On September 25, art lovers are invited to Davenport's Figge Art Museum to hear artist Kristin Quinn reflect on the works in her exhibit Luminous Flux Paintings from the Watershed, with Figge Co-Senior Curator Joshua Johnson leading the conversation on this arresting collection designed to capture the sensation of the memory of a place – its mood, its texture, its atmosphere – through imagery and abstraction.

A botanist, artist, author, and ex-railroader who travels the world documenting plant life, Joey Santore is the host and producer of the YouTube channel Crime Pays But Botany Doesn't, and on September 25, he'll be at Rock Island venue Rozz-Tox with his live presentation Kill Your Lawn, exploring the inadequacies of lawn culture for anything other than the purposes of picnics, sports fields, and dog feces.

Winner of eight Academy Awards including Best Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, and Supporting Actor (Frank Sinatra) and Supporting Actress (Donna Reed), Fred Zinnemann's 1953 classic From Here to Eternity continues the “From Hitler to Hollywood” film series hosted by the German American Heritage Center on September 24.

I’m coming a bit late to this (national current events having overtaken everything), but a lawsuit filed by House and Senate Republicans was recently tossed out by Sangamon County Circuit Court Judge Jack Davis II. The suit sought to strike down a new law — Senate Bill 328 — backed by trial lawyers. The Republicans say they will appeal. The Republican lawsuit claimed that the majority Democrats had violated the Illinois Constitution’s “three readings rule.”

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."