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I got a request from the Goldwater Institute about staffers in particular areas at The Gazette, and what our Opinion Page leanings are like. We get questions for different organizations' data bases this time of the year. I was glad to respond. Here is the e-mail and that response. I thought I'd share and see if folks agree or disagree with the questions about the newspaper's slant on things. Also, some contact information people sometimes want locally is in the answer.   From: Rebecca Hartrick Sent: ...

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Since January you have benefitted from a cooperative effort to cover state government by reporters from The Gazette and six Iowa newspapers in the Lee Enterprises chain. Editors from these newspapers gathered last week to assess an agreement leading to this cooperation and concluded that we like it and want it to continue. Agreements like this guiding news organizations that share reporting and writing are but one way we all can contain costs but still ensure that you get news and information you ...

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Editor & Publisher recently interviewed several of us at The Gazette about the overhaul we did earlier this year in the way we collect and present news. That was when we separated the organization reporters, photographers and other content producers work under from that of individual news products, like The Gazette and GazetteOnline.com I know, it sounds complicated. This week Gazette Communications editors and reporters met with editors from other Iowa newspapers and the first thing they wanted to know from ...

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Last week I blogged about a renewed push for regionalism in the Cedar Rapids-Iowa City area Corridor. A few folks have responded to the question I posed then: what do you think of "Hawkeye Corridor" as a brand name for this spot along Interstate 380 in Eastern Iowa? Here are a few: From Twitter:  OwenWB wrote: "Hi Lyle - how about 'Gateway to West Branch' if 'Hawkeye Corridor' doesn't sell?" Some background: OwenWB is from West Branch. I suspect you guessed that.  From NLTV: "We ...

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Several thousand people will descend upon Cedar Rapids this week for the state volleyball tournament and The Gazette will be there. Prep sports reporter Jeff Linder is ready to bring plenty of experience to the table, covering his 11th tournament when the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union's games start Wednesday at the U.S. Cellular Center. Our photo staff is primed and Gazette sports editor J.R. Ogden has mapped out a plan for aggressive coverage on our sports pages. This will be ...

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Updated How's does the "Hawkeye Corridor" sound to you as a way to describe this part of Eastern Iowa defined by the Cedar Rapids metro area to the north and Iowa City-Coralville metro area to the south? Michael Langley, president and founder of the Langley Group out of Pittsburgh, dropped that one on about 300 to 350 business, government and education leaders who met for breakfast in Cedar Rapids this morning to talk about economic development. He didn't flat-out suggest it, but ...

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A while ago some of us at this newspaper wondered if we should publish another book about the floods of 2008, like the one we did last year that readers have said they appreciated. Interest was so high last year that we sold out 22,500 copies of the "Epic Surge: Eastern Iowa's Unstoppable Floods of 2008" book and most of the DVDs produced by KCRG-TV9 that complemented the book. But we knew some people still wanted the keepsake book and didn't get the ...

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I had a good discussion today (Thur. Oct. 29) with a roomful of Iowa high school students who are part of their school newspaper paper or school yearbook. This was part of an annual Iowa High School Press Association conference at the University of Iowa. My topic: Generating story ideas: No excuses. I put the students through an exercise, during which they split into groups and shared answers to: What are people talking about most at your school? What are the next big events coming ...

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Many years ago I talked with a friend who also is in journalism about how interested I was in a story in a North Carolina newspaper. Our families were vacationing there together. The story was about a local board's struggles with a landfill. It seemingly was a benign topic, especially for an Iowan not invested in the community. But the story included how the local board struggled, not just with the impact on residents' environment and pocketbooks but with personalities on ...

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I get this kind of comment every once in a while, most recently in a letter last week from a reader: "...The biggest disappointment for us is when we would like to know more about some of the articles, we are told to go to the computer. We do not own a computer and have never had any experience with one..." It is an earnest comment and I understand the reader's dilemma. So let me try to explain why you see references ...

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I always have thought of political campaigns as protracted public job interviews. People apply for a job and prospective employers vet them to determine if they are qualified enough to get it. When public office is involved, you are the prospective employer. That is the underlying reason The Gazette and KCRG-TV9 are co-sponsoring with GazetteOnline and KCRG.com a Cedar Rapids mayoral candidates' forum Tuesday night. Coe College will host the debate, which starts at 7 p.m. and is to run no later ...

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Do you have a question you'd like those of us on the panel to ask at the Tuesday, Oct. 13,Cedar Rapids mayoral candidate debate? If so, post it here or send it to me via e-mail at lyle.muller@gazcomm.com For information on the debate, see the next post on this blog. The debate starts at 7 p.m. at Coe College's Sinclair Auditorium. It's open to the public. Doors open at 6:15 p.m. The Gazette's Editorial Board interviewed the two candidates running for mayor considered ...

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The three candidates for Cedar Rapids mayor will square off Oct. 13 in a debate sponsored by The Gazette, KCRG-TV9, GazetteOnline and KCRG.com Also, The Gazette announced Monday it will sponsor debates for candidates seeking the Cedar Rapids City Council’s two at-large seats and the seats from Districts 1 and 3. All of the debates will be open to the public and wheelchair accessible. Coe College will host the mayoral debate, starting at 7 p.m. and running no later than 9 p.m., ...

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Shawn Johnson wowed the world winning four medals -- one of them gold -- in the 2008 Olympics' gymnastics competition. Then she won last year's Sullivan Award as the nation's top amateur athlete. Her star rose even higher when she won the previous season of ABC television's "Dancing with the Stars". On Saturday, Oct. 10, the 17-year-old Johnson will be in Cedar Rapids' U.S. Cellular Center to give a motivational speech about health and fitness and meet with people at a ...

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The Gazette has reached agreement with the Associated Press to continue service, dropping the two-year cancellation notice we gave the wire service in September 2008. We also are dealing this week with word from the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service that it is dissolving and McClatchey-Tribune Information Services' move to pick up some of the slack that decision created for the national and world news and feature stories The Gazette presents. We feel Associated Press listened to and responded to a good ...

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On Monday night Eastern Iowa broadcast, newspaper and online journalists will gather with area judges to discuss an important tool used to collect crime news you receive -- cameras in courtrooms. These kinds of sessions have been held in the past. They allow journalists and judges in Iowa's 6th Judicial District to exchange thoughts on how having cameras in a courtroom affects the justice being sought in court and the visual presentation of that process. The 6th Judicial District covers Linn, Johnson, ...

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Some of us may be ducking for cover this fall. At least that is what public health officials want you to do if the H1N1 flu gives you a smack. They want you to stay out of circulation, and keep the flu bug from spreading. Stick to the basics, Linn County public health officials said in a recent visit with The Gazette's Editorial board: plenty of rest, stay home when you are sick, eat right. The H1N1 virus spread fear last spring. ...

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Mid-day Wednesday afternoon our newsroom suddenly started taking phone calls: why aren't you reporting about ACORN? Implied was that The Gazette is part of the conspiracy to keep this story from being reported. That's worth noting, given that so many calls came at the same time and that Fox News' Glenn Beck told his viewers that day to call their local newspapers (you have to go a bit into the clip) and ask them why they weren't reporting about ACORN. The story about ...

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The dateline reads Davenport, but the Sunday, Sept. 13, front page story in The Gazette about that city's community policing program has strong relevance to people living in Cedar Rapids. Police in Davenport's program immerse themselves in a troubled neighborhood and develop relationships with residents and landlords. The relationships can be benevolent but also carry the power of strong enforcement against potential crime and factors that may lead to crime. Representatives of Landlords of Linn County trumpeted the program when meeting with ...

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Your senses almost could overload this week because of how newsy it will be. We are ready to share a week in which we observe workers' roles in shaping this country, elect members to local school boards, hear President Obama tell Congress his latest thoughts about health care reform and observe another 9/11 anniversary. We get to participate in all of this while being serenaded about the week's capper, Saturday's big rivalry football game in Ames between the University of Iowa and Iowa State ...

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The Associated Press Managing Editors group is reporting today the results of a survey that shows a large drop in the number of young journalists at newspapers because of the staff reductions of the past few years. The Gazette has not been immune to making staff cuts. I participated in the survey and was quoted in the Associated Press article about the survey. They got my title wrong but the quote is accurate. Gazette Communications has been part of this revolution gripping our news ...

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Required disclosure: I am a University of Iowa graduate and one of my great diversions each fall is enjoying Hawkeye football. I took all three of my daughters to their first game football game as toddlers and two of them graduated from the UI and remain Hawkeye football fans. The other daughter, plus her husband, graduated from Iowa State University so I am in one of those divided house families. ISU treated those who bolted for Ames well and I'm good with ...

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An old controversy arose last week, thanks to cartoonist Bruce Tinsley. He's the unashamed conservative cartoonist who draws "Mallard Fillmore." His Wednesday, Aug. 19, comic rankled some readers and four of them called or sent an e-mail to let me know about it. Truth is, his comics rankle more than just those who took the time to complain, whether last week or any other day. His comic is an in-your-face conservative view of politics and lifestyles. It particularly hammers away at what Tinsley ...

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It seems people finally are paying attention to health care reform. They have questions because over the past few weeks they've heard about rowdy encounters or, at minimum, protesters in Eastern Iowa and across the country when someone wants to talk about health care reform. They wonder because they hear about polls like one Thursday by USA Today and Gallup Poll showing more people than not being sympathic to protesters' views after demonstrations in their hometowns. So people who have been on the fringe ...

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The Gazette is working up plans to bring candidates for government offices to you in public forums. First up will be a Sept. 1 forum with candidates for Iowa City Community School District board seats, in conjunction with the Districtwide Parents Organization. The DPO has been holding these for years and we joined up with them in 2000 to question school board candidates in public. We have been pleased with the results. Consider this your invitation to join us. A news release with ...

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