Homers -- What's going right

FINALLY UNDER WAY: It's good to see restoration work finally under way in Cedar Rapids' Veterans Memorial Building on May's Island. The project was held up by two years of negotiations with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which signed off on the budget and construction plan in November.

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MENDERS: Mended Hearts, a national organization whose members provide support to hospitalized cardiac patients, is marking its 20th anniversary while spreading information about cardiovascular disease. The Cedar Rapids chapter is one of the few that sews and donates heart pillows to open-heart surgery patients.

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ANOTHER USE FOR UI CREATION: In 1999, the University of Iowa Center for the Book began creating a pure white cotton paper that the U.S. National Archives later used to safely display several major American historical documents. Now the same product is being used to display one of only four original copies of the Magna Carta - a document stating the rights and liberties of people that was created after a 1215 order from King John of England, who was pressured by English barons. It later influenced American law. The 1297 copy, newly restored, recently went on public display.