Vanessa Miller

The state of Iowa will consider paying $2 million to the daughters of a Muscatine woman who died during an MRI at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in 2018 from an allergic reaction to the contrast dye administered intravenously.

As Monday’s final sale hearing approaches in the historic and heated bankruptcy of Iowa City’s oldest and only-remaining community hospital, precarious deals are being tested by objections and rising tempers – including from Mercy Hospital partners and creditors unlikely to get the millions they’re due.

A day after Iowa Democratic Party leadership condemned the University of Iowa student Democrats for an “antisemitic” social media post, calling on student organization leaders to resign, the chair of the state party’s Arab American caucus accused his party leadership of misquoting the students and called for an apology.

The University Democrats of Iowa statement expressed support for Palestine while using the phrase ‘from the river to the sea,’ which has a complex and sometimes antisemitic history.

Nearly a year after Kirkwood Community College announced the closure of its 32-year-old Iowa City campus on the southeast side of town, Oral-B Laboratories has agreed to buy the 84,277-square-foot property for $6.4 million – pending 120 days of “due diligence.”

Just southeast of where the ballooning University of Iowa Health Care operation is planning to build a new $1 billion inpatient tower, UI President Barbara Wilson on Tuesday surveyed a hole in the ground that will – among many things – make that new tower possible.

History is full of tales and texts of ghosts and goblins and demons and haunts that — in some ways — remain relevant today and should not be forgotten, according to a University of Iowa professor who teaches a course to that end on one specific sect of storied boogeyman: witches.

The path Kristie Fisher took from student at Prairie High School in the 1980s to president of Kirkwood Community College today was a lot longer and more winding than the two miles of physical distance that separate the schools on the south end of Cedar Rapids.

Food pantries on each of Iowa’s public universities have seen huge usage spikes of late – coinciding with rising tuition rates, soaring food prices and shifting demographics in a state seeing more first-generation, low-income and minority high school graduates headed to college.

The tumultuous and twisting Mercy Iowa City bankruptcy took another stunning turn Friday when the hospital revealed in a court filing that earlier in the day it re-opened the auction it already closed and changed its mind about who won – declaring the University of Iowa as having made the “higher or otherwise better” bid, instead of its largest bondholder Preston Hollow.

Two years ago, in summer of 2021, the NCAA suspended generations-old rules barring student-athletes from monetizing their “name, image, and likeness” – ushering in a new era allowing collegiate stars to capitalize on their fame.

Mercy Iowa City’s delay in closing its bankruptcy sale is hurting hospital operations by, among other things, scaring away patients and providers, eroding community confidence, and adding expense to an estate already depleted of resources – according to a Wednesday court filing asking a judge to force the issue.

After taking a “short” five-hour break during a bankruptcy auction in Chicago on Oct. 4 to discuss whether to raise their original $20 million offer for Mercy Iowa City’s assets in response to bondholder Preston Hollow’s $27 million counter bid, University of Iowa attorneys — at least initially — decided not to.

For years, in an attempt to meet growing student demand for expanded mental health services on campus, the University of Iowa has been embedding counselors into high-need spaces — like its dental college, Department of Athletics, and residence halls.

As attorneys wrangle over dwindling money available to pay lawyers, bankers, creditors and employees with the now-bankrupt Mercy Iowa City, the hospital’s pensioners are asking for a voice too.