IOWA CITY – The Iowa City school district will not go after a federal grant that would help pay for police officers in schools, but the debate over the underlying issue is not necessarily over. The school board voted 7-0 Tuesday night not to apply for a Community Oriented Policing Services grant to place one [...]

Johnson County Recorder Kim Painter is being recognized by the White House this week with an honor named after a gay-rights icon. Painter is one of 10 elected or appointed officials who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered who have been named “Harvey Milk Champions of Change.” Painter, county recorder since 1998 and a Democrat, was [...]

IOWA CITY — The national debate over whether armed police officers belong in schools has come to the Iowa City school district — and the idea is receiving plenty of scrutiny from the community. “The thought of it is horrific to me,” said Royceann Porter of Iowa City, a member of Johnson County’s Juvenile Crime [...]

Intense criticism will not keep the city of Iowa City from moving forward with a developer planning to construct a high-rise building on city-owned land. The City Council rejected Tuesday night a rezoning proposal aimed at preventing Marc Moen from building a $53.8 million, 20-story building he’s calling The Chauncey at the intersection of College [...]

IOWA CITY – The City Council Tuesday night OK’d a grant application that would provide money to put armed police officers in secondary schools in the Iowa City Community School District. The intent is to hire two new police officers to serve as what are known as school resource officers in the district’s three high schools [...]

Iowa City Council members indicated Tuesday night they would put a stop to plans to install red-light cameras in town – at least for now. Meeting in a work session, no City Council member voiced objections to a recommendation from city staffers that the ordinance allowing traffic-enforcement cameras, like red-light and speed cameras, be repealed. The [...]

IOWA CITY – On a day a bicyclist beat a car and a bus in a race between Coralville and Iowa City, a national organization said Iowa City has become more bicycle friendly. The League of American Bicyclists announced Monday that Iowa City’s Bicycle Friendly Communities status had been upgraded from bronze to silver . It’s a [...]

  IOWA CITY – Iowa City could be headed to court over insurance coverage for its landfill after a fire last year caused $3.5 million in damage. The city and its insurance company, Travelers Companies Inc. of Hartford, Conn., disagree on the insurance coverage related to the fire, City Manager Tom Markus wrote in an [...]

Language in a large appropriations bill approved by the Iowa Senate could give Johnson County more freedom in borrowing money to put toward jail and courthouse improvements. The provision, which faces an uncertain future in the Legislature, would allow Johnson County to borrow up to $1.2 million through a bond issue for a project of [...]

A petition challenging traffic-enforcement cameras in Iowa City is valid, but the portion of it covering cameras is not timely, yet the city may repeal its camera ordinance anyway. Oh, and cameras are not even installed yet and were not going to be any time soon. Got that? Those related and complicated pieces of information [...]

Downtown Iowa City restaurant owners want police to focus their alcohol stings on problem bars. As it stands now, the alcohol compliance checks occur across the spectrum of establishments with liquor licenses. But some restaurant owners say it’s not fair that they get checked as frequently as bars that see significant numbers of underage drinkers. [...]

IOWA CITY – An Iowa City school district committee plans to present several construction scenarios to the public that include building new schools, expanding existing ones and closing others. A district steering committee, made up mostly of school and local government representatives, helping the district develop a long-term facilities plan met Monday night to develop [...]

UPDATE: Coralville Lake boaters will see expanded areas where they must slow down and users of a popular beach area will have to put away their alcoholic drinks. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which oversees the lake, announced Friday that the measures are being implemented to improve safety and are effective immediately. The actual [...]

How do you calculate the value of five lives saved? Lemi Tilahun of Cedar Rapids ponders that for his five cousins, ages 3 to 14, whom his family is trying to bring to the U.S. from Ethiopia. “You look at the complete equation — the survival is pretty much day-to-day for them — I can [...]

Bartender, Iowa City will have another round of 21-only bar debate. Two people associated with downtown Iowa City bars want a public vote on the city ordinance that bans people younger than 21 from being in drinking establishments at night. Late Tuesday, George Wittgraf, owner of the Union Bar, and Josh Erceg, a manager at [...]

Foes of red-light and speed cameras believe they finally have enough signatures on a petition they hope will lead to the technology being banned in Iowa City. Organizers of the petition drive, aimed at outlawing automated traffic-enforcement cameras and drones, filed 1,240 more signatures with the city Tuesday. If 394 of those are valid, that [...]

IOWA CITY – A public tour of the Johnson County Courthouse is being offered the day before a special election on a criminal justice center. The 45-minute tour starts at 4 p.m. May 6. Call the Johnson County Attorney’s Office at (319) 339-6100 to reserve a spot. A 45-minute tour of the county jail will [...]

The city of North Liberty is offering curbside collection of flood-damaged property all week following last week’s heavy rainfall. Also, the city of Iowa City wants people to know that damaged carpet can be recycled, as long as it is dried out first. The carpet can be taken to the Iowa City Landfill and Recycling [...]

IOWA CITY — The group meets Monday mornings in the Johnson County Attorney’s Office to see who they can try to get out of the county jail. One would expect public defender Tom Woods and jail alternatives counselor Emily Hurst to be trying to secure an inmate’s release. But Lt. Kevin Bell of the jail [...]