Gomers -- What's going wrong

ANNOYING HONKERS: Preventing geese from making a mess in public parks and other spaces in Cedar Rapids has been a big challenge in recent years. Now, these large, common waterfowl are proving difficult to chase from areas of the new riverside McGrath Amphitheatre, which held a grand opening over the weekend. The good news is that the city is looking at non-lethal options, including one idea to construct several small remote-controlled hovercraft that can be used to annoy the animals until they leave. Several retired electronics technicians have agreed to help the city build those devices in time for next spring when the facility will launch its first full season.

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HEAT RUN: The late-August run of brutal heat and humidity - after several weeks of mostly gorgeous, comfortable summer weather - was more than annoying last week. It forced many Eastern Iowa schools without air conditioning to dismiss classes early on several days, causing students to miss instruction time and many families to scramble their schedules. It created riskier conditions for the first weekend of high school and college football games. And it worsened our increasingly worrisome drought conditions.

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