The 2026 election will be unlike any in decades. In addition to an open seat for governor and an open seat for U.S. Senate — a combination that hasn’t happened since 1968 — there are also open seats in two of Iowa’s four congressional districts and no incumbent running for State Auditor. In a state […]
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Petition to reverse closure of Iowa City archives rejected as state defends against lawsuit, lawmakers
As 2025 was drawing to close, the Iowa Department of Administrative Services (DAS) finally issued its response to a petition submitted at the end of October that asked the department to reverse its decision to close the State Historical Society of Iowa (SHSI) research center in Iowa City. As expected, DAS rejected the request in […]
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Misinformation about fentanyl, gangs and U.S. history flies as Trump, Iowa Republicans justify Venezuela attack
Just hours after the news broke that U.S. forces had invaded Venezuela early Saturday morning to capture the country’s president, Nicolás Maduro, both of Iowa’s senators and all four of its U.S. House members issued statements praising President Trump for ordering the attack. Trump was at his Florida home/members-only country club on Friday night when he […]
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Debates over property taxes, eminent domain and cancer rates expected during 2026 legislative session
Iowa lawmakers are heading into the 2026 legislative session with several new leaders — but many of the issues expected to take top priority are subjects left unresolved in 2025, namely eminent domain and property taxes. Lawmakers presented legislation on both of these issues during the 2025 legislative session, but neither became state law. Republican […]
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Born to draw Batman, Iowa City kid Norm Breyfogle sketched his way into pop culture history
From the shadows, Iowa City has played a quiet role in the mythology of the Batman, all thanks to the co-creations of Norm Breyfogle. When we saw Ratcatcher save the day in James Gunn’s version of The Suicide Squad? That character came from an IC kid. Any time Jeremiah Arkham showed up in a show, […]
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Pulitzer-winning novelist Edna Ferber’s painful time in Ottumwa shaped her as an artist and ‘a human being’
“Life can’t ever really defeat a writer who is in love with writing, for life itself is a writer’s lover until death — fascinating, cruel, lavish, warm, cold, treacherous, constant; the more varied the moods, the richer the experience. I’ve learned to value every stab of pain and disappointment.” —Edna Ferber Edna Ferber (1885-1968) was […]
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The Iowa Gambling Task: A 1994 decision-making experiment at UI has been revisited countless times since
You’ve heard of the Iowa Test of Basic Skills. Now meet its strung-out cousin, the Iowa Gambling Task. IGT, also called the Iowa Gambling Task Experiment, is considered the gold standard for measuring cognitive decision-making. Thirty years after its debut, scientists (along with pop-science writers, podcasters and YouTubers) still continue to discuss it. In fact, […]
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‘The best guy in Iowa City’: Byron Burford, mentee of Grant Wood and friend of Kurt Vonnegut, was a (ring)master of many forms
Born and raised in Mississippi, Byron Burford was drawn to the University of Iowa through an interest in one of its professors: Iowa’s Regionalism artist, Grant Wood. The American Gothic painter mentored Burford as an undergraduate, helping him hone his talents and lifelong love of circuses and carnivals into a distinctive oeuvre. Burford earned his […]
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Drive down a virtual I-80 with a new Iowa trucking simulator
As I pull out of the home-improvement big box store — a simulacrum of Iowa City’s Menards called “Shop Town” — I think to myself, In another life I could’ve been a truck driver. The thought returns as I haul various cargo from one Iowa destination to another: lumber from Des Moines to Iowa City, ice cream from Cedar Rapids to Davenport, and so on.
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Your Village: Why is there a truck driving around with a big image of Rep. Miller-Meeks as the Grinch?
Last night I saw a truck with a light-up display of Mariannette Miller-Meeks as a green-faced Grinch. Who did that? –RB, Iowa City The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) did that. The DCCC — pronounced “D triple-C” by political types — announced in an email on Wednesday that it was “launching a new billboard campaign […]
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Review: Ballet Des Moines passes the ‘Nutcracker’ litmus test with flying colors
Ballet Des Moines was blessed with a snowy opening night for The Nutcracker last Thursday at Hoyt Sherman Place. For ballet companies across the world, the production of The Nutcracker is both the close to the fall season and a company’s most attended performance, thanks to its ties to holiday tradition and nostalgia. With the […]
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Mariannette Miller-Meeks is no longer claiming to be a resident of the district she represents in Congress
Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks is no longer claiming to be a resident of the congressional district she represents in the U.S. House of Representatives. The Republican incumbent, now in her third term, has never been a resident, as that term is commonly understood, of Iowa’s 1st Congressional District. When not in Washington D.C., Miller-Meeks lives in […]
