Supervisor Royceann Porter was appointed chairperson of the Johnson County Board of Supervisors for 2022 in a vote that took less than a minute at the board’s organizational meeting Monday. But the unanimous selection of Porter by her fellow supervisors was not a routine vote, as the county made clear in a news release issued […]
Johnson County
Posted inCommunity/News
COVID-19: Iowa adds 13,000 new cases; Gov. Reynolds celebrates legal win; Johnson County passes new mandate
Over the last seven days, Iowa hit new highs for the year in the number of newly confirmed cases of COVID-19 and the number of patients hospitalized with the virus, according to the latest weekly update from the Iowa Department of Public Health. IDPH reported 13,039 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, a significant jump […]
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Best of the CRANDIC Spotlight: Johnson County’s Juneteenth balanced past and present, education and celebration
Best of the CRANDIC 2021 winner of Best Cultural Event Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, when Union soldiers sailed into Galveston, Texas, and read aloud the order freeing the state’s quarter-million slaves. The occasion has long been commemorated by Black Southerners, and the first local Juneteenth festival was organized by LaTasha DeLoach in 2011. Iowa […]
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Johnson County will hold its final public input session on how to spend ARPA funds Wednesday evening
At 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Johnson County will hold its final public input session on how to use the $29.3 million in federal funds the county has been allocated through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), which President Biden signed into law in March. Five previous sessions have been held at various locations around the […]
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Johnson County and Linn County would be in the same congressional district, if new redistricting map is approved
Johnson County and Linn County would once again be in the same congressional district, if the Iowa Legislature adopts the redistricting map published by the state’s nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency (LSA) on Thursday. The two counites had both been part of Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District, before the district’s boundaries were redrawn in 2010. In the […]
Posted inCommunity/News
With COVID cases hitting ‘high’ mark, face masks are now required in Johnson County municipal buildings
Johnson County now requires anyone entering a county-owned building to wear a face mask in response to the surge in new COVID-19 cases in Iowa caused by the highly contagious Delta variant. The county joins Linn County, Cedar Rapids, Iowa City, Coralville and North Liberty, which had already enacted mask mandates for their municipal buildings. […]
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Iowa City to reopen City Hall on Thursday
City Hall will fully reopen on Thursday. The building closed to the general public on March 18, 2020, as COVID-19 began to spread widely in the city and the state. “These changes signal a move back to pre-pandemic operations; however, the City will remain vigilant in monitoring the local and national public health situation. For […]
Posted inCommunity/News, Top Story
‘Names carry power’: Johnson County is now named for a different Johnson
Johnson County remains Johnson County, but has shed some historical baggage. The Board of Supervisors voted unanimously on Thursday to change the county’s eponym — the person it is named for — from Richard Mentor Johnson, vice president of the United States (1837-1841) and lifelong slaveowner, to Iowan Lulu Merle Johnson, the first African-American woman […]
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Juneteenth in Johnson County includes a block party, interactive history and Black-owned businesses
Juneteenth will be an officially recognized holiday in Iowa City for the first time this year, and the city, in association with Johnson County and other partners, is hosting a weeklong series of events culminating on Saturday, which will be the 156th anniversary of the event the day memorializes. On June 19, 1865, Union troops […]
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‘A place like this is needed now more than ever’: Johnson County’s GuideLink Center prepares to open
The GuideLink Center, a mental health access center in Iowa City that has been in the works for more than a decade, is just days away from opening its doors. The 18,000 square-foot facility at 300 Southgate Ave will provide rapid assessment, triage and stabilization for adults experiencing a mental health or substance abuse crisis. […]
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Five Iowans share how forgiveness of student loan debt would impact them
About 420,000 Iowans owed a combined total of $12.8 billion in student debt, as of September 2020. The average amount for Iowans with student loan debt was $30,500. People in Iowa are more likely to have student loan debt but owe “significantly less on average” compared to individuals in other states, according to data and […]
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Best of the CRANDIC Spotlight: Oaknoll Retirement Residence
Oaknoll Retirement Residence was voted Best Assisted Living Facility in Little Village’s 2020 Best of the CRANDIC awards. “My whole heart is at Oaknoll and in assisted living,” said Jaclyn Craig, a registered nurse manager at the Iowa City retirement residence. “We work really hard, and we are all like a family and a team […]
