Tanawah Downing Jessica Saxton Davenport City Council June 25.2025 Facebook Video Screenshot

Last Wednesday evening, I got a text from a concerned citizen alerting me to the video of that evening's Davenport City Council meeting. Two people made presentations to the council about accessing the grand jury and did I know these people? Of course, I was glued to the playback of the council meeting that evening. After watching the video playback several times, my “Spidey-Sense” was tingling. I thought, “Is this crazy-bait? Are these people legitimate or have they been sent here to disrupt or discredit the critical discussion regarding the grand juries?”

If the sure-to-be-boffo global box office for Jurassic World Rebirth can be trusted, we real-life humans apparently haven't gotten close to bored with dinosaurs. Not all of us anyway.

Celebrating more than 20 years of thrilling crowds with spectacular renditions of “Waterloo,” “The Winner Takes It All,” “Take a Chance on Me,' and additional favorites, the tribute artists of Dancing Queen: An ABBA Salute headline a July 12 outdoor concert in Bishop Hill's Village Park, the show taking place not long after the 50th-anniversary celebration of the Swedish pop legends' Eurovision victory,

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 15 through 19, 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.

On April 21, 1856, the nation’s first railroad bridge across the Mississippi – connecting the Rock Island Arsenal to Davenport – was completed. Built with more than 220,000 pounds of cast iron, 400,000 pounds of wrought iron, and one million feet of timber, the bridge was an engineering marvel.

Death metal has roots in numerous bands and places, most significantly in the humid, blood-soaked, stimulant-crazed state of Florida, a peninsula cursed since the days of the Spaniards, if not before. Its tentacles have spread across the globe, including to the poisoned wastes of Iowa, which brings us to the subject of this article.

For the first time in 10 years, ComedySportz (CSz) Quad Cities will host the world championship for the improvisational comedy group, and for the first time at Moline’s Spotlight Theatre (1800 Seventh Avenue, Moline IL).

John Taylor doesn’t have to go far to hear first-class live music. Since 2014, the friendly Iraq war veteran and computer programmer has hosted concerts at his home in tiny Cambridge, Illinois, 31 miles southeast of Moline.

Slide 2017 Northern Illinois University on Grand Juries Specifically the  Case Hurtado v CA

https://www.rcreader.com/commentary/is-this-crazy-bait#overlay=node/69084/editSupporters of empowering county grand juries in the State of Iowa were likely surprised and excited by remarks made at a Davenport City council meeting on 25 June 2025 by Mr. Tanawah Downing and Ms. Jessica Saxton [~1:14:00 mark]. Their message was direct and to the point. The 5th and 14th Amendments of the Constitution are being violated by legislation passed by Iowa that permits prosecuting attorneys and police to charge by way of information rather than grand jury indictment.

G. Wygonik's New Single “Reel Life” Official video screenshot

[Must read lyrics are in this article!] The new single “Reel Life” marks the powerful rebirth of CUT.RATE.BOX. Released for free (pay as you wish) via Bandcamp, it offers a dark and unflinching reflection of our modern age: overstimulated, algorithmically manipulated, and emotionally anesthetized. Musically, the track is a tense fusion of dense electronic punk, EB rhythms, and synthpop unease – drawing on influences such as Cabaret Voltaire, Wire, and Brian Eno, while embracing modern production and generative tools as instruments of expression, not novelty. 

 A slight sheen, indicative of petroleum, can be seen on the surface of the water

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is investigating an oil spill that entered the West Nishnabotna River from a truck stop near Avoca. The spill follows a complaint of discharged petroleum at the same Eagles Landing Flying J Truckstop from this spring that the DNR was still investigating and working to help clean up when the June 24 spill was observed.

An inductee in the Canadian Music Industry Hall of Fame and Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame, and cited as one of the most influential performers in Canadian rock music, Burton Cummings headlines a special solo engagement at Davenport's Rhythm City Casino Event Center, his July 12 concert treating fans to the award-winning stylings of the musician and songwriter best known for leading the Guess Who during that band's most successful period from 1965 to 1975.

A lauded talent whose music incorporates elements of folk, bluegrass, and gypsy jazz, West Virginia sensation Sierra Ferrell headlines a July 14 concert event at Davenport's Capitol Theatre, her 2024 recording smash Trail of Hours the winner of the 2025 Grammy Award for Album of the Year, with Ferrell herself receiving Grammys for Best Americana Performance, Best American Roots Performance, and Best American Roots Song for “American Dreaming.”

With their most recent, critically acclaimed album Good Together nominated for the 2025 Grammy Award for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album, the pop, rock, folk, and alt-jazz musicians of Lake Street Dive headline a July 15 concert at Davenport's Capitol Theatre, their new recording hailed by AllMusic as "a record that feels convivial and breezy, showcasing their warm group harmonies and a nice balance of stylistic influences."

Having sold almost 10 million copies worldwide of their 11 studio albums including their 2003 double-platinum breakthrough The Beautiful Letdown and 2009's Grammy Award-winning Hello Hurricane, the alt-rock musicians of Switchfoot bring their national tour to Davenport's Capitol Theatre on July 15, the band revered for their exhilarating live performances resulting in more than 5 million concert tickets sold in more than 40 countries around the world.

Touring in support of last year's OMNI, which Blabbermouth hailed as an album that "keeps the standard for futuristic deathcore in the stratosphere," the metalcore talents of The Browning headline a July 17 concert event at Davenport's Capitol Theatre, the group's latest also praised by The Metalverse as being "filled with breakdowns and bright synths from start to finish."

Boasting numerous chart-topping albums on the iTunes Blues Chart and top-10 smashes on Billboard's Blues, Heatseekers, and Tastemaker charts, the roots and country-blues musicians of The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band headline a July 17 concert event as Davenport's Redstone Room, their February release Honeysuckle, according to Americana Highways, "fueled by 12 full gallons of high-octane Americana that ignite the country blues/gospel sparkplugs of legendary masters."

Appearing together in a special concert event co-presented by the Mississippi Valley Blues Society, Marcia Ball and The Jimmys enjoys July 12 sets at Davenport's Redstone Room, the latter having toured the U.S., Canada, Europe, and the Caribbean since 2010, and the former an award-winning talent who made her professional debut more than 50 years ago.

Performing in support of their split EP with The Rumjacks that spawned the hit singles "Mud" and "Sorry," the Chicago-based Celtic-punk musicians of Flatfoot 56 return to the Quad Cities on July 11, their engagement at Davenport's Raccoon Motel sure to fill the Davenport venue with what IndieVision Music called “their rambunctious style that their fans have come to love.”

With their May release Caveman Wakes Up hailed by Stereogum as "one of the most assured indie rock albums in recent memory," the indie rockers of Friendship headline a July 12 concert at Davenport's Raccoon Motel, Stereogum adding that the group's latest is "the sound of a brilliant writer coming into his own and a band honing in on the ideal aesthetic complement for his songs, imbuing his quiet indignities with a plaintive grace."

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