The earth’s climate is changing. That isn’t a theory. It’s not controversial. It’s a fact. “Warming of the climate system is unequivocal,” members of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change found as far back as 2007. We also know that human activity very likely has been driving that undeniable increase in global [...]

  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 [...]

Early Saturday morning, running a few minutes late, Gazette newspaper carrier Ralph Miller turned into a southeast Cedar Rapids neighborhood as part of his normal delivery route. It was about 4:30 a.m. – near the end of Miller’s route. He stopped in front of a house he has been delivering to since he started the [...]

Click here to read more entries from Dave’s column, “Ramblin” or to buy his book, “Ramblin’ Reflections of Hidden Iowa.” A dozen years ago, about the time I married my wife, Suzanne, her oldest daughter, Megan, heard the Allman Brothers Band’s song “Ramblin’ Man” on the radio. “Is that Dave’s song,” Megan asked. “Yep,” her [...]

  Happy birthday, Lincoln Highway. Our nation’s first transcontinental automobile route turns 100 this year — officially on Oct. 31, 1913. But, the Lincoln Highway has always been a favorite Ramblin’ topic, whether it’s the Youngville Cafe or the Tama bridge or old routes in Cedar County or through Marion and Cedar Rapids. So, what [...]

The funnel, gambling expansion and rift and Republicans for Truth take on the Iowa Republican. This week’s show features The Gazette’s James Lynch, Ed Tibbetts of the Quad City Times, statehouse reporter Mike Wiser of the Quad City Times and Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier political reporter Jon Ericson. The show was produced by The Gazette’s Max [...]

A thirst for knowledge took Elizabeth Barry far afield in her 91 years, but her love of home kept her rooted in Cedar Rapids. Barry, who died March 1 from ovarian cancer, spent her lifetime nurturing her family and her passions, from fishing and gardening to Hawkeye football and The Gazette, which her grandfather helped [...]

  CEDAR RAPIDS — Even though Kevin Dochterman, 48, has never married, he’s helped support 50 children. And it’s worth every penny of the $600 or so he sends them every month. “They need the help,” Kevin says, simply. They are children in Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia. In India, Indonesia and Thailand. In Ghana and [...]

  CORALVILLE — Harry Connick Jr., tickled the ivories of the shiny Steinway & Sons Model D, a 9-foot concert grand. Lang Lang, a 30-year-old New York-based Chinese concert pianist, played that keyboard, too, as well as a similar grand with a subdued satin finish next to it. And, behind them, on a brighter sounding [...]

  VINTON — If bricks and mortar can ever represent community cohesiveness and generosity, the building would look like Virginia Gay Hospital in Vinton. A new program — The Plaza of Heroes — cements that notion, for it pays tribute to people who have kept the hospital alive. Small cities like Vinton, population 5,300, often [...]