Evans: No justification for government shutting the public out nwestiowa.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from nwestiowa.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Iowa Newspaper Association
January 6, 2021
Randy Evans, executive director
Iowa Freedom of Information Council
There are some high-minded legal principles written into Iowa laws and rulings by our state’s Supreme Court.
But in recent weeks, one of those sound principles has run into a few closed-minded state officials and the closed doors of government.
Some officials prefer to conduct the people’s business without being bothered with having the pesky public around.
This has occurred during the Iowa Board of Regents process for learning what students and employees at the University of Iowa hope to see in a new UI president. This has occurred as the Iowa Department of Public Health tapped into the advice of medical experts on what priorities should be established for access to the new coronavirus vaccines.
12/31/20
A Cedar Rapids man has been charged with his third OWI after allegedly driving into a retaining wall at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.
Arrest reports indicate that 58-year-old Douglas Graham of Kiowa Trace Northeast was driving into the main entrance of the hospital just before 4:30pm Wednesday when he struck a retaining wall. Graham then continued and reportedly ended up hitting a parked vehicle in the entrance loop.
Upon contact, officers report Graham with bloodshot watery eyes, slurred speech, and balance issues. Due to a recent knee surgery and balance problems, complete field testing wasn’t completed, but Graham showed clues to intoxication during those he was able to take a part in.
Iowa City s VA Medical Center truly an Iowa treasure Gary D. Curtis, Guest Columnist
Forty-nine years ago, just before Christmas 1971, I remember sitting on my duffle bag at Tan son Nhut airbase in South Vietnam, waiting for my freedom bird to take me home. I remember the feeling of relief that the specter of death that had been hanging over me ever since I set foot in that country was lifting. But after being told I should change into civilian clothes as soon as I got back in the world so I wouldn’t be spit on and called baby killer and other anti-military things, I felt that my country had stolen two years of my life.
2020 gave us silver linings and lessons to be learned Sen. Chuck Grassley
R-Iowa
It’s been a rough year. We started 2020 with all eyes on Iowa for the first-in-the-nation presidential nominating contest. The Iowa caucuses took place under the cloud of a presidential impeachment. That surreal moment in history was eclipsed by a deadly virus that disrupted life as we know it.
No doubt, people are ready to put a divisive year of politics, protests and pandemic behind us. 2020 delivered lessons of sacrifice, hardship and loss wrapped in silver linings of resilience, gratitude and hope.
Families missed graduations, weddings and funerals. Churches, schools and businesses closed. Consumers learned food and toilet paper don’t grow on grocery store shelves. More people realized food scarcity is a First World problem and to never take essential workers for granted. Health-care professionals became real-life superheroes, putting their lives on the line to care for