Gomers -- What's going wrong

FASTRAC DERAILED: A respected youth program that served mostly at-risk black teenagers in Iowa City is no more. FasTrac was started in 2007 after an increase in fights and racial problems in Iowa City High School. It pushed students to excel in school and community service as part of the Mayor's Youth Empowerment Program, which is discontinuing its youth leadership segments because of funding shortfalls. All of FasTrac's 250 participants, except for the current 30, graduated high school and nearly all went on to higher education or got jobs.

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SERIOUS JOURNALISM? ABC-TV's “20/20” news magazine show on Friday aired a segment about a University of Iowa student whose Twitter handle, “Vodka Samm,” is nationally known. The student, Samantha Goodie, was arrested at a Labor Day weekend football game. Her blood alcohol content was more than four times the legal limit. Goodie's tweets after her release went viral and drew national media attention, no doubt adding to the UI's dubious reputation as a top party school. Hmm. Maybe some UI professors and doctors should drunk tweet to get more recognition for the UI's many fine academic programs and health care facilities.

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