Homers: What's going right

By The Gazette Editorial Board

FREE DENTAL CARE: A salute to the 200 dentists and 1,200 volunteers, including

100 dental students and staff from the University of Iowa College of Dentistry, who are scheduled to provide free dental care to adults and children on Friday and Saturday at the U.S. Cellular Center.

At the two previous Iowa

Mission of Mercy clinics, held

in Waterloo and Newton,

2,800 patients received services worth a total of $1.4 million.

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HARVEST HEAVEN: The extensive October run of ideal harvest weather was a boon for many Eastern Iowa farmers, at least those with good yields. Several weeks of dry, sunny weather drastically reduced the need to dry grain after it was harvested, substantially slashing farmers' costs. Meanwhile, corn and soybean market prices soared, adding to producers' profits. Unfortunately for some farmers, excessively wet weather that reduced yields in some areas of Iowa was a major driver of those higher prices.

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PRO BONO: Last year, about 2,900 of Iowa's 7,000-plus attorneys donated their services to individual cases through organized pro bono efforts, a total of more than 17,000 hours valued at

$2.3 million, according to the Iowa State Bar Association Public Service Project. Those figures do not include additional hours of pro bono time that was not reported by individual attorneys. The attorneys' donations assist citizens who can't afford legal assistance, and also assist many civic organizations.