Stories

Iowa Gov. Chet Culver today voiced his displeasure with President George W. Bush’s proposed rule change that would redefine birth control as abortion.

The varied age groups and socioeconomic levels in the reception hall for the 2008 Choice Dinner held at Iowa Memorial Union on the University of Iowa campus wasn’t an unnoticed detail among those attending the event.
“We’re here because we’ve been coming to this event for probably 20 years — maybe more,” said Nancy Lynch of [...]

While millions of Americans are either celebrating or grieving the 35th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark Roe v. Wade decision today, 25-year-old Katie Wilkins credits the law for the 5-year-old girl playing outside her kitchen window.
It’s been nearly six years since Wilkins, a recent college graduate, locked herself in her parents’ bathroom and [...]

A jury verdict in Northern Iowa District Court was a long time coming for eastern Iowa ironworker Edward D. Heaton. He filed a civil rights case with the court in June 2005 and waited more than a year while the cogs of justice turned. Despite a November 2006 jury verdict ordering the plaintiff in the [...]

Squeezed between two powder kegs of anti-abortion activity, most Iowans continue to follow presidential candidates around the state without much knowledge or thought given to the battles being waged to the east and south, just hours from their homes.
“I tend to see both ends of the spectrum as wrong,” said Lori Cavanaugh as she waited [...]

Iowa undergraduate students Sean Fritz and Tim McQuillan were married in Des Moines this morning during an extremely brief window of opportunity to become Iowa’s first legal same-sex union.
According to a report from the Associated Press, a dozen gay and lesbian couples were at the Polk County Recorder’s Office when it opened this morning. Roughly [...]

Women in Iowa and across the United States came together Sunday to celebrate both 87 years of women’s suffrage and current day female accomplishments. Three Linn County women were recognized for years of hard work in the community and region on behalf of women and girls.
“I was honored with this [award],” said former Iowa television [...]

While minor scuffles between the Democratic presidential hopefuls have been big news over the past few days, the American public has been mostly insulated from the near brawls between the Republican hopefuls. Sunday’s ABC Presidential Forum in Des Moines, however, has begun to drag some of the GOP carnage into the spotlight.
“Virtually nothing in that [...]

Ever do anything you regretted in Linn County, Iowa? If so, the past may have just come back to haunt you.
Tuesday morning the Linn County Sheriff’s Office and Gazette Communications watched a collaborative project come to fruition. Over 2,000 arrest warrants – the oldest dating back to 1965 – have been massaged into a database, [...]