A Labor Day-weekend tradition once again blasts into the District of Rock Island in this year's Xtream Rock Island Grand Prix, the August 30 and 31 vent in which hundreds will cheer as participants, from one inch off the ground, traverse city streets at speeds approaching 100MPH.

A beloved local tradition designed specifically for seniors continues into its 26th year when River Action, on September 4 and 5, hosts two days worth of self-guided Senior Citizen Golf Cart Tours, with his year’s event including a tour of the Arsenal Island taking place in the early evening, allowing for a normally unseen look at the Mississippi River and the historic island.

A three-time Academy Award winner and one of the most popular and enduring movies of all time, director Billy Wilder's legendary Sunset Boulevard opens the “From Hitler to Hollywood” film series hosted by the German American Heritage Center, its September 3 screening at Davenport venue The Last Picture House treating audience to what Rotten Tomatoes' critical consensus calls “a tremendously entertaining combination of noir, black comedy, and character study."

Because I'm predisposed to love Bob Odenkirk in anything, it says something about the man's unique charisma that I even managed to like him in Nobody 2, a comedic action thriller that falls apart in nearly every conceivable way.

Some Republicans in Illinois have taken to regularly bashing Republican state legislative leaders for seeking support from the Illinois Education Association, a teachers union that has for decades worked to help elect Republicans who are sympathetic to their issues.

“Yeah, we're Off the Lawn,” says Ballet Quad Cities Artistic Director Courtney Lyon. “We were asking ourselves, 'What are we gonna call it?' As a joke, kind of tongue-in-cheek, someone said, 'Ballet Off the Lawn'? And we were like, 'Ummm … okay!' Because it has the same feeling as the Ballet on the Lawns – it has great energy, and everything's really engaging and theatrical. It's just gonna be indoors.”

I cannot stress the importance of familiarizing yourselves with Tina Peter's ongoing case.  Judge Barrett ordered Tina's incarceration prior to her appeal being heard. Not for any of the crimes she was convicted for, but for her potential speech, for what she might say that he determined might be potentially dangerous.

August 2025 Cartoon by Ed Newmann Uncle Scam's Election Casino

Presented as a kickoff to next month's German Film Series at The Last Picture House, and offered as part of the German American Heritage Center's popular "Kaffee und Kuchen" series, the August 24 program From Hitler to Hollywood will find Emmy-winning local filmmakers Kelly and Tammy Rundles of Fourth Wall Films hosting a screening of PBS' Cinema’s Exiles documentary, and leading a dynamic post-film discussion about some of this period's most influential films, actors, and directors.