3 days Ago
The election is over, but the Political Focus Group remains intact. This weekend, they're writing about what message voters sent on Tuesday. I'll ask them next week to reflect on being part of the group.
Tom Martin, Executive Editor Quad-City Times Election days are always a challenge in the newsroom, especially when there are so many local races. Our coverage this year started at daybreak, with reporters Tom Loewy and Gannon Hanevold speaking to voters in Rock Island who were waiting for the polls to open. Loewy and Hanevold hit another polling place in Rock Island before going to Andalusia, a couple of spots in Davenport and Eldridge and then reporter Sarah Watson talked to voters in Bettendorf.
Managing Editor Connor Wood updated those stories on our live blog throughout the day, adding turnout numbers and other information as it became available, including results. In the meantime, Digital Editor Grace Kinnicutt loaded local polling numbers from Rock Island and Scott counties into a dashboard on the website. Photographers Katelyn Metzger and Roy Dabner went to several polling places and political gatherings to gain a collection of photos.
After results came in, Watson put together a story on Iowa statehouse races, Gretchen Teske reported on Scott County races, Olivia Allen covered the Illinois state representative race and Rock Island County races, while Joshua Shimkus covered the congressional race in Illinois between Eric Sorensen and Joe McGraw. My thanks goes out to the staff for the extra effort on Tuesday. We hope readers were able to find the information they wanted regarding the races.
Quad-City Times Reporter Gannon Hanevold Gannon Hanevold will leave the Quad-City times/Dispatch-Argus to move to Minneapolis. His last day is Nov. 15.
We are sorry to see him go. Gannon brought a lot of energy and ideas to the beat. He invented and executed one of readers' favorite food segments: "The Best Thing I Ate This Week.
" Accessible and informative, the weekly feature led to readers bringing in clippings to show restaurants what they'd like to order. Gannon also did a monster series called Timeless Tickets, where he researched and chose the best concert for each year in the Quad-Cities from 1960s until now. He unearthed some interesting stories about those shows and how they came about.
In fact, you can check qctimes.com or qconline.com Monday and vote for in the championship round of the best concert ever in the Quad-Cities.
Gannon wrote a weekly column "Sounds Good" and concert reviews, including his most popular story, "T-Pain deserved better than what fans gave him at the Mississippi Valley Fair." We wish Gannon well and will soon start interviews for the next entertainment reporter. Tom Martin is executive editor of the Quad-City Times/Dispatch-Argus.
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