By The Gazette Editorial Board —- When thinking of your children and grandchildren and the kind of world you want them to live in, do you want a society that responds quickly if they become a victim of crime, or do you prefer that they not become a victim of crime to begin with?” [...]
continue »The emerging story of three women who were kidnapped and imprisoned for a decade in a tight-knit Cleveland neighborhood seems too fantastic to be believed, and that’s one of the reasons predators are able to trap, traffic and enslave untold numbers of missing girls.
continue »The Gazette Editorial Board —- For more than two decades, the non-profit Community Corrections Improvement Association has worked to make our neighborhoods safer by proactively addressing some of the root causes of crime in Eastern Iowa. The group’s Children of Promise programs are great examples of how hard CCIA works “upstream” to support children [...]
continue »
By Bill Olinger —- Approximately four years ago, I changed my residence from Cedar Rapids to Sanibel, Fla. I very much enjoy Florida but every day I feel homesick for Cedar Rapids and look forward to my summer return. I am the owner of a number of historic buildings on the perimeter of [...]
continue »
By Gregory Stokesberry —- As I ponder the ramifications of a casino in Linn County, I’ve been thinking about the latest commercials by the “yes” people talking about the influx of new jobs that will come with same. And I think there’s something to that claim. If we accept the accuracy of studies [...]
continue »By The Gazette Editorial Board —- Most of us can only attempt to imagine the anguish of having a child abducted and murdered. Even when it doesn’t involve our family or a friend, we want to help make sure it doesn’t happen again. We also can understand why the parents of Elizabeth Collins, one [...]
continue »
By Richard Florida —- Early in September, Sheldon Adelson, the 79-year-old founder of The Sands (and a lavish political donor), announced that Madrid will be home to a massive EuroVegas gambling and entertainment complex. When construction is completed in about 10 years, there will be six casinos with 18,000 slot machines and a [...]
continue »
What’s next, now that Johnson County voters declined to approve a $46.8 million justice center? County supervisors say they won’t give up — they’ve vowed to try again. A few hours after the ballot measure came up a few percentage points shy of the 60 percent it needed to pass, they started talking about [...]
continue »
By Tim Trenkle — As an Iowan, it sometimes feels to me like poverty is considered a character defect. We pride ourselves on our work ethic and point to Borlaug, Chrysler, Robert Noyce, the father of the microchip, and John Deere. Poverty is increasing locally and violence is its undeniable twin. In 2000 [...]
continue »
Gov. Terry Branstad announced Thursday that he has denied four applications from convicted felons serving time in Iowa’s prison system seeking to have their sentences commuted. The latest applicants denied commutation included: Nikkolas Kion Kemp, 29, who was convicted of first-degree robbery for a crime he committed in November 2001 in Polk County; DeMarcus Montrell [...]
continue »
