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IOWA CITY - A community garden on bought out flood property in Iowa City?   No thanks, residents of the Parkveiw Terrace Neighborhood said this week.   They got wind of that possibility and held an informal meeting with a few city officials Wednesday night. About 50 people attended, and the consensus was that they wanted peace and quiet for now, Mary Sturm, who hosted the meeting at her home on Eastmoor Drive, told me Thursday. "We are really hoping that what we can do is just level ...

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Before approving a major plan tonight to reroute traffic through the central corridor, Marion council members stressed that nothing is likely to happen for years and that it is all subject to change anyway. Still, no one is expecting a smooth road ahead. “This,” said Mayor Paul Rehn, “is the most important vote I’ve made since I’ve been on the council. There will be businesses affected, but I think we have to move forward and minimize the impact. “I think this is what’s ...

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Does Iowa need 99 counties? Len Hadley thinks not. But good luck doing anything about it. Hadley, retired CEO of Maytag, has been pushing for county consolidation for years, and met with The Gazette editorial board on Thursday to once again make the case. “Iowa has too much government for the number of people that we have,” he said. Iowa’s 99 counties, Hadley said, are a relic of the days when people drove to the county seat in a horse and buggy, and needed ...

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The city of Cedar Rapids has presented its initial bargaining position to three of the city’s eight employee bargaining units: Zip. The city is calling for no increase in wages in the first year of a new contract and a freeze in step wage increases that come with seniority. Conni Huber, city human resources director, said Thursday that the economy dictates what management can offer. The city also is asking union employees to pay 25 percent of the cost of their health insurance ...

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IOWA CITY — The Johnson County Democrats will hold a convention Dec. 3 to nominate a candidate for county supervisor. The convention will start at 7 p.m. in Auditorium W10 of the Pappajohn Business Building on the University of Iowa campus. The candidate will run in a Jan. 19 special election to fill a vacancy on the county’s Board of Supervisors. Democrat Janelle Rettig was appointed to the seat and has been serving on the board, but a successful petition drive has forced ...

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The city and insurer Selective Insurance Co. have settled a fire claim at the city-owned Sinclair plant site for $3.5 million. The claim resulted from a July 28 fire in one of the buildings at the former meatpacking plant, 1600 Third St. SE, where corn was being stored. The city purchased the buildings on a 30-acre site in 2006 for $4 million with the intention of demolishing the buildings for redevelopment. After the purchase, the city continued to rent space in some ...

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Easy to miss in the ongoing debate on what to do about City Hall is what city officials and consultants are calling “the clear path.” A clear path is what city officials believe they now have on what to do about three key flood-wrecked city buildings — the public library, the central fire station and the animal control shelter. For each of the three buildings, the city is prepared to replace what was destroyed with something new with the help of disaster-relief ...

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The City Council Tuesday night denied a liquor license to the Summit Restaurant and Bar, but the matter is far from over. An attorney for the bar said it will appeal the decision. Additionally, the Summit and its owner, Mike Porter, sued the city Tuesday. “I’ve done nothing illegal,” Porter told the council. The council’s vote was 6-0 against the downtown bar, 10 S. Clinton St. At the center of the debate is the city’s new policy that calls for refusing a liquor license ...

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It may be a bit lost in the continuing debate over the future of City Hall, but city officials also are rethinking the city’s park system even as they consider the future of the city’s key flood-damaged buildings. The open houses now under way — from 4 to 7 p.m. today and 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Wednesday — show the “preferred” option for the city’s park system. Once approved in some kind of final form by the City Council, the new ...

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Two people who appeared before a federal grand jury this morning were arrested after they refused to testify. Carrie Feldman, 20, and Scott DeMuth, 22, both from the Minneapolis area, were jailed for civil contempt. After their appearances before the grand jury, the two were brought into open court. The two had refused to testify in the secret proceeding. They then were offered limited immunity for their testimony in order to compel them to talk, but they still refused. That led to ...

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Conservative leaders have promised to make gay marriage a central issue in next year's legislative elections and governor's race, and they're considering a push to oust the Iowa Supreme Court justices whose ruling legalized same-sex unions. Iowa Christian Alliance President Steve Scheffler said his group will focus first on lobbying lawmakers during the legislative session that starts in January to amend the state constitution to ban gay marriage. Legislators who don't support that effort could find themselves facing opponents recruited and ...

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A new Iowa Poll shows that Iowans are lacking confidence in state officials' budget cutting decisions. The poll published Tuesday in a copyright story in The Des Moines Register shows four out of five Iowans have little to no confidence that state officials are making good decisions. A majority of Iowans say they support spending more money on roads and bridges, health insurance for children, renewable energy and the state patrol. The poll shows they are more willing to cut spending on ...

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About three dozen people are protesting this morning outside the federal courthouse in Davenport as two people are scheduled to appear before a grand jury that may be investigating an animal-rights-related break-in at the University of Iowa in 2004. Protesters are carrying signs, some of them reading, “Liberation, not incrimination,” “Resist grand juries” and “Support Carrie and Scott.” Carrie Feldman, 20, and Scott DeMuth, 22, both from the Twin Cities, are scheduled to appear before the federal grand jury at 9 a.m. ...

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Law enforcement officials in Johnson County are renewing a push to open a gun range. The range could save deputies and officers a lot of driving. Johnson County Sheriff Lonny Pulkrabek says right now, his deputies and officers in other agencies must drive to Cedar Rapids for target practice. The sheriff says they have to make quite a few trips to stay sharp. "Every sworn officer has to qualify two times a year," Pulkrabek said. "We have the special and tactical teams that ...

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A state report shows the increase in Iowa's prison population is easing. The report issued Monday forecasts that by 2019, the state's nine prisons will hold about 9,000 inmates, up about 8 percent from current numbers. In the past two decades, Iowa's prison population soared by more than 150 percent. The state built new prisons, in Clarinda, Fort Dodge and Newton. According to the study, fewer people are being sent to prison because of felony convictions and drug convictions. Sen. Eugene Fraise (FRAY'-zee), a ...

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Get set for a detailed array of informational poster boards if you plan to attend one of the open houses on city facilities today or Wednesday. In simplest terms, city consultant OPN Architects Inc. has come up with two general options for housing city offices in the wake of the June 2008 flood: One uses existing buildings and one calls for a new building. In a preview of the open-house poster boards provided by the city late Monday afternoon, some conclusions seem ...

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(AP) - Governor Chet Culver says there are signs efforts to decrease Iowas rates of youth detention, especially for minority youth, are showing signs of success. According to Culver, Iowa has decreased its overall detention of juveniles by about 15 percent in each of the last two years without impacting public safety. Culver said Monday he created the Youth, Race and Detention Task Force with the goal of reducing the overrepresentation of minorities in Iowa's prison system. Iowa officials say national studies suggest ...

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Aides to Gov. Chet Culver say the state is no longer negotiating with one state employee union about concessions aimed at avoiding layoffs. Culver spokeswoman Erin Seidler acknowledged Monday that talks have been halted with Iowa United Professionals, a union representing about 2,700 workers. The biggest share are social workers in the Department of Human Services. Seidler says negotiations are still being held with the State Police Officers Council, which represents about 600 troopers and other state officers. The moves came as members ...

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Results are in on where the public wants Linn County offices, and there’s really not much to report. The surveys and open houses did not secure any scientific conclusions, and even the unscientific results are, well, inconclusive. Steve & Barry’s is the public’s first choice, by a hair over an expanded Administrative Office Building. This indicates residents who were surveyed, focus grouped and open housed are less concerned about cost than might have been expected. Refitting Steve & Barry’s for government offices looks ...

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A Des Moines Register poll show support for U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley slipping but still strong, with 57 percent approving of the five-term Republican. Grassley's numbers are strong considering voter discontent with incumbents amid the country's economic problems, but they're down significantly from the 75 percent approval he had in a Register poll earlier in the year. In a matchup with Democrat Roxanne Conlin, the most well-known of three Democrats seeking their party's Senate nomination in 2010, Grassley led 57 percent to ...

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A delegation from the U.S. Bureau of Prisons is scheduled to tour and inspect a prison just across the Iowa-Illinois border today as part of a White House proposal to move some terror suspects now detained at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, officials said Sunday. At news conferences in Moline, Ill., and Chicago, Gov. Pat Quinn called the Obama administration’s interest in the Thomson Correctional Center a “great, great opportunity for our state.” The village of Thomson is near the Mississippi River, about 15 ...

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A boil order will be in effect in Oxford starting at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday. Oxford’s water system will be shut down for approximately four to five hours in order to hook a new water main to the water tower. The boil order will last for two days, until favorable lab results come back. Also, when water service resumes, users may witness some cloudy and or rusty water. If weather or other conditions prevent the changeover, the order will begin on Saturday, Oxford officials ...

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DES MOINES (AP) — A poll for The Des Moines Register shows Gov. Chet Culver’s job approval rating has fallen to 40 percent, a 20 percentage point decline since January. The poll, published Saturday night in a copyright story on the newspaper’s Web site, also showed Culver losing by 24 percentage points in a matchup with former Republican Gov. Terry Branstad, who is edging toward seeking the GOP nomination. Culver also trailed Sioux City businessman Bob Vander Plaats by eight points. About ...

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CEDAR RAPIDS — Consider filling out a comment card if you attend one of the public open houses this week about the future of the city’s key flood-damaged buildings. Your thoughts could hold more sway that you might imagine. In August, 150 people filled out cards at open houses to tell city officials if they should return to the flood-damaged Veterans Memorial Building or if they should build a new City Hall. Forty of the comments came from city employees, only three of ...

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CEDAR RAPIDS — A final proposal on moving the Freeway Express Lounge across the Cedar River should come before the Linn County Supervisors on Monday. Michael Richards, the businessman who wants to move the lounge from its spot on Eighth Avenue SW just east of Interstate 380 to New Bohemia, said a lot of research and contact with utility companies must come first. Utility lines must be moved for the building to pass through, and the city must OK the project, but ...

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