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, […]
Top Story
Posted inArts & Entertainment
‘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 […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
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.
Posted inCommunity/News
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 […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
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 […]
Posted inCommunity/News
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 […]
Posted inCommunity/News
A cult in Iowa helped hide Yoko Ono’s daughter from her for years: ‘We never talked about my mom and John’
For a pair of prominent anti-war activists, John Lennon and Yoko Ono had many battles to fight in 1971. Upon their move to America, they faced the ire of bitter (and often racist and misogynistic) Beatles fans, investigations by the FBI, deportation attempts by the Nixon administration and pressure to either manifest or temper the […]
Posted inCommunity/News
‘The American people must have more than a choice between evils’: Iowan Henry A. Wallace, FDR’s vice president, was an ag innovator and fierce antifascist
“The Cornfield Prophet” Henry A . Wallace, known for his pioneering work in agriculture, was a progressive statesman who championed the “Century of the Common Man.” A heartbeat away from the presidency for four years as FDR’s vice president, his supporters viewed him as the torchbearer for the New Deal, while opponents dismissed him as […]
Posted inStatewide
Historians, unions and legislators fight against the clock to save the Centennial Building and its archive
The sign on the door of the State Historical Society of Iowa’s Centennial Building, where the society’s Iowa City research facility has been located since 1956, let visitors on Wednesday know there were only a few days left to access its remarkable archival collections or even the building itself. The Centennial Building has been open […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Inspired by a dream, Council Bluffs’ Black Angel statue was quickly tarnished by tragedy and scandal
Content warning: Suicide Ruth stands alone on a rocky shore, surrounded by a hazy sea. In the distance, a shape appears through the mist. A boat approaches, and at the bow stands a woman so beautiful she must be an angel. Right hand outstretched, left hand clutching a basin of water, the angel beckons softly, […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Iowa City’s favorite bell disappeared after an incident involving a ‘madman,’ a mob and the Mormon Trail. Now, 177 years later, it’s back.
After 177 years, 1,200 miles, $35,000 and a 70-page report by historians from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a 782-pound church bell was returned to its original home in Iowa City. On Oct. 5, Iowa City’s First Presbyterian Church held a dedication and blessing for what they now call their “Hummer Bell.” […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Joan Liffring-Zug Bourret photographed presidents, everyday Iowans and her own son’s birth. But her legacy goes well beyond the lens
In 1951, Joan Liffring-Zug Bourret was fired from her job as a photojournalist at the Cedar Rapids Gazette. The reason: she was pregnant. She responded by photographing the birth to her son — an audacious proposition at the time. The photos — mostly shots of the doctors, nurses and newborn Artie from her POV on […]
