As Summer is just heating up, it is also speeding towards its conclusion. There are just under three months until fall returns, and with it, the school year, cold, and responsibility. If you have a yen for a summer adventure without the long drive and hefty expense of a big city visit, perhaps it would […]
Community/News
Posted inCommunity/News, UR Here
UR Here: Place in Time
For the past few years, July has been a special month for me. Since 2005, I have taught a one-week workshop in the Iowa Summer Writing Festival focused on writing about place and writing about nature. Since 2007, I have followed that up with a several-week course at the Iowa City Senior Center focused on […]
Posted inAstrology, Community/News
Astrology Forecast for July 2009
Astrology Forecast for July 2009 FOR EVERYONE ~ Take it one step at a time. This is another month when psychological changes outweigh and complicate concrete changes. The planets are breaking up old personal patterns and releasing new potentials, leaving us a little dazed and confused in the process. These processes will conflict with our […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Roosevelt Part 3: The Shuttering
Despite months of public protest, the Iowa City School Board voted unanimously during their June 9 meeting to close Roosevelt Elementary and build a new school on the west edge of town. But many in the community never accepted the administration’s premise, much less conclusion, if that meant ignoring the “how” and “why” questions behind […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Mandating Health
A few years ago I was asked to serve on the Wellness Committee that was being formed by the Iowa City School District, under a federal mandate to improve the health of school children. Having made lunch every morning for my kids because I’d seen the “food” they were served in the cafeterias, I was […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Like a Fish in Water
Swimming has mesmerized me since I was very little. It’s one of the main reasons I absolutely love summer. When the weather heats up, I can just hear the water calling my name, beckoning me to dive in. The dichotomy of air and water fascinates me. In air we can move freely, but we’re still anchored […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Iowa City Police, Department of Pointless Harassment
As detailed here in the Daily Iowan, long time Iowa City Artist Virginia Visker was arrested a week ago on drug charges. She was in jail for nearly a week in Manchester, Iowa due to overcrowding at the jail, but was finally released a couple days ago. You may not think you know Virginia, but […]
Posted inAstrology, Community/News
Dr. Star's Astrology Forecast: May 2009
FOR EVERYONE: Bittersweet change. Permanent, irreversible change will come to all of us this month. Events will partly force us and partly allow us to break out of an old, limiting situation and into a new one with much greater promise. Some will have to abandon old expectations for new ones. But the changes will […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Eco Ridin'
As of 2009, there is only one Bicycle Friendly Business (BFB) in the state of Iowa, and it is located in our very own Iowa City. The League of American Bicyclists named the Broken Spoke as a bronze level BFB last March. According to the League, which has 300,000 members, only 47 total businesses in the […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Closing Arguments
Superintendent Lane Plugge’s office on Dubuque Street is in the three-story brick building that used to be Henry Sabin Elementary School. The elementary school closed in 1979. Now it’s the Iowa City Community School District’s administration building, and site of increasingly fractious school board meetings on the second and fourth Tuesdays of the month. Plugge […]
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Living in a Disposable World
I sit with John Solow, an associate professor of economics, to chat about DVD players. Five years ago, his broke. It was a hulking, silver box, a relic of early-era digital technology. Motors whirled in an eh-eh-eh sputter, but, try as he did, Solow couldn’t get the disc tray to open. Where I would have reached […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Fitness, meet food
The Obama’s are doing it, so shouldn’t we do it too? In case you’re in the dark and missed the First Lady digging around on the White House lawn in March, gardening is in the spotlight this year. Of all the reasons to grow your own food, health of the environment and your own body […]
