A tour hosted by the nonprofit group CR Heritage will highlight the historic qualities of Cedar Rapids Community School District (CRCSD) elementary schools — 10 of which will be demolished and replaced. Cedar Rapids historian Mark Stoffer Hunter will be leading the tour on Friday, Oct. 11.
Community/News
Brock About Town: Wisdom of the ages
Since I graduated college, a terrifying transformation has begun to occur. The music at the hip student bars has become too loud for me, so on Saturday nights, I test out soup recipes in my Crock-Pot while I watch Jeopardy! I have purchased multiple cardigans in various shades of moss. I do the crossword puzzle every morning. In short, I
Dream of climbing up Mount Everest? Climb Mount Trashmore 140 times instead
Cedar Rapidians with ambitions to scale Mount Everest are invited to do the next best thing: climb Mount Trashmore. Next year’s Mount Trashmore Challenge will have participants make their way up the mound of garbage-turned-local-attraction 140 times — the equivalent of climbing Mount Everest. To get people excited about the 2020
Climate activist Greta Thunberg will be in Iowa City on Friday (Updated)
Greta Thunberg, the 16 year-old Swedish activist who has become an international leader in the fight against climate change, will be in Iowa City on Friday. She will join the local activists in the Iowa City Student Climate Strike for an event on Ped Mall. The Iowa City Student Climate Strike is led by City High classmates Massimo Biggers and Alex Howe (who were Southeast Junior High students when they began their demonstrations). The pair have cited Thunberg as an inspiration
Street closures announced for Northside Oktoberfest on Saturday
The 24th annual Northside Oktoberfest will bring beer, brats and family-friendly fun to Iowa City on Saturday. And for the first time since 2015, Oktoberfest will actually be held during October, instead of September. Street closures for the event will start at midnight on Saturday, and the streets won’t reopen until sometime after the festival
Superintendent Stephen Murley will leave his job with the Iowa City school district in 2021
Iowa City Community School District Superintendent Stephen Murley will not seek to extend his current contract with the school district when it expires on June 30, 2021. Murley announced his decision in an email to ICCSD parents, students and staff on Tuesday afternoon. “As I look back on the past ten years, I am very proud to have been a part of a team
Michelle Martinko’s murder ‘haunted’ the Cedar Rapids community for 40 years. Now, her suspected killer is set to go on trial.
Dec. 19, 2018. Like every year, local news stations ran anniversary pieces describing the cold case of Michelle Martinko, an 18-year-old woman stabbed to death in Cedar Rapids in 1979. The facts of the case were recounted. A tip line scrolled across the bottom of the screen. The weather report would be next, and Martinko’s story would be
Love Letters: Keep that which brings joy
Flawless seashells tiny as fingernails,
prickly cockle and calico scallop
keyhole limpet and kitten’s paw,
we found while walking Florida beaches
the Christmas we shared a house
with our three kids and their friends.
Love Letters: Four goodbyes
My father died 25 years ago of an illness no one in our family knew existed. He was diagnosed a few weeks before his death as having frontal lobe atrophy with motor neuron disease, a 13-syllable death sentence that had ravaged his mind and body for several months. My mother, sister, brother and I watched his unremitting deterioration
Republican State Sen. Mariannette Miller-Meeks launches her fourth bid for Congress, but avoids using the word ‘Republican’
State Sen. Mariannette Miller-Meeks announced on Tuesday that she is running for the U.S. House of Representatives in Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District. The Ottumwa ophthalmologist becomes the second Republican in the race for the seat currently held by Rep. Dave Loebsack, who announced his retirement in April. This is Miller-Meeks’ fourth run for Congress. She […]
Final public input session for the Czech Village/NewBo Action Plan will be held on Wednesday night
Residents will have a final opportunity to weigh in on the future of the New Bohemian District and Czech Village during an open house the Cedar Rapids Department of Community Development will hold on Wednesday, Oct. 2, at NewBo City Market. Ideas from the two previous public input sessions on the Czech Village/NewBo Action Plan
Love Letters: An uninvited journey
Family road trips were usually eventful for my family and me when I was younger. If Dad knew where he was going, fine. However, if it was somewhere we had never been before, he would hand the map to Mom and ask her to navigate. Mom would pore over the map, her finger traveling down the line, never as fast as Dad would like.

