Gomers -- What's going wrong

MORE CANDIDATES NEEDED: While there's no shortage of candidates for city council and mayoral seats in Cedar Rapids, Marion, Coralville and Iowa City, 49 small towns in 15 Eastern Iowa counties have more of those positions open than there are candidates seeking to fill them. It's not a new problem for many of Iowa's smaller communities but with increasingly complex issues facing local governments and their decision-makers, the shortage of interested candidates willing to take or make time to serve is troubling.

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TRYING, TRYING, TRYING: One of the first Iowans, and possibly the first, to successfully buy health insurance via the new federal healthcare.gov website is a local example of how badly that site has functioned for virtually all users after it was launched a month ago. Edward Voss said he tried the site more than 100 times over three days before he was finally able to sign up for what he wanted. He also thinks Iowa would have been better off setting up its own health insurance exchange website. Iowa had that option but the governor and other officials opted for federal website among the options available under Affordable Care Act's provisions. Such a mess and no good excuses.

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