Paul Holdefer faced a worrying prospect. The University of Iowa graduate research assistant’s lease was set to expire July 25, a week before his new one began. He tried to negotiate a longer stay in his original apartment, “just to not be unhoused with all my stuff and my partner,” he said, “even offering to […]
Eastern Iowa Community/News
Posted inCommunity/News
Iowa City Public Library stops charging overdue fines
The Iowa City Public Library will no longer charge fines for overdue books or other materials. ICPL eliminated overdue fines on books for children and young adults in May 2019. Now that no-fine policy will apply to everything on loan at the library. “Creating financial barriers to public library use is counterproductive and goes against […]
Posted inEastern Iowa
Gov. Reynolds won’t ask lawmakers to outlaw abortion yet, will try to get the courts to do that
Gov. Kim Reynolds said on Wednesday she’s waiting until state courts decide whether to revive a never-enforced 2018 law banning almost all abortions in Iowa, before she’ll announce if there will be a special session of the Iowa Legislature this year to further restrict reproductive rights. The so-called “fetal heartbeat bill” was struck down as […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Street closures and bus route changes for Iowa City Jazz Fest start on Friday
The music starts at 5 p.m. on Friday for the Summer of the Arts Jazz Festival in Iowa City, as the Mike Conrad Trio takes the Weatherdance Stage on the Ped Mall, but downtown street closures for the festival start even earlier. City crews will close Iowa Avenue from Dubuque Street to S Clinton Street, […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Iowa City pools: City Park is seeping, rec center swimmers fight likely closure and Mercer may be heating up
The Iowa City Parks and Recreation Department has recommended closing the 58-year-old pool at Robert A. Lee Community Recreation Center, and instead adding a warm water pool at Mercer Park Aquatic Center and Scanlon Gym, as part of its Gather Here Recreation Master Plan. The plan also includes a redesign of City Park pool, introducing […]
Posted inEastern Iowa Community/News
Man drives his truck into protesters marching for abortion rights in Cedar Rapids
A man drove his pickup truck into protesters crossing a street in Cedar Rapids on Friday night. This happened at the end of a march in response to the U.S. Supreme Court decision overruling Roe v. Wade and eliminating the constitutional right to an abortion, as protesters who had gathered for a rally and march […]
Posted inEastern Iowa
Watch: Hundreds protest Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in Iowa City
“I want to encourage you to gain strength and purpose from this collective body here today,” Francine Thompson, executive director of the Emma Goldman Clinic, told the hundred gathered at the Pentacrest on Friday night, June 24. “Because we have a long, hard fight ahead of us.” The protest in response to the Republican-appointed majority […]
Posted inEastern Iowa Community/News
The U.S. Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade, rescinding a right for the first time in its history
“As of today, this Court holds, a State can always force a woman to give birth, prohibiting even the earliest abortions,” Justice Elena Kagan wrote, summing up what the Republican-appointed majority on the U.S. Supreme Court did in its decision Friday that stripped Americans of the federally protected right to abortion. “A State can thus […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Live music, silent disco, almost-beach volleyball, pro wrestling and much more planned for Iowa City’s Downtown Block Party
The chance to dance like everybody is watching, but nobody watching can hear your music returns on Saturday, as the Downtown Block Party’s Silent Disco takes over the stretch of Dubuque Street in front of Pullman Bar & Diner (17 S Dubuque St). The Silent Disco is just one of the familiar favorites returning to […]
Posted inCentral Iowa
Iowa Supreme Court slashes abortion rights protections, Reynolds calls decision ‘a significant victory’
Just four years after its landmark decision establishing the fundamental right to an abortion as not only protected by the Iowa Constitution, but having greater protection under the state constitution than under the U.S. Constitution, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled on Friday that the right is not in the Iowa Constitution, allowing a state-mandated 24-hour […]
Posted inEastern Iowa Community/News
Street closures for Iowa City Pride Festival start at 6 a.m. Saturday
Street closures downtown for the Iowa City Pride Festival begin early Saturday morning. City crews will block off Linn Street from Iowa Avenue to the alley on the north side of the Iowa City Public Library and Washington Street from Dubuque to Linn streets, starting at 6 a.m. to allow vendors to set up. Also […]
Posted inCentral Iowa
Planned Parenthood workers in Iowa and four other states join fight to unionize
Four-hundred Planned Parenthood employees across 28 Midwest clinics may soon be unionized. The majority of Planned Parenthood North Central States (PPNCS) workers have joined SEIU Healthcare Minnesota and Iowa, filing for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board on May 26. PPNCS includes clinics across the states of Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota […]
