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

Thursday, May 7th, 2026
	Another World This is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.Have you been on so many vacations that you've seen it all?The Venice canals? Been there. Big Ben? Been there, too. The…
	Gas prices keep rising, but do big oil companies plan to drill more? Not so far The war in Iran has pushed global oil prices higher, which boosts oil company revenues. But major U.S. oil companies aren't signaling plans to increase production to bring down prices at the pump.
	Campaign staffers tell NPR they make 'thousands' betting on their own candidates Campaign staffers are turning private polling data into personal paydays. They describe election prediction market as a "Wild West" for staffers.
	In new poll, Americans voice broad bipartisan support for age caps in Congress The vast majority of Americans — 8 in 10 — say there should be age caps for members of Congress, as well as term limits, according to the latest NPR/PBS News/Marist Poll.
	Border czar promises 'mass deportations are coming' to fulfill Trump's promises The remarks contrast with Border Czar Tom Homan's softer messaging earlier this year, after two U.S. citizens were killed by immigration officials in Minneapolis.
	About 40 passengers previously left ship hit by Hantavirus at island of St. Helena The dozens of passengers, including the wife of a Dutch man who died, left the cruise ship during a stop at the British territory, the Dutch foreign ministry said on Thursday.
	Paris Saint-Germain returns to Champions League final after beating Bayern Munich The French league leader will face Arsenal in the final in Budapest, Hungary, on May 30, after the Gunners defeated Atletico Madrid 1-0 on Tuesday to progress 2-1 on aggregate.
	iPhone users could get up to $95 in settlement over 'misleading' Siri claims Some iPhone owners are set to get a payout in a $250 million class action lawsuit over claims Apple was falsely advertising its phones' AI capabilities.
	Federal authorities arrest 18 for alleged drug distribution around Los Angeles park The area, called MacArthur Park, is a densely populated immigrant neighborhood west of downtown LA where federal immigration authorities and the National Guard made a brief show of force last summer.
	Trump's counterterrorism strategy makes targeting drug cartels the top priority President Trump has signed off on a new U.S. counterterrorism strategy that sets eliminating drug cartels in the Western Hemisphere as the administration's highest priority.
	PlayStation users could get refunds in $7.85 million Sony settlement Sony was accused of monopolizing the market and driving up prices for specific digital games purchased through the PlayStation Store.
	Davenport North soccer set to host 7th annual “Life is bigger than sports” event Life is bigger than sports. It’s a reality Davenport North soccer coach David Gamble knows all too well.
Wednesday, May 6th, 2026
	Amid protests, flooding and evacuations, Alabama Legislature passes special election bills Sen. Chris Elliott, R-Josephine, discusses a primary bill in the Alabama Senate on May 6, 2026 at the Alabama Statehouse in Montgomery, Alabama. The Senate approved the bill, which would allow the state to set new primary elections in two Montgomery-area state Senate districts if federal courts allow the state to use a legislative map previously declared unconstitutional. (Andrea Tinker/Alabama Reflector)The Alabama Legislature on Wednesday passed legislation that could set new primary dates for the state amid protests within the Statehouse and flooding that led the Alabama Senate to quickly pass its bill before a mass evacuation of the building. HB 1, sponsored by Speaker Pro Tempore Chris Pringle, R-Mobile, would allow for a new special election if the U.S. Supreme Court lifts an injunction preventing the state from redrawing congressional maps before 2030. SB 1, sponsored by Sen. Chris Elliott, R-Josephine, affects two Montgomery-area Senate districts. The legislation drew sharp criticism from Democrats, who said the bills aimed to reduce Black political representation in the Legislature. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX “This body continues to find more ways to make voting more difficult, more ways to suppress the vote and more ways to dilute the power of the Black vote,” said Rep. Adline Clarke, D-Mobile. “Make no mistake, that’s what HB 1 would do, and it’s a tragic step backwards for Black Alabama voters. But we’ve been here before and we will not give up this fight.” The legislation will only take effect if federal courts respond favorably to a flurry of cases filed by Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall seeking to reverse federal court rulings in 2023 and 2025 that found congressional and legislative maps approved by the Legislature violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act and discriminated against Black voters. The rulings led to new court-ordered maps. The U.S. Supreme Court last week weakened Section 2 in a case known as Louisiana v. Callais. However, Justice Samuel Alito wrote that the ruling did not apply to Allen v. Milligan, the 2023 case that led to congressional redistricting. House members debated for five hours over the measure. The Senate late Wednesday appeared to be heading for a similarly lengthy debate. But a storm that put Montgomery under an hour-long tornado watch led to flooding in the building, which prompted an abrupt end of debate and a vote on the bill. Water burst into the first floor of the building around 5 p.m. and flooded the area around the Statehouse. Staff and lawmakers’ cars swam in the lowered parking deck behind the Statehouse. There was water pouring in from the sides of glass doors into the hallway of the first floor. Wednesday was one day short of the 17th anniversary of the 2009 flood of the Statehouse that led to lawmakers’ last regular business in the Old Chambers in the Alabama State Capitol. The Senate continued debate despite the storm, but adjourned shortly after the fire alarm sounded. “I got a feeling this is to be continued. So freeze whatever the time is, this is to be continued. We’re gonna have to probably get out of here,” said Sen. Rodger Smitherman, D-Birmingham. ‘Bad lawyering’ Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa, speaks in the Alabama House of Representatives on May 6, 2026 at the Alabama Statehouse in Montgomery, Alabama. The House Wednesday debated a measure that would allow the state to set new primary dates should federal courts allow the state to revert to congressional and legislative maps previously deemed discriminatory against Black voters. (Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector) HB 1 passed on a 75-29 party-line vote. Rep. Rhett Marques, R-Enterprise and a candidate for Congress, abstained from the vote; he later told al.com that he wanted a map that created seven Republican districts. “This bill simply creates a mechanism to hold special primary elections in certain congressional districts should the federal courts relieve us of the federal injunction against us,” said Pringle before debate began. Twenty-seven of the House’s 29 Democrats spoke against the bill during the debate. No speakers apart from Pringle spoke on its behalf. However, exchanges got tense. While Rep. Juandalynn Givan, D-Birmingham, spoke about Alabama’s history of Black voter suppression and segregation, House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter, R-Rainsville, said she was not staying relevant to the bill.” “The Speaker gaveled me down, no differently than when he gaveled down one of my other colleagues when we began to get into race and when we began to get into history,” she told reporters on Wednesday . “We cannot stand here today without speaking about history, without talking about slavery, without talking about the assassination of (Dr. Martin Luther) King (Jr.).” Ledbetter also gaveled down Rep. Barbara Drummond, D-Mobile, during debate when things got heated between her and Pringle. “It is time that we stop standing on the past and move into the future. I am tired of the doors that were closed that are just now cracking open,” she said. Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa said the state’s loss in Allen v. Milligan was “bad lawyering.” “Essentially Alabama’s on four years of probation, and instead of honoring that four years of probation, we’re in this session trying to go on a bender,” he said. “And there will be consequences to that, because to my estimation and many others, we are in contempt because we said we weren’t going to do anything like this.” Democrats also mentioned a comment made by Marshall on Tuesday where he argued that Black voters can be adequately represented by the Republican Party. “That’s the equivalent of saying that Black people should be led and governed by a master from slavery days,” Givan said. Rep. Prince Chestnut, D-Selma, used the final 10 minutes of debate to question why Republicans didn’t speak up for the bill, alluding to Rep. Kenneth Paschal, R-Pelham, the House’s single Black Republican. “This bill produces such a racial gerrymander, that not even the lone Black Republican serving in this body will hit his speaker light to come down to the well and defend it,” he said. A message seeking comment was left Wednesday with Paschal, who voted for the bill. After the House adjourned, House Democrats said they are planning to file a motion in Allen v. Milligan alleging the passing of HB 1 is a violation of the court’s ruling. Before the flood A group of people hold their fists aloft to protest SB 1, a bill that would allow new primaries for for two Montgomery-area Senate districts if a federal court allows it, in the Alabama Statehouse on May 6, 2026 in Montgomery, Alabama. The Senate passed the bill on Wednesday amid flooding in downtown Montgomery. (Andrea Tinker/Alabama Reflector) Before the Senate convened, about 30 protestors gathered in the hallway outside the chamber. Senate security attempted to contain them, and Alabama State Troopers eventually joined. No force was used. The protestors chanted that lawmakers are trying to take away Black representation, and that they would not move. “We know you want us to leave, but we shall not be moved. Just like a tree, planted by the waters, we shall not be moved,” they sang. “This is the people’s house. We built this house. This is our house.” SB 1 would affect State Senate Districts 25 and 26, which are currently represented by Sens. Will Barfoot, R-Pike Road, and Kirk Hatcher, D-Montgomery, respectively. Both senators have swapped districts for the 2026 election due to a court-altered map that was put in place in November. Marshall and Secretary of State Wes Allen on Monday morning filed an emergency motion to vacate or stay district court injunctions blocking the use of state Senate maps the Legislature passed in 2021. The court has given plaintiffs until Thursday at 5 p.m. to respond to the state’s motion, with no further reply from the state allowed. “This legislation sets up a special election to be held in the effective districts, only if the courts lift the injunction on the maps, duly enacted by this Alabama Legislature, which we anticipate happening soon,” Elliott said. “Alabama deserves to vote using their own maps in our upcoming primary.” Water spills into the first floor of the Alabama Statehouse on May 6, 2026 in Montgomery, Alabama. Torrential rain in Montgomery forced the Alabama Senate to abruptly end debate on a primary election bill and evacuate the building. (Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector) Soon after debate on the Senate floor began, a tornado warning for Montgomery County blared from every phone in the chamber. The Senate continued debate. Sen. Robert Stewart, D-Selma, said that the bill would decrease voter turnout in Black voters and referenced a 2025 study by the Brennan Center for Justice. “There are real world consequences, gentleman from Baldwin County, for changing election rules. Districts are being challenged in court. This bill could not have come at a more inopportune time. There is uncertainty around representation and compressed election timeline,” Stewart said. The study showed that the voter turnout gap between Black and white voters hit a 16-year high in 2024. It found that if eligible non-white voters had turned out to vote in 2024 at the same rate as their white counterparts, there would have been 200,000 more ballots cast. Sen. Merika Coleman, D-Pleasant Grove, offered an amendment that she first offered in committee on Tuesday, which would change a required special election to an optional special election. “The law and order party is sticking their middle finger up to the Supreme Court. ‘We don’t have to adhere to your ruling that says we won’t do another district until 2030. We’re Alabama Republicans. We can do what we want to do,’” Coleman said. The amendment failed 8-25. Sen. Vivian Davis Figures, D-Mobile, also offered an amendment that she offered in committee, which requires the Secretary of State to publish notice of the new election dates and polling locations. “Giving voters notice of the date of an uncommon upcoming political election is essential because elections are only legitimate when citizens have a fair and meaningful opportunity to participate, adequate notice, protects constitutional rights, strengthens democracy and helps ensure public confidence in the outcome,” Figures said. “It protects the fundamental right to vote.” The amendment failed 8-26, despite Elliott saying on Tuesday that he was open to the amendment. “Thank you, Mr. President, and thank you members of the Senate for once again, showing me who you really are. God bless you, anyway,” Figures said after the vote. The bill does not allow for a runoff election, which Elliott has said there is not time for. Hatcher, who currently has two Democratic challengers, offered the same amendment he did in committee, which would allow for a primary runoff election. “Whether it’s a seat that I sit in, or anyone else in this chamber or this building, I’d like for them to be able to fairly, find some fairness in the process itself,” Hatcher said. https://alabamareflector.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/JPnxY-Ms.mp4 The amendment failed 8-26. As debate and rain continued, the building flooded on the first floor. Senate President Pro Tem Garlan Gudger, R-Cullman, motioned to recess at the call of the chair, meaning the Senate could return at any time. Less than a minute later, Lt. Gov. Will Ainsworth called lawmakers back in. Smitherman had not left the lectern. “Can I continue or what?” Smitherman asked. “You still have the mic,” Ainsworth said. The fire alarm continued to blare as a cloture petition, which would limit debate to 20 minutes, was delivered to the clerk. Smitherman yielded to Elliott, who motioned for a final vote. Lawmakers voted as they were evacuating the chamber. Sen. Greg Albritton, R-Atmore, stood at the doors of the chamber, making sure members voted before they left. The bill passed 26-7. The House Ways and Means General Fund Committee will hold a public hearing on the bill at 9:30 a.m. on Thursday. Lawmakers, staff and the public filed down the only staircase on the west side of the building. Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, previously called the building a “fire trap” because of the lack of accessible staircases. Outside, there was no apparent fire, but a smell of gas. The Alabama Statehouse, shortly after being evacuated on May 6, 2026. Flooding on the first floor of the building threatened electrical systems, leading to an evacuation Wednesday evening. (Anna Barrett/Alabama Reflector) Courtesy of Alabama Reflector
	Muscatine warns of scam targeting special event applications Scammers are allegedly posing as City employees and asking victims to pay large event fees after submitting a special event permit request.
	102-year-old WWII veteran honored at 65th Honor Flight of the Quad Cities 80 veterans were on board the flight, including a 102-year-old World War II veteran named Ted Albert.
	Rock Island 3rd grader going to national competition with her squirrel-deterring invention 9-year-old Quinn Koski invented a way to redirect squirrels from chewing on her parents' patio furniture and railings.
	Bettendorf Parks and Recreation asks for community input on Forest Grove Park Bettendorf Parks and Recreation is asking for community input on developing Forest Grove Park.
	Grammy-nominated Ingrid Andress to perform in Bishop Hill Crossroads Cultural Connections will present an evening of live music with multi-Grammy nominated singer-songwriter Ingrid Andress on Monday, May 11, at Bishop Hill Creative Commons, 309 N. Bishop Hill St., with opening support from Angela Meyer, a news release says. The evening will begin at 6: p.m. with an optional potluck dinner, offering guests a chance to gather and connect before the [...]
	Augustana’s Kinesiology Department celebrates learning with fitness clinic Augustana held it’s annual Celebration of Learning day, which showcases student, staff and faculty work.
	Davenport Speedway prepares for Open Wheel Madness Sprint car racing is back at Davenport Speedway in 2026. Three sprint car events have been scheduled for this season. The first is Open Wheel Madness on Friday, May 8, with winged sprint cars and midget racers. The sprint cars feature the Interstate Racing Association and will mark the first time 410 sprint cars have [...]
	Secretary Howard Lutnick is questioned by House lawmakers over his Epstein ties Lutnick said last year that he cut ties with Epstein, his former neighbor, in 2005. But the Epstein files indicate that the two kept in contact, including for a 2012 lunch on Epstein's private island.
	New Bettendorf bus cams lead to tickets within 24 hours for dangerous offense New cameras on Bettendorf busses look to catch people who drive around parked busses with their lights on and stop arm out
	Scott County Animal Protection Services team saves ducklings that fell through grate When a family of ducklings fell through a sewer grate and mom flew the coop, a response team of Officer Keltz and Officer McGlynn from Scott County Animal Protection Services climbed down into the sewers and brought them to safety, according to a Facebook post. "We're incredibly happy to share that all ducklings are safe [...]
	More than $36,000 from sales of Big Grove's Neighborhood Beer awarded to community members The funding was awarded to 68 individuals and organizations for projects across Iowa and Nebraska.
	Arc of the Quad Cities hosts MLK Food Drive The Arc of the Quad Cities is hosting a 2-week long food drive in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s legacy of service to others.
	Morrison is now a designated Tree City USA town through the passion of volunteers Tom Nedbal has spent a lot of his life around trees. After retiring from his day job, he and his wife Genevieve started an apple orchard. Eighteen years after that, they weren't able to keep up with the daily chores. Soon after, Nedbal's wife passed away, but Nedbal's passion for tree persists. He's not only [...]
	Burlington recycling facility fire ruled accidental A fire at a metal recycling facility in Burlington Wednesday was found to be accidental.
	No one injured after fire engulfs Burlington warehouse Shortly before noon Wednesday, the Burlington Fire Department was dispatched for a warehouse engulfed in fire in the 2100 block of West Burlington Avenue, according to a news release from the Burlington Fire Department. Burlington. Fire crews arrived on scene within seven minutes at the warehouse - commonly known as Alter Metal Recycling - to [...]
	Over $850,000 in scholarships awarded to Quad Cities students 76 scholarships were awarded to students of all ages and educational paths from community colleges and four year universities to trade and technical schools.
	Childhood home of jazz legend Bix Beiderbecke is for sale in Davenport The historic house is listed at $220,000. It will need a new roof and lots of updates, but preservationists say it's just waiting for the right person to come along.
	City of Moline to host 2nd annual Bike to Work Day The celebration is in partnership with the Quad Cities Bicycle club and will be from 6 to 9 a.m. on May 11 at Bass Street Landing.
	Illinois lawmakers question progress under Evidence-Based Funding for public education As budget negotiations kicked into high gear at the Illinois Statehouse this week, lawmakers from both chambers have begun to assess how much progress has been made under the Evidence-Based Funding formula for public schools.
	Davenport man accused of sexually abusing 11-year-old girl He is charged in Scott County District Court with one count of second-degree sexual abuse.
	9th annual Shops with Hops to benefit Getting Heroes Home nonprofit On Saturday May 16, you can shop and sip your way through downtown LeClaire. The proceeds will help bring local military members home.
	Rock Island school creates community garden through club The University of Illinois Extension is teaching students at Thurgood Marshall Learning Center, Rock Island, to embrace their green thumbs. Students spent part of their morning Wednesday building beds for a new community garden., which is run through a school club that started last week. "I wanted to join this one because we used to [...]
	Crews battle fire at Burlington recycling center A fire official who spoke to News 8 said he was unaware of any injuries.
	Muscatine warns of scam asking for large event fees Several individuals and organizations have reported receiving emails, texts, or phone calls from someone claiming to be from the city and demanding up-front payments to secure approval for events.
	Rescued beagles from Wisconsin facility now recovering in Davenport The dogs are part of a larger effort to relocate about 1,500 beagles from Ridglan Farms near Madison.
	Inside Iowa Politics: Why VP Vance came to Iowa Vice President J.D. Vance came to Iowa Wednesday to hold a political rally for U.S. Zach Nunn.
	WWII veteran, 102, attends his first Honor Flight as Honor Flight of the Quad Cities celebrates its 65th The 65th Honor Flight of the Quad Cities departed from the Quad Cities International Airport (QCIA) this morning. While the flight celebrates every vet, there was only World War II veteran on this honor flight. Ted Albert is 102. Wednesday was his first honor flight. "I served in the Air Force. And when? Heck, I [...]
	John Deere partners with Freedom 250 to celebrate nation's birthday Freedom 250 has announced a new strategic partnership with John Deere, according to a news release. "This partnership brings together John Deere — an enduring symbol of American ingenuity and strength — and Freedom 250, united by a shared mission to honor our nation’s heritage and inspire Americans to come together in celebration of its [...]
	Augustana opens new Stem Q student resource center The center offers help with coursework, study skills and problem solving.
	Crews battle fire at Burlington recycling center A fire official who spoke to News 8 said he was unaware of any injuries.
	QCSO plans rare out-of-town concert next year at new WIU performing arts center The Quad City Symphony Orchestra will perform April 5, 2027 at the new Goldfarb Center for Performing Arts, on Western Illinois University’s campus, Macomb.
	City of Muscatine warns of scam involving permit applications, impersonation of city departments The scam is targeting event planners, vendors and organizations by impersonating city planning, zoning or special event departments to solicit large “event fees."
	Alabama House approves primary bills as Republicans seek to redistrict House Minority Leader Anthony Daniels, D-Huntsville (right) speaks to a colleague in the Alabama House of Representatives on May 6, 2026 in the Alabama Statehouse in Montgomery, Alabama. The House Wednesday debated a measure that would allow the state to set new primary dates should federal courts allow the state to revert to congressional and legislative maps previously deemed discriminatory against Black voters. To the left is Rep. Prince Chestnut, D-Selma. (Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector)The Alabama House of Representatives Wednesday passed a bill that would change the date of primary elections in four congressional districts should the federal courts allow the state to use an old map that would alter their boundaries. HB 1, sponsored by Speaker Pro Tempore Chris Pringle, R-Mobile, would allow for a new special election if the U.S. Supreme Court lifts an injunction preventing the state from redrawing congressional maps before 2030. “This bill simply creates a mechanism to hold special primary elections in certain congressional districts should the federal courts relieve us of the federal injunction against us,” Pringle said. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Secretary of State Wes Allen and Attorney General Steve Marshall sought to have the injunction removed last week after the U.S. Supreme Court significantly weakened a key part of the Voting Rights Act. Pringle said on the House floor he has not read Callais. The bill passed 75-29 after nearly five hours of sometimes heated debate, in which House Democrats — nearly all of whom spoke on Wednesday — accused majority Republicans of denying Black Alabamians representation in Congress. “This body continues to find more ways to make voting more difficult, more ways to suppress the vote and more ways to dilute the power of the Black vote,” said Rep. Adline Clarke, D-Mobile. “Make no mistake, that’s what HB 1 would do, and it’s a tragic step backwards for Black Alabama voters. But we’ve been here before and we will not give up this fight.” No representative spoke in favor of the legislation. Rep. Rhett Marques, R-Enterprise, abstained from the vote. Rep. Chris Pringle, R-Mobile, leans against the dais in the Alabama House of Representatives on May 6, 2026 at the Alabama Statehouse in Montgomery, Alabama. The House Wednesday debated a bill that would allow the state to set new primary dates should federal courts allow Alabama to revert to congressional and legislative maps previously declared discriminatory against Black Alabamians. (Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector) However, exchanges got tense. While Rep. Juandalynn Givan, D-Birmingham, spoke about Alabama’s history of Black voter suppression and segregation, House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter, R-Rainsville, said she was not staying relevant to the bill. “The Speaker gaveled me down, no differently than when he gaveled down one of my other colleagues when we began to get into race and when we began to get into history,” she told reporters on Wednesday . “We cannot stand here today without speaking about history, without talking about slavery, without talking about the assassination of (Dr. Martin Luther) King (Jr.).” Ledbetter also gaveled down Rep. Barbara Drummond, D-Mobile, during debate when things got heated between her and Pringle. “It is time that we stop standing on the past and move into the future. I am tired of the doors that were closed that are just now cracking open,” she said. Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa said the state’s loss in Allen v. Milligan was “bad lawyering.” “Essentially Alabama’s on four years of probation, and instead of honoring that four years of probation, we’re in this session trying to go on a bender,” he said. “And there will be consequences to that, because to my estimation and many others, we are in contempt because we said we weren’t going to do anything like this.” Democrats also mentioned a comment made by Marshall on Tuesday where he argued that Black voters can be adequately represented by the Republican Party. “That’s the equivalent of saying that Black people should be led and governed by a master from slavery days,” Givan said. Rep. Adline Clarke, D-Mobile (bottom) speaks in opposition to a bill that would set new primary dates in the state on May 6, 2026 at the Alabama Statehouse in Montgomery, Alabama, The measure would take effect if federal courts allow the state to revert back to congressional and legislative maps previously ruled discriminatory against Black voters. (Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector) After 27 of the 29 House Democrats spoke, Brett Easterbrook, R-Fruitdale, introduced a motion to end debate that passed along party lines. Rep. Prince Chestnut, D-Selma, used the final 10 minutes of debate to question why Republicans didn’t speak up for the bill, alluding to Rep. Kenneth Paschal, R-Pelham, the House’s single Black Republican. “This bill produces such a racial gerrymander, that not even the lone Black Republican serving in this body will hit his speaker light to come down to the well and defend it,” he said. A message seeking comment was left Wednesday with Paschal, who voted for the bill. After the House adjourned, House Democrats said they are planning to file a motion in Allen v. Milligan alleging the passing of HB 1 is a violation of the court’s ruling. “We should not be here,” Rep. Penni McClammy, D-Montgomery, said. “The court has ruled that we should wait until 2030. They do not even have a court ruling to vacate this case so we can even be here.” The bill moves to the Senate. Courtesy of Alabama Reflector
	Bix Beiderbecke's childhood home is up for sale Nathaniel Kraft, director of the Bix Museum, joined The Current to speak about Bix's impact on American music and some legends associated with the home.
	Lee County, Illinois sheriff warns of suspicious interactions involving children The Lee County Sheriff's Office has reported two incidents of suspicious interactions with children in Franklin Grove and Amboy, urging the public to be vigilant.
	Massive scrapyard fire in Kewanee destroys building, sends smoke across central Illinois A large scrapyard fire in Kewanee Tuesday afternoon destroyed a building and office area, shut down roads and drew aid from numerous agencies.
	Childhood home of jazz legend Bix Beiderbecke is up for sale! News 8's Shelby Kluver got a tour of the historic home. Take a look!
	Davenport man charged with sexual abuse, grooming of a minor Daniel Griffin, 25, was arrested Tuesday and is charged with sexual abuse, grooming and other related charges.
	Davenport reaches settlement with motorcyclist hit by suspect during pursuit; council to vote Davenport has reached a settlement, pending council approval, with a motorcyclist struck by a suspect Davenport police pursued in 2020.
	Enjoy the sights, sounds and tastes of the Taco and Margarita Festival You can take in a street party with area vendors, live entertainment, drinks and some of the best Mexican-inspired food in the QCA. Patricia Hansen and Dawn Imel joined Our Quad Cities News with all the delicious details on the Taco and Margarita Festival. For more information, click here.
	Burlington police identify vehicle tied to Crapo Park vandalism Burlington police said they have identified the vehicle and owner connected to recent vandalism that damaged grass and landscaping at Crapo Park.
	QC Farmers' Market returns to Rock Island Downtown Rock Island will be alive with local food, art, crafts and so much more!! Ian Forslund and Jack Cullen joined Our Quad Cities News to talk about the QC Farmers' Market. For more information, click here.
	Watchdogs, AG call for massive cuts to Peoples Gas rate request Consumer advocates filed their first testimony in this year’s Peoples Gas rate hike case, calling on the ICC to cut the $205 million request by at least $137 million.
	Quad Cities commercial real estate market report released for 2026 The report focuses on current conditions and trends shaping the Quad Cities region.
	Have you seen these suspects? Crime Stoppers wants to know! Crime Stoppers of the Quad Cities wants your help catching two fugitives. It’s an Our Quad Cities News exclusive. You can get an elevated reward for information on this week’s cases: RENITA CLAY, 25, 4’11"” tall", 171 pounds. Wanted by Iowa DOC High Risk Unit and Scott County Sheriff’s Office for parole violation on convictions [...]
	Rock Island County Health Department offering STI screenings and Narcan kits Rock Island County Health Department Chief Nursing Officer Tracy Keenon says the screening covers four STIs with results within 48 hours. The testing is $25, but can be waived for lack of funding. The department is also continuing its free Narcan kit outreach program. Since May 2024, the department has given out nearly 700 kits. Anyone can request one, and the department staff will show how to administer the lifesaving opioid overdose nasal spray, no questions asked.
	Salem City Council responds to planned closure of Salem Elementary School The Salem City Council released a statement following the decision to permanently close Salem Elementary School at the end of 2027.
	Massive scrapyard fire in Kewanee destroys building, sends smoke across central Illinois A large scrapyard fire in Kewanee Tuesday afternoon destroyed a building and office area, shut down roads and drew aid from numerous agencies.
	3 juveniles charged after being found with BB guns near park, Silvis City Hall Three juveniles have been charged after being found with BB guns near a park and City Hall in Silvis.
	2 firefighters injured while battling garage fire At 9:07 p.m., crews arrived to see smoke coming from an attached garage in the 800 block of Robin Road, according to a news release.
	Why brands are thinking bigger through the psychology of large-scale visual marketing Why brands are thinking bigger through the psychology of large-scale visual marketingLarge-scale visual marketing might seem archaic given the ubiquity of digital ads, but the reality is that industry analysts are seeing brands implement it as a calculated response to the increasing fragmentation of human attention.Driven by the over 392 billion daily emails and the $781 billion spent on online promotional activities each year, consumers have begun to adapt their minds to automatically filter out so much of the small-scale stimuli they’re bombarded with. Thus, real-world marketing using traditional, physical display methods and psychologically tuned design techniques has the power to cut through the low-level cacophony of digital marketing.Part of the trend comes down to a maturing understanding of how the psychology of brand visuals works at scale, on posters, billboards, video screens, and so forth.TEAM Concept, a printing services provider based in Chicago, examines the psychological principles behind large-scale visual marketing. TEAM Concept Why Say It With SignageBrands are committed to large-scale visual marketing in a big way, and details of the billboard and outdoor advertising industry indicate just how prevalent it is globally. Grand View Research estimated the size of this market at over $41 billion in 2025, while predicting that by 2033 it will exceed $78 billion, with annual growth of 8.4% cementing its significance.Most impressively, static billboards account for the largest single slice of this market, at 28.1% last year. So, while crowds in Times Square might gape at the vast screens and their all-singing, all-dancing animated ads, the bread and butter of this niche is less flashy, but just as impactful.From a psychological perspective, scale is important for obvious reasons. When visual marketing occupies more of a consumer’s line of sight, they are innately more engaged. It’s the same reason that watching a movie in IMAX at a theater leaves more of an impression than consuming the same content on a smartphone.More than that, research shows that frequency is just as important as size. A 2017 Nielsen study found that using at least 40 large-scale visual ads increased recall among general audiences.A similar 2024 study on ad memorization reached similar conclusions: People have better recall for what they’ve seen when it's repeated regularly over a short span. Researchers also found that variety was important for memorability, with information conveyed through more distinctive visual designs being more likely to be retained.Many brands stand to benefit from understanding the advantages of large-scale visual marketing. The opportunity to engage prospective customers, enhance brand recognition, and provide useful information simultaneously should not be overlooked.Establishing AuthorityThere’s another psychological benefit to going big with visual marketing, and it’s not tied to the immediate impact on brand recognition and recall. Instead, it’s the adjacent message that underpins any organization that runs a conspicuous campaign in a specific area: We’ve got the resources, know-how, and confidence in our product to spread our message loud and proud.Consumers associate visual ads with multinational brands, so companies that share the same platforms benefit from this reputational boost by association. When major players throw their weight behind a platform, minor players receive similar public kudos when they adopt the same strategy.Moreover, a large-scale visual marketing piece might not prompt an immediate conversion the way a digital ad does. However, even if a consumer does not interact with the brand there and then, the sheer scale of the visual ensures that the brand is the top-of-mind representative for its category. When the need for a specific service or product eventually arises, the brain naturally gravitates toward the most visually dominant memory it has stored.The transition to larger visuals is also a response to the tiny-screen problem. As most content is consumed on handheld devices, the impact of professional photography and design is often lost. Reclaiming the physical world allows designers to use detail and color theory at a resolution that commands attention and evokes a visceral, rather than just intellectual, response.A New Era for Urban Brand InteractionAs urban environments continue to evolve, the integration of brand visuals into the architectural fabric of cities will likely intensify. The psychology of large-scale marketing suggests that the most successful brands of the next decade will be those that understand how to occupy space without creating visual clutter. This involves a delicate balance between being bold enough to be noticed and being aesthetically integrated enough to be welcomed.Future marketing strategies are expected to lean further into these environmental triggers, using scale to create landmarks rather than just advertisements. When a visual becomes a part of a city's identity, the brand achieves a level of permanence that no digital campaign can match.This story was produced by TEAM Concept and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
	72% of small businesses say this is the key to AI visibility 72% of small businesses say this is the key to AI visibilityThere is good news for every small business owner who’s been terrified of AI. The one thing most likely to make you show up in an AI search result is the same thing that’s always helped small businesses grow: your reputation.Global Payments recently surveyed 1,000 U.S. small business owners (SMBs) on how they’re thinking about AI. When the researchers asked what matters most for showing up when a customer uses an AI platform to find a business, the answers weren’t what most people expect:72% rank customer reviews as one of their top factors for AI visibility.67% say social media presence matters is a top factor.37% say what matters most is making sure their business shows up accurately on local directories and Google Maps.Put another way, the largest AI visibility levers are reputation and presence. For most small business owners who are used to more “pay-to-play” tactics, that’s a welcome shift.Why AI is just fishing with a wider netWhen someone types “find me a coffee shop near me” into ChatGPT instead of Google, that AI isn’t just pulling from one data set. It’s casting a wide net over everything — your Google Business Profile, your Yelp page, your Facebook reviews, your Instagram, your website — and synthesizing it all into one answer.Small business owners are already picking up on this. According to the research, 78% already know that AI platforms can recommend their business to potential customers, and 53% are actively taking steps to show up in those results — with another 22% planning to do so. That means roughly three-quarters of your competitors are either already in motion or will be soon.The SMBs that can see this coming have a real advantage. Traditionally, Google’s algorithm rewarded whoever had the biggest SEO budget or the most backlinks. AI rewards whoever has the most presence — and presence is something any business with customers can build.What does a well-positioned SMB look like when it comes to AI?For example, consider a restaurant in Wisconsin. It has one location, in a small town, and it is not a digital marketing powerhouse by any stretch. But here’s what a business like this needs to do to show up when someone nearby asks an AI for a recommendation:A Google Business Profile with store location and current hours.A website. Your website should clearly state where your business is located, what you specialize in, why someone should make a purchase or schedule a service from you.A Facebook page and Instagram account where customers can leave reviews. The more you’re out on social media platforms, the more reviews you can receive.Social posts when something’s happening — Easter brunch, playoff specials, live music, Mother’s Day sales, etc.Perhaps most importantly, responding to reviews that come in.The good news is that a lot of small businesses are already instinctively doing the right things. The research found that 50% of SMB owners are already focused on adding more content online — blogs, product details, event updates — and 33% are actively working on improving their online reviews. Those are good marketing habits.Savvy businesses treat their online presence the same way they treat their physical store or office: They don’t let it go stale. They keep their information current, they post when something’s happening, encourage reviews and specifics, and respond when customers leave reviews. That’s what AI is looking for.When should you ask for customer reviews?A lot of small businesses think of reviews as something to collect passively. That’s a mistake. Reviews happen in moments — and if you miss the moment, you’ve probably lost it.The best reviews come from people who are feeling something in the moment — gratitude, relief, delight. Wait until that feeling fades and you won’t get the same review, if you get one at all. After all, reviews don’t just happen — you have to earn them at the right moment.For businesses using point-of-sale systems with built-in reputation management, that request can happen automatically — prompting the customer right when the transaction closes, before they’ve walked out the door. The closer the ask is to the moment of service, the better the result.In-person businesses have more to gain, not lessThere’s a misconception that AI-driven discovery is primarily a digital commerce thing.When someone asks an AI to recommend a yoga studio, a contractor, or a restaurant, they’re planning to show up in person. That recommendation carries real weight.Our research found that 62% of small business owners believe AI-driven commerce will influence how customers discover their business — and that includes businesses where every transaction happens face-to-face. The review someone leaves after a great haircut or a car repair doesn’t just live on Yelp anymore. It becomes part of the dataset AI draws from the next time someone nearby asks for a recommendation.In some ways, in-person businesses, whether goods or services, have an advantage here. The emotional moment that produces a great review — the flat tire fixed, the taxes finalized, the dental cleaning complete, the meal that hit exactly right — happens in real life, not through a screen. That authenticity shows up in the review, and AI notices.The 49% still on the sidelines should get startedAbout half of small business owners in our survey told us they’re waiting until AI tools feel more proven before leaning in. But the data tells an interesting story: 66% of small business owners already expect AI to have a mostly positive impact on their business over the next few years, and 38% are already adopting early and experimenting. Only 2% say they actively avoid new technology.The businesses that moved early on Google SEO compounded those advantages for years. The same thing is playing out right now with AI, and it’s moving faster.If you’re sitting on the sidelines waiting for proof, the risk is that you’re not building the habits — the reviews, the content, the presence — that will make AI work for you when you’re ready.The one thing to do for Small Business WeekIf you take one action during Small Business Week, set up a Google Business Profile. If you already have one, update it — make sure your hours and location are accurate and match what’s listed on your website, add recent photos, post something on your social media accounts. When AI tools search for a local business, they cross reference data from Google and platforms like Instagram and Facebook, Yelp, Apple Maps and pull around them. If you’re not there, you’re missing that opportunity.Don’t be afraid of this moment. These tools aren’t here to replace small business owners — they’re here to give you leverage you’ve never had before.If there’s something that helps you run your business better, grow your customer base, and gives you back a few hours to spend with the people who matter — that’s not a threat. That’s the whole point.This story was produced by Global Payments and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
	KWQC, KCRG-TV9 to host Democratic congressional forum KWQC and KCRG-TV9 will host a live, commercial-free candidate forum for Democrats running for Iowa’s Second Congressional District seat ahead of the June 2 primary election.
	These companies help parents try to pick their babies' traits. Experts are wary Prospective parents can now pick embryos based on risk predictions for thousands of diseases and odds for specific traits. But should they?
	How to talk with kids about inappropriate content online How to talk with kids about inappropriate content onlineParents often feel pressure to get conversations about inappropriate content exactly right. But Marilyn Evans, founder of Parents Aware, says waiting for the “perfect moment” can do more harm than good. Her work focuses on helping families navigate how children encounter and process explicit content online—and how to talk about it before it happens.Why? Studies show that 1 in 12 children can be exposed to inappropriate content online. Parents and caregivers can help children prepare for these encounters by discussing early what they consider inappropriate, using a collaborative approach with their kids, and applying parental control apps to their phones—and knowing how to handle the situation if (or when) they see something inappropriate online.Building up to these discussions using research and expert guidance from a variety of experts, such as the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children can help correct language and terminology, show kids that home is a safe place to ask questions, and that nothing is too awkward or embarrassing to discuss, Verizon reports. That said, sometimes the conversations should happen before you’re really ready.This guide can help start the conversation, beginning with what to do if your child is exposed to inappropriate content online. It also includes age-by-age guidance for talking about a topic many parents may find hard to address.What you can do if your child is exposed to inappropriate content onlineOngoing conversations about what defines inappropriate content for your family can help kids develop the language they may need to be comfortable saying something if they get an explicit text message or request for an intimate photo. Even if the situation is unexpected, it can still be an important teaching moment.If your child came to you to talk, praise them for doing so.Remind them that this is an opportunity to talk openly about what makes content inappropriate.Take a deep breath, pause, and ask what questions they may have or what they need right now.Listen carefully.Age-by-age guidanceAges 3–5: In most cases, children this age should not be left alone with any device that’s connected to the internet or has a camera—even when watching something as simple as drawing videos or cartoons. Parents can also check the built-in parental controls on devices as a safeguard against questionable content.Ages 6–8: This is when kids may start to spend more time away from home with friends, at school, or on playdates, and therefore, children this age can be exposed to inappropriate content online. It can also be intimidating to bring up the topic of media safety with other parents. But families often share similar concerns. This makes having these conversations easier.Some kids can have food allergies. Some kids can have nightmares when they watch scary movies. And some parents can talk with other parents before a playdate or sleepover to make sure those needs are communicated. The media safety conversation can happen in that same space.Try this: “We have a family rule that kids at this age are only allowed to be on the internet when an adult is present. Is that a policy at your house?”Ages 9–12: Many kids get their first phone around this age. Each new device that comes into the house can be an opportunity to review the family’s media plan.It can start with a few self-reflective questions: “How can my media use align with my hopes, dreams, and values?” Using the red, yellow, and green lights as metaphors to stop, pause, or go, consider the following:Green light: Doing homework, talking with Grandma, or looking up videos about making something. Anything that reinforces those stated goals can fall into this category.Yellow light: Does the time spent on a certain activity online take up most of the day? For example, when friends come over, can the device go down? Is it hard turning off the tech when asked?Red light: Anything that doesn’t align with those hopes, dreams, and values, and the family’s tech boundaries. Shut it down right away. Tell a trusted adult for added safety.Age 13–18: At this age, kids are becoming more autonomous online. If they want to find something—even if it’s inappropriate content—they may find it. So they may need to know there’s a safe place at home where they can ask important questions. Often, kids can be afraid that if they ask for help, they’ll get in trouble and lose their tech. Their fear of losing access to the phone can override their desire to talk about what’s going on.It’s not uncommon for children to confide in friends, but not a parent, when they’ve felt pressured to text intimate photos to someone at school.That’s why we need to put these difficult conversations on the table. Kids are faced with difficult scenarios. It’s not fair to have them navigate these things on their own—to solve big adult problems without having someone they can talk to.To make space for these conversations, consider the following:Make ongoing connection a priority. Once a week or once a month, let them choose an activity, or a place to eat for lunch, or spend time talking together about something that interests them. The idea is to build a space for ongoing connection so it’s easier to talk about the tougher things.Consider alternatives to taking the phone away as punishment. When boundaries get crossed, ask teens to help develop the consequences instead of simply taking the phone away. Another approach is to ask, “Would it be helpful to you if we set stronger tech boundaries together?”Take the pressure off. Shoulder-to-shoulder conversations are best. Teenagers may open up more when the conversation feels more casual. Consider natural ways to avoid eye contact, such as riding in a car or making dinner together.How to report inappropriate content onlineIf you or your child discovers inappropriate content of any kind on a social media platform or other space where it is prohibited, report it. The mechanics of reporting inappropriate content vary, but virtually all major platforms encourage users to report material that violates the platform’s guidelines.Experts say never forward any sexual content that involves minors, even in an attempt to report it. Doing so is against federal law, and it perpetuates the abuse of victims.You may think, “Kids don’t want their parents to talk to them about sensitive topics.” That’s simply not true. That sentiment implies parents don’t know how to approach these conversations with children. But that’s fixable.These conversations have the potential to strengthen parent-child relationships. And the earlier they take place, the better.This story was produced by Verizon and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
	Death Notice: Lonnie Pool Lonnie Ray Pool, 66, of LeClaire, died Saturday, May 2, 2026, at his home. A private family burial will take place in McCausland on Wednesday, May 13, with a public luncheon to follow at 11 a.m. at the McCausland United Methodist Church. The family invites all who loved Lonnie to come celebrate. Weerts Funeral Home, Davenport, is assisting the family with arrangements. A full obituary will appear in the May 13 edition of The NSP.
	Republicans want to add $1 billion for Trump's ballroom security to ICE funding plan Republicans in Congress are proposing $1 billion in funding for security for President Trump's White House ballroom as part of their partisan plan to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
	La concientización es clave: 3 pasos para ayudar a reconocer los signos y riesgos de un derrame cerebral y lograr mejores resultados (Feature Impact) Un derrame cerebral puede ocurrirle a cualquier persona, a cualquier edad. De hecho, cada 40 segundos alguien en Estados Unidos sufre un derrame cerebral; aproximadamente 800,000 personas lo experimentan cada año, según la American Heart Association, lo que lo convierte en una de las principales causas de muerte y discapacidad grave a largo plazo. Un derrame cerebral ocurre cuando el flujo sanguíneo normal en el cerebro se interrumpe. Cuando partes del cerebro no reciben la sangre rica en oxígeno que necesitan, esas células mueren. Sin embargo, muchos derrames cerebrales pueden prevenirse, tratarse y superarse al comprender los factores de riesgo y tomar medidas para controlarlos. “Cuando ocurre un accidente cerebrovascular, cada minuto cuenta”, señaló el Dr. Adrian Jaquin-Valdivia, neurólogo especializado en derrames cerebrales en HCA Healthcare y experto voluntario de la American Stroke Association. “Cuanto más rápido reciba tratamiento una persona, mayores serán las probabilidades de preservar la función cerebral. En promedio, cerca de 2 millones de células cerebrales mueren por cada minuto que un derrame cerebral no recibe tratamiento. El tratamiento temprano mejora las tasas de supervivencia y reduce la discapacidad”. Tome el control de la salud de su cerebro con esta información de la American Stroke Association. Conozca las señales de advertencia Debido a que los derrames cerebrales no discriminan, conocer las señales es fundamental. Para ayudarle a reconocer las señales y síntomas de advertencia más comunes y actuar en los momentos que importan, recuerde este sencillo acrónimo: R.Á.P.I.D.O. R: Rostro caído: dificultad repentina para caminar, mareo o pérdida del equilibrio o la coordinación. A: Alteración del equilibrio: pérdida repentina de la visión o dificultad para ver en uno o ambos ojos. P: Pérdida de fuerza en el brazo o pierna un lado de la cara se cae o se siente entumecido; la sonrisa puede verse desigual. I: Impedimento visual repentino: un brazo se siente débil o entumecido, o desciende al levantarlo. D: Dificultad para hablar: un signo revelador es el habla arrastrada o dificultad para expresarse. O: Obtén ayuda, llama al 9-1-1: si alguien presenta cualquiera de estos síntomas, incluso si desaparecen, llame de inmediato a los servicios de emergencia para iniciar la atención. Asegúrese de verificar la hora para saber cuándo comenzaron los primeros síntomas. Explore las señales mediante la experiencia interactiva en línea R.Á.P.I.D.O. para ver cómo pueden verse, sentirse y escucharse los síntomas de un derrame cerebral. Tome medidas para proteger su salud Aproximadamente el 80% de los derrames cerebrales se pueden prevenir, según la American Stroke Association. Las decisiones cotidianas, como llevar una alimentación saludable, mantenerse activo, no fumar y realizarse revisiones médicas periódicas, junto con el control de los factores de riesgo con el apoyo de un profesional de la salud, pueden ayudar a reducir el riesgo. Controlar los factores de riesgo La hipertensión es el principal factor de riesgo de derrame cerebral, según la Guía 2025 de la American Heart Association/ACC para el manejo de la hipertensión en adultos. Controlar la presión arterial mediante revisiones regulares, monitoreo en casa, seguir su plan de tratamiento y mantener un estilo de vida saludable puede reducir significativamente su riesgo y favorecer la salud cerebral en general. Además, haber tenido un derrame cerebral o un “mini derrame cerebral”, conocido como ataque isquémico transitorio (AIT), aumenta la probabilidad de sufrir otro. Por eso, identificar qué causó su evento y reducir sus factores de riesgo personales puede ayudar a proteger su salud y disminuir el riesgo de recurrencia. Para obtener más información sobre los factores de riesgo y comprender mejor las señales de advertencia, visite DerrameCerebral.org donde también puede acceder a servicios de apoyo y suscribirse al boletín electrónico Stroke Connection para conocer los recursos más recientes. Foto cortesía de Shutterstock
	Preserving pollinators is good for health -- and income Pollinators have economic and health benefits, but those benefits have been difficult to quantify. A new study puts some numbers to how important pollinators are for both nutrition and income.
	Coya’s Cafe to reopen in former Adolph’s Mexican Foods Coye’s Cafe is moving. The Moline favorite celebrates its final 4th Avenue day before opening at a renovated location on Avenue of the Cities.
	Black March 2026: Oil shock that triggered the EV tipping point Black March 2026: Oil shock that triggered the EV tipping pointThe global energy landscape in 2026 has been defined by a sudden and violent shift in both supply dynamics and consumer behavior. The month of March 2026, often termed "Black March" by economists, witnessed a convergence of geopolitical catastrophe and technological acceleration that fundamentally altered the cost of living for billions of people.At the heart of this transformation was the rapid escalation of the U.S.-Iran war, a conflict that transcended regional boundaries to become the largest disruption to world energy supplies since the 1970s.This disruption did not merely manifest as higher prices at the gasoline pump; it triggered a systemic re-evaluation of fossil fuel dependency, pushing the global automotive market toward an irreversible"tipping point" for electric vehicles (EVs).Kelvin Wong, senior market analyst for OANDA, examines how the March 2026 oil shock reshaped global energy markets and pushed the shift toward electric vehicles.The anatomy of the March 2026 oil crisisThe primary catalyst for the energy market’s collapse was the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway through which approximately one-fifth of the world’s oil and gas supply flows. The conflict began in earnest on March 1, 2026, when the oil tanker Skylight was struck by a projectile, leading to a series of maritime attacks that by March 4 resulted in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claiming complete control over the strait.This maritime blockade triggered what the International Energy Agency (IEA) characterized as the "largest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market." Brent crude oil prices, which had hovered around $80 per barrel in February, surged past $120 on March 4, eventually peaking at $126 per barrel.The market transitioned rapidly from pricing in simple logistics delays to factoring in a catastrophic supply shock as actual production and export volumes across key Gulf producers — including Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, and the UAE — dropped by at least 10 million barrels per day by mid-March.Timeline of the geopolitical escalation and market responseThe speed of the price rally reflected the extreme vulnerability of the global energy system's "spare capacity buffer." Traders and analysts noted that even small disruptions in the Gulf trigger outsized price movements because the region accounts for a disproportionate share of globally traded crude. OANDA The conflict was not limited to oil; it struck at the heart of global heating and industrial power. The strike on Qatar’s Ras Laffan Industrial City on March 18 damaged critical infrastructure that analysts estimate will take three to five years to repair. This resulted in an immediate energy security challenge for Asian nations, China, India, Japan, and South Korea, which account for 75% of oil and 59% of LNG exports from the region.The impact on the cost of living in developed economies Kelvin Wong for OANDA, Source: TradingView The rate of increase in oil prices matters more than the absolute levels in terms of their impact on the cost-of-living standards.Based on 28 years of historical data on Brent crude oil (see Fig. 1), a global benchmark for oil prices, an annualised year-on-year increase of more than 70% had led to a steep rise in the year-on-year average core inflation rate in the G7 developed nations; the peak of 1.7% y/y in March 2022, 2% y/y in September 2008, and the 5.41% y/y in April 2023 reinforced by the Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.The current y/y rise in Brent crude stands at 39% in March 2026, a rapid reversal of -18% y/y in December 2025, while the average G-7 core inflation rate for March is at 2.3%, almost unchanged since the start of the year (see Fig. 1).The rapid increase in oil prices acted as a sudden, regressive tax on households in developed nations. While many advanced economies had reduced their "oil intensity", the amount of oil needed to produce a dollar of economic output, since the 1970s, the sheer magnitude of the March 2026 spike overwhelmed these efficiencies.The United States: Buffer vs realityThe United States entered the conflict in a relatively strong position as a net exporter of petroleum products. However, because oil is priced on a global market, domestic gasoline prices were not immune to the shock. In the first week after hostilities escalated, American consumers saw a 48-cent increase per gallon at the pump. By the end of March 2026, gas prices reached a national average of $4.00 per gallon, representing a 30% surge in a single month.For the average American household, this translated into direct pressure on the "basics." Higher fuel costs quickly flowed into utility bills and grocery prices, as nearly half the cost of gasoline is determined by the price of crude oil.Small businesses and service providers, particularly those in delivery and rural sectors, faced the most acute pressure. In rural Ohio, for example, the price hike forced families to choose between gasoline for work commutes and essential medicines or groceries.Economists warned that if oil remained at $150 per barrel for the remainder of the year, the U.S. would likely fall into a deep recession.Europe and Japan: The stagflation threatEurope and Japan faced a more precarious situation due to their heavy reliance on energy imports. In the Euro area, a sustained oil price of $125 per barrel was estimated to trim a full percentage point off real GDP growth, threatening a "technical recession,” defined as two consecutive quarters of negative growth. The European Central Bank (ECB) was forced to pivot, postponing planned interest rate cuts as inflation forecasts were revised upward.In the United Kingdom, inflation was expected to breach 5% in 2026, driven by higher energy costs and industrial surcharges. Chemical and steel manufacturers, facing soaring electricity and feedstock costs, imposed surcharges of up to 30% on their products. Japan, meanwhile, suffered a double blow as the yen weakened by 4.5% against the dollar, making every barrel of imported oil even more expensive in local currency terms. OANDA The impact on emerging economies and the Global SouthWhile developed nations worried about GDP growth, emerging economies faced a humanitarian and fiscal crisis. For these countries, oil shocks often lead to stagflation, a painful combination of low economic growth and high prices.Food insecurity and the GCC grocery emergencyThe Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states experienced a unique paradox; while they are major oil producers, the maritime blockade of the Strait of Hormuz cut off their primary route for food imports. These nations rely on the strait for over 80% of their caloric intake. By mid-March 2026, a "grocery supply emergency" was declared as 70% of food imports were disrupted, leading to price spikes of 40% to 120% on staple items.The disruption extended to the global agricultural chain. The Strait of Hormuz is central to the global fertilizer trade, exporting over 30% of the world’s urea. As fuel and fertilizer prices rose, the cost of producing basic crops like wheat and corn skyrocketed, raising fears of long-term food insecurity across the Global South.Sovereign debt and currency volatilityFor many developing nations, the oil shock coincided with a period of high debt. In the Philippines, the peso plunged to a record low of P60.1 to the U.S. dollar, and the government was forced to declare a state of emergency on March 24 due to fuel shortages and transport strikes. Metro Manila LGUs have even adopted a four-day workweek to conserve energy.In Latin America, Brazil saw official inflation accelerate to 4.14% over 12 months, with gasoline prices rising by 4.59% in March alone. For Brazilian families, transportation and food together accounted for 76% of the inflation index, meaning that almost every increase in energy prices was felt immediately in the cost of a daily meal.Furthermore, countries that are net importers of petroleum, such as Jordan, Egypt, and Uzbekistan, faced a "triple stress": rising subsidy costs for fuel, maturing debt payments, and the increased cost of new financing as bond spreads widened. OANDA The 2026 EV tipping point: A system breakGeopolitical volatility in the oil market has historically led to a search for alternatives, but 2026 represented a "system break" rather than a gradual shift. Unlike previous oil shocks in 1973 or 2022, the 2026 crisis occurred at a time when electric vehicle technology was already mature, battery prices had fallen 90% since 2010, and renewable energy was scaling globally.Analysts argue that March 2026 was the "tipping point" for global EV adoption because the running costs for internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles became unsustainable. In a "replacement under pressure" scenario, consumers who previously hesitated to switch to EVs were forced to do so by the sheer economics of daily life.The collapse of EV running costs vs ICE expensesBy early 2026, electricity had become dramatically cheaper than petrol on a per-kilometer basis.In Australia, for instance, a popular ICE (internal combustion engine) pick-up truck like the Ford Ranger costs between 16.7 cents and 25.6 cents per kilometer to run, while a comparable EV like the Tesla Model Y or BYD Sealion costs just 1.5 cents to 2.2 cents per kilometer.This makes EVs approximately 10 times cheaper to run, especially for households with rooftop solar, where costs can drop below 1 cent per kilometer. OANDA This economic advantage is further amplified by maintenance savings. EVs have fewer moving parts, requiring no oil changes, exhaust repairs, or complex transmission servicing. Industry data from 2026 suggests that EV owners save 50% on repair and maintenance costs over the vehicle's lifetime.In the fleet sector, this allows for Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) parity with ICE vehicles in just 2.5 to 4 years for high-mileage delivery vans.Driving adoption: Key countries and market demandThe drive toward electric mobility in 2026 is led by three major regions, China, Europe, and North America, though their motivations and policy frameworks differ significantly.China: The global center of gravityChina remains the dominant force in the EV industry, accounting for nearly half of the world's new EV sales. By early 2026, electric vehicles were no longer a niche choice in major Chinese cities; they were the default.China’s success is built on an integrated supply chain that allows it to produce EVs at price parity with gasoline cars. About 40% of electric models in China are priced below $25,000, compared to virtually none in the U.S. or Europe.However, even the leader faced headwinds. In January 2026, China introduced a 5% purchase tax on EVs for a decade and scaled back its trade-in subsidies, causing a temporary 20% year-over-year dip in sales as buyers rushed to purchase vehicles in late 2025.Despite this, the Chinese government is pushing the market toward high-tech, profitable "champions," focusing on solid-state batteries and intelligent driving systems rather than subsidized overcapacity.Europe: The subsidy and leasing powerhouseEurope remains a "bright spot" for EV growth, with the market share reaching 18.8% in early 2026. The transition is driven by a combination of high fuel taxes and aggressive government incentives.Norway continues to lead the continent, with EVs making up nearly 96% of new car sales due to exemptions from VAT and registration taxes.In countries like France and Germany, "social leasing" and "socially scaled subsidies" have become the norm. These programs allow lower-income families to access electric vehicles without the high upfront cost, often making them cheaper than petrol cars from "day one" when acquired through salary sacrifice schemes.The United States: A tale of two marketsThe U.S. EV market in 2026 presents a paradox. New EV sales fell by 28% in the first quarter of 2026 because the $7,500 federal tax credit expired on Sept. 30, 2025. Without this "bridge" to make new EVs competitive, some price-sensitive buyers reverted to hybrids.However, the "used" EV market is booming. Sales of used EVs rose 12% year-over-year in Q1 2026, with prices reaching near-parity with gas cars, averaging just $1,300 more than comparable gasoline vehicles.For American consumers facing $4.00 gasoline, a three-year-old Tesla Model 3 or Hyundai IONIQ 5 coming off lease represents an extraordinary value. OANDA The true cost of EV ownership in 2026For a typical consumer in 2026, the question of whether to "go electric" is no longer purely environmental. It is a calculation of the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). While EVs are often 18%-20% more expensive to buy upfront, the lifetime costs are significantly lower.Purchase price vs. lifetime savingsIn the U.K. and Europe, a new petrol car might cost around £25,000, while a comparable EV like the VW ID.3 costs £40,000. However, when looking at a three-year, 30,000-mile ownership period, the EV saves thousands in fuel and taxes. If acquired via salary sacrifice, where the car is paid for from pretax income, an EV can be up to £7,905 cheaper than a petrol car over three years.In Australia, the "double dip" savings on EVs include a Fringe Benefits Tax (FBT) exemption, allowing all running costs (charging, tires, insurance) to be paid with before-tax dollars. For a person in the 32.5% tax bracket, this is an immediate discount on every kilometer driven.The insurance and repair complexity gapA significant remaining barrier to EV adoption in 2026 is insurance. On average, EV insurance premiums are 20% to 50% higher than those for comparable gas cars. This is not because EVs are less safe but because they are more expensive to repair.Battery sensitivity: A moderate collision can lead to an expensive battery safety check or even a total loss if the battery casing is compromised. Battery repair or replacement can cost between €15,000 and €25,000.Specialized labor: There is a global shortage of high-voltage technicians, which increases labor costs and repair times.Technology integration: Sensors for Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems (ADAS) are often embedded in expensive composite panels, making even minor fender-benders a five-figure expense.EV subsidies and incentives by country: 2026 statusGovernment policy remains the "make or break" factor for EV mass adoption. In 2026, many nations have moved away from simple "checks in the mail" to more complex, targeted incentives.Germany: The social scaling modelStarting in 2026, Germany reintroduced EV subsidies with a "social scaling" focus.Budget: €3 billion through 2029.Eligibility: Households with an income limit of €80,000 per year receive the highest support. This limit increases by €5,000 per child.Amounts: Pure BEVs receive a basic subsidy of €3,000, which can rise to €6,000 for lower-income families.India: Performance and infrastructure focusIndia’s PM e-drive scheme, running until 2028, focuses on improving the quality of the EV ecosystem.Standards: From January 2026, only EVs with at least 80km range and regenerative braking qualify for incentives.Shift: Subsidies for two- and three-wheelers were phased out in March 2026 because city-level adoption had already reached a "sustainable" level.Infrastructure: The government allocated 20 billion rupees specifically for fast-charging stations.The United States: Tax credits and tariffsThe U.S. landscape is governed by the "One Big Beautiful Bill" after the IRA tax credits expired.Loan deduction: Buyers can claim a tax credit of up to $10,000 on the interest of loans for American-assembled EVs.Tariff impact: New EV prices are pressured by $35 billion in tariffs from 2025, adding roughly $3,800 in cost per vehicle.State rebates: States like Illinois ($4,000) and Colorado continue to offer their own rebates to offset the loss of federal purchase credits.Brazil: Protecting local manufacturingBrazil ended preferential tariffs for EV assembly kits in early 2026. Import duties are set to rise to 35% by 2027, matching the rate for fully assembled cars.This has forced manufacturers like BYD to move beyond simple assembly to complex local manufacturing (welding, painting, and stamping) in their plants.Below is a table of other countries’ key initiatives to drive EV adaptation. OANDA The demand paradox: New vs used EVsIn 2026, a clear divergence emerged in how consumers accessed electric mobility. While new EV sales faced challenges due to the removal of subsidies and high interest rates, the used market became a "silver lining" for adoption.The used EV boomUsed EV sales in the U.S. surged 12% in the first quarter of 2026.21 This boom is driven by a massive wave of "lease returns,” vehicles that were leased in the 2023–2024 period are now hitting the second-hand market in large volumes.Inventory: Used EV supply is turning almost as fast as gas cars, with a "days' supply" of 42 versus 38 for ICE vehicles.Price parity: In many regions, the price gap between a used EV and a used gas car has shrunk to just $1,300, down from a $10,000 gap just two years earlier.Battery health: In 2026, "battery health" has replaced the odometer as the primary differentiator for used EV value. Vehicles with documented battery health and minimal fast-charging wear hold their value better.Future projections and energy securityThe events of March 2026 proved that "fossil fuel dependency is ripping away national security". As a result, energy demand growth is increasingly being met by electricity rather than oil. In 2025, solar power led global energy supply growth for the first time in history, and overall electricity demand jumped 3%, twice as fast as total energy demand.The IEA projects that EV sales will continue to grow by double digits, reaching over 20 million units annually. By 2030, EVs are expected to account for 80% of global car sales, rising to over 99% by 2035.As the 140-year era of the internal combustion engine enters its final decade, the 2026 oil shock will be remembered as the moment the world finally chose a different path.Conclusion: Lessons from ‘Black March’ 2026The rapid increase in oil prices in March 2026, triggered by the U.S.-Iran war, was more than a temporary economic shock. It was a catalyst for a global energy decoupling.The simplified version of this story: When the world’s most important gas station (the Strait of Hormuz) closed, the world realized it was time to stop driving cars that needed gas.The impact on the cost of living was severe, especially for the Global South, where food and fuel are the biggest part of a family’s budget. However, this same pressure created a massive wave of demand for electric vehicles.In countries like China and Norway, the transition is almost complete. In the U.S. and Europe, it is moving into a "second phase" where used EVs and social leasing programs make clean transportation affordable for everyone, not just the wealthy.The lesson of 2026 is that energy security and climate goals are now the same thing. By switching to electric mobility powered by domestic solar and wind, nations are not just saving the planet; they are protecting their citizens from the next war in the Middle East.The 2026 tipping point has shown that while oil prices can be manipulated by conflict, "sunlight doesn't send a bill.”This article and its contents are intended for educational purposes only and should not be considered trading advice. Forex trading is high risk. Losses may exceed deposits.This story was produced by OANDA and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
	The skylines of the future will be made of wood The skylines of the future will be made of woodPicture yourself in a wind-swept forest. Leaves are rustling, and trunks are creaking as trees sway to and fro. This oscillation might seem precarious, but it’s actually an ancient adaptation: If pines and firs and all the others were perfectly stiff, a gust would snap them. So instead, they flex.Now teleport yourself to the top floor of a skyscraper during the same windstorm, ever so slightly bending in the same way. A tree’s clever evolutionary trick, you see, has made the modern metropolis possible: As towers reached higher and higher in the early 20th century, architects used not wood but steel to create giants that would similarly flex in hurricane-force winds and as earthquakes rattled their foundations.But as the world gets hotter and wildfires more intense, architects are turning back to trees for more than inspiration. Engineered materials like cross-laminated and glue-laminated timber, in which layers of wood are glued together, create beams that are tough and somewhat flexible, yet lightweight. They’re so strong, in fact, that designers are crafting wood structures that are 15, 20, even 25 stories high: In 2022, the 284-foot Ascent MKE Building opened in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, becoming the world’s tallest timber building.It’s exactly because the world is getting hotter that architects are pushing the limits of how tall they can build with “mass timber,” as it’s known in the field: As trees grow, they capture planet-warming carbon, which is then permanently incorporated into the edifice. To that end, last month, crews completed a 10-story building in Vancouver, called the Hive, which is now North America’s tallest brace-framed, seismic-force-resisting (meaning it shrugs off earthquakes) timber structure. “I think we’re going back to how we used to build, which was with more wood,” Lindsay Duthie, an architect at Dialog, the firm that designed the property, told Grist. Courtesy of Fast + Epp For thousands of years, humans were stuck with natural building materials: wood, adobe, and granite. The industrial revolution unlocked the power of steel, but at an environmental cost, as its production has spewed heaps of carbon. Laminated timber, on the other hand, is not only more environmentally friendly but also perfectly safe for structures much larger than your house.Because this resource is engineered, it can come from small- and medium-sized trees. That is, instead of having to form single beams from huge old-growth behemoths, bits can be sliced, layered, and glued together. This harvesting can help improve forest health, as agencies like the U.S. Forest Service remove some stands to prevent overcrowding and reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfires. (A long modern history of suppressing fires has nixed the ecosystem’s natural way of thinning itself. Lightning strikes, for instance, would ignite blazes that cleared out some vegetation while leaving the forest intact. This spurred new growth and attracted grazing animals like deer, boosting biodiversity.) While it takes a lot of work to mine and process the iron needed to make steel — a process that scars the landscape — wood structures use material from ecosystems that, if managed properly, can keep growing more cross-laminated timber for more construction.The Hive, though, can’t resist seismic forces with wood alone. It’s equipped with Tectonus dampers, which are essentially giant shock absorbers that dissipate energy and recenter the building after an earthquake. Elsewhere, on a large shake table at the University of California, San Diego, researchers deployed a different technique in a 10-story timber structure. At the building’s core sat a large piece of mass timber, called a rocking wall, anchored to the foundation with high-strength steel rods. The researchers simulated 88 earthquakes, and the timber building survived them all with no damage. “It performed phenomenally,” said Shiling Pei, professor of civil and environmental engineering at the Colorado School of Mines. Courtesy of Fast + Epp That structural integrity is not only important for keeping occupants safe but for sustaining the sustainability of a mass timber structure. If an earthquake damages a building, repairing it will result in CO2 emissions. Worse, you may have to demolish the structure and start from scratch. A properly designed timber building can capture carbon in its wood — and keep it there for years and years. “You build not only a sustainable structure, but also a resilient structure,” said Alessandro Palermo, a structural engineer at the University of California, San Diego, who studies mass timber.Which is all not to say that one of these wooden buildings is fully devoid of steel. The timber beams are attached with metal brackets, for instance. And timber buildings still sit on sturdy foundations of concrete, the production of which releases enormous amounts of carbon, though engineers are working to make it more environmentally friendly.But isn’t building a giant structure out of wood just asking for it to go up in flames? No, because building regulators in British Columbia or anywhere else wouldn’t approve these plans if they were excessively flammable. And laminated timber is designed to form a protective char layer if it catches on fire, insulating the structural integrity of a beam from the flames. “If you have a campfire, you end up at the end of the night with black logs,” Duthie said. “That’s the char layer that actually acts as a protective coating that prevents it from burning further.”And compared to the sterility of exposed steel and concrete in a building’s interior spaces, wood has a fundamentally different feel for the occupants. “It has a tactile quality about it that people sort of want to interact with,” said Katie Mesia, firmwide design resilience coleader at the architecture company Gensler. “I think that is just part of who we are as humans. That desire to be close to nature has always been there.”One day soon, then, you might find yourself safely in a mass timber building — the evolutionary brilliance of a forest repackaged with human ingenuity.This story was produced by Grist and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
	Rock Island Co. man deemed sexually violent by judge A Rock Island County judge has declared Ryan Rogers a sexually violent person, ordering him into IDHS custody following his past sex crime conviction.
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	Iowa family farms are disappearing. One farmer has a plan to save his. Who will farm Iowa's fields in 20 years? For many family farmers, that question could mean the difference between their legacy continuing or disappearing altogether.
	What happened to the Black women Trump purged from the federal workforce? What happened to the Black women Trump purged from the federal workforce?For 24 years, Constance Franklin worked at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. As a CDC analyst, she traveled to Botswana during President George W. Bush’s administration to evaluate PEPFAR, an AIDS relief program. She spent time at African American churches in metropolitan Atlanta setting up tables to encourage flu vaccinations. She even volunteered to lead tours at the CDC Museum, where she explained the history of the polio vaccine and guided visitors through the exhibits.Some of her work at the CDC’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health focused on overlooked Black populations. That could mean exposing Morehouse College students to her division’s work, educating workers who are at heightened risk of injury or illnesses because of their race or ethnic background, or making more people aware of the overdose-reversing drug naloxone.“I loved my job. Absolutely loved my job,” Franklin told The Economic Hardship Reporting Project and Hammer and Hope. “Never woke up and said, ‘Ugh, I gotta go to work.’”Until the White House created the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. The new initiative gave Elon Musk broad authority to take a chainsaw to some federal agencies.After Trump’s 2025 inauguration, Franklin and her colleagues weathered rumors of mass firings or transfers to a new group. On April Fools’ Day, a notice arrived in her email at 5:30 a.m. informing her of a reduction in force, known as RIF in federal government parlance. When the cuts hit, employees across the country quickly received anonymous emails from DOGE that resembled anti-phishing training, but the missives weren’t spam. They were real. Franklin, 49 at the time, broke down in tears, her plans to retire in 20 years now foiled.“There [are] so many other Black women who I know, and I’m friends with, that have been targeted, lost their jobs,” Franklin said.Most weekdays, Franklin blocks out the morning to write cover letters for job applications. Moving from the federal to the private sector is hard because the work doesn’t often translate. In a sea of unemployment, the competition is stiff, and compensation is not as high as her former annual salary of $144,000.A recently divorced mother of three teenage girls, Franklin said losing a job has been crushing and is especially devastating for Black women. “Financially, it is awful because a lot of times we are already the breadwinners or everything is on our shoulders already,” she added.When her daughters ask for the takeout they’re accustomed to, Franklin reminds them there are packs of chicken in the freezer.Black women have been fired from the federal workforce since Musk’s actions more than any other group, said Katica Roy, a gender economist who crunched the numbers. They comprise 6% of the overall U.S. labor force and 12% of the federal labor force. But of the almost 300,000 federal jobs slashed in 2025, Black women were a stunning 33% of those cuts.An analysis by the National Women’s Law Center found that women and people of color made up a majority of employees hit by the Trump administration’s aggressive job cuts. Among the hardest-hit agencies are housing, veterans affairs, education, and health and human services. “We know who’s being targeted, and it’s Black workers and women, and the intersection of those is Black women,” said Jasmine Tucker, NWLC’s vice president of research.Black women are also heavily represented among federal employees whose work was related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts. On Trump’s first day of his second term, he signed an executive order that rolled back DEI, deeming it “immoral” and “illegal,” putting federal workers on notice that any preexisting commitment the government had to pursue these goals was no more.Four Black women described the humiliation of their jobs being devalued and slashed. They are still unemployed and emotionally distraught from the chaos of the past year. Savings accounts are depleted, student loans languish, and their sense of self-worth crumbles.Jenniqual Johnson got her first taste of community organizing while a first-generation college student at Harris-Stowe State University, an HBCU in St. Louis. Eighteen-year-old Michael Brown was killed by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, just minutes away from the suburb where she grew up. Johnson, chief of staff for the student government, coordinated meetings, housing, and protests as a growing Black Lives Matter movement focused the nation’s attention on the horror of Brown’s death.Right after the killing, Johnson said, “I wanted to do higher education administration or workforce development for first-generation college students like myself, who were adults, who had that nontraditional path to higher education. … That was supposed to be the American dream, which was: You go to college, you get a good job, you will live a good life.” She had been in the army and attended culinary school before enrolling at Harris-Stowe.Johnson’s grandparents had migrated from Mississippi to St. Louis. Her mechanic grandfather and homemaker grandmother were the first Black family on the block where they purchased a home. Racist neighbors egged their house, and one by one, the white families planted “For Sale” signs in their yards. Johnson’s parents — her father was a nurse, and her mother worked in hospital finance — drilled a message into her: Get a good government job, stay there, and retire. She said the message was: “You go to work, you pay your bills, you get your house together, you have a stable life.”So Johnson parlayed her community organizing experience into that good government job. She joined the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, connecting underresourced populations in cities in Illinois and Missouri to nature in surrounding areas — yes, Black and brown folks, but also anyone else who lived in the city. She doled out funding for local groups. A partnership with Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc., introduced Black boys to horseback riding and archery. Job Corps trained youths in sawyer skills for tree maintenance. Young people got out of their comfort zones and experienced the outdoors in new, imaginative ways. Johnson also helped high school students matriculate into land-grant HBCUs as a way to help build a pipeline into agricultural jobs.“It’s unheard-of for folks who work in community organizing or community engagement to make good salaries,” said Johnson, 43, who earned $100,000. “I had a great career, knowing that I had a workplace that was flexible and that fit into my life, and knowing that I was directly able to connect local community organizations with federal funding that they may not have been able to access before.” She had found what she thought was a lasting career — and realized she was helping communities harmed by policies such as redlining, which happens to overlap with communities lacking as many trees as white neighborhoods. She relished her public service.“The whole point of my role was diversity and equity — giving equitable access to our national forests,” Johnson said.In January 2025, the bosses signaled that she and her colleagues needed to stop their work entirely. At first, they pushed to get organizations already granted a commitment for funding quickly reimbursed. Union reps instructed employees not to send emails to the DOGE staff asking for rundowns of their workdays. Then, in February, supervisors announced no new partnerships, followed by a return-to-office mandate. Johnson worked in the field and lived in Chicago but was told she needed to report to Columbia, Missouri — a nonstarter for her.“I took that deferred resignation program because I’m like, what else are we going to do? It was too much uncertainty,” Johnson recalled.She stayed on payroll until September, even though she stopped working because the bulk of her role had been eliminated. Her search for full-time work hasn’t been successful; she’s tried to make ends meet with side gigs, such as helping small businesses with HR. “It’s not nearly the income that I would have been making working full time,” she said. “Then, of course, there’s the insurance, the health coverage, the other benefits that are also still missing, too.”Johnson’s partner also lost her job due to cuts to DEI jobs in the private sector. U.S. employers eliminated more than 2,600 jobs with “diversity” or “DEI” in the title between 2023 and 2025, according to an NPR analysis. Last fall, the couple moved to Mexico to cut expenses and escape how unsafe they increasingly felt as Black people living in the U.S., Johnson said.Her parents’ advice about working hard, saving, and retiring isn’t accessible anymore, she said. The move to Mexico and the money needed to start her HR business drained Johnson’s retirement account. She has two master’s degrees and six-figure student loans to pay off. Thirty years from now, Johnson thinks she’ll still be working — not a traditional job but cobbling together gigs on top of her business.Johnson was asked if she’d ever return to the U.S.“As things stand as they are, no,” she replied with not a hint of hesitation.In Mexico, life feels a bit easier, she said. But she adds, “I hate that Black women have been forced into resiliency. We’ve been forced into being strong. We’ve been forced into being waymakers. We are not afforded that same soft landing” white people enjoy.Black people were first able to access government employment during Reconstruction. White-collar federal jobs across the country, especially in Washington D.C., paid strong salaries and benefited from Republican political patronage. But when Southern Democrat Woodrow Wilson assumed the presidency in 1913, he oversaw the demotion and firing of thousands of Black civil servants. His purge of those well-paying jobs imposed segregation on the federal workplace.White administrators resented Black ambition and now had permission from the top to get rid of the competition. Demotions, promotion ceilings, and forced resignations derailed careers. Sounds familiar.Similarities exist between the patronage purge of the early 20th century and DOGE, said the historian Eric Yellin, author of ”Racism in the Nation’s Service: Government Workers and the Color Line in Woodrow Wilson’s America.” Then, as now, white supremacists vowed to clean up the swamp. What’s different is the importance of federal workers pledging blind loyalty to Trump. “This is about whether you share not just his ideology but share his vision that he, as the unitary executive and the most important member of the government, gets to call the shots all the way down,” said Yellin. “And so those who are purged are people who cannot get in line with that, the people who will get in the way of that more personalistic rule.” Black women are among those who got in the way.Across the decades, Black people have had to fight to access the protections offered by the federal government. The 1935 Social Security Act purposely left out agricultural and domestic workers, which diminished benefits for Mexican and Black workers. During the height of the Civil Rights Movement, historic orders and laws mandated affirmative action in federal contracts and outlawed wage discrimination, at least in theory. Today, the right frames DEI as something newfangled and unnecessary, but it’s merely the latest iteration in a long history of expanding protections for employees. As the ACLU explains, DEI builds on the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and federal anti-discrimination laws “to increase access to education, employment, and public contracting opportunities” in the public and private sectors.A recent class-action lawsuit filed in federal court alleges that the administration unlawfully fired government employees involved in DEI work. “The majority of people who have contacted us are women of color, and particularly Black women,” said plaintiffs’ lawyer Jessica Moldovan of Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, a firm that specializes in class and group actions. She said no list of people affected by Trump’s anti-DEI order has been made available; the attorneys are asking the government for that list of names in discovery. Moldovan said she feels confident that there are records of who was let go pursuant to the executive orders.Moldovan said the Trump administration fired a broad swath of federal workers, including some who were no longer or had never been in a DEI role and others who had enforced laws through Equal Employment Opportunity Commission positions. “The government went out of its way to bulldoze through all of these people, and in our view, targeted not just DEI positions but targeted people,” she said. The complaint she filed argues the firings violated both the First Amendment and the Civil Rights Act and inflicted a disparate impact based on race and gender. Plaintiffs are asking to be reinstated and receive back pay and damages. The court has yet to certify the class.The civil service is nonpartisan, and staffers remain through Democratic and Republican presidencies. But by targeting federal workers, the Trump administration is disregarding this reality, accusing some employees of having political beliefs that make them disloyal to the current president. “The Trump administration has made clear that it views DEI as essentially code for pro-Biden, pro-Democrats, or further — they use terms like Marxist,” Moldovan said. “They are targeting those employees because of their perceived political beliefs.”La’Nita Johnson’s position at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) had nothing to do with DEI, but her diplomatic career nonetheless ended when Trump returned to the White House a year ago. As DOGE began shuttering agencies and eliminating departments, USAID was among the first to go. As an officer there, Johnson, 33, earned $116,000 a year plus benefits and guaranteed salary increases.Now she’s a visiting professor in communications at her alma mater, Pepperdine University, earning $46,000. “I don’t know how I’m gonna catch up. I’ve slid so far back in pay, it is unfathomable,” Johnson said. Consulting gigs keep her afloat. She does workshops and training focusing on leadership development, intercultural communications, and youth workforce preparation. Her routine has become very simple: She goes to campus and comes home. Spending is limited to groceries. Johnson said the Trump effect takes a toll on mental health, and she’s thankful that her therapist didn’t cut her off when the income stopped.“I don’t even recognize my current life anymore,” Johnson said. “I’m sad even talking about it.”Johnson grew up solidly middle-class in Powder Springs, an Atlanta suburb, taking classes in Spanish, French, and Mandarin. She didn’t envision a diplomatic career using those skills until she survived a terrorist attack. In 2016, Johnson worked for GE and traveled to Burkina Faso on a mission to help build a school. While at a cafe, a group entered and started firing shots and throwing bombs. Johnson hid in the bathroom. Two people on her mission were killed.“That experience really shifted my career goals: I want to work abroad. The private sector isn’t suiting me. Clearly, life is very short, and there are real risks when youth don’t have access to education and workforce opportunities,” Johnson said.She earned a master’s degree and then started a fellowship to work for USAID. Johnson moved to Guatemala to work with a program called Puentes (“bridges” in Spanish), which provided education and workforce development for youth who are vulnerable to recruitment by gangs such as MS-13 and Barrio 18. Her work with a different USAID program helped youth transition from fifth to sixth grade, when the dropout rate increases. Another project focused on water, sanitation, and hygiene by building latrines at rural schools so that girls did not have to miss instruction because of their periods.Johnson returned to the U.S. for a domestic tour and then took an unpaid leave to start her consulting business. By January 2025, she was eager for her second international tour and prepared to rank her country choices. Trump and Musk had other plans. Johnson remembers how shocked and confused she and her colleagues were by the emails they received. They wondered whether AI was spying on chats and if DOGE was monitoring social media. The RIF letters Johnson received were riddled with errors about her work history.Congress did not approve the White House’s elimination of USAID, and a federal judge ruled last spring that the administration probably violated the Constitution in dismantling it. Still, the agency remains shut down. Johnson said the impact of the agency’s closing has been immediate. Within the first several months, the shuttering of USAID health programming had led to hundreds of thousands of deaths from malnutrition and infectious disease, according to one credible estimate. The impact of the closing of education programs will take longer to measure, but she predicts that literacy will decline and crime will spike in the coming decades. “We might see democratic backsliding in countries that we’ve become allies to because of our own democratic backsliding,” Johnson said. “I don’t think we’ll recover from this for a century. We’ve broken trust across the world.”After her visiting professorship ends, Johnson hopes to move to Mexico, the same choice Jenniqual Johnson and her partner made. “I would never work for the State Department after what’s happened. I don’t believe in our message, and I won’t propagate this message.”After the initial cuts last year, has the overall picture for Black women improved in 2026? Katica Roy said the picture is bleak.“Black women are the only cohort to have lost jobs since February 2025,” Roy said. The January 2026 jobs report, which covered December, showed that “every other cohort, including Black men, gained jobs.” White men alone have gained 362,000 jobs.Roy said the layoffs will ripple for generations. Black women are breadwinners in 52% of households with children under the age of 18, she said, adding, “We know that the most important factor that determines a child’s future economic standing is the economic standing of their parents.”It’s not just the federal government laying off Black women. An analysis by the National Partnership for Women & Families found that the steepest declines in labor-force participation since January 2025 are among Black mothers. Black women are overrepresented as heads of households, and so challenge the right’s mid-20th-century nostalgia for an American dream that can be restored with (ostensibly white) two-parent heterosexual families. A report from the conservative Heritage Foundation about saving the family argues that achieving higher marriage and birth rates is the only way the country will survive. As has long been the case, the right is promoting strict gender roles that these communities reject. Jasmine Tucker of the NWLC said the right wing’s pro-natalist vision is an affront and destabilizing to Black families.Black women are the “primary and co-breadwinners for almost every single family. They can’t afford to not work, and so robbing them of all of this money is devastating for Black families, for Black communities,” Tucker said. “If we look at the whole picture, it’s devastating for our economy.” Recent job cuts mean Black women have less money to buy homes, spend on their children’s education, and contribute to the economy. “We’re just robbing ourselves,” said Tucker.This is what Rachael Gold-Brown, a 41-year-old former government employee, faces. She worked in the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, which handled discrimination and harassment cases. DHS cut the civil rights office and fired its staff because, the agency said, “Rather than supporting law enforcement efforts, they often function as internal adversaries that slow down operations.”Gold-Brown said she worked with the office’s statistician on workforce data, which showed that “DEI wasn’t just for people of color, which is a shame that that’s how it’s being treated.” As she explained, “Everybody benefited.” Staff learned from workforce data who was being hired and in what roles in the agency, including breakdowns by gender and disability.While a Peace Corps volunteer during the Obama administration, Gold-Brown helped start a girls’ leadership program in Rwanda. She then served as a special assistant at USAID, analyzing programs for women overseas. She had enjoyed her federal career until emails labeled “Fork in the Road” popped up in her inbox last year.“It was a very nasty transition, because of the way in which we were being terrorized every week by DOGE. Every week, we are getting a message being told to explain what we did today,” she said. “We were being harassed, and then we were told that we were being doxxed, our information was out. I was paranoid.” She didn’t answer the emails.By March, word came down that the office would be abolished. She said, “I had a panic attack. I was emotionally distraught.” By September, the paychecks stopped. (The Trump administration claims that the DHS civil rights office is still functioning, though reportedly it now operates with a skeleton crew, most of whom are contractors.)“I did not have a backup plan. I’m still not working, and I’m in the middle of packing and moving,” Gold-Brown said, the frustration rising in her voice. The single mother of two daughters, ages 6 and 13, was packing when The Economic Hardship Reporting Project and Hammer and Hope talked to her in late December. Gold-Brown needed to move in with a friend because she has no income. Unemployment doesn’t cover living expenses, student loans, or car payments. “The most important thing for me has been trying to maintain my mental health and my peace living in this country right now, in this current state of affairs,” she said. “I’ll continue to apply for jobs in the local government and the counties. I had some interviews coming up, but what else can I do? I can continue to apply to the federal government, although I have to change my résumé and tailor things appropriately. But during this administration, I don’t think I’m going to have much luck because they don’t really want people like me there — that’s pretty obvious.”Back in Atlanta, the picture is not as bleak for Constance Franklin. She is part of the American Federation of Government Employees union, which has filed lawsuits against the Trump administration to challenge the reduction in force, but is among those who haven’t had to wait for the courts to decide. In January 2026, HHS rescinded its layoffs in the occupational safety division where she worked. Franklin returned to the same salary in mid-January but now has a new boss and new red tape.Morehouse College, with which she has enjoyed a close working relationship, asked her to do a lecture on global pandemics and the workplace. She must now fill out a form before accepting a routine invitation to justify how the talk relates to Trump’s agenda. “I have to jump through all of these hoops to get approval to even do it, and that never would have happened before,” Franklin said. “I’ve spent half the time Googling the White House page and the HHS [Health and Human Services] page trying to figure out what his agenda is so that I can try to tie this lecture into his agenda, and I can never find it.”She’s writing up a defense of her previous job role in the hope of returning to it. In the meantime, she’s reviewing other CDC employees to see if they qualify for internal agency awards — hardly the impact she imagined for her work.“I don’t want to sound ungrateful,” Franklin said. But so far, the job isn’t offering the same level of fulfillment as it did before DOGE, and it still feels precarious. “I’m just trying to hold on to my faith.”Co-published by The Economic Hardship Reporting Project and Hammer and Hope.This story was produced by The Economic Hardship Reporting Project and Hammer and Hope, and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
	Man facing weapons charge in connection with road rage incident A Davenport man is accused of pointing a weapon at a person during a road rage incident Tuesday night.
	Tuesday night fire in Muscatine causes $15,000 in damage No occupants were injured, but two firefighters were treated on scene for minor injuries and immediately returned to duty.
	Three juveniles charged after reported weapons incident near Schadt Park in Silvis Three juveniles were charged after police responded to reports of a person with a possible firearm near Schadt Park in Silvis Tuesday.
	How to budget for home renovations How to budget for home renovations Your house is more than just a place where you live—it’s your home, your sanctuary, a space where memories are made. It’s no wonder, then, that many homeowners invest time and resources to make it the best it can be. A survey of more than 30,000 U.S. homeowners found that 56% of them tackled a renovation project in 2023, with the median amount spent reaching $24,000—up $9,000 since 2020.Homeowners are undoubtedly pleased with all those updated kitchens and bathrooms. Blowing through their budget, not so much. While over three-quarters of homeowners develop a budget before starting their projects, only 34% stick to it.To avoid a similar outcome, Fifth Third shares these steps you can take to create a realistic home renovation budget for your next project, whether big or small.Do your researchWhen it comes to creating a home renovation budget, don’t rely on guesswork or wishful thinking. Instead, use actual numbers from reliable sources to guide your planning.Luckily, there are tons of publicly available resources that estimate how much different home improvement projects may cost. The U.S. Census Bureau conducts the American Housing Survey, which catalogs how much your fellow citizens pay for typical improvement projects. For example, a kitchen remodel costs an average of $26,973, according to 2025 data from Angi, while a new roof can be about $4,000 to $11,000 per thousand square feet, according to NerdWallet.This doesn’t mean that your project will cost the exact same amount. Where you live, the specific finishes you choose, the age of your house and how well it has been maintained all influence the final price tag. But you can use those ballpark costs as a guide when receiving project bids from contractors or evaluating the cost of materials.Prepare for unexpected costsPrecise budgets depend on specificity. Will your kitchen remodel use high-end marble, soapstone or more modestly priced tile? Are you replacing all the kitchen cabinets and the floor, or are you buffing, shining and repainting what you already have?The more specific you can be about the materials and amount of work to complete an improvement project, the more accurate the budget. But even after considering the most minute details, it’s wise to pad your budget estimate. For example, add an extra 10% to 15% to your budget to cover unexpected expenses, which might include a rise in material costs, unforeseen repairs or additional labor. If the extra funds aren’t needed, they can be redirected to another project or saved for future use.Do it yourself renovationsDIY renovations are a great way to save money and add a personal touch to your home. Whether it's repainting a room, installing new shelves, or updating fixtures, tackling projects yourself can be both rewarding and cost-effective.By handling labor on your own, you can significantly cut down on contractor fees, which often make up a large portion of renovation costs. Some homeowners who have the skills and time to tackle plumbing, painting or drywall choose to save money by doing those more manageable projects themselves. The average DIY home improvement project costs about $2,500 compared with $6,352 when hiring a contractor.Smaller projects, like adding new landscaping, replacing windows or installing a deck, typically cost $4,000 to $9,000 when done professionally—but just $1,000 to $4,000 when you DIY.For larger projects, like remodeling a bathroom or renovating a bedroom, working with a professional can cost as much as $25,000 due to higher (and sometimes specialized) labor costs. Doing those yourself? About $4,000 to $7,000.Get multiple estimatesIf you decide to hire a contractor, start by asking friends who have completed similar projects for recommendations, checking the Better Business Bureau for any complaints against them, or browsing reputable home improvement platforms like Angi for top-rated professionals.Always get multiple in-person estimates—keeping in mind that a contractor likely can’t provide an accurate quote without physically assessing the work site. The value of getting multiple estimates is that it helps you understand project costs in your area rather than just a national or state average.And remember: Choosing the right contractor isn’t about picking the lowest bid—it’s about finding someone who offers quality work at a reasonable price. Having several options puts you in a better position to make an informed decision.Consider energy-efficient upgradesBeyond traditional home improvements, energy-efficient upgrades can be a smart way to increase your home’s value and lower long-term utility costs. Improvements such as energy-efficient windows, solar panels or upgraded insulation can significantly reduce your energy consumption and environmental footprint.Many homeowners may also qualify for incentives like tax credits or financing programs designed to make these upgrades more affordable. For example, the federal government currently offers tax credits for some home improvement projects that increase your home’s energy efficiency or use of clean energy.Explore home renovation finance optionsFor many homeowners, the ideal way to finance a home improvement project is by saving money over time. Using your savings eliminates the need to borrow a large sum of money with a credit card, which could result in high interest payments.However, not everyone wants to wait until they’ve saved enough to begin their project. Fortunately, a variety of smart financing options are available. (These can also be helpful when building a cushion for unexpected costs that might arise during your home renovation project.)Home equity loans. A home equity loan provides a lump sum with fixed monthly payments and a fixed interest rate—ideal for projects with a clearly defined budget. The amount of money you can borrow depends on the value of your home and how much equity you have. This type of loan might be a good option if you’ve already created an accurate budget and know exactly how much your project will cost or want the certainty of a set repayment schedule. Borrowing only what you need helps avoid paying interest on unused funds.Home equity lines of credit (HELOCs). A HELOC is a versatile financing tool that allows homeowners to withdraw as much or as little as they need, making it ideal for projects with uncertain costs or multiple stages. With a HELOC, you only make payments on the amount you actually use, offering flexibility for projects with evolving costs. In some cases, the interest may be tax deductible. While many HELOCs come with variable interest rates, some offer an option to lock in a fixed rate for added security. Many HELOCs also offer convenient card access, making it easy to purchase materials, pay contractors or cover expenses as your project progresses.Personal loans. For homeowners who prefer not to use their home’s equity, a personal loan is another great option. These loans offer a fixed amount with a set repayment schedule. Although personal loans typically come with higher interest rates than home equity products, they don’t require collateral and can be used for nearly any home-improvement-related expense, whether it’s purchasing materials or paying for small-scale projects.Once you’ve determined the amount you need to borrow, it’s crucial to understand how paying back that loan will fit into your budget. (If you go the home equity route, you can calculate how much your payments may be with a loan payment calculator.)Even if a project feels like a large investment, breaking down the total cost into manageable monthly payments can make it easier to fit into your budget. For example, a $50,000 home improvement project can be overwhelming, but—depending on the loan interest rate and loan term—it may only end up being $500 per month.Additionally, as home values have risen in recent years, many homeowners may find that they now have more equity available in their homes than they realized. If your home has increased in value, you might be able to borrow a larger amount—giving you more financial flexibility on bigger projects without overextending yourself.This story was produced by Fifth Third and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
	Davenport man accused of asking for child sexual abuse material on Instagram Jeremiah Archer, 50, was arrested Tuesday and is charged with sexual exploitation of a minor, a Class B felony, and grooming, a Class D felony.
	Muscatine crews respond to garage fire Muscatine firefighters responded to a garage fire last night. The Muscatine Joint Communications Center (MUSCOM) received a 911 call reporting a fire in the attic of a two-story single-family home in the 800 block of Robin Road on May 5 at about 9:07 p.m. The Muscatine Fire Department responded with 13 firefighters and the Muscatine [...]
	Watch boys go from frightened to feral in an unforgettable 'Lord of the Flies' A TV adaptation of William Golding's 1954 novel follows schoolboys who survive a plane crash and must fend for themselves on a deserted island. It was co-written by Adolescence creator Jack Thorne.
	Why Pennsylvania’s secretary of the commonwealth has a unique understanding of noncitizen voting Why Pennsylvania’s secretary of the commonwealth has a unique understanding of noncitizen votingThe potential risk of noncitizens illegally casting ballots has dominated the national conversation on election policy in recent years. But one major voice on the issue hasn’t been heard, Votebeat reports.Pennsylvania is home to someone who has perhaps more experience addressing noncitizen voting than anyone else, a Republican who uncovered hundreds of noncitizens who had registered to vote and cast ballots in Philadelphia: Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt.“I’ve always heard my whole life, even though I grew up in Western Pennsylvania, about concerns about voter fraud and voting irregularities in Philadelphia elections,” Schmidt told Votebeat and Spotlight PA in a recent interview. “So I wanted to be able to sort out fact from fiction.”But despite this experience, Schmidt hasn’t embraced the exaggerated claims about the prevalence of noncitizen voting that are common in today’s political rhetoric. Instead, he feels officials need to strike a balance between election security and voter access.PennDOT error led to noncitizens registering to voteWhen Schmidt came into office as a Philadelphia city commissioner in 2012, he began looking into various claims of voter fraud. Eventually, he discovered that an error with the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation’s motor voter system — which helps register voters who are obtaining a driver’s license — was enabling noncitizens to register. (In Pennsylvania, noncitizens are permitted to obtain a driver’s license.)As Schmidt explained to a state Senate committee in 2017, despite PennDOT having the paperwork confirming the individuals’ noncitizen status, they weren’t prevented from interacting with the voter registration screens when completing the license application process. The programming error that allowed noncitizens to register was fixed in 2017, and state Auditor General Tim DeFoor is currently conducting an audit to assess the system.Schmidt discovered that this glitch had led to 168 noncitizens registering to vote in Philadelphia alone, and he discovered an additional 52 registered by other means. Schmidt found that collectively they cast 227 votes in the years they were registered. But the scope of the problem statewide was potentially much larger.The glitch that allowed them to register dated back to the mid-1990s, and in 2018, the state sent letters to 11,198 voters across the state asking them to confirm their eligibility, though not necessarily meaning they were noncitizens. At least 1,915 of those voters were later confirmed to be eligible, and another 501 registrations were canceled or had been canceled previously. The state said this week it did not have an exact count of how many noncitizens were registered as a result of the error.For Schmidt, the incident wasn’t just a bureaucratic or election integrity issue; it also became a personal, human story. Many of the noncitizen voters Schmidt identified were in the process of applying for their citizenship but were at risk of having their applications rejected — or even being deported — because a simple technical glitch allowed them to register to vote when they weren’t legally allowed to. Schmidt went to several immigration court hearings to testify about how these registrations had been the result of the government’s mistake.Schmidt suggested many of the noncitizens who registered through PennDOT might not have known they were doing anything illegal, since they had already presented the department with paperwork showing they weren’t citizens and were given the option to register anyway. Language barriers or the habit of just clicking through screens to get to the end could have also played a role, he said.“I want to emphasize it’s an election integrity issue, and it is just a human issue in terms of being decent when it comes to people who want to become new Americans and any of us would be happy to have as our friends or neighbors,” he said.Schmidt still emphasizes the rarity of noncitizen votingThat episode represents one of the largest instances of illegal noncitizen voting in recent history. But it still represented only a fraction of a percent of Philadelphia’s roughly 800,000 registered voters at the time. And other recent investigations into noncitizen voting have turned up even fewer examples.A recent audit of Utah’s 2.1 million registered voters found only one noncitizen registered, and they hadn’t actually voted. Michigan discovered only 15 potential noncitizens voting in the 2024 election. An audit of Georgia’s voter rolls in 2024 found only 20 noncitizen registered voters out of the 8.2 million voters registered in the state. Even in Florida, where Republican state leaders have been focused on noncitizen voting, an audit discovered only 198 voters the state deemed “likely” noncitizens.“One thing that became very clear through that research and all evidence suggests that noncitizens voting in elections in the United States occurs very rarely,” Schmidt said. “It doesn’t mean that it’s not important. Like I said before, every vote is precious, and we want to make sure that we do everything we can to safeguard and strengthen election integrity. But there’s no evidence to suggest that it happens in any widespread way whatsoever.”Nevertheless, fears about noncitizen voting have risen to the forefront of election policy debates in recent years, in large part due to President Donald Trump.After losing the 2020 election, he suggested without evidence that his loss was due to immigrants being registered to vote. He made similar claims during the 2024 campaign. Last year, he signed an executive order that sought to mandate proof of citizenship when registering to vote.The Department of Justice is collecting voter rolls from states and coordinating with the Department of Homeland Security to check if noncitizens are voting, and Republicans in Congress are pushing hard to pass a bill, the SAVE America Act, which would require proof of citizenship when registering to vote — a step some GOP-led states have already taken on their own.Asked what he thinks when he hears this rhetoric, and specifically when Pennsylvania is brought into the conversation, Schmidt said people should view the instances of confirmed fraud that are brought up as examples of the system working properly.“It’s important that we, I think, see it not as a vulnerability, but as an aspect of the strength of our system, and that we are safeguarding election integrity,” he said. “When people break the law, whether intentionally or not, they’re held accountable.”Schmidt noted that seeking to identify and remove noncitizens from voter rolls can inadvertently have harmful effects. In recent years, some states searching for noncitizens have flagged voters for removal who were, in fact, citizens. A recent ProPublica investigation found that 14% of Denton County, Texas, voters flagged as noncitizens by a Department of Homeland Security database were actually citizens after all.Schmidt said people need to be able to “walk and chew gum at the same time.” Policymakers and election officials have to balance being vigilant about fraud with not overreacting to the low level at which noncitizen voting occurs.“It’s important to take it seriously,” Schmidt said. “But at the same time, putting so many resources behind looking into something that there’s really no evidence is occurring in any way that’s widespread or systematic … if not done responsibly, again results in eligible citizens being disenfranchised from that process, and certainly can do more harm than good.”Jordan Wilkie of WITF produced the audio version of this story.This story was produced by Votebeat and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
	60+ AI prompt examples for marketers 60+ AI prompt examples for marketersAI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini are only as good as the prompts you give them. Vague prompts produce generic outputs. Specific, well-structured prompts produce results you can actually use.The difference between a mediocre AI response and a great one often comes down to how you ask. This list includes 60+ AI prompt examples for marketers, organized by use case.Each prompt includes variables you can customize for your brand, audience, and goals.In this article, WebFX will cover:Research AI promptsOne way you can use AI tools is to help you conduct surface-level research on a topic. Here are some examples of prompts you might use to research different subjects:“In less than 100 words, explain what the information technology industry does.”“List five examples of products that metal fabricators make.”“What are the benefits of using influencer marketing?”“Give me a list of five effective digital marketing strategies businesses should use.”“How do enterprise resource platforms work? Explain in 200 words or fewer.”“Summarize the top 5 trends in [industry] for [year] based on recent reports and news. Include sources where possible.”“What are the most common objections [target audience] has about [product/service]? List 5-7 objections with suggested responses.”Writing and content AI promptsUsing ChatGPT to write a full article is discouraged. However, ChatGPT can be useful for generating simple article outlines, which you can then use to write the pages yourself.Here are some ChatGPT prompts you might use for content outline generation:“Generate an outline for a blog post called ‘Best Pest Control Tips.’ Include an introduction, 10 tips, and a conclusion.”“In less than 200 words, create an outline for an article that explains the benefits of hiring a financial consulting company.”“Write an outline for a 3-minute video about how to build a birdhouse.”“Generate an outline for a page that explains [your company]’s services.”“Write an outline for an article called ‘What Does Finance Software Do?’”“Write a compelling introduction for a blog post titled ‘[title]’ targeting [audience]. Hook the reader in the first sentence and preview what they’ll learn.”“Generate 10 headline variations for an article about [topic]. Include a mix of how-to, listicle, and question formats.”“Create a content brief for an article on [topic] targeting [keyword]. Include: target audience, search intent, key points to cover, and suggested word count.”Social media AI promptsIt’s not just blog posts and articles that AI can help you write content for — it can handle social media as well. Of course, it’s important to note that you shouldn’t just copy and paste whatever ChatGPT gives you. Rather, the responses to these prompts can give you a starting point for your posts:“In less than 50 words, write a short Instagram post that advertises the new blender from [your company].”“Create a Twitter post that promotes a special 50% off sale on [your company]’s shirts for the month of August.”“Write a Facebook post that promotes a new vacuum cleaner product. Use a casual but professional tone.”“Write a LinkedIn post celebrating how [your company] helped generate [amount of money] for their clients in the past year. Use a formal tone and limit the post to 100 words or fewer.”“Write a fun social media post that encourages people to buy [your company]’s line of Christmas sweaters this December.”“Write a carousel post outline for Instagram about [topic]. Include a hook for slide 1 and key points for slides 2-5.”“Create a TikTok script under 60 seconds that explains [concept] to [audience]. Use a hook, value section, and clear CTA.”“Draft 5 variations of a social media hook for a post about [topic]. Test different emotional angles: curiosity, urgency, FOMO, and aspiration.”“Write a LinkedIn post announcing a [product launch or company update]. Keep it professional but personable, under 150 words.”“Generate 10 hashtag suggestions for a [platform] post about [topic] targeting [audience].”Email marketing AI promptsNext, we have some prompts for marketing emails. Just like with social media, you don’t want to copy and paste the responses you get for these, but they can give you a basic template to work with.“Write an email subject line that promotes a 25% discount on shoes at [your company].”“Draft an email between 50 and 100 words that advertises [your company]’s manufacturing services.”“Write an email that encourages parents to shop at [your company] for their kids’ school supplies this August. Do it in less than 100 words.”“Generate an outline for an email newsletter for [your company]. Make it between 300 and 400 words long.”“In less than 100 words, create an email that promotes a new line of phone cases in a fun and casual voice.”“Write a 3-email welcome sequence for new subscribers to [brand]. Email 1: introduction. Email 2: value/tips. Email 3: soft CTA.”“Create 5 subject line variations for an email promoting [offer]. Test urgency, curiosity, and benefit-driven approaches.”“Draft a re-engagement email for subscribers who haven’t opened emails in 90 days. Keep it short, friendly, and include an incentive.”SEO AI promptsGenerative AI tools like ChatGPT can assist with SEO campaigns. These prompts encompass a range of techniques designed to improve rankings in organic and AI search results:“Tell me 5-6 related keywords for [insert target keyword] based on page one of the search results.”“Analyze this blog post and tell me what changes I should make to help me rank better for [target keyword].”“Using [insert link for article or blog post], give me five topics that page one of the search results are talking about for [insert keyword] that I’m not.”“Tell me potential content gaps for the following keyword, based on the top-ranking pages in the search results: [insert keyword].”“Give me 4-5 visual improvements I can add to this page to improve user experience and readability: [insert URL].”“Generate a list of 10 long-tail keyword variations for [primary keyword] that indicate purchase intent.”“Write a meta description for a page about [topic] targeting [keyword]. Keep it under 155 characters and include a clear value proposition.”“Analyze this page [URL] and suggest 5 internal linking opportunities to other relevant pages on the site.”Content repurposing AI promptsThese AI prompt examples are designed to transform existing content into different formats, such as turning blog posts into social media snippets or videos.“Condense this blog post to a 100-word social media post with a link to the original content.”“Pull five key points from this article and put them in an infographic.”“Take the title of this video and turn it into a graphic for an Instagram post.”“Take the table of contents from this article and turn it into a two-minute video script.”“Gather the top 10 takeaways from this filmed presentation on [topic in your industry] and build a blog post outline with them.”“Turn this case study [paste content] into a LinkedIn post highlighting the key results and takeaways for [audience].”“Extract 5 tweetable quotes from this article [paste content] that would resonate with [target audience].”“Repurpose this webinar transcript [paste content] into a blog post outline with key sections and takeaways.”Data analysis AI promptsAI analytics can help you save time on managing your data while finding actionable ways to improve your marketing. For these prompts, you’ll have to upload your data to ChatGPT as a table, spreadsheet, or other format, so it can read and process it fully.If you want to use ChatGPT to help you analyze data, here are a few prompts for doing so:“Show me the top trends from this table in a visual format.”“Generate a bar graph for the [insert name] column.”“In 100 words, identify the top four financial trends from this year’s sales.”“List the top 10 key points from this dataset so I can write a blog post explaining them.”“Generate a scatter plot to show the relationship between [column 1] and [column 2].”“Analyze this campaign performance data [paste or upload] and identify the top 3 areas for improvement with specific recommendations.”“Compare these two datasets [paste or upload] and summarize the key differences in a format I can share with stakeholders.”Lead generation AI promptsLead generation at scale can get repetitive. These prompts help you personalize outreach, craft discovery questions, and analyze what’s working:“Write a cold outreach email for [product/service] targeting [job title] at [company type]. Personalize the first line and include a clear, low-friction CTA.”“Suggest 5-7 discovery questions to ask a potential client in [industry] who is struggling with [pain point].”“Analyze our last 10 sales calls [paste notes or transcripts] and identify the top 3 objections. Suggest responses for each.”“Write a LinkedIn connection request message for [target persona] that references their recent [post/article/achievement] and opens a conversation about [topic].”“Create a follow-up email sequence (3 emails) for leads who downloaded [resource] but haven’t booked a call. Space them 3, 7, and 14 days apart.”Video and podcast AI promptsVideo and podcast content have many moving pieces. These AI prompt examples help you plan episodes, write scripts, and repurpose content across formats:“Generate 5 podcast episode ideas for [brand/topic] targeting [audience]. Include a title and 3-bullet outline for each.”“Write a YouTube video script for a [duration] video about [topic]. Include a hook, main content sections, and a clear CTA.”“Create a short-form video script under 60 seconds explaining [concept] to [audience]. Use a hook-value-CTA structure.”“Turn this blog post [paste content] into a video script for YouTube. Add visual cues and on-screen text suggestions.”“Write show notes for a podcast episode about [topic] featuring [guest]. Include key timestamps, resources mentioned, and a summary.”6 tips for creating marketing AI promptsThere is a prompt for anything and everything you could need ChatGPT’s help with, even if you have to create it yourself. Finding the right prompt and practicing prompt engineering can help you get more out of your AI companion.Let’s go over a few tips for writing effective marketing AI prompts:1. Give ChatGPT a general word countFirstly, it’s a good idea to always include a general word count when you give ChatGPT a prompt. That helps ensure that the result is the length you want. In certain cases, ChatGPT can tend to generate results that are much longer (or, occasionally, much shorter) than what you’re looking for, and this helps you avoid that. Courtesy of WebFX One way to do this is to start the prompt with a phrase like, “In less than 500 words…” or “Using between 100 and 200 words…” Of course, even then, ChatGPT will sometimes still outright ignore the word count you provide, and you’ll have to follow up your original prompt by asking ChatGPT to shorten its response. Courtesy of WebFX 2. Keep marketing AI prompts as concise as possibleAnother way to improve your prompts is to keep them as simple and concise as you can. ChatGPT can handle big words, but complex syntax can still confuse it. When possible, it’s advisable to phrase things as straightforwardly as possible, using as few clauses as you can.So, don’t say this:“I want you to generate a piece of email copy that compels users to buy our new line of shirts, but I want you to do it in a way that sounds sort of fun and casual, and I want you to do it using less than 100 words in total.”Instead, say this:“In less than 100 words, generate a marketing email that encourages users to buy a new line of shirts. Use a fun and casual tone.”3. Don’t ask ChatGPT to generate new or creative ideasFinally, don’t give ChatGPT any prompts where you ask it to be creative or come up with a new idea. Why? Because it can’t do it.ChatGPT works by pulling from what people have written online. While it won’t copy anything word-for-word, it will still copy ideas.If you ask ChatGPT to come up with an original idea, one of two things will happen. Either it will produce something that doesn’t make any sense, or it will present an idea that it stole from an actual person somewhere online. In either case, you don’t want to rely on ChatGPT to be creative for you. That’s what human brains are for.4. Be specific with your promptTo make sure you get exactly what you want from ChatGPT, you have to be as specific as possible — possibly overly specific. Here’s how to do that:Clearly state what you want the AI to do. Should it write you a list, explain it in a paragraph, or go into lengthy detail? And what information should it consider?Use clear language. Avoid ambiguity and jargon. Keep it really simple to avoid confusion or poor results.Tell the AI what type of output you want. You can ask for a paragraph, a list, a table, or even a graphic. As AI becomes more advanced, the capabilities for results increase.5. Provide contextGive ChatGPT all the background information to understand the task. If you have data, links, or even keywords that could help with the results, provide them. Many of the prompts above show how to do so in practice.6. Experiment with your promptsFinally, take on the role of a prompt engineer and experiment with the results. Try different prompts to see what works most effectively."If you don’t get exactly what you want on the first try, tweak your initial prompt and resubmit or add more information through different chats. The more you practice and experiment, the better your results will be!This story was produced by WebFX and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
	New Horizons, Muscatine, moving to new location New Horizons in Muscatine has a new location, effective Monday, May 11. New Horizons, a part of UnityPoint Health – Robert Young Center, will move its offices inside the existing Robert Young Center at 1616 Cedar Street, across the street from its previous location. The move ensures continued access to high-quality, compassionate care for people [...]
	Officials: Large fire at scrapyard powered by fuel tanks that failed Officials are investigating, but said the fire is being considered accidental.
	The 4 stages of AI maturity: A framework The 4 stages of AI maturity: A frameworkMost companies know they should be doing more with AI. What's harder to define is what "more" actually means in practice. Looking at how organizations have rolled out AI over the past few years, there's a recognizable pattern. It often starts with scattered AI experiments, expands into AI-powered workflows across connected apps, and eventually becomes embedded into core systems.What's clear is that the key to achieving AI transformation—the process of integrating AI into the core of your operations—is recognizing where your business is in its AI orchestration journey and building the capabilities that come next.Here, Zapier breaks down the four stages of AI maturity, how to recognize where your business lands, and what it takes to move forward.What is AI orchestration?AI orchestration is the coordinated, end-to-end application of AI tools, agents, and automations across workflows, teams, and systems. It combines structured logic (the rules, triggers, and guardrails you define) with adaptive intelligence (AI's ability to interpret and generate) to decide what happens next. It's what turns AI from a collection of tools into operational infrastructure.The 4 stages of AI maturityOnce you understand what AI orchestration looks like in practice, the next step is figuring out where your organization stands today. Here's a high-level overview of the four stages of AI maturity. Zapier Stage 1: Individual AI experimentsFor most organizations, this is where AI adoption begins: individual experimentation. It's a fast, low-friction way to learn what AI can actually do for your business workflows.When businesses begin integrating AI into internal workflows, individual teams experiment with AI-generated content, support summaries, and automation logic before those efforts are coordinated across the company. It's this type of early experimentation that allows all users, regardless of their technical skills, to strengthen their AI fluency.What this stage looks like:Individuals and teams using AI tools independentlyNo central visibility into which tools are in usePoint solutions that don't connect to each otherBottom-up adoption through individual purchase decisionsInformal governance—for example, general reminders not to share sensitive dataManual copy-paste between toolsStage 1: Benefits and challengesHere are the benefits and challenges of operating at this stage. Courtesy of Zapier Signs you're ready for stage 2Here are some signs that you've outgrown this stage:Multiple teams want to connect AI tools to existing systemsYou're manually moving data between tools multiple times per weekThe majority of your teams have tested one or more AI toolsLeadership is asking what the organization is getting from AI investmentsSuccess stories aren't spreading beyond the teams that discovered themHow to move to stage 2You don't need a major overhaul to move from one stage to the next. Start with:Acknowledging AI as part of your operating model, not just experimentationCreating a simple inventory of which teams are using which AI tools and for what use casesIdentifying high-value workflows worth connecting across systemsIntroducing an integration or AI automation layer to reduce manual handoffsStage 2: Connected AI workflowsAt this stage, AI stops living in side projects and starts showing up in core systems. The shift often happens when early experiments prove valuable enough to formalize.What this stage looks like:AI tools integrated with core systems like your CRM, customer support, and project management appsAutomated workflows that trigger AI actions based on defined eventsShared use cases across teams instead of isolated experimentsReduced manual copy-paste between systemsEarly efforts to standardize prompts, processes, or templatesGrowing visibility into where AI is being usedStage 2: Benefits and challengesHere are the benefits and challenges of operating at this stage. Courtesy of Zapier Signs you're ready for stage 3Here are some signs that you've outgrown this stage:AI workflows are running across multiple teamsYou're relying on AI outputs for customer-facing or revenue-impacting workSecurity or compliance teams are asking for clearer guardrailsLeadership wants reporting on performance, risk, and ROIWorkflow complexity is increasing faster than documentationHow to move to stage 3As AI becomes embedded in operations, structure matters more. Focus on:Defining ownership for AI-powered workflowsEstablishing governance guidelines and access controlsAdding audit trails and documentation for key processesStandardizing how AI prompts, models, and workflow logic are managedStage 3: Governed AI workflowsThis stage is where AI orchestration becomes formalized. Workflows span departments, ownership is defined, and guardrails are no longer optional. As AI becomes embedded in core operations, reliability and governance take center stage.Clear ownership, documented standards, and monitoring become critical to maintaining trust and consistency across the board.What this stage looks like:AI workflows running across multiple departmentsClear ownership for AI-powered processes and automation logicDefined governance policies for model usage, data access, and approvalsRole-based access controls and permission managementAudit trails for AI-generated outputs and workflow activityStandardized prompts, documentation, and version control practicesStage 3: Benefits and challengesHere are the benefits and challenges of operating at this stage. Courtesy of Zapier Signs you're ready for stage 4Here are some signs that you've outgrown this stage:AI is embedded in mission-critical or revenue-driving workflowsLeadership is asking how AI can proactively optimize operationsYou're managing a growing portfolio of AI-powered workflowsTeams want AI-powered systems that adapt dynamically rather than follow fixed logicYou're measuring AI performance but not yet optimizing in real timeHow to move to stage 4As AI becomes core to how your business runs, the focus shifts from control to continuous improvement. Prioritize:Implementing performance monitoring tied to business outcomesIntroducing feedback loops that improve AI outputs over timeShifting from static workflows to dynamic AI orchestrationAligning AI initiatives directly to strategic KPIsTo do this effectively, you need visibility and flexibility.Stage 4: Adaptive AI systemsThis is the stage where AI orchestration becomes adaptive. Work isn't just automated; it's continuously refined based on outcomes. Instead of asking how to automate a task, teams focus on improving how the entire system performs over time.AI is embedded into internal workflows that route requests, prioritize work, surface insights, and monitor performance across departments.What this stage looks like:AI workflows that adjust dynamically based on inputs, outcomes, or performance dataCross-system AI orchestration spanning departments, data sources, and toolsReal-time monitoring of workflow performance and business impactFeedback loops that retrain, refine, or adjust logic automaticallyAI-informed prioritization of tasks, leads, tickets, or opportunitiesClear alignment between AI systems and strategic business goalsStage 4: Benefits and operational considerationsHere are the benefits of operating at this stage, as well as operational considerations to keep in mind. Courtesy of Zapier How to sustain and scale this stageOperating at this stage means that AI is embedded in how your business runs. Maintaining that advantage requires ongoing refinement and intentional oversight. To strengthen and scale what's already working, focus on:Continuously refining performance metrics tied to business outcomesExpanding feedback loops across additional teams and workflowsInvesting in observability and system health monitoringRegularly reviewing alignment between AI systems and strategic prioritiesWhy you can't skip stagesIt's natural to want to accelerate progress. As AI becomes more central to business strategy, advancing quickly can feel like the most efficient path forward. But AI maturity builds cumulatively, with each stage developing capabilities that the next one depends on:Stage 1 builds AI literacy and clarifies which problems are actually worth solving.Stage 2 develops integration muscle and reveals where governance is required.Stage 3 establishes the monitoring, trust, and accountability needed before AI can influence higher-stakes decisions.Without those foundations in place, integration often becomes the sticking point. Seventy-eight percent of enterprises report struggling to integrate AI with existing systems, underscoring how critical that middle layer of connection and coordination really is.Of course, there are some exceptions. For example, AI-native startups sometimes compress early stages because they build AI-first from day one. Even then, the underlying capabilities still develop in sequence.Common myths about AI maturityUnderstanding where you are on the maturity ladder is only half the battle. The other half is avoiding the assumptions that derail progress or create unnecessary pressure to advance faster than makes sense for your organization. Here's what to watch out for.Myth #1: The highest stage is the goalReality: AI maturity is about fit, not climbing the ladder.It's easy to assume that the most advanced stage is automatically the right one. But AI maturity isn't about climbing for its own sake. It's about fit.For example, imagine a mid-sized company running AI-powered workflows that reliably save time and generate measurable ROI. They have clear integrations and strong team adoption at stage two. Forcing a move into heavier governance structures in stage three could introduce process overhead without meaningfully improving performance. Meanwhile, a highly-regulated healthcare provider may require stage three controls long before expanding automation further.Context changes what the "best" stage looks like. Choose the one that matches your operational complexity, risk tolerance, and business goals.Myth #2: Every team should be at the same stageReality: Progress doesn't need to be uniform to be strategic. Different teams can mature at different speeds.Forcing every team to move in lockstep can create bottlenecks and slow down departments that are ready to advance.Take customer support, for example. The team regularly handles sensitive data across billing, account records, and compliance-bound systems. For them, stage three governance (audit trails, role-based access, and documented workflows) isn't optional. The marketing team, on the other hand, has a lower risk profile. They can move quickly at stage two—connecting campaign tools and automating follow-ups—prioritizing speedy over heavy governance controls.Align within functions first, and then build cross-functional consistency over time.Myth #3: AI maturity only applies to large enterprisesReality: This framework applies to any company size. Scale changes the pace, not the principles.AI maturity isn't reserved for large enterprises. Smaller companies benefit from the same clarity about experimentation, integration, and governance. The only difference is that they move through the stages at a different pace.For example, a 5,000-person company may take months to align teams, integrate legacy systems, and formalize governance. Meanwhile, a 25-person startup with a single product and shared tooling can experiment, connect workflows, and introduce guardrails much faster because coordination overhead is minimal.Regardless of your company size, take time to map your current AI tools, how they connect, and where decisions lack clear ownership. The earlier you build that visibility, the easier it is to scale without friction later.Myth #4: AI orchestration is just about choosing the right platformReality: Tools support AI maturity, while operational clarity and team capability determine it.Buying a more advanced AI orchestration platform won't automatically move you up the maturity ladder. AI tools can enable orchestration, but they're not a substitute for the operational clarity required to make it work.Let's say your company invests in a robust AI orchestration platform with built-in governance controls and monitoring. If teams don't have shared standards for prompts, clear workflow ownership, or agreement on when AI should involve a human, the organization will continue operating like it's in stage one or two—just on more expensive software.This scenario isn't uncommon: 35% of enterprises cite AI skill gaps as a top barrier to adoption, highlighting that capability, not tooling, is often the constraint.Assess whether your teams have the literacy, ownership structures, and documented workflows to support AI orchestration. Strengthening those foundations first ensures that when you do invest in a platform, it accelerates progress instead of masking underlying gaps.Myth #5: Stage 4 is the finish lineReality: Reaching stage four shifts the work—it doesn't eliminate it.Stage four isn't an endpoint; it's a foundation for continuous improvement.For example, a company operating at Stage 4 may have AI dynamically routing tickets, prioritizing leads, and optimizing workflows based on performance data. Even then, teams are regularly reviewing edge cases, refining monitoring thresholds, adjusting decision logic, and evaluating new models as capabilities improve. The infrastructure is mature, but it still evolves.Schedule regular reviews of your AI-driven workflows, monitoring performance against business outcomes, and updating systems as your goals and technology change.Remember: AI maturity is built step by step. With the right AI orchestration layer in place, each step becomes easier to take.This story was produced by Zapier and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
	QC transit systems offer free rides to bikers during Bike to Work Week QC transit systems are marking National Bike to Work Week May 11 – 17 with free rides for anyone who brings along a bike. Davenport CitiBus, Bettendorf Transit and MetroLINK are encouraging Quad City commuters to combine biking and public transit as part of their daily trips to and from work. The three transit systems [...]
	Greetings from a sea village in Indonesia, where Indigenous fishing gets help from mangroves As a water taxi rounded a corner at sunset, the village of Torosiaje came into view, with its colorful stilted houses perched over the Molucca Sea.
	How AI engines decide which pet brands are safe to recommend How AI engines decide which pet brands are safe to recommendPet parents have always been protective of their fur babies. But something notable has shifted in how they make purchasing decisions. Instead of scrolling through Amazon reviews or asking their vet for a food recommendation, more and more pet owners are typing their questions directly into AI engines and trusting the answers they get.“What’s the safest wet food for a senior cat with kidney issues?” “Is [dog supplement brand] actually tested?” “Which pet food companies have never had a recall?”These aren’t casual queries. They’re high-stakes, emotionally charged questions from people who treat their pets like family members. And the numbers indicate that this shift is accelerating fast.Traffic from AI shopping assistants to U.S. retail sites increased by 1,300% in Q4 2024 compared to the prior year and has continued doubling roughly every two months since. More specifically, in the pet space, 67% of pet owners research products online before purchasing, and AI platforms are increasingly where that research begins.What most pet brands don’t realize is that behind every AI-generated recommendation is a sophisticated filtering process that evaluates trustworthiness, authority, and credibility before a single brand name ever makes it into a response. If your brand isn’t optimized for that process, you’re not just missing out on clicks. You’re being screened out entirely.Intero Digital dives into how all this works and what your pet brand can do about it.AI Engines Treat Pet Health as High-Stakes TerritoryTo understand why pet brands face such rigorous AI scrutiny, you need to understand a concept called YMYL: “your money or your life.” Originally a Google quality rater guideline, YMYL has become a broadly adopted framework across AI systems for identifying content categories where inaccurate information could cause real-world harm.Medical advice is the obvious YMYL category. Financial guidance is another. But pet health sits squarely in this space, too, and AI engines treat it accordingly. Google’s updated Search Quality Rater Guidelines clarify that YMYL status applies to topics that could “potentially impact people’s health, financial stability, or safety, or the welfare or well-being of society,” and the January and September 2025 updates further tightened scrutiny around health-related content. AI systems favor trustworthy sources with strong E-E-A-T signals (experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness), and the likelihood of citation increases significantly when content meets those criteria.The brands that earn AI recommendations in this space have done the work to signal trustworthiness in ways the algorithms can detect and verify. The brands that haven’t done that work are invisible, regardless of how good their products actually are.The Trust Stack: What AI Engines Are Actually Looking ForAI engines don’t have a simple checklist they run brands through. But based on how large language models are trained and how retrieval-augmented generation systems work, we can map out the trust signals that consistently influence whether a brand gets recommended or filtered out.Third-party validation and certificationsAI engines are trained on the web’s most authoritative content. When your brand is mentioned in the context of certifications, independent lab testing, or regulatory compliance, those associations carry weight.For pet supplement brands, this means references to National Animal Supplement Council (NASC) membership and quality seal compliance matter. For food brands, NSF certification, AAFCO statement compliance, and USDA organic certification language on your site and in third-party coverage create the kind of verifiable credibility signals AI systems can recognize.The key word is “verifiable.” Pages using schema markup and structured data saw 58% higher visibility in AI snippets compared to non-schema pages in 2025, but claims that can’t be cross-referenced against external sources carry far less weight regardless of how they’re formatted. If your site says you use third-party tested ingredients, but no certification body, third-party publication, or independent source corroborates that, the claim won’t move the needle the way verified signals would.Veterinarian and expert associationOne of the clearest patterns in AI-recommended pet brands is consistent association with credentialed professionals. This plays out in several ways: veterinarians quoted in your content, vet-authored blog posts or formulation notes, presence on vet-recommended lists published by credible third parties, and citations in veterinary or animal health publications.This matters because AI engines are trying to answer the question “Would a knowledgeable, trustworthy human recommend this brand?” The most efficient proxy for that answer is evidence that knowledgeable, trustworthy humans already have. One veterinary network observed a 1,278% increase in users arriving via ChatGPT referrals from January 2025 to January 2026, with the share of accounts receiving any ChatGPT-attributed traffic growing from 22% to 73% in that same time frame. This illustrates how AI has become the front door for pet health research.If your content strategy doesn’t involve credentialed voices, that gap is costing you AI visibility, especially as more consumers ask questions like “What do vets recommend for joint health in large dog breeds?”Ingredient transparency and sourcing specificityVague content gets filtered out, while specific, verifiable content gets surfaced. AI engines extract the first one to two sentences of a content section to determine whether it answers a query. If your opening is only vague context-setting, the engine usually moves on to a competitor.There’s a dramatic difference between “we use only the finest ingredients” and “our salmon is sourced from sustainably certified fisheries in the Pacific Northwest and arrives fresh-frozen within 48 hours of processing.” The second version gives AI engines something to work with: claims that can be cross-referenced, language that signals genuine depth of knowledge, and specificity that suggests accountability.Pet parents are increasingly asking AI engines detailed ingredient questions: whether a brand uses rendered meat meals, where their fish meal comes from, whether their chicken is USDA-inspected, etc. Brands that have published detailed, honest ingredient sourcing content are far more likely to surface in those conversations than brands that keep their supply chain vague.Recall history (and how you’ve handled it)This is the signal many brands underestimate, and recent history makes clear just how much it matters. In late 2024, the FDA and CDC investigated Salmonella cases linked to pet food made by Mid America Pet Food, leading to a voluntary recall of all products under the Victor, Eagle Mountain, Wayne Feeds, and Member’s Mark brands with best-by dates before October 2024. The company later settled a class-action lawsuit for $5.5 million. That recall history and the brand’s handling of it is now baked into the training data and indexed content that AI engines draw from when pet owners ask safety questions about those brands.The consequences of recall-related reputation damage can be enormous even when the recall itself is disputed. Purina Pet Foods saw sales drop by $550 million in the first nine months of 2025 compared to the same period in 2024, following a wave of consumer concerns about sick pets in 2024. Federal investigators found no conclusive evidence linking the health complaints to Purina’s products, but a single misleading post about a pet food recall or alleged ingredient issue can cause widespread concern, and social media’s viral nature means falsehoods can spread faster than corrections.A recall or controversy from several years ago doesn’t disappear from AI’s training data just because time has passed. What can change, however, is the narrative around it. Brands that respond to recalls with transparent communication, publish detailed corrective action plans, and maintain a consistent safety record afterward can mitigate the reputational weight of that history, but only if that response content exists and is indexed.If your brand has a recall in its history and your website has never addressed it directly, you’re leaving a negative signal uncontested.Why Your Website Content Is More Important Than You ThinkMost pet brands think about their website as a sales and branding tool. In the context of AI visibility, your website is also a primary trust signal, and it needs to be built with that function in mind.Safety and quality pages need to be substantive.A single paragraph about your “commitment to quality” isn’t enough. What can actually move the needle is a dedicated quality assurance page that details your testing protocols, your supplier vetting process, your manufacturing facility standards, and the third parties involved at each stage. This kind of content does double duty: It builds genuine trust with human readers, and it gives AI systems the substantive, verifiable information they need to treat your brand as a credible source.But don’t rush to fill that content gap with AI-written content without a thoughtful plan. Google’s September 2025 Quality Rater Guidelines update made explicit that purely AI-generated content without human review and unique value is rated as “Lowest Quality,” and that E-E-A-T is crucial. Once vetted for accuracy and helpfulness, ensure it’s structured for retrieval. Clear answers and good structure are key requirements for content to appear in AI summaries.FAQs and structured content perform exceptionally well.When pet parents ask AI engines questions, those engines are looking for content that directly answers the question being asked. Brands leading in GEO (generative engine optimization) update their content quarterly. And structured content with concise, direct answers consistently outperforms content that buries the answer. Structured FAQ content, particularly when it addresses the specific safety, ingredient, and sourcing questions your customers are asking, is among the highest-performing content types for AI answer inclusion.Think about the questions your customer service team gets most often. What do pet owners want to know before they trust your brand? Build content that answers those questions specifically, completely, and with enough supporting detail that the answer stands on its own.Schema markup signals structure and intent.Properly implemented schema markup, particularly FAQ schema, product schema with ingredient detail, and organization schema with contact and certification information, helps AI engines categorize and retrieve your content correctly. AI Overviews now appear in 16% of all Google desktop searches in the U.S., and structured data is one of the primary levers brands have for influencing which content gets pulled into those surfaces. For brands competing in a crowded category, it helps your content stand out from an undifferentiated sea of pet food pages.The External Authority ProblemEven the best on-site content has limits. AI engines weight external signals heavily, and pet brands that lack a meaningful footprint outside their own website are at a structural disadvantage. Being named as a source by ChatGPT or Perplexity carries implicit endorsement, and when a branded result appears in AI Overviews, click-through rates for that brand increase compared to non-cited competitors.The types of external coverage that matter most:Editorial mentions in pet health publications: Sites like PetMD, Whole Dog Journal, and Kinship carry significant weight. Being recommended or reviewed in outlets like these, particularly in the context of safety, ingredient quality, or veterinary endorsement, creates the kind of third-party validation that AI systems look for.Presence in comparison and roundup content: When authoritative sites publish “safest dog foods of the year” or “best grain-free cat foods reviewed by vets,” inclusion in those lists creates a durable positive signal. Working with a PR and content strategy team to earn these placements is one of the highest-ROI moves a pet brand can make for AI visibility.Legitimate review ecosystem: Eighty-one percent of all online reviews in 2024 were written on Google, making it the most powerful reputation data source across industries. AI systems can distinguish between a healthy, authentic review footprint and a thin or manipulated one. Consistent, substantive reviews across verified platforms, with a realistic distribution of ratings and a pattern of brand responses, signal legitimacy in ways that a perfectly five-star record often doesn’t.What This Means for Your GEO StrategyGEO for pet brands isn’t fundamentally different from GEO in other verticals, but the stakes and the scrutiny can be higher. The U.S. pet industry reached $158 billion in total spending in 2025, and AI platforms consistently recommend the same three to four brands when pet owners ask for product guidance. If your brand isn’t one of them, here’s where to focus:Audit your trust signals before your keywords. Before you map content to queries, take an honest inventory of how your brand appears to an AI engine reading your site and the web around it. What certifications are visible? What expert associations exist? What does your recall history look like, and how is it addressed? This diagnostic work shapes everything else.Invest in credentialed content creation. Partner with veterinarians, animal nutritionists, or other credentialed professionals to create content that carries their genuine expertise and name. Consistent citations by AI platforms establish your brand as the definitive source in your category and function as an implicit endorsement that influences purchasing decisions from highly qualified leads.Build the content that answers the hardest questions. The pet parents asking AI engines about brand safety aren’t looking for marketing copy. They’re looking for honest, detailed answers to specific questions. The brands that provide those answers, even when the answers require acknowledging complexity or uncertainty, earn the trust that drives AI recommendations.Think in terms of narrative, not just content. AI engines synthesize information across many sources to form a picture of your brand. Your job is to make sure that picture is accurate, positive, and consistent. That means coordinating your owned content, your PR efforts, your review strategy, and your expert partnerships into a coherent story. Podcasts, interviews, and editorial mentions help AI systems better connect facts about your business, making direct answers more accurate and more likely to draw from your content.The pet brands that will win in the AI answer era are the ones building genuine trust infrastructure: real certifications, real expert partnerships, real transparency about ingredients and sourcing, and real accountability when things go wrong.And for brands that have done the work, the opportunity is significant. In a space where AI scrutiny filters out the vague, the unverified, and the opaque, genuine trustworthiness is a competitive advantage.The question is whether your content makes that trustworthiness visible.This story was produced by Intero Digital and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
	Brash CNN founder Ted Turner dies Turner had a larger-than-life personality, and used it to launch the country's first 24/7 all-news network.
	'A trailblazer, a rabble-rouser, a do-gooder': CNN founder Ted Turner dies at 87 Turner had a larger-than-life personality, and used it to launch the country's first 24/7 all-news network.
	Temperatures warming up toward the weekend May has certainly gotten off to a cool start with temperatures over the past couple of days being colder than normal in the 50s and low 60s. It was only this past Monday when temperatures exceeded the 80s, but things are warming up through this week. By Friday we will be nearing the 70s to [...]
	Moline celebrating Bike to Work Day with free breakfast The City of Moline is celebrating Bike to Work Day on Monday, May 11 from 6 - 9 a.m. at Bass Street Landing, 1601 River Drive. The event is being held in partnership with the Quad City Bicycle Club (QCBC) and will offer free breakfast and coffee for cyclists and community members. The public is [...]
	What’s the best enamel type for a very detailed logo pin? What’s the best enamel type for a very detailed logo pin?Your logo is a powerful symbol, and how well it’s reproduced on a custom pin shows off your brand’s commitment to quality. These little pins serve many different purposes, from celebrating employee achievements to boosting your company’s identity, and every tiny detail matters.Choosing the right enamel is a big decision that influences how people see your brand. This PinMaxx guide shows you how your enamel choice directly affects the accuracy and effectiveness of your business logo design.Enamel Logo Pins at a GlanceA smooth, shiny surface.Sharp detail reproduction, including fine lines, gradients, and small text.Scratch and fade resistance for long-term durability.Jewelry-grade finish.How Pin Quality Impacts Brand PerceptionThe physical items that represent your brand are an extension of your organization’s values. Their quality naturally shapes how people view your commitment to excellence. A well-designed pin acts as a silent endorsement of your brand’s reliability and professionalism.Our brains are wired to appreciate order and detail, and when a physical product, like a pin, embodies these traits, it resonates positively with viewers. Studies show people judge quality at first glance. Things like symmetry send strong signals about your brand. When your design is sharp, people are more likely to trust your business. If a pin looks off, it can create doubt, even if a consumer doesn’t consciously realize why.The manufacturing process is crucial for achieving detailed logos, as it either enhances or undermines these psychological advantages. A pin that reproduces fine lines well uses design psychology to its advantage, but simplifying elements can actually weaken your brand message.Avoiding Problems With Your Brand’s ImageSelecting a manufacturing process that struggles with fine details can create brand risks that go beyond how things look. These choices can weaken years of brand-building efforts and create an inconsistent image in the market. Consider the following:Visual inconsistency: If a pin has blurry details or colors that blend together, it won’t match your branding. People may not recognize your organization right away.Quality perception suffers: Poorly made pins signal a lack of attention to detail, which can erode people’s confidence in your organization’s quality and operations.Detailed designs get lost: Important parts of your logo can disappear if the pin-making process isn’t the right fit, and then you lose that professional look you worked so hard to create.Colors look wrong: Processes that can’t precisely separate colors will yield muddy or inaccurate colors, making your brand harder to recognize and potentially causing compliance issues. Brand color guidelines are often very strict for a reason — they ensure immediate recognition. When these are compromised, your brand suffers.Professional credibility: If your physical brand materials aren’t up to par, it can create doubt in your professionalism and dedication to excellence. This can undermine your reputation and make your brand seem less reliable or trustworthy in the eyes of clients, employees, and the public.Studies show that a logo’s symmetry really makes people think a product is higher quality. Symmetrical designs are easier for our brains to process, which helps with brand recognition and builds trust.For organizations that invest heavily in brand awareness campaigns, the integrity of every branded item is important. An accurate pin helps people recognize your brand, while a distorted one actively works against all your efforts to build awareness.The Difference Between Hard Enamel vs Soft EnamelHard and soft enamel lapel pins offer unique looks and levels of durability. You need to carefully match them to your design needs and quality standards. Choosing between them is a strategic decision that impacts the final look, feel, and longevity of your brand’s representation. PinMaxx What Is Soft Enamel?Soft enamel pins have recessed color areas and raised metal edges. The enamel color fills specific design sections, staying below the metal borders. This creates a textured, 3D surface you can actually feel. Think of it like a miniature sculpture, with the metal outlines standing proud, giving definition to the colored areas.Soft enamel requires less polishing than hard enamel, thereby lowering production costs. This makes it an attractive option for projects with tighter budgets or for projects that require very large quantities. Key characteristics of soft enamel lapel pins include:Textured surface: Raised metal lines create a three-dimensional surface, highlighting the metal framework and structural design elements.Recessed color application: The enamel colors sit below the metal borders, creating noticeable depth between color sections and highlighting the metal craftsmanship.Cost-effective production: Simpler manufacturing means lower costs per pin, making it great for large orders or when you need to stick to a budget.Faster turnaround: Fewer production steps mean quicker completion times, ideal for urgent campaigns that need pins fast.Distinct look: The 3D quality works well for certain design styles, especially bold graphics that benefit from a textured feel. It gives a classic, almost cartoonlike vibe that can be perfect for playful or less formal branding.Traditional appearance: The defining raised metal outlines give it a traditional pin look, often reminding people of vintage designs and historical uses. This can evoke nostalgia or a sense of timelessness, depending on your brand’s aesthetic.Soft enamel’s raised metal edges can sometimes get in the way of detailed logos. Fine lines might get covered by the metal framework, and small design elements often lose crucial clarity. This characteristic texture creates big challenges for accurate representation, which can really mess up your brand’s accuracy.Specific issues include thin serif fonts blending with metal edges, delicate illustration elements becoming distorted, and small text becoming hard to read. If your logo has very thin lines, small text, or intricate patterns, soft enamel might not reproduce them as crisply as you’d like.What Is Cloisonné (Hard Enamel)?Cloisonné, an ancient art form, is the basis for hard enamel production. This method carefully fills the enamel right up to the metal border, and then extensive polishing makes it smooth and even. Hard enamel pins precisely follow this idea, giving you a jewelry-grade finish, a technique adapted from centuries-old fine metalwork that maintains its heritage of quality and precision.Hard enamel pins are filled and polished until the enamel is perfectly flush with the metal, giving the pin a smooth, jewellike surface. The result is a seamless, flat finish where the enamel and metal meet at the same level, making it look more like fine enamel jewelry than typical pins.This careful polishing creates a consistently glossy, reflective surface that captures and reflects light, showcasing its superior quality and providing a sophisticated sheen that truly stands out.The standout features of cloisonné hard enamel lapel pins are:Jewelry-grade look: The highly polished finish gives the pin a fine enamel appearance, conveying premium quality and expert craftsmanship.Lasting durability: Hard enamel’s tough surface resists scratches, fading, and general wear and tear, keeping its pristine appearance for years.Precise detail reproduction: The perfectly level surface allows all intricate design elements to be seen without obstruction from raised metal edges or shadows.Smooth surface: The enamel and metal are polished to a perfectly flat level, giving a seamless, glasslike finish with no texture variation.Professional look: The refined finish perfectly aligns with strict corporate branding standards, making it suitable for formal use, executive gifts, and important recognition awards. It’s ideal for representing a brand that values sophistication and high standards.More design options: The smooth, uniform surface easily handles complex color work and intricate details, allowing for precise reproduction of custom logo specifications. This versatility means you won’t have to compromise on your design’s complexity.The historical prestige of cloisonné adds to its cultural depth. This technique has long been associated with fine craftsmanship, which reinforces how people perceive hard enamel’s inherent quality. Organizations that choose cloisonné benefit from these long-standing associations, boosting their brand’s timeless appeal and sense of luxury.Why Hard Enamel Pins Are Best for Detailed LogosHard enamel is well-suited for organizations that need their logo reproduced with precision. Its manufacturing process maintains the design’s integrity, delivering durable, professional products for a wide range of uses. If your brand identity relies on intricate details, subtle shading, or specific typography, hard enamel is almost always the superior choice. PinMaxx Durability and Long-Term ValueHard enamel’s polished, nonporous surface is incredibly durable, with a seamless finish that resists environmental damage better than textured types. This makes each pin last longer, ensuring it keeps its pristine look even with regular use.Here are the key benefits of hard enamel pins:Scratch resistance: The tough surface handles rough treatment, preventing wear marks or surface damage even with daily use.Lasting color: Sealed enamel resists fading from light and environmental factors, keeping colors accurate and preserving your brand’s color standards.Chemical resistance: The nonporous finish protects against moisture, oils, and other damaging substances, making pins suitable for all-weather wear.Edge protection: The flat surface prevents chipping at color boundaries, which is a common problem with recessed enamel designs.Stable temperatures: Hard enamel reliably withstands big temperature changes, keeping its integrity across different climates and storage conditions.Impact resistance: Solid construction absorbs minor bumps without denting or distorting, protecting the design from wear and tear.Durability means longer brand exposure for branded items. A pin that keeps looking great reinforces brand recognition, and hard enamel ensures your ambassadors remain pristine. Hard enamel’s longer lifespan gives you a better return on your investment through continuous visibility.Precision for Complex DesignsHard enamel’s smooth, flat surface prevents logo details from being hidden. This precision is essential when your logo’s complexity is a big part of your brand. Research shows that logo complexity influences perceptions of luxury. Intricate designs signal sophistication and a premium position, and processes that simplify designs erase these psychological advantages.Hard enamel ensures that the intricate narrative of your logo is told without compromise. Exact detail preservation offers the following:Fine line preservation: Small details and delicate lines are easy to spot on hard enamel pins — your logo will look just as you intended, even up close.Optimized small text legibility: Company names, taglines, or dates remain readable even at small sizes, free from blurring or merging with adjacent elements.Uncompromised intricate pattern accuracy: Complex backgrounds, detailed illustrations, or elaborate borders maintain their beautiful look with no negative simplification.Exceptional color boundary sharpness: Careful polishing creates precise lines between colors, preventing muddy or unclear appearances that come from less refined techniques.Exact dimensional accuracy: Proportions and spacing stay true to the original specifications, so your logo appears balanced and professionally made.Shadow elimination: The perfectly level surface eliminates shadows that often hide details in recessed enamel designs, keeping everything fully visible.Hard enamel allows for accurate reproduction of logos with fine fonts, illustrations, or complex graphics. Soft enamel’s raised edges can cause thin lines to blend, and its texture can cast shadows, making details harder to see. Hard enamel’s smooth surface completely avoids these issues.Corporate branding needs exact logo reproduction across all materials. Style guides specify precise colors, proportions, and details, and hard enamel’s manufacturing precision supports these standards. The result is brand consistency from business cards to lapel pins, maintaining the visual integrity your brand guidelines demand.Refined Finish and Quality FeelThe physical object reflects your organization’s values through its material quality and refined results. Key benefits of hard enamel’s finish:Premium feel: The smooth, glasslike surface feels luxurious and refined, creating a positive first impression through touch.Exceptional visual polish: The reflective finish mimics fine jewelry, expertly catching light, attracting attention, and signaling quality.Solid weight and form: Hard enamel pins feel substantial and solid, communicating superior durability and intrinsic value. Hard enamel pins tend to feel more substantial than their soft enamel counterpart.Refined presentation: The sophisticated appearance suits formal settings, making it appropriate for executive gifts and high-level donor recognition.Enhanced display appeal: Recipients are more likely to wear and show off high-quality pins, unlike fleeting promotional products.Brand alignment: The premium finish guarantees the physical pin matches your organization’s quality standards.Pin pricing and value guide the strategic decision to invest in hard enamel. The cost per pin might be more than soft enamel options. However, the superior perceived value and exceptional durability give you a better long-term return on investment.Increased visibility multiplies the brand awareness value from every pin distributed. Perceived is significant in corporate gifting, donor recognition, and brand awareness campaigns.A premium pin creates a positive impression that extends to your organization. It signals a commitment to quality materials and craftsmanship, honoring the recipient. This message strengthens relationships and reinforces your brand’s position.Finish quality really affects how long a pin is displayed and how often it’s worn. Higher-quality pins are more likely to be worn or displayed, extending brand exposure.This increased visibility extends brand exposure, making sure the pin fulfills its strategic purpose as an enduring brand awareness tool.Invest in Your Brand’s LegacyWhile hard enamel may carry a modest price premium over soft enamel, many organizations find the added durability, precision, and upscale appearance well worth the investment.Hard enamel offers the precision, durability, and polished finish that complex logos demand. Cloisonné pins’ smooth, jewelry-grade surface consistently makes them feel more valuable, aligning perfectly with luxury branding principles and perceptions of quality.A well-made hard enamel pin powerfully reinforces brand consistency and professional standards. No matter the use, whether it’s for employee recognition, brand awareness, or corporate gifts, how your logo looks physically is important. It must clearly reflect your organization’s core values.This story was produced by PinMaxx and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
	Geneseo to host inaugural downtown Wine Walk The first‑ever Geneseo Wine Walk is set for May 30, a 3–7 p.m. downtown event featuring more than a dozen wine‑tasting stops, shopping promotions, live music and a pedestrian‑only State Street experience requiring advance tickets.

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