from followers based upon their ability to integrate analytical intelligence with human judgment and to develop the infrastructure necessary to integrate both at scale. Below, Decusoft explains 10 technological trends defining the future of compensation and how leading human resource and compensation departments are integrating these trends into their organizations today. Decusoft AI-Powered Decision Support and Predictive Compensation AnalyticsArtificial Intelligence is transforming compensation planning from a backward-looking process to a forward-looking strategic process. Leading organizations are using workforce data (e.g., historical pay information, performance reviews, length of service, industry benchmarks, demographic characteristics) to identify compensation insights that were previously unavailable. According to Deloitte's 2025 Global Human Capital Trends report, approximately 70% of workers would welcome AI-driven analysis of their data if it resulted in more individualized assistance and rewards.Changes:AI is identifying potential pay equity issues, outliers, patterns, and risks prior to issues occurring.Predictive analytics is estimating the potential impact of various merit increase budgets and incentive programs.Compensation professionals are asking, "What should we do next?" rather than "What did we do last year?"AI eliminates the need for guesswork and pattern blindness and enables humans to make more informed data-driven decisions.How Does This Translate Into Practice?HR leaders can focus on making informed decisions and interpreting AI insights.Managers can act with confidence with data-backed recommendations.Compensation's role will evolve towards coaching, modeling, strategy, and governance, with AI performing the heavy lifting of identifying patterns.Unifying Compensation Data PlatformsMost organizations have their compensation data stored in multiple locations, including human capital management or human resources information systems, payroll systems, stock option/equity management systems, spreadsheets, and benchmarking reports. The fragmentation of compensation data results in inaccuracies, inconsistencies, and delays. By unifying compensation management, all of your compensation data can reside in a single reliable location.Changes:"Single source of truth" compensation hubs replace manual data integration processes.Real-time synchronization eliminates errors and reduces processing time.Finance, HR, and Compensation teams can now access shared, aligned data sets.How does this translate into practice?Accurate real-time data allows for faster approval processes and eliminates last-minute corrections.Compensation teams spend more time analyzing compensation data and less time cleaning up dirty compensation data.Unifying compensation data provides the basis for forecasting and modeling.Continuous and Agile Compensation PlanningThe annual merit review process is no longer adequate for today's workforce. Economic instability, fluctuating labor markets, competitive talent markets, and increased employee movement require a more flexible and data-driven approach to compensation planning. WorldatWork has reported that many organizations have implemented off-cycle pay adjustments and more frequent performance review cycles in response to volatile talent markets and readily available real-time market data tools.Changes:Many organizations are implementing quarterly or semi-annual performance reviews.Off-cycle adjustments (e.g., market corrections, counter-offers, promotions) require structure and accountability.Agile planning frameworks allow organizations to respond quickly without sacrificing governance.How does this translate into practice?Compensation processes must accommodate more frequent decision-making cycles.Agile workflows must include automated logging, approvals, and controls.If your compensation platform was developed for annual cycles only, it will likely be difficult to use for managing the governance requirements associated with more frequent changes.Pay Equity, Transparency, and Ethical AnalyticsAccording to Mercer's 2025 Global Pay Transparency Survey, pay transparency has progressed far beyond a mere compliance requirement and is now viewed as a critical strategic business requirement. Organizations are obligated to explain how pay decisions are made in a defensible manner to internal employees as well as external candidates and regulators. Publishing salary ranges is standard practice. However, regulators and employees are increasingly expecting evidence of data governance, standardized decision-making processes, and continuous monitoring that identifies and corrects inequities prior to them becoming liabilities.Changes:Pay equity audits are being conducted on a more frequent basis (e.g., quarterly or on a rotating basis) than in the past.Regulators and boards expect more detailed reporting.AI must now be monitored for bias and explainability.How does this translate into practice?Compensation teams require tools that will enable them to identify gaps in pay before they become problems.Communicating compensation decisions becomes a competitive advantage.Ethical AI frameworks provide fairness and transparency.Manager and Employee Self-Service ExperienceEmployees and managers expect clear explanations, accessibility, and transparency regarding all aspects of their compensation experience. Workforces desire intuitive tools that allow them to easily review their pay information and understand why compensation decisions were made without requiring Human Resources as an intermediary. Similarly, managers require guided workflows, contextual analytics, real-time visibility into budgets, and guidance to make confident, informed, equitable decisions.Changes:Employees desire visibility into their pay range, progression within their pay range, total compensation package, and growth opportunities.Managers require simulation tools that will enable them to model changes before submitting requests for adjustments.Self-service experience reduces Human Resourcesâ administrative burden and enhances trust.How does this translate into practice?Transparent workflows promote organizational culture, employee engagement, trust, and equity goals.Tools must be intuitive and accessible.Human Resources moves from answering compensation questions to providing advice regarding compensation strategy. Advanced Scenario Modeling and SimulationAs Mercer has noted, organizations must transition from reactive approaches to compensation toward proactive strategic investments in key employee populations. That pressure is evident in questions that executives are now asking: “What would happen if we increased merit budgets by 1%?” and “What if we focused on specific hotspots for retaining employees?”Changes:Compensation teams can model cost, equity, goals, and retention implications instantly.Organizations can project budget impacts across multiple cycles or economic environments.Finance and human resources can collaborate more effectively by utilizing shared simulations.How does this translate into practice?Executives receive the data required to approve decisions with confidence, versus requiring additional rounds of analysis.Compensation teams replace spreadsheet gymnastics with platform-driven strategy.Modeling becomes a routine activity for compensation teams rather than solely occurring during budget planning or when a crisis creates a need for additional information.Enhanced Security, Compliance, and AuditabilityDue to the sensitive nature of compensation data, security is a necessity. Modern compensation platforms must include secure encryption, role-based access control (RBAC), administrative controls, and continuous monitoring to protect compensation data.Changes:HR and payroll data have become valuable targets; breaches in this area have both financial and reputational consequences.Regulations regarding multicountry privacy (e.g., the General Data Protection Regulation, California Consumer Privacy Act, or California Privacy Rights Act) require stringent governance.Internal compliance/legal teams increasingly require full audit trails for every compensation action, not as a recommended best practice but as a baseline requirement.How does this translate into practice?Compensation platforms must exceed baseline security standards.Audit trails reduce liability for HR teams and minimize compliance risk.Continuous monitoring provides assurance for leadership.Skills- and Competency-Based PayFor years, job titles were used as the primary input for determining employee compensation. That logic is beginning to crumble. Compensation teams are asking themselves, "What can this person actually do?" rather than "What is this person's job?" Additionally, compensation teams are asking themselves, "What value does this person provide to the organization based upon what he/she can do?" According to EY's Future of Pay report, nearly half of organizations are already transitioning to skills-based compensation models; WTW's 2025 Skills Survey indicated that those organizations that successfully integrate skills into compensation are more likely to report higher employee productivity/retention/financial performance.Changes:Demonstrated skills/capabilities are increasingly determining employee compensation; job titles have become secondary inputs rather than primary ones.Skills taxonomies are being incorporated into compensation models.Dynamic compensation models reward growth/reskilling/performance/future potential. How does this translate into practice?Compensation structures must incorporate skills data from performance/learning systems.Teams need adaptable compensation plans, which will allow for supporting the changing needs and responsibilities of team members.WTW's 2025 Skills Survey showed that those organizations that were able to incorporate skills into compensation had higher levels of employee retention, productivity, and profitability.Employee Compensation Communications and Total Rewards EngagementEmployees want clear, personal, open, and complete explanations about how their compensation is being communicated to them.Changes:Dynamic/visual/customizable/on-demand total rewards reports.Managers are given structured talking points to help create consistency in explaining compensation decisions.Employees have access to accurate information about pay. ranges/incentive guidelines/reasoning/goals.Compensation teams build trust through continuous communication.How does this translate into practice?Create less confusion/build trust through improved communicationsManager confidence in explaining compensation decisionsCompensation teams spend less time answering questions/more time providing strategic guidanceOrganizations show transparency/equity/alignment with pay philosophy Globalization/Location-Agnostic Pay/Real Time Market DataMany organizations are evaluating location-based pay as part of a hybrid work model, with surveys from Gallup and McKinsey suggesting that over 50% of organizations globally use a hybrid model. Mercer also reported that geography is now a major factor in compensation design in the post-COVID-19 pandemic era.Changes:Many organizations are moving away from geographic-based pay models. toward hybrid/location-agnostic models.Compensation benchmarking must occur continuously/not annually.Flexible modeling is needed for multi-currency/multi-region structures.How does this translate into practice?Compensation designs must adjust to global labor markets in real time.Compensation management systems must accommodate compliance requirements/multi-currency capabilities.Benchmark data must be incorporated continuously into pay structures. Decusoft Compensation management has accelerated at a faster pace than most teams anticipated. With pay transparency laws/global workforce complexity/AI-driven analytics/economic uncertainty, it has become increasingly difficult for employees/regulators/managers/leadership teams to defend traditional methods of administering a compensation program; these groups expect immediate responses to compensation-related inquiries.Organizations that have successfully navigated this rapid transformation share several characteristics: they have made investments in technology platforms that can handle complexity/they have implemented governance structures that provide defensibility/they have provided their human decision-makers with superior data than spreadsheets can provide.If your compensation program operates on an annual cycle, disconnected data, or managerial decisions based on intuition, there is a significant discrepancy between where your organization stands today and where the market is moving; that discrepancy should be addressed.The trends discussed above are not predictions; they are occurring within compensation teams today.This story was produced by Decusoft and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
	Alfredo sauce sold in Iowa, Illinois, other states recalled over salmonella concerns The FDA has designated it as a Class I, the agency's most serious classification.
	Lunardi’s Italian Restaurant closing after 37 years Lunardi’s said skyrocketing food costs and operational hurdles are forcing them to close.
	Burlington firefighters rescue multiple pets from house fire All 15 dogs, two cats and two ducks were saved from the home. The cause of the structure fire remains under investigation.
	Davenport names new police chief The City of Davenport announced it has named Major Greg Behning as the next police chief.
	East Moline to spend over $20 million to improve drinking water quality East Moline is not only making big street improvements to downtown and The Bend area. It has a major multi-year initiative to help protect drinking water citywide.
	US host cities made transit improvements a World Cup goal US host cities made transit improvements a World Cup goalThe latest addition to Seattle’s already expansive public transit system opened to great fanfare this spring when more than 200,000 people rode the Crosslake Connection light rail line.Its March 28 debut was second only to the parade that followed the Seahawks’ Super Bowl victory as Sound Transit’s busiest day ever. Trains now glide across Lake Washington on what is believed to be the world’s first electric rail line that spans a floating bridge, linking the city with Bellevue and Redmond, and doubling the frequency of stops in the heart of the Emerald City.Those same tracks will carry tens of thousands of fans downtown to Lumen Field for the six World Cup matches the city will host between June 15 and July 6. Kirk Hovenkotter, who leads the transit advocacy organization Transportation Choices Coalition, has no doubt that Seattle’s sustained commitment to public transit helped it become a host city.This summer’s spotlight follows an earlier snub. When the World Cup came to the United States in 1994, Seattle hoped to host matches at Husky Stadium but came away empty-handed.In the 32 years since, the Seattle metropolitan area has grown from 2.5 million people to more than 4 million. Its transportation infrastructure has boomed as well. Steady investment that began with voter approval of the Sound Move transit package in 1996 helped launch light rail in 2008 and turn Seattle into one of the country’s most ambitious builders of public transit. This summer’s World Cup became the deadline for opening the Crosslake Connection.“Our region hasn’t been preparing for the World Cup for 18 months,” Hovenkotter told Grist. “It’s been preparing for 18 years.”Seattle is one of 16 cities, 11 of them in the U.S., that will host matches in a tournament FIFA, the sports’ sanctioning body, expects to draw more than 5 million fans. Several are using the event as an opportunity to open rail lines, redesign bus networks, and make other changes that will benefit residents long after the final match. Some cities used the tournament as a deadline. In others, it helped build support for projects or push delayed efforts over the goal line.These investments come as rail and bus systems nationwide continue recovering from the steep ridership decline sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic while confronting aging infrastructure and a dire financial outlook. In a country that is less supportive of mass transit than other nations, the World Cup has become an unusual catalyst for change.Plenty of stadiums remain disconnected from public transportation, of course. But what’s happening in places like Seattle and Atlanta shows that a megaevent like the World Cup can strengthen transit systems — if the investment starts long before kick-off.The World Cup’s infrastructure legacy has often been more cautionary than celebratory. Past tournaments have raised questions not only about human rights violations and environmental harm, but also about whether host cities deliver the public benefits they promise. Brazil and South Africa, for example, failed to fulfill the mass transit commitments they made.Such disappointments often reflect a broader problem: Host cities plan first for the event, then for the people who live there, said Simon Kuper, who wrote “World Cup Fever” and has attended nine World Cups. He likens it to hosting a wedding. “Let’s say it’s at the house,” he said. “You paint the house, you fix the toilet, you fix the door that wasn’t working, you redo the kitchen.”But the transit needs of 80,000 fans differ from those of residents. “You risk overinvesting in the route to the stadium and not in what makes residents’ lives better every day,” Kuper said.Seattle followed a different plan. The $1 billion Crosslake Connection was not built for the World Cup — the money came from a funding package voters approved in 2008, 14 years before Seattle’s selection as host city — but Sound Transit used it as a deadline for finishing a project that was three years behind schedule.“It was like, ‘We’re going to do everything. We’re going to move heaven and earth. We’re going to be working every shift to make sure that when the world is here, our flagship bridge and our double capacity are ready to run passengers,’ and they were,” said Henry Bendon, a public information officer with the agency. Courtesy of Sound Transit Building infrastructure matters, but so does helping people use it. Brian McCullough, who lived in Seattle from 2014 until 2020 and is now an associate professor of sport management at the University of Michigan, said communication will be key to the system’s success.Here, too, Seattle has a blueprint. When it hosted the 2018 Special Olympics USA Games, McCullough helped with a campaign encouraging athletes, coaches, and caretakers to use alternative transportation. The plan included providing them with free rides on the city’s expansive light rail system. It worked: Initially, 78% of participants planned to rent a car, but in the end, only 7% did. Sound Transit has an extensive messaging campaign geared toward soccer fans, including signage in the languages of the countries playing in Seattle.That lesson is shaping preparations for the World Cup that could further benefit residents, too. Sound Transit expanded its airport bus service to provide 24-hour rides to and from Seattle. The Legislature funded an intercity bus between Pasco, a city in Washington’s rapidly growing southwestern corner that is hosting a tournament event, and Spokane, which is hosting an Egyptian team with one of the sport’s biggest stars. It also increased frequency on other routes throughout the state. Hovenkotter hopes those improvements are here to stay.“It’s going to be hard to disinvest in this once these start running and people start benefiting from it,” he said.Some 2,600 miles to the southeast, another city is preparing for an influx of soccer fans. The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority, or MARTA, is rolling out a major redesign of its bus network and preparing new railcars with expanded capacity, moves that will move more people more often during the event — and long after it.Like Seattle, Atlanta did not make the list of 1994 World Cup host cities. But two years later, it faced a bigger transportation challenge: the 1996 Summer Olympics. MARTA added 7 miles of rail to ensure everyone got around efficiently.Today, the system, which typically carries more than 5 million passengers per month, has 48 miles of track and more than 1,500 miles of bus network.Soccer fans will discover a system overhauled first and foremost to serve residents. Beginning in 2021, MARTA started working with the community on the first revamp in 40 years. The remake launched in April, and although it cut the number of bus lines from 113 to 81, the agency said the change increased the number of residents who live within a quarter mile of a stop. It also nearly tripled the number of residents living near a route with buses that arrive every 15 minutes, according to MARTA.MARTA also added a rapid transit line in downtown Atlanta and introduced 12 on-demand “microtransit zones” in which vans provide short rides within each zone. Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority The rail system saw similar changes. MARTA plans to update all 224 train cars, some of which have been in service since the 1980s, with more spacious interiors starting in June. Each four-car train will carry 752 passengers, a 13% increase. That will be a boon during the tournament, given that four stations are within walking distance of Mercedes-Benz Stadium.The World Cup provided an incentive to move quickly. “Folks around here figured out if I want to get my projects some priority … I need to say ‘I want to do this for the World Cup,’” said Rhonda Allen, the agency’s deputy general manager.Not everyone is convinced these projects will benefit the community, however. Bakari Height, cofounder of the transit advocacy group MARTA Army, said transit has stagnated since the Olympics, with only two stations added. He called the new trains a “subtle upgrade,” and the bus redesign a “sour point” because it cut routes. He doubts the system will handle the World Cup.“I don’t know if they’re really ready,” he said, “and for sure, not ready for these crowds.”In some cities, the changes are smaller, but still practical.The Massachusetts Bay Transit Agency will open an expanded station near Gillette Stadium in Foxboro this month. The $35 million project adds an additional platform that improves accessibility and allows the station to handle more cars. Caitlin Allen-Connelly, executive director of the advocacy group Transit Matters, said the upgrades will benefit people headed to New England Patriots games and concerts long after the tournament ends. “There was definitely a need to make beautification and accessibility standards to be able to accommodate this level of service for the World Cup,” she said.That said, moving all those soccer fans around will impact residents. The MBTA is also reducing commuter rail service on most lines during the tournament. The transit agency said it has “made some minor reductions and adjustments” to service on nongame days to account for the need to reconfigure trains and make other changes to suit the influx of riders to the stadium to watch matches.Kansas City Streetcar extended its southern service by 3.5 miles last fall and opened a 0.7-mile northern extension in May. While the line does not reach Arrowhead Stadium, it will help soccer fans reach the “Fan Fest” events that accompany matches. Shuttle buses will carry fans from there to the stadium. Tom Gerend, executive director of the Kansas City Streetcar Authority, said the city highlighted the growing system in its host-city bid and that the tournament provided additional pressure to finish projects. “We’re certainly using the World Cup as motivation to make progress and to have these services up and running in time,” he said.Whether transit projects for the World Cup provide lasting gains often depends on who pays for them — and whether cities keep investing after the tournament ends.So far, the federal government has done little to help host cities with this. The Department of Transportation allocated $100 million in March, or roughly $10 million per U.S. host city — far too little to transform most transit systems. FIFA does not contribute anything toward transportation costs. That’s forced cities to seek funding elsewhere, including the fare box. The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority plans to charge $80 for round-trip train tickets to each World Cup match in Boston, while NJ Transit will charge $98 for round-trip tickets to games in New York.Balsam Nehme, director of sustainability at Sidara Collaborative, a firm that advises on large-scale infrastructure and sustainability projects, said the World Cup can bolster greener transit if cities use it to test new ideas and accelerate existing plans. That can mean short-term fixes like shuttle buses or long-term investments like light rail, she said, so long as they fit broader sustainability goals. The priority, she said, should be “long-term system-level thinking.”For Gerend, the most important question was what would be useful after the fans left. Kansas City, he said, avoided spending big on permanent event services with little long-term value. That meant using the World Cup as a deadline, not a blueprint. “Let’s invest our resources in permanent solutions that are part of a long-standing, regional plan that will have staying power.”This story was produced by Grist and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
	Milan police investigating Wednesday shots-fired incident The department reported no injuries or arrests made in its investigation of the incident on Wednesday.
	Lunardi's closing after this weekend in Davenport The owners were originally planning to close down at the end of the summer. However, they say a database error accidentally canceled out their liquor license.
	Iowa nursing home added to federal list of the nation’s worst care facilities Northgate Care Center in Waukon. (Photo via Google Earth)A northeast Iowa nursing home repeatedly cited for medication errors has been added to the federal list of the nation’s worst care facilities. Northgate Care Center of Waukon has been added to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ list of candidates for special-focus status, indicating a history of serious, recurring resident-care issues. At any given time, no more than two nursing homes per state appear on the list of federally designated Special-Focus Facilities, although the list also includes hundreds of other nursing homes — typically, 10 per state — where ongoing quality-of-care violations have made them eligible for that status. On May 27, 2026, the Arbor Court care facility in Mount Pleasant, recently renamed the Woodland Health and Rehabilitation Center, was deemed to have “graduated” from the list of designated special-focus facilities after 26 months. At the same time, Northgate Care Center was added to the list of Iowa’s 10 eligible candidates for special-focus status. Northgate’s addition to the candidate list appears to stem from regulatory violations related to staffing and medication issues. In late 2025, Northgate Care Center was cited by the Iowa Department of Inspections, Appeals and Licensing for medication errors and failing to properly assess and treat a resident who was given the wrong medication and subsequently died. The home was also cited for failing to employ a sufficient number of staff to meet residents’ needs, with residents reporting wait times of up to 2 ½ hours to have their call lights answered. According to state inspectors, the female resident who died last year had been given medications intended for another resident — including melatonin to encourage sleep, an antidepressant, an antianxiety medication and an anticoagulant. Video surveillance footage recorded a short time later showed the resident sitting in a recliner, standing up and immediately falling to the floor. The woman later complained of pain. An ambulance crew arrived and took her to a hospital, where an X-ray indicated she’d sustained a broken leg. According to inspectors, the resident’s family chose to forgo surgical intervention, which led to hospice care and, at some unspecified point over the next few days, the resident’s death. ‘I knew I was wrong.’ According to the inspectors’ report, a licensed practical nurse at the home admitted that after the resident was taken to the hospital, she called the emergency room to report the resident had been given only one incorrect medication — not four — shortly before the fall. “When asked why she had not told the truth in the beginning, the nurse responded by stating, ‘Because I knew I was wrong,’” the inspectors’ report states. Four months later, in March 2026, the home was cited again for medication issues, with inspectors noting that four of seven nurses on staff were knowingly violating protocols for dispensing medications. Inspectors said the nursing staff was aware that in order to avoid confusion and minimize the risk of dispensing the wrong medications to residents, they should not set up, in advance, various cups of medication to be administered to the residents hours later. A certified nurse aide told inspectors that when she recently reported for work one day she saw the staff setting up, in advance, the residents’ medications to be distributed later. The CNA reportedly stated she “could not believe they were doing exactly what the facility just got in trouble for” days earlier during the first day of the state inspectors’ visit. One registered nurse told inspectors she “knew it was wrong,” having been trained on the issue five days earlier, but the process saved time. A licensed practical nurse at the home reportedly told inspectors that because the home was always short on staff, she set up morning medications in advance to “get the job done.” The nurse allegedly added that she had worked at the home for eight years, had always set up medications in advance, and “could not get (her work) done if she had to actually do it the right way.” The home’s medical director reportedly told inspectors that “economics only allows the facility to staff a certain way,” and that while the system of setting up medications in advance did “kind of bother” him, he was unsure how to solve the issue “and meet the expectation with efficiency.” Last year, the Northgate facility was among several Iowa nursing homes included in a staffing-shortages report published by the nonprofit Long Term Care Community Coalition. The coalition’s analysis concluded Northgate was among the 12 lowest-ranked homes in Iowa with regard to staffing levels, indicating the home’s staffing was 39.9% below expected levels. Courtesy of Iowa Capital Dispatch
	Crews rescue 15 dogs, 2 cats, 2 ducks from house fire No injuries were reported. Officials are investigating.
	Davenport announces next police chief City of Davenport names Major Greg Behning as chief of police.
	4 dishwasher DIYs homeowners should be doing 4 dishwasher DIYs homeowners should be doingWhether you’re a first-time homeowner or have owned your home for years, it may come as a surprise to you that you need to wash your dishwasher. You read that right: wash your dishwasher. As HomeServe knows all too well, homeownership is just an endless cycle of paying bills and cleaning things that clean other things — and your dishwasher is by no means an exception to the last part.If you’re saying to yourself right now, “I’ve never once even thought of cleaning my dishwasher,” don’t worry. This article boils dishwasher maintenance down to four tasks you should do at various intervals. Each one is eminently doable for most homeowners. Plus, they’ll help keep your dinnerware, flatware, and stemware spotless, and your dishwasher smelling fresh, operating efficiently, and running longer before you need to replace it.Here are four dishwasher DIYs homeowners should be doing.1. Clean Your Dishwasher FiltersFirst, clean your dishwasher filters. These filters catch all the gunk and nasty food particles that come off your dishes during a wash cycle so that they don’t clog the drain or wind up right back on your bowls, plates, and glasses. If you don’t routinely clean these filters, debris will build up, causing unsanitary conditions and foul odors, not to mention reducing efficiency and shortening the lifespan of your appliance.The specific location, configuration, and removal process for your filters will vary by manufacturer and model — so check your manual — but they’ll generally be found at the base of the inside of your dishwasher, underneath the bottom rack.Follow these steps to ensure your dishwasher keeps on washing dishes:1. Remove the bottom rack.2. Find your fine mesh filter.3. Remove your fine mesh filter per manufacturer instructions.4. Scrub out all that gunk using a clean sponge or brush and warm water with a little bit of dish soap.5. Now remove your coarse mesh filter.6. Scrub the coarse mesh filter clean, too.7. Replace the coarse mesh filter.8. Replace the fine mesh filter.9. Replace the bottom rack.You should do this as often as once a week if you have a large household with daily dishwasher use — but once a quarter will probably put you ahead of most.2. Clean and Unclog Your Dishwasher Spray ArmsNext, clean and unclog your dishwasher spray arms. Dishwashers most commonly have two spray arms — one at the base of the dishwasher that sprays upward, and one affixed to the underside of the upper rack that sprays downward. These cleaning mechanisms rotate in a fanlike motion during a wash cycle, spewing high-pressure hot water onto dishes in order to break up tough grease and grime.Over time, the spray holes can become clogged with food debris, detergent residue, and mineral buildup, reducing effectiveness and efficiency — making your appliance work harder and shortening its lifespan. But you can lend your dishwasher a hand by regularly cleaning and unclogging its spray arms.Here’s how:1. Remove the bottom rack.2. Remove the upper and lower spray arms, typically by unscrewing them, pulling, or disconnecting them from a center fastener.3. For heavy buildup, soak the arms in equal parts distilled white vinegar and warm water for at least a half-hour, but for as long as two hours.4. Scrub on and around the holes with a toothbrush to clear away buildup.5. Use a toothpick to gently dislodge stubborn, stuck-on stuff from the holes.7. Rinse the arms off.8. Wipe them down.9. Put them back in place.Do this three to four times a year to keep your arms in good shape.3. Sanitize Your Dishwasher’s InteriorNext, clean and sanitize the interior of your dishwasher. Dish soap residue, food particles, and other gunk build up over time in your dishwasher compartment, causing clogs, foul odors, and spotty, cloudy, yucky dishes.Follow these steps for a comprehensive clean:1. Empty the dishwasher.2. Remove the bottom rack and utensil holder.3. Clear out larger debris with your hands.4. Wipe down the entire interior with a sponge.5. Use a toothbrush or toothpick to dislodge clogs from your dishwasher spray arm.6. Pour 1 cup of vinegar into a dishwasher-safe dish.7. Place it on the top rack.8. Run a full cycle with the dishwasher empty.9. When that’s done, sprinkle 1 cup of baking soda into the bottom of the dishwasher.10. Run a second cycle.11. Let the dishwasher air out.No need to overdo this one — every couple of months should be sufficient in terms of frequency.4. Prevent Mold, Mildew, and Moisture DamageAnd finally, homeowners, here’s the easiest DIY you’ve ever done. Wanna prevent mold, mildew, must, and moisture damage in your dishwasher?Here’s how:Step 1: Open your dishwasher door. That’s it. One step. Well, you need to leave it like this for a few hours, and preferably overnight — but that’s passive. It’s not really a step.Your dishwasher uses a tight seal to keep the water in when it’s running. That same seal will keep soap-scummy water residue trapped when it’s not running, leading to unpleasant odors and hard-to-eliminate mold if left unchecked. Opening the door to let the inside of your appliance air dry after each use will help prevent the dreaded dank dishwasher.Worried about causing a tripping hazard for your kids or your other half? Cracking the door open an inch or so should do the trick.These steps will make this one of the easiest DIYs you’ve ever done.This story was produced by HomeServe Editorial and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
	Multiple tornadoes strike Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin Tornadoes ripped through Illinois, destroying a Streator neighborhood and triggering evacuations at Midway Airport as severe storms battered the region.
	Davenport names new Chief of Police Greg Behning will be sworn in as police chief June 17.
	4 hands on the keys: The continuing piano adventures of the fearless Labèque sisters The French pianists celebrate more than a half century of recording together with a triple-disc set containing many brand new recordings.
	15 dogs, 2 cats, 2 ducks and all occupants safe after Burlington house fire The Burlington Fire Department responded to the 500 block of Gunnison Street Thursday evening.
	Maj. Greg Behning named next Davenport Chief of Police The City of Davenport has a new Chief of Police. A news release from the city says Major Greg Behning has been chosen as the next Chief of Police, effective June 14. Behning has served as Interim Chief since Chief Jeffery Bladel retired in March. He will oversee the department with an authorized strength of [...]
	Want to stay ahead of AI? Start with the skills it can't replicate. Want to stay ahead of AI? Start with the skills it can't replicate.In a world where, thanks to generative AI, anyone can churn out brand content at scale, it may be tempting to assume that writing-heavy jobs will soon be few and far between.But it turns out that many employers are actively looking for brand journalists and content marketers who have the storytelling skills that AI can’t replace — and, somewhat ironically, they’re willing to pay a premium if those storytellers can also use AI to do their job even better, content distribution platform Stacker reports.New data from marketing career site SalaryGuide.com found that content and editorial jobs that mentioned AI in the job description paid roughly 26% more than those that didn’t ($119,250 vs. $95,000 at the median). These high-paying jobs were primarily content jobs, meaning they didn’t have “AI” in the job title but did include AI fluency as part of the job description. They specifically called out AI tools like ChatGPT, CapCut AI, Claude, Gemini, and Copilot.The data covered 1,380 job listings that included salaries and were posted between October 2025 and early May 2026. The analysis included content leaders, content managers, editors, writers, storytellers and data journalists, but contract, part-time, volunteer and intern roles were left out.SalaryGuide’s findings suggest it’s well worth investing time in learning how best to use AI to do your job more efficiently.For brand journalists, that likely means finding ways to automate the more repetitive or time-consuming parts of the job so that you can focus on the authentic storytelling and strategic thinking that will help your brand cut through the noise.Why Storytelling Skills Matter in the Age of AILearning the basics of using an AI tool is easy. When brands are looking to hire someone to tell their story — and pay them well to do so — it’s the soft skills that stand out, Josh Peacock, CEO and founder at SalaryGuide, said in an email interview. Peacock is also the CEO and founder of Search For Hire, an SEO and marketing headhunting agency.“The three skills that separate the marketers commanding that premium are storytelling, judgment, and taste curation,” Peacock said. “AI gives you the keys to the Ferrari, and you can drive a long way down the wrong road, fast.”Robert Rose, chief strategy advisor at Content Marketing Institute (CMI), echoed that sentiment in a separate interview.He pointed to Notion’s decision to merge its internal communications, external communications, social and influencer teams into one “storytelling” team, and to OpenAI and Anthropic hiring their own content strategists (and paying salaries as high as $300,000).“It has actually raised the profile of great storytelling and great content creators because of the commoditization of everybody getting ‘good’ at the tool,” Rose said. “The bar has risen, and those that are talented with content are actually finding greater opportunities.”Creating Strong Brand Content Now Requires Balancing Good Judgment With AIIn a survey of 655 full-time global marketers conducted in February, CMI found that 65% believed it was their strategic and critical thinking skills that would be most critical for staying relevant in the field in the future. AI skills came in second place, with 59% of marketers saying they were the most critical tool for future relevance.There’s a tension between AI efficiency and authentic storytelling. The marketers earning premium salaries are those that can maintain voice and good judgment while letting the technology do the more tedious work.“Companies aren't hiring â€˜AI content people,’” Peacock said. “They're expecting every content marketer to be AI-fluent inside the role, and the market is paying for it.”Plus, for a profession where brand is everything, relying too heavily on AI for content creation could be a red flag.“An army of tool pilots who know how to prompt their way through a content calendar add little value,” the CMI analysts wrote in their report on the survey. “As one marketer put it, the risk of following the AI herd is real: ‘When everyone adopts the same techniques, marketing starts to look superfluous.’”So what does this mean for brand journalists looking to stand out?How to Position Yourself as a Premium HireTake stock of what AI can do for your role. Focus on the repetitive parts of your job so that you can spend your time on tasks that require judgment and strategic thinking.Get comfortable with the tools. Job descriptions are now mentioning tools by name, making it clear what to familiarize yourself with. SalaryGuide’s analysis found that the most commonly mentioned tools were ChatGPT (132 mentions), CapCut AI (131), GenAI (113), LLM (108), Claude (62), Agentic (57), Gemini (35), Copilot (29), Perplexity (26), Jasper (21), Descript (21) and Midjourney (12).Keep a creative outlet, like a freelance gig. The CMI survey found that many marketers are freelancing to stay relevant and to keep their creative and strategic skills sharp. Those at the director level and above are freelancing at the highest rate, with 12% making $30,000 or more each year from side work.Counterintuitively, the rise of AI means it’s a good time for marketing and communications professionals to sharpen the storytelling skills that got them into the field. In a sea of AI slop, taste and human judgment stand out.This story was produced, reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
	Friends of MLK selects artist for mural at MLK Interpretive Canter, Davenport Friends of MLK has selected nationally recognized artist and muralist Cbabi Bayoc to create a new public mural adjacent to the Martin Luther King Jr. Interpretive Center, 501 N. Brady St., downtown Davenport, a news release says. Work was scheduled to begin soon, with installation taking place on the north-facing train bridge wall adjacent to [...]
	Illinois State Police investigating man's 2018 death Illinois State Police (ISP) Division of Criminal Investigation Zone 2 are continuing the investigation into the 2018 death of a man in Galesburg and are asking for the public’s help. A news release from ISP says Galesburg Police responded to a report of a body in the Cedar Fork Creek in Galesburg on September 15, [...]
	Davenport names new police chief Interim Chief Greg Behning has been selected as the next Davenport Chief of Police, effective June 14.
	Raygun settles DC lawsuit over accused deceptive pricing of T-shirts Raygun faced legal action over extended sale periods, potentially violating DC laws, raising concerns about the impact of local laws on national retailers.
	When no medical treatment existed for their children, these fathers built one When no medical treatment existed for their children, these fathers built oneEvery year on Father's Day, the internet fills up with tributes to dads who showed up at recitals, practices, and bedsides during long nights. But there is another kind of showing up that rarely makes the greeting cards: the kind where a father receives the worst news of his life, is told there is nothing medicine can do, and decides that is simply not an acceptable answer.These are the dads who became founders to try to save their child’s life. They are not scientists, not investors, not pharmaceutical executives, or at least they weren't before the diagnosis. They are fathers who looked at a gap in human knowledge and decided to close it themselves. Like Terry Pirovolakis, who launched a new gene therapy company to save his son's life.In this story, Kivo, a GxP-compliant document & process management platform, looks at the extraordinary stories of Pirovolakis and two other founder dads, John Crowley and Matt Might.The Scale of the Problem They're SolvingTo understand why these men do what they do, you first have to understand the landscape they are operating in.Rare diseases, defined in the U.S. as any condition affecting fewer than 200,000 people, are collectively not rare at all. According to the National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD), 1 in 10 Americans lives with a rare disease, totaling more than 30 million people.Half of these are children.The numbers get bleaker from there. Of more than 10,000 known rare diseases, fewer than 5% have an FDA-approved treatment, according to a 2024 report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office. The average time for a family to receive an accurate diagnosis is 4.8 years, per a 2024 analysis published in The Lancet Global Health, years during which a child may be deteriorating and families are searching for answers that often don't come. That same analysis found that approximately 30% of children with a rare disease die before the age of five.For conditions affecting only dozens or hundreds of people worldwide, the traditional pharmaceutical calculus simply doesn't work. There are no blockbuster revenues to justify a billion-dollar development program. There aren’t large patient pools to power randomized controlled trials. There's no marketing department calculating whether the R&D spend is worth it.Which is why, remarkably, there are situations where the people developing treatments for rare diseases are not pharmaceutical companies at all. They are parents. Moms. Dads.Terry Pirovolakis and the Race to Save MichaelOn April 2, 2019, Terry Pirovolakis got the call that changed everything.After 18 months of searching for an explanation for his youngest son Michael's symptoms, he finally had a diagnosis: Spastic Paraplegia Type 50, or SPG50, a rare neurodegenerative disorder characterized by developmental delays, seizures, small head size, and a progressive stiffening of muscles that, left untreated, would eventually lead to full paralysis. Michael was one of only 80 known children in the world with the condition.The doctors told Terry and his wife Georgia to go home, love their son, and give him the best life possible. There was nothing available to prevent what was coming.Pirovolakis is not the kind of person who accepts that answer.Within weeks, he and Georgia had launched CureSPG50, a nonprofit aimed at funding gene therapy research for SPG50. They raised money any way they could: crowdfunding campaigns, car washes, community events. They cold-called researchers. They read everything they could find on gene therapy. Terry, who had no background in pharmaceutical development, taught himself enough molecular biology to have credible conversations with scientists who did.Less than three years after the diagnosis, a clinical trial developed specifically for Michael took place. He became one of the first children with SPG50 to receive a gene therapy intervention.Out of that journey, Terry founded Elpida Therapeutics, a name that means hope in Greek, a socially responsible biotech corporation with a single animating principle: develop gene therapies as fast as possible, for as many children as possible. As of 2025, Elpida is pursuing five active gene therapy programs, with plans to dose 8 to 12 children in each over the next two to three years.John Crowley and the Blueprint That Started It AllIf Terry Pirovolakis is the current generation of dad founders, John Crowley is one of the original dads who proved it was possible.On March 13, 1998, Crowley learned that his daughter Megan had Pompe disease, a severe neuromuscular disorder that destroys muscle tissue, enlarges the heart, and in infantile-onset cases is often fatal within the first year of life. Weeks later, his infant son Patrick was diagnosed with the same condition. The Crowley family was told both children would likely not survive to adulthood.Crowley, who held a law degree from Notre Dame and an MBA from Harvard Business School, had been building a career in pharmaceutical marketing at Bristol-Myers Squibb. He walked away from it.He and his wife Aileen poured their life savings into a new biotech startup called Novazyme Pharmaceuticals, taking a second mortgage on their home to fund early research. Crowley had no scientific background. He didn't care. He had two children running out of time.Novazyme went from a $1 million angel round to $27 million in venture capital and was ultimately acquired by Genzyme Corporation for nearly $200 million. The enzyme replacement therapy that came out of that work, Myozyme, later redeveloped as Lumizyme, saved Megan and Patrick's lives. Today, more than 3,000 people worldwide with Pompe disease receive those treatments.Crowley went on to found Amicus Therapeutics, a global biopharmaceutical company that grew from five employees to more than 600, operating across 27 countries, with a focus on rare genetic diseases. He now serves as CEO of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), the largest biotech trade association in the world.His family's story became a Pulitzer Prize-shortlisted book, “The Cure: How a Father Raised $100 Million and Bucked the Medical Establishment in a Quest to Save His Children,” and a 2010 Hollywood film, “Extraordinary Measures,” starring Harrison Ford and Brendan Fraser."I think I did my job," Crowley has said of his role as a father. "As a dad, I did what I had to do."He did not do it alone. But he was one of the earliest and most visible examples of a dad taking his child's wellbeing into his own hands by launching a pharma company.Matt Might and the Blog Post That Found Nine More PatientsIn 2012, Matt Might's son Bertrand became the first known person in the world to be diagnosed with NGLY1 deficiency, a condition so newly identified that it didn't yet have a name, a research community, or any treatment pathway whatsoever.Might was a tenured computer science professor. He did what computer scientists do: He tried to solve the problem with data.He wrote a detailed blog post, "Hunting Down My Son's Killer," describing Bertrand's symptoms, genetic findings, and the biological mechanism of NGLY1 deficiency. His goal was to create what he called a "Google dragnet," a piece of content indexed well enough to surface in the searches of any other family whose child had the same undiagnosed condition.Within 24 hours, the post had gone viral. Within 13 months, it had helped identify nine more children with NGLY1 deficiency. A patient community formed. Researchers volunteered their time. Funding materialized.Applying what he knew about computational modeling, Might began identifying FDA-approved compounds that could theoretically help Bertrand. He found a candidate, a common supplement called N-acetylglucosamine available on Amazon, and after testing it himself with no ill effects, began giving it to his son. Three days later, he walked into Bertrand's room to find him crying. Not yelling: crying, with actual tears. It was the first time a child with NGLY1 deficiency had ever produced tears."They may have just been tears," Might said, "but they were an ocean of science for the disease. They unlocked so much about this disorder."Might co-founded Pairnomix, a startup focused on identifying personalized therapeutic options for patients with rare genetic disorders. The company was acquired by Q State Biosciences in 2018. He went on to become Director of Precision Medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and a researcher at Harvard Medical School, and he remains chief scientific officer of NGLY1.org.Bertrand Might died in 2020 at the age of 12. But the research his father sparked has since helped dozens of other children, and the patient community that blog post built continues to grow.What These Dads Have in CommonJohn Crowley had an MBA from Harvard. Matt Might had a PhD in computer science. Terry Pirovolakis had a drive so powerful that his company's name is the Greek word for hope.None of them had a pharmaceutical background when their child was diagnosed. None of them were supposed to end up here. But the alternative, doing nothing, was the one option they could not live with."What we realized was that if we didn't continue to do this ourselves, nobody was going to do it," said Allyson Berent, a fellow parent-founder who spoke alongside Terry Pirovolakis at the 2024 STAT Summit, "because the priorities of parents and patients will never change."According to IQVIA's Global R&D Trends report via Remington-Davis, 45% of all global clinical trial starts in 2024 were focused on rare diseases, a staggering figure that reflects just how much the field has shifted away from blockbuster drugs and toward the edges of human medicine, where the patients are fewest and the need is most acute.The dad founders didn't create that shift by themselves. But they are, without question, one of its most powerful engines.This Father's Day, the men worth celebrating aren't just the ones who showed up to the game. Some of them are showing up to the FDA.This story was produced by Kivo and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
	A key U.S. spy tool is set to lapse on Friday — now what? The government says more than 60% of the president's daily intelligence briefing relies on information collected under a tool known as FISA Section 702. But Congress has struggled to renew it.
	The beloved restaurant rewriting the rules of seafood The beloved restaurant rewriting the rules of seafoodWhile most of the state’s coastal eateries import seafood from as far as India, one has gone all-in on the boats docked right outside, Reasons to be Cheerful reports. When foodies head to Newport, Oregon, one place is always at the top of their list: Local Ocean. Repeat diners rave about the roasted garlic and crab soup, studded with fat lumps of local Dungeness; the lightly battered fried rockfish tacos served with citrus slaw, Huichol mayo and pickled veggies; and the saffron-infused Fishwives Stew, teeming with Oregon pink shrimp, wild prawns, scallops, clams and rockfish — served with a side of garlic bread. Even the niçoise salad, elevated with seared Oregon-caught tuna, is a standout. Rachelle Hacmac An added bonus to the delicious seafood menu is that the overwhelming majority of it — including what’s sold at the downstairs fish market — is caught in the ocean just off Newport. That’s a rarity these days in Oregon, where a whopping 90% of the seafood purchased and consumed on the coast is not locally caught, according to a recent study by the Oregon Coast Visitors Association (OCVA). Roughly 90% of Oregon’s seafood imports typically come from three countries: India, Canada and China. Ironically, Oregon exports its seafood to some of these same countries. Shipping seafood halfway across the world costs thousands of food miles — that is, the total distance food travels from where it’s caught or produced to where it’s consumed — creating an enormous carbon footprint. But also, OCVA estimates that Oregon’s coastal communities lose roughly $178 million a year because restaurants and food stores import seafood and other ingredients from far away. (In other words, when restaurants and groceries on the Oregon Coast order prawns from Indonesia, Atlantic salmon from the East Coast and salad greens from California, money that could be staying in Oregon’s coastal communities leaves the state.) That’s not even including the economic multipliers of processing facilities, packaging and storage jobs that would be added if seafood stayed on the Coast. That nearly all of the seafood served at Local Ocean is caught off the coast of Oregon and other West Coast fisheries is not by chance. Founder and former owner Laura Anderson started the company 21 years ago because she wanted to buy seafood directly from the boats that dock right outside the restaurant in Newport’s marina. Her father was a commercial fisherman, and she sought to support the local community of fishers while creating a restaurant that went above and beyond when it came to sourcing sustainable seafood. Rachelle Hacmac When she opened it in 2005, Local Ocean was more of a fish market with a few tables for lunch. But the restaurant was so instantly popular — with lines out the door — that it quickly became more profitable than the market. Today, the market does just 10% of the business, while the restaurant steals the show. Some eaters may have a romantic notion when they think of restaurants serving local fish. Perhaps they imagine a chef wandering down to the dock, chatting with a fisher and buying a handful of fish directly from the boat. But actually, sourcing local fish takes a lot more work — and money. For one thing, Local Ocean has to buy a special wholesale license from the state each year. Rachelle Hacmac “We have to be a wholesale fish buyer like Pacific Seafoods or any of the other entities that are legally authorized to purchase fish,” Anderson says, referring to the massive vertically integrated seafood processor and distributor based outside of Portland. Not only is it a “considerable expense” to have the licensing, says Anderson, the restaurant has to have bonding, and its staff has to do extensive reporting as a so-called “first purchaser.” The restaurant also pays landing fees and commission taxes, to, for example, the Dungeness Crab Commission. And there are state-level taxes for every pound landed.“It’s not for the faint of heart,” Anderson says. On the restaurant side of things, there is a separate “Fillet Team” that breaks down and fillets all manner of fish, crustacean and other seafood. Since whole fish are a rarity at restaurants these days, finding employees who are skilled at fish butchery is a necessity. “It’s a specialized skill,” says Local Ocean President Tony Bixler. “Our chefs always know how to cut whole fish, but our average line cooks may not be trained in that.” The restaurant’s Fillet Team alone has as many as six people during the busy summer months. Anderson, who has a master’s degree in marine resource management from Oregon State University, keeps an eye on the two best-known seafood sustainability standards, published by Marine Stewardship Council and Seafood Watch. That said, she doesn’t see them as prescriptive. Rachelle Hacmac Her abiding value — and part of the company’s mission — is to buy local. “For six years, I sat on the Fish and Wildlife Commission, which sets fisheries policy for the state,” she says. She also has a lot of faith in federal fisheries management — and particularly in how Oregon manages its fisheries. “We have some of the best-managed fisheries in the world,” Anderson says, referring to the U.S. And West Coast fisheries exceed the already-high standards of other U.S. fisheries, according to Anderson. “Where I really draw the line is importing seafood from other countries,” Anderson says. Local Ocean doesn’t sell any foreign-caught fish. Nor does it sell any farmed fish. (Though oysters, clams and mussels do come from local aquaculture farms.) The diminutive pink shrimp you can find on various salads and sandwiches at Local Ocean are a good example of Oregon’s high bar. The state’s pink shrimp fishery used to have a lot of bycatch. (That is: other fish or marine species that aren’t the intended catch.) But now, nets equipped with bycatch reduction devices and LED lights have reduced the bycatch to under 1%. For this reason, Oregon’s shrimp fishery is considered one of the most sustainable shrimp fisheries in the world. Rachelle Hacmac From the fisher’s point of view, working with Local Ocean has many benefits. For one thing, you’re selling to a company that employs and feeds locals — and you’re keeping your delicious, freshly caught fish on the Oregon Coast. (As it turns out, this is a value many Oregon fishers share.) For another, in almost all cases, Local Ocean pays more. Fisherman Brett Montague has been selling to Local Ocean since 2018. He says selling directly to the company both aligns with his values and is good for his bottom line. He and another fisherman catch albacore, salmon, incidental halibut and rockfish from a 40-foot boat called the Jo El. The Jo El is a troller, meaning they use hook-and-line to catch fish — which results in very little bycatch. Rachelle Hacmac “I like keeping all my seafood here in Oregon or on the West Coast,” Montague says. (He also fishes off Washington and California.) “Each year, I’ll meet with Local Ocean’s president, Tony [Bixler], and we’ll discuss how many pounds — are we going to do more than last year or less? And it’s this unspoken contract that I can rely on every year.” There’s a neighborly feeling to the relationship, too: Sometimes folks from Local Ocean will help Montague and his deckhand bring the fish up from the boat. “It’s kind of like a family affair,” he says. Typically, Local Ocean will buy 30,000 pounds of albacore a year from Montague. If Montague catches more than he’s promised to Local Ocean, he can sell his fish elsewhere. (Other buyers often insist on exclusive rights.) But he prefers working with Local Ocean because of their long-term relationship and because Local Ocean tends to pay fishers a little bit better. Rachelle Hacmac The tuna market fluctuates wildly depending on global supply, and often no one knows the “dock prices” until the fish is landing on the dock. This can create stress for fishers. Bixler likes to offer longtime partners like Montague a price before the season begins, ensuring they can make a living wage. “He’s still doing the same work, and the fish is the same,” Bixler says. “If the tuna market globally is really depressed because the market is flooded with foreign fish, I don’t want that to affect his business or our future business, as well. If I don’t pay him what the fish is worth, he may not be around for the next season.” Montague, for his part, makes extra sure that the fish is in great shape. “Because we know it’s going right to the plate, we tend to take care of our product a little better,” he says. He also flash-freezes the fish at sea — the Jo El has a blast freezer on board that keeps it at negative 30 degrees Fahrenheit — and the tuna goes straight into Local Ocean’s freezers when the boat returns to shore. This ensures a year-round supply of sashimi-grade tuna for Local Ocean to butcher as it needs. Inspired by the Iceland Ocean Cluster, which led the country’s innovative push to use every last part of the fish, Anderson launched a “100% Fish” program at Local Ocean last year. In conventional seafood processing, a fish might yield between 35-65% of its total body weight into a fillet. Local Ocean aims to upcycle seafood byproducts to use up the rest of the fish. After receiving a grant last year, Local Ocean hired Darlene Khalafi to be the 100% Fish business innovation program manager. Khalafi is positively evangelical about the possibilities. Rachelle Hacmac Already, she and her team have made fish-skin dog treats and seafood bone broth. She is also working with the restaurant’s new executive chef, Jacob Harth, to incorporate alternative seafood cuts into the new spring menu. “Local Ocean purchases 100,000 pounds of local fish per year,” she says. All that fish is hand-filleted in-house, so saving the bones, fish skin and imperfect bits of meat is possible. Processing typically neglected parts of the fish will yield another potential product. “For each product we make there will be a tertiary byproduct,” she notes. “Before we air-dry the fish skins, we scrape off all the meat. So now I have a bunch of frozen scraped meat that has scales in it — but maybe we can do something with it!” Because Local Ocean’s strength is in food, Khalafi is starting with food products. In addition to the dog treats and bone broth, she is exploring doing a line of tinned fish products with underutilized parts like bellies and cheeks.But she also has ideas about turning the fish waste into protein hydrolysate for a high-quality fertilizer, and eventually, there may be a fish leather product. For now, 100% Fish is supported by grants, but the hope is that once these products take off, the revenue will sustain and even grow the program. Eventually, the value-added products may have a spinoff brand. “But because Local Ocean already has a 20-year legacy as one of the most iconic seafood restaurants in the Northwest, we decided to lean on that,” Khalafi says. In 2022, Local Ocean became what is known as a Perpetual Purpose Trust. Also called a Trust Stewardship model, a Perpetual Purpose Trust (PPT) is a type of employee ownership that, unlike an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) or a traditional co-op model, is mission-based. Other companies that have recently become PPTs include Patagonia; Organically Grown Company in Eugene; and Zingerman’s Deli in Ann Arbor, Michigan. For this type of employee ownership, the business has to first form a trust, and the trust owns the company. Trustees, who are voted on by their peers, make sure that the company is being operated according to its mission. In Local Ocean’s case, that means they have to review an annual report and ensure that the company is buying local, from sustainable fisheries, and that it’s buying direct. Trustees are also eligible for profit-sharing. Anderson is still on the Local Ocean Board and will help the company fully transition to the employee ownership model. That said, the trustees have taken the reins. While most trustees are employees, the Trust also allows for community members and fishers to be trustees. “The company exists not just for its employees,” Anderson notes. “It exists to serve fishers and it exists for the community as well. We want Local Ocean to be for the employees, but we wouldn’t be here if not for the fishers.” This story is part of Waterline, an ongoing series that explores the solutions making rivers, waterways and ocean food chains healthier. It is funded by a grant from the Walton Family Foundation.This story was produced by Reasons to be Cheerful and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
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	More than a quarter of private colleges are at risk of closing, new projection shows More than a quarter of private colleges are at risk of closing, new projection showsMore than a dozen newborn lambs cavorted around a fenced-in yard beneath the scrutiny of their mothers and a few watchful students taking turns attending to them.The lambs’ successful births have been a needed bright spot at tiny Sterling College, which uses a 130-acre farm to teach agriculture and other disciplines in a part of northeastern Vermont so isolated it’s rare to see a passing car, and there’s no cell service.LillyAnne Keeley, a senior, likes that remoteness. “We have a beautiful view,” said Keeley, in the barn where she’s come for her turn checking on the lambs. “There are beautiful sunsets here. I kind of take it for granted every day.”She and her classmates have started taking such experiences less for granted now, since Sterling has announced that it will close at the end of this semester.They’re not the last students who will suffer such disruption, notes The Hechinger Report. A new estimate projects that 442 of the nation’s 1,700 private, nonprofit four-year colleges and universities, with a combined 670,000 students, are at risk of closing or merging within the next 10 years.More than 120 institutions are at the very highest risk, according to the forecast by Huron Consulting Group, which analyzed enrollment trends, tuition revenue, assets, debt, cash on hand and other measures. Many are, like Sterling, small and rural.“Now that this might be gone, I just really worry about some students out there that are going to have less and less choices,” Keeley said.It’s a crisis whose magnitude has been shrouded by political and culture-war attacks on higher education and is propelled by the simple law of supply and demand after a long decline in the number of Americans who are going to college.“We have too many seats. We have too many classrooms,” said Peter Stokes, a managing director at Huron. “So over the coming five to 10 years, this shakeout is going to take place.”Sterling — the seventh private college in Vermont to close since 2016 — offers a rare glimpse into the human impact of this trend. That’s because it gave students a final semester to stay and complete their degrees or transfer, rather than locking the doors with hardly any notice, as many other colleges have done.Fewer than half of students at colleges that close continue their educations, according to the most comprehensive study of the issue, produced by the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association, or SHEEO. Of those who do, many lose credits they’ve already earned and paid for, and fewer than half eventually earn degrees.Twenty-year-old Izzy Johnson has already been buffeted by this. The college he originally wanted to attend closed the month before he graduated from high school. So he enrolled in the fall at Sterling — only to learn that it would also close.“Having to pick up everything and find a new place to settle down is really miserable,” said Johnson, who is weighing where to go next.Started in 1958 as a prep school for boys, the remote rural college was never very large. Its enrollment peaked at 120 and fell to about 40 students this year, spread around a few white clapboard buildings indistinguishable from the houses of the surrounding farm town of about 1,300 people.Those numbers weren’t sustainable, even at a work college whose students pitch in on the farm and in the dorms and kitchen, said the president, Scott Thomas. Though financial documents show Sterling had been breaking even, margins were thin. Sarah Butrymowicz // The Hechinger Report In its last semester, the campus appeared surprisingly upbeat. At a weekly community meeting, students, faculty and staff in farm boots and hiking shoes lugged tables to the edge of the dining hall and formed a circle to talk about routine business, including warnings of bears coming out of hibernation and a reminder to provide contact information so everyone could stay in touch after commencement in May.Students have decided “that we’re just going to have a really good last semester and go out on a really positive note,” said Keeley, who, like several classmates, is cramming to earn the credits she needs to graduate this spring. “And I feel like we’ve been really able to do that so far, but it’s still really sad.”Most said they were drawn here precisely because of the college’s small size and far-flung location.“I don’t think I would have done well at a big, traditional college,” said Jack Beatson, a first-year student from California. “I just sort of get freaked out in a big space like that.”Added Samuel Stover, a senior from Connecticut whose mother also went to Sterling: “I have really amazing role models and instructors and teachers who I feel like I really connect with on a deeper level than just ‘I’m a student and I hand in papers.’ ” Oliver Parini for The Hechinger Report As more small colleges close, said Keeley, it’s getting harder for students to find this kind of an alternative to what she called “the larger, monotonous type of education.”People around town are equally concerned about the local impact of the closing — not only the loss of jobs and spending by the few remaining students at the two local cafes and two general stores, but an end to the pipeline through which many graduates have stayed to work or start businesses of their own in a state whose population is the third-oldest in the nation.“We always joke that Sterling kids stick around. But it’s true, they do, and they contribute to the community,” said Liz Chadwick, who moved from New Jersey in 2013 to finish her bachelor’s degree at the college, where she now teaches food systems, the study of the process by which food is produced and consumed. “They build families here.”Losing colleges like Sterling “leaves craters in the small rural communities that they have been a part of for, in some instances, decades or a century,” said Thomas.Paul Lisai, another Sterling grad, stayed and started his own milking herd and creamery in nearby West Glover: Sweet Rowen Farmstead, named for a particularly sweet kind of hay.“The impact is far beyond the local economic impact,” said Lisai, whose milk, yogurt and 17 types of cheeses are sold around New England and in upstate New York. “For me as a business owner, what I’m scared about most is not having access to that group of like-minded people.” With a state unemployment rate of 2.6%, he said, “Try running a business here. We really struggle to find good folks.”Many converging reasons explain why colleges and universities are under existential strain.There are already 2.3 million fewer students than there were in 2010. Now, a drop in the birthrate that began around the same time means there is about to be a further downward slide in the number of 18-year-olds through at least 2041.The proportion of high school graduates who go on to college is also down, from 70% in 2016 to 61%in 2023, the most recent year for which the figure is available. The number of visas issued for new full-tuition-paying international students coming to the United States plummeted by nearly 100,000 this year, or 36%. And looming caps on federal loans for graduate study, which take effect in July, threaten to reduce demand for yet another crucial source of revenue for universities and colleges.While higher education institutions previously weathered short-lived declines in enrollment and increases in costs, today “every major revenue stream and expense category is under pressure at the same time,” the higher education consulting firm EAB warns in a new analysis.Eighty-six percent of college and university leaders are worried about their schools’ long-term financial viability, according to a survey by the American Council on Education, the principal industry association. A fifth of college and university presidents say they’ve had serious discussions about merging with another university or college, a separate survey by Hanover Research and the industry news site Inside Higher Ed found.Signs of strain are spreading.Nearly a third of private, nonprofit colleges and universities nationwide posted deficits in 2024, according to research by Robert Kelchen, director of the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. More than a third of 44 comparatively small colleges in New England analyzed separately by education consultant Steven Shulman are running out of operating money, Shulman found.And it’s not just small schools that are affected.The University of Southern California has sent pink slips to more than 900 employees. Stanford laid off at least 363. Northwestern University eliminated 425 positions. DePaul University laid off 114 employees and closed its art museum, citing a big drop in international graduate enrollment, spiking benefit costs and growing demand for financial aid.As part of what its president called a “broader strategy to strengthen GW’s long-term financial health,” George Washington University announced in March that it had sold a satellite science and technology campus in Virginia for what the student newspaper reported was $427 million.The New School in New York said it would cut its workforce by 20%. Rider University in New Jersey reached an agreement in February to sell a fifth of its campus and lease some of its facilities, which will raise the roughly $10 million it needs to avert a financial crisis.Even public universities and colleges are facing deepening financial problems, reports the Fitch bond-rating agency, citing slowing economic growth and federal policy changes. These include cuts to Medicaid and SNAP that will have to be made up by states, according to SHEEO, which projects a dim outlook for state funding for public universities and colleges.“We are seeing state funding pressure now in a way that we wouldn’t have expected perhaps five or 10 years ago,” said Emily Wadhwani, senior director and sector lead for education and nonprofits at Fitch. “We are seeing federal funding pressure now in a way that we would not have expected a few years ago.”Community colleges, too — which enroll nearly 5.6 million students — are suffering financial squeezes that leave them less able to adapt or respond to change, according to Daniel Greenstein, former chancellor of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, who now tracks financial exposure in the industry.In this case, wrote Greenstein, “The risk is not a sudden collapse of the sector. The risk is a slow erosion of capacity in precisely the institutions on which communities rely most.”Still, after two and a half decades in which the price of tuition has increased more than 40% faster than inflation, for a payoff consumers no longer think is worth the money, higher education gets limited sympathy for its predicament — and even less after years of political and culture war attacks on the ideological leanings of faculty and leadership.“Free market wins!” quipped one commenter on social media, in response to Sterling College’s announcement that it would close. “They woked themselves right out of business,” wrote another. Added a third: “Now where will they teach all the 20 year olds to protest and whine?”Among its students, however, Sterling elicits something increasingly rare among higher education institutions: gratitude.“I’m so glad I got to spend at least a year here,” said first-year student Jack Beatson. “Just feeling like you’re really part of something, and other people depend on you — that’s very important to young people especially, and today especially.”Beatson is transferring to another small college in upstate New York. But even after Sterling closes, he said, “We’ll all take this place with us, wherever we end up.”This story was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education, and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
	QC Chamber hosts annual meeting, seeks nominations for business awards The Quad Cities Chamber will host its 2026 annual meeting on Wednesday, Aug. 5, at Rhythm City Casino Resort, 7077 Elmore Ave., Davenport, a news release says. The event will begin with cocktails and hors d’oeuvres at 3:30 p.m., followed by the program at 4 p.m. Register here. “This year, we’re putting a fresh spin [...]
	YWCA QC, Rock Island, kicks off season with Summer Block Jam The YWCA Quad Cities, 513 17th St., Rock Island, invites the community to kick off summer at its Summer Block Jam, a free, family-friendly event designed to celebrate connection, community, and the start of the summer season. The event will take place from 1-4 p.m. Sunday, June 14, when 17th Street will be closed between 5th and [...]
	Firearms drive majority of veteran suicides, federal data shows A Glock 19X handgun rests on top of an American flag. Guns were used in about three-quarters of veteran suicides, up from about two-thirds in 2001, according to a new analysis of federal data. (Photo by Amanda Watford/Stateline)Veterans in the United States die by suicide at higher rates than the general population, and firearms are involved in most of those deaths, according to a new analysis of federal data. The report, released by Everytown for Gun Safety, a gun violence prevention advocacy group, analyzed data from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and found that on average, approximately 18 veterans die by suicide each day, and about 13 of those deaths involve firearms. By 2023, firearms were used in about three-quarters of veteran suicides, up from about two-thirds in 2001, according to the analysis. Although veterans make up a relatively small share of the U.S. population, they account for nearly one in five firearm suicide deaths nationwide. The analysis found that the veteran firearm suicide rate increased by about 67% between 2001 and 2023, compared with a 35% increase among nonveteran adults. The report points to differences in firearm ownership as one factor that may contribute to the disparity. About half of veterans report owning firearms, compared with roughly 20% of nonveteran adults, according to the report. Some research suggests that access to firearms is associated with increased suicide risk. Studies cited in the report found that gun ownership is linked to roughly a threefold increase in suicide risk and that about 90% of suicide attempts involving a firearm are fatal. “It could not be more clear that easy access to firearms is the primary cause of veterans’ high suicide mortality rates,” Chris Marvin, veteran lead at Everytown for Gun Safety and a combat-wounded military veteran, said in an email. Gun dealers are major source of trafficked firearms The analysis found that veterans ages 18 to 34 now have the highest suicide rate among veterans, a shift from earlier years when the highest rates were among middle-aged and older veterans. Although men account for most veteran suicide deaths, firearm suicide rates among female veterans have increased more rapidly in recent years, according to the report. Women make up about 11% of the veteran population. Other contributors to suicide risk among veterans include mental health conditions, substance use, chronic pain, financial strain and challenges related to the transition from military to civilian life. Access to mental health care, housing stability and employment may also contribute to the risk, according to the report. Stateline reporter Amanda Watford can be reached at awatford@stateline.org. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE Courtesy of Stateline
	America’s best value small colleges and universities in 2026 America’s best value small colleges and universities in 2026As the Class of 2026 prepares to begin the next chapter of its educational journey, many graduating seniors will opt for a small college experience. Some students are drawn to small colleges and universities for the personalized attention and sense of community they can offer compared to larger schools. Although attending such institutions could come with a higher price tag than larger colleges and universities, many affordable, high-quality options are available.SmartAsset evaluated more than 1,000 U.S. colleges and universities with undergraduate enrollments of fewer than 5,000 students to identify the best values among small schools. The 527 institutions with an average cost of attendance — including tuition, books, fees and living expenses — below the median for similarly sized schools were assigned composite scores based on their graduation rate and the median earnings of students 10 years after first enrollment. The 75 highest-scoring schools were named our best-value small colleges.Key FindingsImmaculata University ranks No. 1. Founded in 1920, this private university in southeastern Pennsylvania reports an undergraduate enrollment of 1,320 and an average annual cost of attendance of less than $45,000. Its 68% graduation rate and median alumni earnings of $75,701 help place it at the top of the rankings.Rutgers University-Camden is the top-ranked public institution. The regional campus of Rutgers University enrolls fewer than 4,000 undergraduates and reports an average annual cost of attendance of $35,178. It ranks No. 2 overall, supported by a 67% graduation rate and median alumni earnings of $74,479.New York is home to more ranked colleges than any other state. Eleven institutions in the Empire State appeared among the 75 schools in the rankings.Public and private schools are both well represented. While the small college experience is often associated with private institutions, 26 of the 75 schools in the rankings are state-affiliated.Average enrollment is less than 2,200. Institutions named to the list were limited to those enrolling 5,000 or fewer undergraduates; the schools that made the final ranking have an average enrollment of 2,152. Courtesy of SmartAsset Best Value Small Colleges and UniversitiesImmaculata University (Immaculata, PA)• Type: Private• Enrollment: 1,320• Cost of Attendance: $43,979• Graduation Rate: 68%• Median Earnings: $75,701Rutgers University-Camden (Camden, NJ)• Type: Public• Enrollment: 3,753• Cost of Attendance: $35,178• Graduation Rate: 67%• Median Earnings: $74,479University of Detroit Mercy (Detroit, MI)• Type: Private• Enrollment: 2,438• Cost of Attendance: $42,211• Graduation Rate: 68%• Median Earnings: $71,030SUNY College at Geneseo (Geneseo, NY)• Type: Public• Enrollment: 3,869• Cost of Attendance: $27,709• Graduation Rate: 72%• Median Earnings: $67,316Washington & Jefferson College (Washington, PA)• Type: Private• Enrollment: 1,295• Cost of Attendance: $42,972• Graduation Rate: 70%• Median Earnings: $67,918Ramapo College of New Jersey (Mahwah, NJ)• Type: Public• Enrollment: 4,898• Cost of Attendance: $29,483• Graduation Rate: 71%• Median Earnings: $67,541New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology (Socorro, NM)• Type: Public• Enrollment: 995• Cost of Attendance: $24,967• Graduation Rate: 57%• Median Earnings: $76,489Thomas Aquinas College (Santa Paula, CA)• Type: Private• Enrollment: 566• Cost of Attendance: $43,426• Graduation Rate: 83%• Median Earnings: $55,619Capitol Technology University (Laurel, MD)• Type: Private• Enrollment: 315• Cost of Attendance: $42,471• Graduation Rate: 44%• Median Earnings: $85,035Christopher Newport University (Newport News, VA)• Type: Public• Enrollment: 4,365• Cost of Attendance: $33,766• Graduation Rate: 73%• Median Earnings: $60,509Oregon Institute of Technology (Klamath Falls, OR)• Type: Public• Enrollment: 2,892• Cost of Attendance: $27,524• Graduation Rate: 56%• Median Earnings: $72,273St. Joseph’s University-New York (Brooklyn, NY)• Type: Private• Enrollment: 3,144• Cost of Attendance: $41,897• Graduation Rate: 67%• Median Earnings: $63,905South Dakota School of Mines and Technology (Rapid City, SD)• Type: Public• Enrollment: 2,071• Cost of Attendance: $25,385• Graduation Rate: 56%• Median Earnings: $72,257SUNY Oneonta (Oneonta, NY)• Type: Public• Enrollment: 4,643• Cost of Attendance: $28,821• Graduation Rate: 70%• Median Earnings: $60,386Canisius University (Buffalo, NY)• Type: Private• Enrollment: 1,685• Cost of Attendance: $44,322• Graduation Rate: 69%• Median Earnings: $60,681St. Mary’s College of Maryland (St. Mary’s City, MD)• Type: Public• Enrollment: 1,603• Cost of Attendance: $31,865• Graduation Rate: 69%• Median Earnings: $60,110University of Mary (Bismarck, ND)• Type: Private• Enrollment: 2,416• Cost of Attendance: $33,672• Graduation Rate: 67%• Median Earnings: $60,909University of Mary Washington (Fredericksburg, VA)• Type: Public• Enrollment: 3,566• Cost of Attendance: $31,137• Graduation Rate: 67%• Median Earnings: $60,613University of St Thomas (Houston, TX)• Type: Private• Enrollment: 3,220• Cost of Attendance: $45,672• Graduation Rate: 69%• Median Earnings: $59,224Indiana Wesleyan University-Marion (Marion, IN)• Type: Private• Enrollment: 1,974• Cost of Attendance: $44,776• Graduation Rate: 67%• Median Earnings: $59,986Truman State University (Kirksville, MO)• Type: Public• Enrollment: 2,513• Cost of Attendance: $25,115• Graduation Rate: 69%• Median Earnings: $56,280Holy Family University (Philadelphia, PA)• Type: Private• Enrollment: 2,464• Cost of Attendance: $40,539• Graduation Rate: 61%• Median Earnings: $62,235William Jewell College (Liberty, MO)• Type: Private• Enrollment: 924• Cost of Attendance: $35,785• Graduation Rate: 64%• Median Earnings: $59,268Franciscan University of Steubenville (Steubenville, OH)• Type: Private• Enrollment: 2,901• Cost of Attendance: $44,580• Graduation Rate: 76%• Median Earnings: $50,030York College of Pennsylvania (York, PA)• Type: Private• Enrollment: 3,265• Cost of Attendance: $37,319• Graduation Rate: 62%• Median Earnings: $61,012SUNY Polytechnic Institute (Utica, NY)• Type: Public• Enrollment: 1,849• Cost of Attendance: $23,741• Graduation Rate: 57%• Median Earnings: $64,355SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (Syracuse, NY)• Type: Public• Enrollment: 1,839• Cost of Attendance: $28,133• Graduation Rate: 68%• Median Earnings: $55,763John Brown University (Siloam Springs, AR)• Type: Private• Enrollment: 1,471• Cost of Attendance: $44,710• Graduation Rate: 69%• Median Earnings: $53,907Viterbo University (La Crosse, WI)• Type: Private• Enrollment: 1,249• Cost of Attendance: $45,558• Graduation Rate: 67%• Median Earnings: $55,660Daemen University (Amherst, NY)• Type: Private• Enrollment: 1,643• Cost of Attendance: $45,192• Graduation Rate: 59%• Median Earnings: $61,808Waynesburg University (Waynesburg, PA)• Type: Private• Enrollment: 1,009• Cost of Attendance: $44,397• Graduation Rate: 63%• Median Earnings: $58,537Harding University (Searcy, AR)• Type: Private• Enrollment: 3,382• Cost of Attendance: $39,534• Graduation Rate: 70%• Median Earnings: $52,876Central College (Pella, IA)• Type: Private• Enrollment: 1,070• Cost of Attendance: $37,773• Graduation Rate: 68%• Median Earnings: $54,317Warner Pacific University (Portland, OR)• Type: Private• Enrollment: 375• Cost of Attendance: $38,948• Graduation Rate: 66%• Median Earnings: $55,204Utica University (Utica, NY)• Type: Private• Enrollment: 2,278• Cost of Attendance: $37,205• Graduation Rate: 56%• Median Earnings: $63,277Andrews University (Berrien Springs, MI)• Type: Private• Enrollment: 1,224• Cost of Attendance: $45,218• Graduation Rate: 69%• Median Earnings: $53,187Worcester State University (Worcester, MA)• Type: Public• Enrollment: 3,930• Cost of Attendance: $22,874• Graduation Rate: 59%• Median Earnings: $60,624Dominican University (River Forest, IL)• Type: Private• Enrollment: 2,561• Cost of Attendance: $43,891• Graduation Rate: 59%• Median Earnings: $60,327Goldey-Beacom College (Wilmington, DE)• Type: Private• Enrollment: 691• Cost of Attendance: $26,502• Graduation Rate: 58%• Median Earnings: $59,892Gordon College (Wenham, MA)• Type: Private• Enrollment: 1,278• Cost of Attendance: $42,446• Graduation Rate: 68%• Median Earnings: $52,119Madonna University (Livonia, MI)• Type: Private• Enrollment: 1,632• Cost of Attendance: $41,038• Graduation Rate: 59%• Median Earnings: $59,058Aurora University (Aurora, IL)• Type: Private• Enrollment: 3,974• Cost of Attendance: $40,625• Graduation Rate: 59%• Median Earnings: $58,709North Park University (Chicago, IL)• Type: Private• Enrollment: 1,818• Cost of Attendance: $44,172• Graduation Rate: 57%• Median Earnings: $59,572Saint Xavier University (Chicago, IL)• Type: Private• Enrollment: 3,096• Cost of Attendance: $43,244• Graduation Rate: 58%• Median Earnings: $58,656Trinity Christian College (Palos Heights, IL)• Type: Private• Enrollment: 820• Cost of Attendance: $35,012• Graduation Rate: 61%• Median Earnings: $55,700University of Sioux Falls (Sioux Falls, SD)• Type: Private• Enrollment: 1,218• Cost of Attendance: $34,274• Graduation Rate: 62%• Median Earnings: $54,521State University of New York at Plattsburgh (Plattsburgh, NY)• Type: Public• Enrollment: 3,769• Cost of Attendance: $28,244• Graduation Rate: 59%• Median Earnings: $56,403Thomas More College of Liberal Arts (Merrimack, NH)• Type: Private• Enrollment: 97• Cost of Attendance: $42,082• Graduation Rate: 62%• Median Earnings: $53,565Freed-Hardeman University (Henderson, TN)• Type: Private• Enrollment: 1,212• Cost of Attendance: $38,315• Graduation Rate: 70%• Median Earnings: $47,485University of Illinois Springfield (Springfield, IL)• Type: Public• Enrollment: 2,263• Cost of Attendance: $25,521• Graduation Rate: 57%• Median Earnings: $57,103Eastern Connecticut State University (Willimantic, CT)• Type: Public• Enrollment: 3,418• Cost of Attendance: $31,983• Graduation Rate: 58%• Median Earnings: $56,469College of Saint Mary (Omaha, NE)• Type: Private• Enrollment: 445• Cost of Attendance: $35,971• Graduation Rate: 60%• Median Earnings: $54,338Concordia University-Saint Paul (Saint Paul, MN)• Type: Private• Enrollment: 3,018• Cost of Attendance: $37,239• Graduation Rate: 52%• Median Earnings: $59,871Keene State College (Keene, NH)• Type: Public• Enrollment: 2,699• Cost of Attendance: $29,993• Graduation Rate: 59%• Median Earnings: $54,368University of Wisconsin-River Falls (River Falls, WI)• Type: Public• Enrollment: 4,205• Cost of Attendance: $19,781• Graduation Rate: 59%• Median Earnings: $54,458Judson University (Elgin, IL)• Type: Private• Enrollment: 708• Cost of Attendance: $43,137• Graduation Rate: 56%• Median Earnings: $56,313Longwood University (Farmville, VA)• Type: Public• Enrollment: 3,015• Cost of Attendance: $34,588• Graduation Rate: 61%• Median Earnings: $52,347Ashland University (Ashland, OH)• Type: Private• Enrollment: 2,199• Cost of Attendance: $43,434• Graduation Rate: 61%• Median Earnings: $52,928Fresno Pacific University (Fresno, CA)• Type: Private• Enrollment: 1,544• Cost of Attendance: $44,249• Graduation Rate: 53%• Median Earnings: $58,896Westfield State University (Westfield, MA)• Type: Public• Enrollment: 3,615• Cost of Attendance: $27,649• Graduation Rate: 55%• Median Earnings: $57,346St. Francis College (Brooklyn, NY)• Type: Private• Enrollment: 1,684• Cost of Attendance: $38,098• Graduation Rate: 54%• Median Earnings: $58,099Montana Technological University (Butte, MT)• Type: Public• Enrollment: 1,480• Cost of Attendance: $22,786• Graduation Rate: 58%• Median Earnings: $54,329Spring Arbor University (Spring Arbor, MI)• Type: Private• Enrollment: 1,010• Cost of Attendance: $44,703• Graduation Rate: 61%• Median Earnings: $51,732University of Minnesota-Morris (Morris, MN)• Type: Public• Enrollment: 936• Cost of Attendance: $27,039• Graduation Rate: 62%• Median Earnings: $50,919Western Connecticut State University (Danbury, CT)• Type: Public• Enrollment: 3,511• Cost of Attendance: $24,877• Graduation Rate: 51%• Median Earnings: $59,115Hiram College (Hiram, OH)• Type: Private• Enrollment: 777• Cost of Attendance: $40,572• Graduation Rate: 57%• Median Earnings: $54,311Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania (Shippensburg, PA)• Type: Public• Enrollment: 4,086• Cost of Attendance: $30,785• Graduation Rate: 54%• Median Earnings: $56,351New College of Florida (Sarasota, FL)• Type: Public• Enrollment: 843• Cost of Attendance: $24,449• Graduation Rate: 64%• Median Earnings: $48,082Huntington University (Huntington, IN)• Type: Private• Enrollment: 1,082• Cost of Attendance: $42,157• Graduation Rate: 66%• Median Earnings: $46,672Geneva College (Beaver Falls, PA)• Type: Private• Enrollment: 1,096• Cost of Attendance: $45,407• Graduation Rate: 61%• Median Earnings: $50,004Salem State University (Salem, MA)• Type: Public• Enrollment: 4,291• Cost of Attendance: $28,291• Graduation Rate: 52%• Median Earnings: $56,662Houghton University (Houghton, NY)• Type: Private• Enrollment: 753• Cost of Attendance: $31,143• Graduation Rate: 65%• Median Earnings: $46,721Evangel University (Springfield, MO)• Type: Private• Enrollment: 1,229• Cost of Attendance: $39,956• Graduation Rate: 65%• Median Earnings: $46,573University of Minnesota-Crookston (Crookston, MN)• Type: Public• Enrollment: 1,729• Cost of Attendance: $26,068• Graduation Rate: 50%• Median Earnings: $58,056Plymouth State University (Plymouth, NH)• Type: Public• Enrollment: 3,153• Cost of Attendance: $29,644• Graduation Rate: 50%• Median Earnings: $57,304Methodology Bachelor’s degree-granting institutions listed in the U.S. Department of Education’s College Scorecard were filtered to include regionally accredited schools with undergraduate enrollments of 5,000 or fewer students. For-profit institutions and some specialized schools, such as seminaries, maritime academies, conservatories and nursing schools, were omitted. The median cost of attendance for all qualifying institutions was calculated, and those with a cost of attendance for full-time, first-time, degree-seeking undergraduates who receive Title IV aid — including tuition, books, fees, and living expenses — below that median were included in the rankings. Institutions were ranked using a composite score based on graduation rate (pooled) six years after first enrollment and the median earnings of students who received federal financial aid 10 years after first enrollment. All metrics are based on data published in March 2026 and may not reflect current conditions.This story was produced by SmartAsset and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.

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