It’s never too late to say you’re sorry. Especially if you’re a public figure who tried to play detective, judge and jury when one of your guys was accused of sexual assault: publicly and privately trying to pressure a young female victim to drop the issue, proclaiming the accused’s innocence to anyone who would [...]

  When legislators struggle just to pass modest education reform proposals, transforming our public school system can seem an impossible goal. And it would be if we asked lawmakers to devise a perfect plan to remake every Iowa school into a lean, mean, 21st Century learning machine. That plan doesn’t exist, for starters. More important, [...]

  Why do we journalists do such a crummy job of covering climate change? It’s complicated and technical, a sweeping, slow-moving issue. Not the stuff of sound bytes or short paragraphs, it can be hard to explain. It’s not a head turner, like a fire or a scandal. It’s not local, except that it’s happening [...]

    “Parties find common ground at Statehouse” was the above-the-fold announcement in Friday’s Gazette. It’s not a great day for democracy when legislative cooperation on minor items merits a banner headline. Never mind that we’re still gridlocked on the big stuff like Medicaid expansion, property tax relief and education reform. Legislators seemed to be [...]

  While state legislators tried to craft meaningful revisions to state anti-bullying laws last week, a small group of conservative Christian pastors and their supporters dragged out a tired drum. For the second consecutive year, the Family Leader went banging on about the Governors Conference on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning Youth — an [...]

  The weather may be warmer, but last week’s Sunshine Week came and went with a fraction of the attention paid to a single temperate day. Sunshine Week is a time to trumpet the importance of transparency in government. But this year, that trumpet was hard to hear. There were some highlights that I should [...]

  Leave it to the U.S. Census to tell us what we already sort of figured: Iowa’s rural areas are declining and our cities are on the rise. According to the bureau’s latest population estimates, 65 of our 99 counties lost population between 2011 and 2012. More than half of Iowa counties recorded more deaths [...]

State legislators soon will have a chance to put their money where their mouths are when it comes to family values. A House bill passed committee last week that would keep more Iowa families together while keeping children safe. Eight of every 10 substantiated reports of child maltreatment in Iowa are cases of “denial of [...]

  You might not know the name Lori Bears. She wasn’t a politician or a captain of industry. She wasn’t a celebrity. She never clamored for attention for herself. But when she passed away this week at age 50, Iowa City lost a citizen whose contributions easily match those prominent locals whose names top council [...]

  Nine out of every 10 students who walked into Iowa’s public high schools in 2008 walked out last spring as graduates, according to figures released last week by the State Department of Education. The state’s 2012 four-year graduation rate — 89.26 percent, to be exact — was up nearly a percentage point over the [...]