5/27 column: End cycling horrors

I was more sitting duck than cyclist, waiting to make a left-hand turn when the driver gunned past on my right.
It would have been irritating, but probably not that dangerous, if I had been snuggled in a 3,000-pound steel shell, cushioned by air bags.
Then again, if I had been in a car, he wouldn’t likely [...]

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5/23 column: Veterans’ dedication endures

BROOKLYN, Iowa — Every May, Brooklyn’s Civil War veterans would gather at the school.
They’d march through the neighborhoods to Brooklyn Memorial Cemetery in order to honor their dead companions.
“It’s always been emotional to me,” Stanley Walford, 83, told me when I met him and other Brooklyn veterans of other wars last week.
“After all those years, [...]

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5/20 column: Wisdom for the graduate

Well, it’s graduation season, a time when platitudes flow as plentifully as punch and pillow mints.
The time for oldsters like me to scrounge around in our addled brains for some profound and meaningful bit of wisdom to impart to you graduates, our future. Hopefully, something a bit more inspiring than, “Seriously? You’re how old? Wow.”
Yes, [...]

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Talkback: Coordinating human services

It seems I could have done a better job connecting the dots in my Saturday column about connecting human services in Cedar Rapids.
B.J. Smith writes:
Jennifer, I’m a little confused. What is the connection between the proposed human services campus, the ANCHOR Center and Wellington Heights, and what is it that’s a no-brainer? Can you explain a [...]

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5/16 Column: Lots of help, little direction

When we got to the Waypoint Madge Phillips Center on Tuesday, we found a garage overrun with donations: boxes full of deodorant and diapers, shampoo, soap and food.
There was just about everything a family in crisis might need – but it was crammed in every which way.
It’s a good problem to have, but it’s a [...]

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5/13 Column: Getting in the bike habit

First thing Monday morning, I pulled my old blue bike off the hooks in the garage, dusted her off and filled the tires.
Then I slung my briefcase across my back, strapped on my trusty Bell helmet and coasted down the drive.
I’m embarrassed to say that I usually take my car to work, even though I [...]

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5/9 Column: There’s more to know about harassment

I took the University of Iowa sexual harassment course Friday.
I sometimes teach a class there, so I was on the list of those who had to complete the training by the July 1 deadline.
I’d put it off, frankly, because I thought it was kind of silly.
Don’t harass your students. It’s not just a good idea, [...]

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Bike to work

It’s Bike to Work Week, so this morning I pulled my old blue bike off the hooks in the garage, dusted her off and filled the tires.
Then I slung my briefcase across my back, strapped on my trusty Bell helmet and coasted down the drive.
I’membarrassed to say that I usually take my car to work, even [...]

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Seizing the future of news

In a couple weeks, legions of new journalism school graduates will cross the stage, shake a few hands, grab their diploma and — do what exactly?
It’s a question that’s making a lot of students anxious around the country and at the University of Iowa, where I sometimes teach a reporting class.
So perennial activist, optimist and J-School Professor Judy Polumbaum [...]

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5/6 Column: Readers fire back on guns

I expected a lot of feedback about last Wednesday’s column, and I wasn’t disappointed.
I also expected a degree of flack. No disappointment there, either.
Guns are one of those issues that set peoples’ alarms a-ringing. That started my phone along the same path after I said I was uneasy about the dramatic increase in folks getting [...]

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