Erin Jordan

Jason Taylor, Hannah Davey, and Natalie Schoen, all of Iowa City, spent six days in Western Kentucky in late December, volunteering as part of Team Rubicon, a California-based not-for-profit group that uses military veterans and first responders to deploy emergency response teams to disaster areas across the country.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources invites Iowans to visit a state park on New Year’s Day. If you check in online you are eligible for a prize drawing. There are also guided hikes at many state parks on Saturday.

The Gazette did a Q&A with prison officials after a seven-month security review by an outside consultant. The public got to see a four-page summary of the 134-page report.

Iowa Supreme Court has given the Burlington woman’s family another chance to gain full access to the 911 call and police video of the 2015 incident in which Autumn Steele was fatally shot by police.

Complaints to the Iowa Ombudsman about unemployment claims tripled in fiscal 2021, with a large share coming from Iowans awarded jobless benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic and then later told they had to repay the money.

Iowa City’s drinking water does not have detectable levels of two types of industrial chemicals believed to harm human health, according to November sampling by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. Another type of ‘forever chemical’ was detected, but it’s not one the federal government has included in recent health advisory.

The men were four of 35 Iowans honored for courageous responses during incidents in 2020 and 2021. The list includes 22 civilians and 13 first responders.

Duane Jasper, chief executive officer of the Cedar Rapids-based Travel Leaders/Destinations Unlimited said the number of air and ground packages purchased for the Citrus Bowl in Orlando is on par with past Florida bowl games.

The Atkins City Council voted last week to censure a council member who opposed hiring a city administrator for $92,000, but another council member says those things are not related.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources has decided to let a cattle producer continue to use an underground manure tank built in karst terrain without a permit, despite concerns a future leak could quickly contaminate groundwater in the Cedar River watershed.

A Coralville developer will take over the planning and construction of a NewBo District apartment complex previously known as Art Tech Village. Watts Development Group is planning NewBo Lofts, two 55-unit buildings at 455 16th Ave. SE.

Cedar Rapids Reserve Officer Scott Fruehling, who has been employed with the agency since September 1994, will not perform any police duties while the officer-involved shooting is being investigated, according to a news release.

A seven-month security review of Iowa’s prison system shows overcrowding and challenges recruiting and retaining staff create potential security risks in Iowa’s nine prisons.

Several Iowa media organizations and the ACLU of Iowa are suing Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds and her staff, charging they broke Iowa’s open records law by failing to provide records about the Iowa State Patrol’s border deployment, private fundraising at the governor’s residence, and Reynolds’ messages to meatpacking plant workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, among other requests.

Most of us don’t know about the backroom deal that helped secure the interstate’s passage through Cedar Rapids, the alternate routes it could have taken or about the two people who died in the push to open the highway.