7/18 column: A new attitude about alcohol?

I’ve done my share of griping about alcohol abuse in Iowa City.
But I’m feeling optimistic after spending time on the phone this week with University of Iowa Provost Wallace Loh.
Sure, he said, students are going to drink. The UI shouldn’t condone it, but they do need to recognize that it’s a fact of life. He [...]

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7/1 column: give chickens a chance

Is Iowa City going to join the growing ranks of urban chicken communities?
Early signs are favorable.
Poultry proponents expected to hand over at last night’s city council meeting more than 700 signatures petitioning council members to allow chickens inside the city limits.
They want council members to approve up to five backyard hens, no roosters, in residential [...]

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6/17 column: In honor of Social Security

IOWA CITY — In some ways, the scene Sunday at a Lower City Park shelter was like any typical retirement party.
Picnic tables were loaded with cake and potluck dishes. People talked and joked in small clusters. Swing music played in the background.
But the photos tacked to the shelter walls weren’t of the man of honor, [...]

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3/18 Column: Accuracy applies to bars, too

I screwed up in my March 11 column — got a fact wrong when I reported that one of Mike Porter’s Iowa City bars was being sued by two men who say they were assaulted by five underage people who tanked up at the bar.
Vito’s is named in the suit, but Porter bought that Pedestrian [...]

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3/11 Column: It’s time to hold bars responsible

Iowa City bar staff members aren’t to blame for Jerome “Patrick” McEwen’s death.
But they share blame for Curtis Fry becoming so drunk he couldn’t tell whether he was inside or outside on a snowy and freezing February night.
Fry’s bench trial for second-degree murder started Monday. The 22-year-old Wilton man is accused of beating the 75-year-old [...]

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Fry case clinches it: Iowa City bars have to say “when”

Iowa City bar staff aren’t to blame for Pat McEwen’s death.
But they share blame for Curtis Fry becoming so drunk he couldn’t tell whether he was inside or outside on a snowy and freezing February night.
 

Fry’s second-degree murder trial started Monday in Johnson County District Court. The 22-year-old Wilton man is accused of forcibly entering McEwen’s home, [...]

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1/21 Column: A refreshing effort for Iowa City kids

All a kid wants to do during the dog days of summer is find a body of water and jump in.
But for the thousand or more kids in Iowa City’s Grant Wood and Wetherby neighborhoods, there hasn’t been any easy way to cool off in the summer.
Those low-income neighborhoods are separated from the nearest pool [...]

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Inauguration stories: part 4

 
Closing a chapter: Ross Wilburn
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“A black man can’t be elected president” — Iowa City Council member and former Mayor Ross Wilburn heard as he stumped for the senator during the caucuses and then in the general election. Wilburn had heard similar concerns when he ran for office years before in [...]

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Inauguration stories: part 2

Photos of Bonnie McIntosh’s son Braydon on election night and of Braydon and two friends (in town from Milwaukee that weekend) after  canvassing one Saturday during an Iowa football game.
 
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Why We’re Going: Bonnie McIntosh

Your question about why are we going is something I’ve thought about a lot but haven’t had an explanation for. [...]

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Busted: snow edition

Is it possible there are still people who don’t know they’re supposed to shovel when it snows?
I’ve heard several Iowa Citians complain of slippery and powdery walkways in recent days, so I checked in with Julie over at Housing Inspection Services about complaints.
She said they’ve gotten about 500 complaints so far this season and the city has cleared [...]

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