Gomers -- What's going wrong

BAD DRUG ON THE RISE: Heroin abuse among young adults in the Cedar Rapids area has increased substantially in the past couple of years, according to police and substance abuse treatment officials. Jon Jelinek lost his 23-year-old son to a heroin overdose last month, and admirably is trying to spread the word about the dangers of terrible drug.

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HEAD START CUTS: About 70 fewer Eastern Iowa preschoolers will be served by the Head Start and Early Start programs operated by The Hawkeye Area Community Action Program that provides services to six counties. Meanwhile, there's a waiting list of 300 for this fall's preschool programs. A $289,000 reduction in federal funding is forcing the cutbacks, including 16 jobs.

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TURN IT OFF: OK, it's great to see our drought is ended in Eastern Iowa. But the spigots that last week poured as much as 8 inches of rain in some places (North Liberty) in not much more than 24 hours need to be turned off for a while. We've had more rain in April than we did in four summer months last year. Makes you pine for a few of those hot, sunny days.

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