Five days of outdoor fun will be on hand when East Moline's Rock Island Country Fairgrounds hosts the annual Rock Island County Fair July 14 through 18, offering patrons mornings, afternoons, and evenings filled with carnival rides, games, food vendors, animal shows, racing tournaments, 4-H events, live music performances, and exciting happenings scheduled for the nights' grandstand entertainment.
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With the latest program in the German American Heritage Center's popular “Kaffee und Kuchen” series offered by Ryan Saddler, MEd, the fascinating lecture Davenport Civil Rights Movement will be presented at the Davenport venue on July 19, the event featuring an emphasis on Charles and Ann Toney, widely known as the father and mother of the famed and historically essential movement.
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Held in conjunction with the annual Quad-City Times Bix 7 street race on Saturday morning, Downtown Davenport's 2026 Bix Mix Street Party will take place on July 24 and 25, this vibrant, two-day bash being held on West Third Street between Harrison and Ripley.
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Returning to downtown Davenport for its incredible 52nd year, the Quad-City Times Bix 7 will again find runners and walkers taking on a seven-mile foot race alongside live bands and cheering crowds, the July 25 event famed for being the largest non-marathon race in the Midwest, having captured the imaginations of thousands upon thousands of enthusiasts from both the United States and countries around the globe.
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With the Los Angeles Times praising him as "provocative, engaging, and extremely funny," Las Vegas Magazine adding that he delivers "comedy with a bang," national touring standup Shang Forbes brings his Fast & Hilarious Comedy Jam to Davenport's Adler Theatre on July 25, the artist performing locally alongside up-and-coming comedians LeClerc Andre, Joshua Black, and T Barb.
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Chemical Trespassing on Iowa's State Tree Cannot Be Punished
Tony Singh's 20-Year Quest to Address Pesticide Damage in His Oak Savanna
In 1996, Tony Singh began rewilding a plot of land in LeClaire, hoping to restore its oak savanna, native prairie, woodlands, and wetlands. Fewer than five years later, he noticed the leaves on his oak trees were in tatters.
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In our enlightened age, the public seems tirelessly bombarded with warnings of existential threat from infectious disease. Another distant outbreak is spreading, this time it could be Disease X – “…and there is no vaccine!” How, one might ask, is our species still extant?
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About a week after the state budget passed both chambers in the dark of night, Attorney General Kwame Raoul spoke to the City Club of Chicago to complain that his budget was cut by $10 million.
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Representative Luis Arroyo, D-Chicago, was arrested by the FBI on October 28, 2019, for attempting to bribe a state senator. House Speaker Michael Madigan, who was under investigation himself, called on Arroyo to resign that same day. The next day, Representative Emanuel “Chris” Welch, D-Hillside, was one of three House Democrats who signed a petition to automatically trigger the creation of a Special Investigating Committee. Welch and the two others included the sworn federal criminal complaint against Arroyo as evidence.
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The news earlier this month that the Illinois AFL-CIO has “deferred” all decisions on legislative and statewide endorsements in the upcoming fall election generated quite a bit of headlines.
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An intimidating ogre, a feisty princess, a wisecracking donkey, a diminutive tyrant, an ambulatory gingerbread man, and other fantastical figures take over Mt. Carroll's Timber Lake Playhouse with the July 17 through August 2 run of Shrek: The Musical, the Tony-winning fairytale slapstick based on the Oscar-winning animated smash, and a show that Variety called a work of “irreverent charm” that “never stints on spectacle or laughs."
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Described by Variety magazine as “Disney's happiest outing since The Lion King” and by USA Today as a production of “easy infectuousness” and “youthful exuberance,” the Tony Award-winning Newsies enjoys a July 17 through 26 run at the Coralville Center for the Performing Arts, its City Circle Theatre Company presentation treating family audiences to an energetic work the Hollywood Reporter said “adheres to a time-honored Disney tradition of inspirational storytelling in the best possible sense.”
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Do I have any interest in hiking the Appalachian Trail? Absolutely not. Do I want to hear about the 67-year-old who was the first woman to hike the entire trail solo? Absolutely. And trust me, so do you.
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While many children attended on opening night, I hardly heard a peep from them during the show – it was the over-25 crowd who were clapping and screaming upon each first entrance of these beloved characters from the underwater city of Bikini Bottom.
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Rather than trying to explain discomfort away, director Cait Bodenbender embraced the play's history by simply casting as Shakespeare himself did: with an all-male cast.
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With his 2025 album Magnifier hailed by Music Connection Magazine as an "intensely personal" creation that "reminds everyone of the value in taking a breather to contemplate the world and reexamine our place within it," indie-folk singer/songwriter Mason Jennings headlines a July 16 concert at Davenport's Raccoon Motel, AllMusic adding that the artist's latest is "folk-pop with an intimate feel" and "an amazingly realized work."
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Touring in support of his most recent album Little Sun, a work that Americana Highways deemed " a masterful record with stunning production and musicianship of the highest quality," Charlie Parr headlines a July 17 concert at Davenport's Raccoon Motel, the country and blues-rock singer/songwriter's latest also leading PopMatters to rave that Parr "never betrays his own vision, one that continues to find new routes to explore even 18 albums in."
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Their springtime release Crushing Flowers lauded by Americana UK as album that “stands among the best from their illustrious career so far,” the Atlanta-based rockers of Drivin N Cryin headline a July 17 concert at Maquoketa's Codfish Hollow Barn, Glide magazine adding that, with their newest recording, the musicians "continue to operate in their own space, where folk storytelling, punk energy, and Southern soul aren’t so much fused as lived-in."
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Hey, Chairman of the FED
Print some debt for me
It’s no secret
There’s no money in the Treasury"Parody Gold": Sound Money Lyrics Inspired by Bob Dylan
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Touring in support of their just-release album Forever Now whose single "Wake Up, Mr. Crow" peaked at number two on the Cross Rhythms Christian Airplay chart, the alt-rock and gospel musicians of Switchfoot bring their national tour to Davenport's Rhythm City Casino Resort on July 18, their unique blend of emotionally intelligent and uplifting music having earned them a devoted and loyal global fan base.
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On July 16, the Putnam Museum & Science Center's GIANT Screen Theater auditorium will definitely be "the Room where it happens," with the Davenport venue hosting a 6 p.m. screening of Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hamilton.
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Watching romantic relationships crack and crumble can be enormous, if nerve-racking, fun – just so long as those breakdowns are viewed from the perspective of an auditorium, and not a mirror.
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Going to the cineplex or staying in and streaming this weekend? Every Thursday morning at 8:15 a.m. you can listen to Mike Schulz dish on recent movie releases & talk smack about Hollywood celebs on Planet 93.9 FM with the fabulous Dave & Darren in the Morning team of Dave Levora and Darren Pitra. The morning crew previews upcoming releases, too. Or you can check the Reader Web site and listen to their latest conversation by the warm glow of your electronic device. Never miss a pithy comment from these three scintillating pundits again
Thursday, July 9: Discussion of Young Washington; previews of Moana, Evil Dead Burn, The Invite, and Gail Daughtry & the Celebrity Sex Pass; thoughts on the 2026 Emmy nominations; and Darren's and Mike's violent disagreement over Minions & Monsters. Well, not violent at all. The guys are super-chill. But boy do they disagree.
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Now playing at area theaters.
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It's hard to think of a more ticklish recent ode to cinema than Minions & Monsters, which would've been just about perfect if its monsters were ditched entirely.
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In celebration of America’s 250th birthday, Davenport's Figge Art Museum is hosting American Art talks throughout the month of July, and on Thursday the 16th, guests are invited to hear from artist Connie Roberts of the new exhibition Connie & Michael Roberts: Portrait of America, Connie noted for bridging the realms of fine art and folk art, and for tackling many subjects with sharp wit and restrained humor.
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In celebration of America’s 250th birthday, Davenport's Figge Art Museum is hosting American Art talks throughout the month of July, and on Thursday the 23rd, guests are invited to hear from Larassa Kabel in Focus on the American Landscape, the speaker a multidisciplinary artist based in Des Moines, Iowa, whose work captures the uneasy balance between humans and nature.
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In celebration of America’s 250th birthday, Davenport's Figge Art Museum has been hosting American Art talks throughout the month of July, and on Thursday the 30th, guests are invited to enjoy Focus with Artist Beth Lipman, held in conjunction with the A Golden Age for Whom? exhibition in the Figge's Mary Waterman Gildehaus Community Gallery.
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Four Chicago-based artists will present concurrent solo exhibitions across the galleries of Dubuque's Voices Studios through July 31, with the collective Quiet Intersections exhibit a multi-faceted experience that reveals how individual artistic voices can converge, diverge, and share creative space.
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Telling the story of Raven, an important trickster figure in Tlingit culture who transformed the world by bringing light to people via the stars, moon, and sun, Preston Singletary: Raven and the Box of Daylight will be viewable at Davenport's Figge Art Museum through August 2, with the tale of Raven releasing or "stealing" the daylight one of the most iconic stories of the Tlingit people of Southeast Alaska.
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