Construction delays have pushed the debut of Iowa City’s new public pool to 2027, the Parks and Recreation Department announced Friday afternoon. Last summer was the first time since Harry Truman was president that there was no outdoor public pool open in Iowa City. City Park Pool, which had been a central part of local […]
Eastern Iowa Community/News
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Rob Sand warns Iowa is facing ‘a fiscal time bomb,’ calls for four debates with Zach Lahn
Iowa’s state budget deficits are a “fiscal time bomb,” and addressing the problem “before the bomb explodes” will be the top priority if he’s elected governor, Rob Sand told the annual conference of the Iowa Association of Business and Industry (ABI) in Coralville on Thursday. ABI had scheduled a nonpartisan forum for gubernatorial candidates at […]
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José Yugar-Cruz granted temporary release from ICE custody as Ebola outbreak impedes third-country deportations to Congo
José Yugar-Cruz, an asylum-seeker from Bolivia the Trump administration has been attempting to deport the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) since April, has secured release from ICE custody, Escucha Mi Voz Iowa (EMV) announced on Friday morning. According to the news release from the Iowa City-based nonprofit that assists and advocates for immigrants, Yugar-Cruz was […]
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The fourth Coralville Asian Festival brought together singers, dancers, drummers and dragons
The temperature in S.T. Morrison Park was already hitting 80 degrees when the sound of drumming started just after 1 p.m. on Saturday afternoon. The heat, however, didn’t stop hundreds from turning out for the opening of the fourth annual Coralville Asian Festival (CAF). This year’s festival kicked off with a performance by the Soten […]
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Locals, elected officials protest effort to deport a Bolivian asylum-seeker with no criminal record to the Congo
“What has José done except ask for freedom from brutality?” Rev. Marc Schlegel-Preheim of First Mennonite Church of Iowa City asked at a protest in front of the Linn County Courthouse in Cedar Rapids on Thursday. About 100 people were gathered on the steps of the courthouse to support José Yugar-Cruz, a 37-year-old asylum-seeker from […]
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U.S. Attorney continues effort to deport South American asylum seeker in Iowa to Africa (Updated)
Update: On Monday, U.S. District Judge Stephen Locher lifted his order prohibiting ICE from removing José Yugar-Cruz from Iowa. Locher wrote that an April 18 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court left him “little choice” in the case, and ICE can now proceed to deport Yugar-Cruz to the Democratic Republic of Congo, a country in […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Josie Nabhan-Warren, a junior at Iowa City West High, is the new Iowa Student Poet Ambassador
Josie Nabhan-Warren of Iowa City West High School has been named the 2026-2027 Iowa Student Poet Ambassador, the highest honor a young writer can receive in Iowa.
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Community members gather for a vigil in response to Sunday’s Ped Mall shooting
Laments are “a legitimate prayer,” Rev. Nora Boerner told the people gathered at Trinity Episcopal Church in Iowa City on Monday evening. “Anger is a legitimate prayer. Frustration, pain, anything that you are feeling and anything you believe, you can offer to God, Higher Being, Source, whatever that may be.”
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‘Exactly what asylum law is meant to stop’: ICE again seizes Bolivian man ordered released in January, plans to deport him to Africa
Three months after a federal judge ordered ICE to release José Yugar-Cruz from Muscatine County Jail, ICE has detained the 36-year-old asylum seeker from Bolivia again. ICE has not accused Yugar-Cruz, who has no criminal record, of violating the terms of his release or any other infractions. ICE plans to deport him to the Democratic […]
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UI professor and Iowa City local for 25 years sues Trump administration for canceling his, his wife’s citizenship oaths
“Twenty-six years ago, I touched down at Eastern Iowa Airport,” Dr. Sunday Goshit told the people gathered on the Ped Mall Friday morning. Goshit, an adjunct assistant professor of International Studies at the University of Iowa and an instructor of Intercultural Competence at Kirkwood Community College, recalled how he arrived in Iowa “with a suitcase […]
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A stolen Pride flag was restored and a proclamation challenged this Trans Day of Visibility in Johnson County
Speaking to the crowd gathered at College Green Park in downtown Iowa City for the Transgender Day of Visibility (TDOV) rally on Tuesday, Katie Freeman began by talking about the sounds — shouts, chants, angry and despairing screams — they heard in protests inside the Iowa State Capitol last year as Republican lawmakers voted to […]
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Iowans in 61 cities turn out for No Kings the third, protesting fresh Trump horrors at now-routine rallies
There were more than 3,300 “No Kings” rallies across the country on Saturday, including 61 in Iowa. The rallies protesting President Trump and his policies took place across the state, in both Iowa’s largest cities and smaller communities like Onawa and Tipton. National organizers estimated the overall participation across the country at 8 million. It is […]
