Two GOP lawmakers at the state and federal level are calling on public university leaders to fire anyone found to have violated laws banning diversity, equity, and inclusion in college classrooms and beyond.

On Saturday, August 16, 2025, River Action celebrated its 16th-Annual Floatzilla event with an all-day float on the Mississippi River culminating at Lake Potter in Rock Island, Illinois. For the first time ever, the float included a couple competitive races: the Dam to Dam race for kayak racers and the QC Cup for Navarro Canoe Co. canoe racers.

The FBI never listed 9/11 on Osama Bin Laden's crime sheet due to “lack of hard evidence.” Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, is the fifth-largest issuer of visas in the Middle East, run by the future CIA Director John Brennan from 1982-84, who issued covert visas to unqualified applicants during this period, according to J. Michael Springmann, Chief of the Visa department in Jeddah.

An art project spanning more than 20 years and including some 150 photographs, he photography exhibit Huang Qingjun: Family Stuff opens the 2025-26 art-show season at Galesburg's Carl Sandburg College, this showcase through October 11 a series of deeply personal works by the artist who has been featured by the New York Times and the BBC.

Currently touring in support of her new album Rhinestone Requiem that Entertainment Focus said "blends Brandy Clark-style lyricism with the vocals of Nanci Griffith and the heart of a honky tonk angel," singer/songwriter Sunny Sweeney headlines a September 18 concert at Davenport's Redstone Room, her latest inspiring Americana UK to dub it "a sparkling yet soul-baring exploration of resilience, heartbreak, and honky-tonk healing."

Delivering a blend of comedy, music, and improv that's both familiar and like nothing seen before, entertainer Michael Leahy's alter ego Clownvis Presley returns to Davenport's Raccoon Motel on September 17, this singular figure having toured with Insane Clown Posse, Neil Hamburger, and Mac Sabbath, and boasting a stage act lauded by L.A. Weekly as "better than the real Elvis."

With his program boasting songs, stories, and lore from Yiddish-theatre classics and such artists as Al Jolson, Fannie Brice, Sophie Tucker, Ted Lewis, and Eddie Cantor, jazz, blues, and folk singer/instrumentalist Lil' Rev – a.k.a. Marc Reverson – brings his one-man show Jews of Tin Pan Alley to the Moline Public Library on September 17, the touring favorite cited by the Wisconsin Area Music Industry as “Best Harmonica Instrumentalist” in 2000 and "Best Folk Singer”in 2004.

Described by the Examiner as “a band unlike any other” and by Blurt magazine as “a hybrid of Idris Muhammad, George Clinton, Ohio Players, and Earth, Wind & Fire,” the tightly-wrapped funk, rock, and R&B musicians of Here Come the Mummies return to Maquoketa's Codfish Hollow Barn on September 14, their infectious grooves leading The Bob & Tom Show co-host Bob Kevoian to call one of their concerts “the most fun I've had in 20 years.”

Bringing to life the classic hits of one of pop music's most iconic groups, and doing so with dazzling costumes, flawless harmonies, and captivating stage presence, this tribute artists of Mamma Mania! ABBA Tribute bring their tour to Galesburg's Orpheum Theatre on September 13, the night sure to be filled with such iconic pop anthems as “Dancing Queen,” “Waterloo,” “The Winner Takes It All,” “Take a Chance on Me," and "Mamma Mia."