By Hai Huynh, Coralville City Councilor Last year, the contract to purchase Flock’s automatic license plate readers (ALPRs) was signed as part of the City of Coralville’s budget process — before most people even knew it was happening, and before we had even talked about it as a council. When the police chief later returned […]
Letters
Posted inLetters
Letter to the editor: Don’t let the Board of Regents close the Department of Gender, Women’s and Sexuality Studies at UI
We, alumni/ae of the University of Iowa, write to you in a moment of profound alarm about what is happening to our beloved university. Public universities exist for a reason: they offer students access to a wide range of established academic disciplines, broad enough to challenge assumptions and rigorous enough to prepare graduates for professional […]
Posted inLetters
Letter to the editor: Local libraries — and free thought — are under threat in Iowa
By Sam Helmick, Iowa City; American Library Association president I come to this conversation because, for generations, Iowans of all walks of life have sent up a righteous cry: Free people read freely. That principle is not abstract in our state. Iowa has more libraries per capita than any other state in the nation. Nearly […]
Posted inLetters
Letter to the editor: Like millions of migrants, my dad is indispensable
By Anthony Arroyo, Des Moines ICE is a continuation of America’s oldest tradition: state-sanctioned violence against people of color, especially Latinos. It grows out of a history that has always needed someone to be labeled alien, invader, criminal, deportable. Language becomes a weapon. Once a group is reduced to a threat, their humanity becomes optional. For decades, the United […]
Posted inLetters
Letter to the editor: Minnesotans are showing us how to defend freedom
By Patricia Bowen, Iowa City Minnesotans across races and origins, faiths and genders, are demonstrating that the brave of us stand with and for each other. And the cowardly MAGA regime has escalated their attacks, assaulting families in the streets, invading homes, kidnapping children, and now killing Alex Pretti and Renee Good as they were looking […]
Posted inLetters
Letter from Joe Bolkcom: It’s time to clean the statehouse
Iowa Republicans can’t be trusted to manage your money anymore. Their reckless revenue and spending decisions have made a shambles of the state finances. They have created a huge $1.2 billion budget deficit that will soon blow a massive hole in the state budget and undermine essential services we depend on. Since they took over […]
Posted inLetters
Letter to the editor: The United States is not Denmark. The CDC’s new vaccine schedule is dangerous
By Jennifer Sotelo, Atalissa If you are bone weary with a throat on fire, aching muscles and chills that make your teeth chatter… it could be because you have the flu. The Center for Disease Control estimates 15 million illnesses from influenza this season so far, 180,000 hospitalizations and 7,400 deaths, the highest level on […]
Posted inLetters
Letter to the editor: Bulgarians are taking to the streets to fight corruption. Americans should, too.
By Laurel Zmolek-Smith, Iowa native in Sofia, Bulgaria I am an Iowan living and working in Sofia, Bulgaria. In recent weeks, Bulgarians have taken part in mass, peaceful protests calling for the resignation of a deeply corrupt government. They succeeded. And what stands out most is not just the size of the protests, but their […]
Posted inLetters
Letter to the editor: It is the duty of Congress to impeach Trump
By Patricia Bowen, Iowa City For generations, Americans of all races, places, and origins have marched, rallied, and fought to make ours a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. Now the MAGA regime has invaded Venezuela, bombing families in an attempt to take control of the country for the oil […]
Posted inLetters
Letter to the editor: Rising premiums? Don’t blame the ACA
By Linda Schreiber, Iowa City When health insurance premiums rise, critics reflexively blame the Affordable Care Act. It’s a convenient narrative — but a false one. Yes, ACA plans cost more on paper. That’s because the law ended insurance practices that kept premiums low by denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions, stripping out essential […]
Posted inLetters
Letter to the editor: Downtown Iowa City’s 500-foot rule for bars matters
By Karen Kubby, Iowa City Fifteen years ago, there were public health initiatives that launched the current era of downtown Iowa City. Downtown had an overabundance of bars. Our city had a reputation of being built around a culture of alcohol. Iowa City was rated as one of the top party schools. The University of […]
Posted inLetters
Letter to the editor: Let’s tip 50% this December
By Genevieve Trainor, Iowa City Like the rest of the Iowa City community, I’ve known since April that very public foreclosure proceedings made the fate of the businesses in the Chauncey Building and elsewhere uncertain (other than FilmScene, which owns its locations). But I only just saw the headlines yesterday that SpareMe was definitely closing. […]
