Update: The pop-up event at ICPL on Saturday was postponed due to a winter weather advisory. The new event date has yet to be announced. The Banned Wagon is coming to the Iowa City Public Library (ICPL) on Saturday, as the library hosts a pop-up event where Annie’s Foundation will be giving away free copies […]
Paul Brennan
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Iowa City announces detours as construction on Gilbert Street Bridge project begins
The long-planned replacement of the Gilbert Street Bridge over Ralston Creek will get underway next week. According to the Iowa City Public Works Department, construction will begin on Friday, March 29, weather permitting. The new bridge will be more pedestrian friendly than the current one, which has been in place since 1972. The project will […]
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Bill eliminating regular health and safety inspections of hotels and motels in Iowa passes
The Iowa Senate gave final approval on Tuesday to a bill that addresses the Iowa Department of Inspections, Appeals and Licensing’s (DIAL) decade-long failure to follow state law and inspect hotels and motels once every two years by eliminating the law requiring those inspections. HF 2426 repeals the biennial hotel inspection requirement, and instead requires […]
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Mississippi politician who smashed the Satanic Temple display at the Iowa Capitol seeks to have hate crime charge dismissed
The Mississippi politician who traveled to Des Moines in December to destroy the holiday display set up by the Satanic Temple (TST) in the rotunda of the Iowa State Capitol is seeking to have the hate crime charge for his actions dismissed. On Friday, the attorney for Michael Cassidy filed a motion in Polk County […]
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Gov. Reynolds’ bill undermining transgender rights with new definitions of ‘man’ and ‘woman’ in state law will not pass this year
Gov. Kim Reynolds’ bill that would change how state laws and regulations are made in ways that would undermine the rights of transgender people will not pass during this legislative session. HF 2389 would have needed to be passed by a committee in the Iowa Senate this week, in order to remain viable. But the […]
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Jury acquits Tara McGovern on all charges related to the Oct. 16 protest outside the Iowa Memorial Union
It took a Johnson County jury just a few hours on Thursday to decide Tara McGovern was not guilty of both charges for which they had been arrested last November. The charges against McGovern, who was referred to as Tara Dutcher, their married name, throughout the proceedings, were related to an Oct. 16 protest at the Iowa Memorial Union and attracted much local attention and were even covered by the Washington Post.
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The Wienermobile is coming to Cedar Rapids for St. Patrick’s Day
Hot dogs may not be traditional fare on St. Patrick’s Day, but they’ll have ample representation in Cedar Rapids on March 17 this year, because the Oscar Meyer Wienermobile will be joining SaPaDaPaSo Saint Patrick’s Day Parade on Sunday. This will be the first time one of the vehicles in what Oscar Meyer calls its […]
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Iowa was one of eight states setting records during the country’s ‘warmest winter on record’
The seasons don’t officially change until next week when the spring equinox occurs at 10:06 p.m. (central time) on Tuesday, but meteorological winter is already over and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has now confirmed what seemed obvious on many days these past few months. “Meteorological winter was the warmest winter on record for […]
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Lawmakers advance bill to ban civilian police review boards and increase protections for police officers considered ‘unsuitable or unfit’
Republicans in the Iowa Legislature are advancing a bill that would eliminate civilian police review boards, and change civil service rules to make it harder for police chiefs to fire, suspend or demote officers they have determined to be “unsuitable or unfit” for their positions.
“Today we send a clear message to the brave men and women who put on their uniform every day, who stand on that thin, blue line,” Sen. Scott Webster, a Republican from Bettendorf, said during Monday’s floor debate on the bill in the Iowa Senate. “We have their back. We stand with them. We respect them.”
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Reynolds endorses Trump, Trump ignores Reynolds
It was always obvious Gov. Kim Reynolds would endorse Donald Trump for president once Ron DeSantis’s floundering 2024 campaign collapsed. DeSantis gave up his bid for the Republican presidential nomination and endorsed Trump six days after his distant second-place finish in the Iowa Republican Caucus on Jan. 15. On Wednesday, Gov. Reynolds did the obvious, […]
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Biden wins Iowa; only 2.6% of registered Democrats voted in new mail-in caucus
President Joe Biden scored an overwhelming victory in the Iowa Democratic Party’s first vote-by-mail presidential caucus on Tuesday night. Biden received 90.9 percent of the votes cast. The two other candidates on the mail-in presidential preference card, as the IDP calls its ballots, were Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips, who won 3 percent of the vote, […]
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House Republicans vote to immediately ban guaranteed income programs in Iowa, before results from the first study are known
Less than a year after a program to study the impact of a guaranteed income in Iowa was launched in the Des Moines area, Iowa House Republicans approved a bill to prevent city or county governments from starting or supporting any basic income program in the future.
HF 2319 passed the House on Monday on a vote of 55-43. Seven Republicans joined all the chamber’s Democrats in opposing it.
