Those who want to see a casino built in Cedar Rapids will be watching Tuesday to see if voters in Warren County south of Des Moines approve gaming in their county, as voters in Linn County did March 5. It’s not clear if the Cedar Rapids request for a state gaming license would be helped [...]

Johnson County residents will head to the polls today to cast their vote on a $43.5 million bond issue to pay for a new justice center. Polls are open today from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Plans for the justice center include a new 195-bed jail and courtrooms. The facility would be located just behind [...]

With just two weeks until Johnson County voters head back to the polls, the county’s justice center debate is heating up. Johnson County residents will vote May 7 on a $43.5 million bond issue to pay for the building. Plans for the justice center include a new 195-bed jail and courtrooms. The facility would be [...]

Spork the jail. That’s the new rallying cry of opponents of the proposed Johnson County criminal justice center. It comes after a Johnson County Jail inmate was arrested Sunday for breaking her plastic spork – which is a combination fork and spoon – after dinner. The charge of fifth-degree criminal mischief, a simple misdemeanor, was [...]

Voters in the Anamosa Community School District approved a nearly $17 million bond issue Tuesday night by literally just a handful of votes. In fact, if 13 missing absentee ballots had all come back as “no” votes, the bond issue would have failed. The vote reported Tuesday was 781 yes and 508 no. That’s 60.6 [...]

IOWA CITY – Although the election focus Tuesday was in Cedar Rapids with the casino vote, the biggest long shot to pay off came to the south in Johnson County. John Etheredge will become the first Republican to serve on the Johnson County Board of Supervisors since 1962 after defeating Democrat Terry Dahms for an [...]

Two former candidates are again vying for a seat on the Johnson County Board of Supervisors, but this time one of them will be elected. John Etheredge, a Republican, and Democrat Terry Dahms are on the ballot for a March 5 special election to replace Sally Stutsman, who resigned her spot on the five-member board [...]

The Johnson County Sheriff’s Office is again offering tours of its headquarters and the county jail in advance of an election on a criminal justice center. The 45-minute tours are at 6 p.m. Feb. 26 and March 12, and at 1 p.m. March 2. Contact Capt. Dave Wagner at (319) 356-6020 ext. 1035 or at [...]

The anti-casino campaign Just Say No Casino isn’t waiting for the results of the March 5 vote on casino gaming in Linn County to get a feel for what the election outcome is going to be. The campaign on Tuesday said its own polling firm has conducted a phone survey of 400 likely Linn County [...]

The Johnson County Board of Supervisors is ready to set a May 7 election date for another vote on a proposed criminal justice center. The supervisors said Thursday that they would vote next week to officially set the election date and the ballot language. County officials last month indicated they favored the May 7 date, [...]