Iowa, Linn County | featured news

Three days before Christmas, Tom Vilsack, President Joe Biden’s pick for U.S. agriculture secretary, convened a videoconference with nine prominent civil rights activists and advocates for Black farmers.Vilsack mostly listened.

So many Decorah residents are putting up solar panels and installing small turbines that Alliant Energy, which serves the city of 7,700 in Winneshiek County, is nearing the limit of how much distributed energy it can host without degrading the quality of electricity in the community.

IOWA CITY — There’s a common undercurrent in Keshia Fields’ various professional and volunteer roles in Johnson County.“I have a passion for people,” the 35-year-old North Liberty resident said. “I stretch myself really thin, but I’m a people person and I like to be of service to people.”

CEDAR RAPIDS — Schools need to teach the “ugly wounds” of American history — including racial injustice and systemic racism — to better work toward equity.
That was the message put forth during an online panel hosted this week by the Cedar Rapids Civil Rights Commission and United Way of East Central Iowa in honor of Black History Month.

DES MOINES — Gov. Kim Reynolds says she has some “educating” to do to get House Republicans on board her sweeping schools plan that calls for taxpayer-funded scholarships for private school students and expands charter school offerings.

A University of Iowa professor advising athletics called the rules prohibiting student-athletes from making money “sinister” and unfair, saying the players should share in real income, not just scholarships.

CEDAR RAPIDS — An 18-year-old Cedar Rapids man, previously convicted of two carjackings at 15, pleaded to amended charges Thursday in a third carjacking from last summer.

JOHNSTON — Iowa continues to have the third-worst vaccination rate per capita in the nation as the state reached a milestone Thursday of more than 5,000 people killed by the virus.Speaking at a news conference at Iowa PBS, Gov. Kim Reynolds said Iowa has been improving its vaccination efforts, which she argued have been slowed in part by lack of available vaccine.

IOWA CITY — A judge Thursday ruled a man will be held without bond until he is extradited back to Wisconsin to face a charge of stabbing his girlfriend multiple times in the face and neck last September.

Travel through Iowa turned hazardous Thursday as a blizzard blew snow onto roadways and reduced visibility, leading to a massive traffic pileup west of Newton that closed eastbound Interstate 80.The strong northwest winds — gusting up to 47 mph in Cedar Rapids — also brought in arctic air and sent temperature plunging.