Monday Morning Read: Jones Golf Course, Planned Parenthood, Daytona 500

Golf anyone? - Staff leaders in Cedar Rapids remain committed to closing Jones Golf Course, but the nine-member City Council is not yet sold on the plan and some want to keep it open as a nine-hole course. 'I need some additional questions answered before I can make a decision,' City Council member Ann Poe said. 'What have we done, and have we done everything we possibly can to utilize the course? Have we looked at operations, marketing, hours? I want to be sure we've done everything we can before I would feel comfortable to close the course. I am not there yet.' Read more about Jones Golf Course and the next steps here.

Cedar Rapids Oprah - Lala, a native of Cedar Rapids, discovered the school during a trip to Tanzania in 2005. The trip leader and guide for her photo safari was a man named Modest Bayo. During her trip, Lala learned Bayo had started a school in Karatu, his home village. While it wasn't on the itinerary, Lala talked Bayo into making a visit to the school. 'It just had a very profound effect on my heart,' Lala recalls. 'Just how education there is a privilege, not a requirement. I decided then I would help him with his mission of educating the children of his village.' Read more about Lala's work here.

Planned Parenthood - Despite protests and a partisan-fueled debate at the statehouse, a bill that would cut funding from Planned Parenthood of the Heartland — the state's largest reproductive health care provider — is moving closer to Gov. Terry Branstad's desk. Since its creation in 2006, more than 80,000 Iowa women have received Pap smears, birth control and cancer screenings through the Iowa Family Planning Network, including more than 12,000 last year. The waiver helps extend these important reproductive health services to men and women who often fall in the gap between private insurance and Medicaid eligibility. Read more about the potential effects that cutting funds from Planned Parenthood could have.

Daytona 500 - If nothing else, the 2017 Daytona 500 was eventful for Cedar Rapids natives Landon Cassill and Joey Gase. Cassill ended up 16th — his second best finish in the Daytona 500 — and Gase was 23rd in his first Daytona 500 behind winner Kurt Busch. Both sort of gave a shoulder shrug when they got out of the car. Sunday's race capped off a wreck-filled Speedweeks. Read more about Daytona 500, and how Cedar Rapids natives Cassill and Gase faired here.

Quotable - 'The biggest obstacle was lack of experience,' Crowdes said. 'I guess I had a baby face and it was difficult convincing people I knew what I was doing. I had no family here, no client base of any kind. Read more about a story of young lawyers finding their way in rural Iowa here.