Matt Christensen
Data Journalist, Associate Producer
Davenport, Iowa
A native of East Moline, Matt Christensen is an award-winning journalist with 17 years of experience in newsrooms around the country.
He graduated from United Township High School in 2000 and earned a bachelor's degree in journalism from Iowa State University.
Matt started his journalism career as a newspaper features writer, later covering natural resources, the environment and related legal issues. He managed newsrooms in Idaho, Montana, Wisconsin and Minnesota.
He returned to the Quad-Cities in 2017, where he was editor of the Quad-City Times and Dispatch-Argus. He joined KWQC-TV6 in December 2022 to cover investigations and work on INSI6HT.
Matt lives in Bettendorf with his wife, Melissa, and their daughters, Madge and Lily. Their Newfoundland, Winnie, and their lab, Lucy, provide the amusement.
Despite pleas for jail time, the judge gave the disgraced clerk probation for stealing from taxpayers.
Stephen Maxwell is an investigator who looks into 400 nursing home complaints a year in Illinois. He said many problems boil down to a single issue: not enough staff. Medicare.gov ranks nursing homes based on reports Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Of the 27 facilities in a 25-miles radius of Davenport, more than a quarter received 1-star overall ratings.
A judge has ruled Davenport violated the rights of Alderman Derek Cornette when he was ousted last month
Investigators will soon turn over their report to prosecutors, who will decide whether anyone will be charged with a crime
The panel probing allegations of racism on the City Council hasn't revealed its findings, more than two months after the commission began its investigation.
Federal regulators have opened an investigation into a death that occurred at Deere’s Parts Distribution Center in Milan. Tony LeCleir, 55, of Davenport, was injured on Oct. 20 in circumstances that are still unclear.
The city of Davenport is paying City Administrator Corri Spiegel $1.6 million as part of her separation agreement.
Relatives of two men killed in the downtown Davenport building collapse have filed wrongful death lawsuits against the building’s owner and the city of Davenport. Ryan Hitchcock and Daniel Prien both died when the building at 324 Main St. collapsed on May 28. The lawsuits have been combined with at least half a dozen others related to the collapse.
During an open house of the recently shuttered Iowa Wesleyan University in Mounty Pleasant a former professor was stunned when she saw thousands of pages scattered in an unlocked room. Names, addresses and Social Security numbers – data that puts people at risk for identity theft.
The 23-year-old from Bettendorf learned six months ago that she carries a gene variant that means she’s at a much higher risk to get cancer over her lifetime. Any nerves she might have had about getting the test are gone. “I felt very empowered, I guess, but also relieved to just know the answer, whatever it was,” she said. “And then we can make choices that are able to better dictate what we’re going to do with our medical choices, our health choices, our life plans.”
Knowledge is power, and for people with a family history of cancer, genetic testing is a powerful tool. Genesis Health System oncology genetic specialist Leslie Poston said about 10% of all the diagnosed cancer has a genetic link. The numbers are stunning. A woman with a BRCA mutation has an 85% chance of developing cancer at some point in her life.
A Bettendorf woman is coming forward to speak about what happened to her when she was 14 years old. Andrea Moore says back in 1999, she was the babysitter for the kids of Robby Ortiz, now a Davenport alderman.
The family of 17-year-old Victoria Dickey of Moline filed a wrongful death suit against the driver who gave her a lift home after work and the sandwich shop earlier this year. It says Jersey Mike’s had reason to believe the driver was impaired and should have intervened.
She appeared Friday in Rock Island County Circuit Court.
This week a judge ruled in his favor in a case that threatened to put his company, JC Landscaping and Maintenance, out of business and his 40 employees out of work.
Combine the hometown feel of locally-owned shops and the prestige of Fortune 500 companies, and you have Clinton’s economy. These companies chose Clinton – for its people, its promise and its potential.
A Bettendorf woman, who pleaded guilty to a cancer scam, involving theft of over $39,000 in donations for a false cancer claim was sentenced to a suspended prison sentence and probation, Friday at the Scott County Courthouse. Victims say they feel betrayed that she won't be behind bars.
A Davenport doctor says he should be able to prescribe controversial drugs to treat COVID-19 without interference from state health boards. The Iowa Board of Medicine began investigating Dr. David Hartsuch, a former Republican legislator, after a pharmacy refused to fill one of his patient’s prescriptions for ivermectin, a livestock drug sometimes used to treat parasites in people. Hartsuch is seeking a court injunction that would require pharmacies to fill prescriptions for ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine like they would any other drugs.
Suzanne Martinez said she's been buying water for drinking and cooking at her cabin after learning of higher than safe levels of PFAS in the water.
Animal advocates say folks looking for puppies should be careful when they’re shopping at pet stores. In the Quad Cities, shops are taking steps to ensure they’re not feeding the puppy pipeline.
In a court hearing today held by Zoom, former Ald. Derek Cornette's lawyer, Mike Meloy, said the charges were overkill. It wasn’t just one charge, he said. “This was eight charges made against Cornette, and they threw out the kitchen sink at him.”
There’s a bipartisan effort in Iowa aimed at shutting down puppy mills that are notorious for neglect of their breeding dogs. U.S. Rep. Zach Nunn, a Republican who represents Iowa's 3rd District, is a co-sponsor of a bill in Congress called Goldie’s Act. It’s named for a golden retriever who was euthanized after being surrendered along with 500 other dogs at an Iowa facility.
Four years ago, a jury found Annette Cahill guilty of killing her boyfriend back in 1992. Now, her lawyers say they are seeking to retest evidence that could exonerate her.
There’s a bipartisan effort in Iowa aimed at shutting down puppy mills that are notorious for neglect of their breeding dogs. U.S. Rep. Zach Nunn, a Republican who represents Iowa's 3rd District, is a co-sponsor of a bill in Congress called Goldie’s Act. It’s named for a golden retriever who was euthanized after being surrendered along with 500 other dogs at an Iowa facility.
More Quad-Cities communities are detecting dangerous chemicals in the drinking water. Buffalo, Iowa, is the latest to alert residents after they were found in recent water tests.
Many of the dog in pet stores across the country come from large-scale commercial breeders - puppy mills - here in Iowa. The state has a lot of rural land and space for facilities, that make it ideal for a puppy mill to go unnoticed. Animal advocates say the USDA is not strict enough with problem breeders.
The Quad-Cities has seen at least 365 layoffs in just the past 12 days.
Republicans in the House of Representatives have been in a stalemate over how to keep the government open. Congress has till midnight tomorrow to pass a spending bill or the government will shut down.
Davenport Ald. Tim Kelly has accused another councilman of using the n-word after a city meeting in August. Now more than a month later, Kelly says he’s coming forward because nothing is being done. Kelly said fellow alderman, Robbie Ortiz, made the comments during an informal chat in council chambers after a meeting in August.
Ald. Tim Kelly said last week he’d heard fellow council members using racist terms. On Monday, pastors and community organizers said city leaders haven’t responded and that the matter deserves more attention.
The owner of a Davenport landscaping company said the city is forcing him out of business. The city’s zoning board says JC Landscaping’s location in rural West Davenport isn’t zoned for its operations.
John Deere cutting 225 jobs at Harvester Works in East Moline could be in anticipation of bad harvest this year, an economist told KWQC-TV6.
Starting Monday, defendants in Illinois courthouses no longer have to post cash bail. That means that once a person is arrested and processed, they’re freed unless a prosecutor intervenes. On Monday, prosecutors argued to keep dozens of people in jail until their trial. That included defendants accused or murder, major drug crimes, assaults and sex crimes.
Chhabria A. Harris who is accused of killing two men when she drove onto the I-74 bridge pedestrian path was set to take a plea deal Friday afternoon, but attorneys haven’t been able to strike an arrangement.
A Davenport alderman removed from office for misconduct plans to file a lawsuit against the city today.
Come Monday, most people charged with crimes in Illinois won’t have to post bail to get out of jail. Illinois is the first state in the nation to eliminate cash bail. It’s part of a sweeping criminal justice reform law called the SAFE-T Act, upheld by the Supreme Court earlier this summer.
Camanche is digging a new well because dangerous chemicals have been detected at high levels in their drinking water. Regulators are pointing the finger at 3M, which uses chemicals at its facility in Cordova. Camanche City Administrator Andrew Kida said the recent tests by 3M on Well #5 show no detectable levels of PFAS in its main water supply.
Camanche is digging a new well because dangerous chemicals have been detected at high levels in their drinking water. Regulators are pointing the finger at 3M, which uses chemicals at its facility in Cordova. Camanche City Administrator Andrew Kida said the recent tests by 3M on Well #5 show no detectable levels of PFAS in its main water supply.
They’re called forever chemicals because that is how long they can last, and the EPA says 3M Cordova has been discharging the dangerous chemicals into the Mississippi River since the 1970s. Now, the forever chemicals have been detected in Quad-Cities drinking water.
In new court filings, former Davenport City Administrator Craig Malin says he found numerous failures by the city to protect residents from the building collapse.
The Quad-Cities started the summer with a tragic building collapse. It’s ending it with the first findings about why it fell. A full summer has now passed since the building collapse that killed three.
A preliminary hearing was held Thursday for the boy's mother.
One family’s good deed leads to a ‘miracle’ in Muscatine.
Monday marked 27 years since Trudy Appleby disappeared, Aug. 12, 1996.
The mother of Zion Staples has been charged with concealing the body of her 10-year-old son in a garbage can in a Rock Island garage. No one has been charged in Zion’s death.
Major safety concerns are arising about a proposed pipeline in our area.
A new lawsuit filed in U.S. district court says the Rock Island-Milan School District failed to investigate a sexual assault.
Public schools are being asked to do a lot more these days, and with all these services comes the need for more space. When students at George O. Barr returned to school last week, they had 12 new classrooms and other major upgrades.
TV6 Investigates looks at how AI is beefing up security at George O. Barr Elementary School in Silvis.
It’s been one week since police found a 10-year-old boy’s body in the garage of a Rock Island home. Zion Staples died in December. His mother, Sushi Staples, is charged with hiding the body and lying to the police.
