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 […]
Community/News
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 […]
Posted inCommunity/News
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 […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Deconstructing the Iowa Barn
The Johnsons kept eight or 10 milk cows in the barn. They sometimes kept pigs, too, but cows suited the barn best. They milked the animals by hand. Later, they skimmed the cream and sent it to the local creamery for butter or ice cream, saving the remaining milk for the hogs. That was 1950. […]
Posted inCommunity/News, UR Here
UR Here: Remembering a Real Minnesota Viking
We’ve lost another one, too soon. On February 25, Bill Holm passed away at age 65. Bill Holm was one of our great writers of the Midwest and of place. He was literally a giant of a man—closer to seven feet than six, enormous Viking build, beard and hair—first reddish and then, over time, a […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Life After Gang Lu
Miya Rodolfo-Sioson was given a second chance at life. She was chosen for a purpose. Miya was the lucky one. The odds had turned against her in an instant but reversed course just as quickly again. Your faith tells you which of the above statements you believe, but the facts tell you this: Miya Rodolfo-Sioson […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Health: On the Run
I have lived in Iowa City for three years now. Each end of April brings the River Run 5K. This is the third year that I have sworn that I would do it. But unlike those other two years, this year I’m actually doing it. I have goals, a plan, and this is the year […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Health: Easy Riders
My thighs burned as I pushed the pedals up another asphalt-covered hill. Each climb was harder than the last and a personal battle, which was to be followed by a spectacular view of snow-patched cornfields as far as the eye could see–-and a nice long coast. These rolling hills of Iowa guide the joyrides for […]
