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UPDATED Monday, March 15 The American Society of News Editors named on Monday, March 15, citizens who have fought tirelessly for open government. The awards point out that those seeking access to government records go far beyond journalists.---Sunshine Week is March 14-20. This is the time of year when supporters of open government remind citizens that they have the right to inspect the work done by their public, tax-supported decision makers. I write about it in my Sunday, March 14, column ...

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We’ve added a new feature to our Sunday Home and Real Estate section: Sean Conway’s column, “Cultivating Life.” Tribune Media Services, which distributes the column, says Conway will explore for you “easy-to-do projects and simple solutions for outdoor living, cooking, gardening and entertaining.”Conway is a nationally known garden designer and expert on outdoor living around the home. He is from Tiverton, Rhode Island, but has done work for several media outlets, including NBC’s “Today” Show. Last week, on Feb. 28, his ...

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My world growing up until junior high, when my family moved, consisted of about 16 town blocks, although a few homes were beyond that grid. And there always was the country, where a lot of my friends lived on farms.That world was Farmersburg, Iowa, population then of 250, and it was big enough to play baseball incessantly with my friends, fight with my friends and then make up, ride my bicycle, go to the creek and fish, go to the ...

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Updated on Feb. 22, 2010The Gazette launches on Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2010, a paid e-edition of the newspaper, The Green Gazette. This won't replace GazetteOnline.com, which continues to be a free site. It is a separate site and product for just our e-edition.A little earlier it appeared as though The Green Gazette would be ready to launch today, Feb. 22. Around 1 p.m., however, word came that it will launch on the 23rd.I'll write about this in my Sunday, Feb. ...

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I covered my first murder trial in the fall of 1974. The 3-year-old murder victim would be 38 years old now had she lived. Maybe 39. I cannot recall her birthday but you get the picture, it was a senseless loss. I covered about two dozen murder trials while a reporter and in each one was sobered by how cases built meticulously to prove blame for someone's death can strip away the humanity that is in us all while also heightening it.At one ...

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If you've followed this blog you know people can be highly passionate about the comics that run in a newspaper. The Gazette certainly has been in the middle of a few storms over its comics. (Links to Dec. 24 post about most recent move and March 20, 2009, column about our rescinded attempt to dump the popular "Pearls Before Swine" and "Get Fuzzy".)We are not alone. The Los Angeles Times is under fire for changes it is making to its pages. ...

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The Urban Land Institute had praise for Cedar Rapids downtown flood recovery efforts to date in a report last June and suggested a vision for that recovery. But action, not plans, were needed, the report said.We want to know if local leaders have embraced that call for bold moves and dedicated leadership. Moreover, we want to know whether economic recovery is going to be part of that flood recovery, so we've organized a public forum.Consider yourselves invited.The forum, with The Gazette, KCRG-TV9 and ...

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 House of the WeekOne change you will notice if you read our Home and Real Estate section on Sunday, Feb. 7, is that a popular feature -- House of the Week -- is not in this week. That feature comes from the Associated Press but no longer is part of the offerings we receive from the news service. It is still accessible, though, online at www.houseoftheweek.comWe are seeking a similar feature to replace it in the newspaper, as we know a lot of ...

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The live blog was burning this afternoon (Thursday Feb. 4) as the Cedar Rapids Library Board of Trustees voted on its preferred site for a new library.That Gazette Communications' downtown block that includes The Gazette and KCRG-TV9 not only was in the mix but was the preferred site by a 5-to-3 informal vote only enhanced the drama that played out live on GazetteOnline.com and kcrg.comA note: although the informal pick was by a 5-to-3 margin, based on attending board members' preferences, ...

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Kurt Warner sure got a lot of attention over the weekend for, essentially, changing jobs. And really, that's all that happens when someone who was born a month after I graduated from high school retires from his current job.The Gazette newspaper, in Warner's home town, was in the middle of that media blitz and the coverage was warranted. He is a local guy who is doing well. Plus, his life story transcends sports.Warner has given back to Cedar Rapids and other ...

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An interesting study by Gallup is just out showing that people still value journalism's watchdog role and reporters who explain to them things government does that are important.It's just that they don't feel they're getting it from the news media.The study shows that one of every four Americans surveyed thought the news media do a poor job of being good watchdogs during President Obama's first year. Only 34 percent -- one of every three Americans -- thought the media are doing ...

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You need more local news and events of the surrounding Eastern Iowa communities, a Gazette customer writes. "Too much Cedar Rapids and Iowa City."Another writes:"There are many interesting and good things happening in our rural communities that could be featured more."These are in a sampling of comments I'm responding to in my Sunday, Jan. 24, Gazette column on a mailbag day.I appreciate the calls for more regional news. Their roots come from The Gazette's long history of covering news of ...

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USA Today has a couple of stories today (Monday, Jan. 18, 2010) about red-light cameras that may be of interest to people who live -- or at least drive -- in Cedar Rapids, Ia.Cedar Rapids has started to install these devices in order to catch people who run red lights or speed through intersections. The Gazette's Rick Smith reported on this earlier this month and again this week.USA Today's page 1 story today says folks in many cities where these are being ...

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Updated Friday, Jan. 15, 2010, and Sunday, Jan. 17, 2010Eastern Iowa families in Kalona and Pella have learned the Haitian children they are adopting, and who still are in Haiti, are OK. Here's the link to the latest.I'm writing in my Sunday, Jan. 17, Cedar Rapids (IA) Gazette column about how the magnitude-7 earthquake in Haiti truly has been an Internet story.Some examples: interactive maps from the likes of the New York Times, USA Today and the rest, but also non-news agencies like the ...

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The Iowa Legislature's Democratic leaders, who have the majority, say they'd like to wrap up the 2010 session (start of session: Jan. 11) in 80 days.All they have to do to make that happen is deal with the state's budget mess while only addressing, without much controversy, their stated priorities: access to education, good health care and jobs.It won't be easy. The ground rules for dealing with the budget, Senate Majority Leader Michael Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs, told The Gazette Editorial Board last month, ...

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It is Friday, Jan. 8, with temperatures in Eastern Iowa today and tomorrow expected to be around 0 before dropping tonight to somewhere around 15 below zero. Latest forecast.Here are temperatures from a warmer state, at least in some parts, that may surprise you:http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/hdfForecast?query=alaska&searchType=WEATHERComing up in my Sunday Gazette column and blog: we'll be keeping an eye on the Iowa Legislature to see if it can adjourn in 80 days.

USA Today has an article today about the Monday, Jan. 4, debut of the comic "Dustin." Here is a link: http://www.usatoday.com/life/comics/2010-01-04-BOOMERANGKID04_ST_N.htmThe Gazette is among those U.S. papers running the comic. The decision has caused quite a stir with fans of the comic "Retail" because we dropped that to make room for the new one. Here's an earlier blog post on that, plus some comments.

You may have seen a promo in our paper about this: We are going to attempt something a lot of other newspapers do – collect feedback from our Web site and publish some of those comments in the paper.This feature, at GazetteOnline and in The Gazette, is called “On Your Mind.” It is an opportunity for you to send your random thoughts on local concerns, issues, trends, events, reasons to celebrate or any other noteworthy happenings. Some guidelines exist: no slander, ...

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Mary Sharp, our senior manager for news content, dropped by my office in late December with The Gazette's plans for covering the beginning of the new millennium. She had dusted them off these 10 years later because poring through them is such a hoot.Mary led our overall coverage on this big event. I handled our effort out of Iowa City. The two of us collaborated on planning an eight-page special section that wrapped the regular Gazette and deploying reporters to ...

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The Gazette in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, is among the newspapers that will debut the new comic strip, "Dustin", in January.We'll start the comic on Jan. 4. It will run seven days a week. King Features Syndicate distributes it.The strip, by noted humorists and editorial cartoonists Steve Kelley and Jeff Parker, is about a 23-year-old man working temp jobs because he hasn't focused yet on what he wants to do with his life. The main character, Dustin Kudlick, lives at home ...

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The year that is winding down provided Eastern Iowans with a lot of highs and lows that you can expect to hear about as we glide into the heart of the holiday season.Athletics produced prominent news this year. The highs came from watching the University of Iowa football team bolt to an unprecedented and, sometimes, unbelievable  9-0 start en route to a pending Orange Bowl appearance. But the lows were more profound. They came from the June fatal shooting of ...

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Iowa newspaper publishers and editors are making a pitch to legislators about the value of published meeting minutes and notices in their papers.This move, which includes The Gazette, could not have come at a better time. The Iowa Newspaper Association has just obtained a survey by Newton Marketing and Research, of Norman, Okla., that shows newspapers remain the preferred method people use to read the minutes of local government decisions.The survey, conducted in November, shows 55.5 percent of the estimated ...

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Did a couple of Dennis the Menace comics in The Gazette the last week of November seem odd to you? They did to some readers who follow the comic in The Gazette.Here was that ageless scamp Monday morning, Nov. 30, sitting in a chair in what appears to be the same corner he was being sent to when I read this comic strip as a boy, looking back and saying, “I can explain it to you, Joey, but the understandin’ ...

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Updated Monday, Dec. 7, 2009As each year passes we lose more people who can tell us about how much the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor shook the United States. Accounts of how this attack launched this nation into World War II have become increasingly precious as we get farther from Dec. 7, 1941, and the voices of experience pass on.The attack left 2,403 Americans dead and more than 1,178 wounded. The  1,177 crew members killed on the USS Arizona ...

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A reasonable question Iowans interested in state politics could ask is: who are Iowa's emerging new leaders in next year's elections?Bruce Braley? He's running for the U.S. House again. Dave Loebsack? Same with him. Besides, both will have had four years under their belts by November, which means they no longer can carry the "newcomers" banner.New leaders seem to be hard to come by at this point in Iowa's political history. Why else would the two biggest races drawing early attention ...

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