Yay? (Expectations are…not high.)
It would feel incomplete without Pat Forde taking a cheap shot at Iowa State (item 29):
But the Sooners will not run the table. In fact, both they and Baylor could run into trap-game scenarios at Iowa State and West Virginia – both tough places to play. (And visit. And live.)
He did say those were predictions “sure to go wrong,” though. And with one ISU win over OU in half a century, it’s safe to guess it will be.
And now, mood music.
So, for reasons as yet unexplained, I haven’t had Internet service for two days. (Yesterday’s blog post was a timed one. My connection cut out in mid-draft of tomorrow’s post.) Kids, this is why us oldthinkers DO NOT TRUST THE CLOUD.
It takes a special kind of stupid (or expectation that everyone has a “mobile device” with fast connection that is not dependent on the provider involved) to tell people to visit a website during a service interruption.
I was actually somewhat productive during that time, but only because I worked with images and videos stored on my hard drive. Tim Cook, please keep that in mind as Apple plans to jettison iPhoto. The Cloud may be five-nines-of-uptime hunky-dory in Silicon Valley, but here in the Great Flyover, not so much.
I’ve never heard of “GetTV” (or, as it is in the press release, “getTV” even at the beginning of a sentence) but it’s showing up in two Iowa TV markets. It’s a deal between Sony Pictures Television and Sinclair Broadcasting to show classic movies. The channel, 2.2 or 17.2, bumps the music channels on KGAN and KDSM to the .3.
And while I’m on the subject of TV changes, Mediacom is adding CBS Sports Network to expanded basic cable — but there appears to be a catch. The listings here are said to be effective next Tuesday. CBSSN, along with the National Geographic Channel and FXX (which is currently showing a “Simpsons” marathon in the wrong aspect ratio), is marked as “Requires a Mediacom digital converter, a Mediacom digital adapter or cable card” while everything else in expanded basic says “Requires a digital-ready TV, a Mediacom digital converter or a Mediacom digital adapter.” It’s a subtle difference, but it may mean that non-HD TVs are incapable of getting the channel.
One of the last school districts in Iowa that includes a township in its name may be the next domino in the continued consolidation trend.
Tim Gallagher of the Sioux City Journal reported last week that Remsen-Union and Marcus-Meriden-Cleghorn were to have meetings with a consultant about who would get what grades if they decided to engage in sharing. Gallagher said the two already share summer sports and a few others.
Remsen-Union is in a slightly different spot than other rural districts, because it also has to contend with a private school in the same town, Remsen St. Mary’s. MMC is going to suffer some effects of the Tyson plant closure in Cherokee.
The two districts had a combined certified enrollment over 1100 in 2000-01 but last year couldn’t even muster up 850. Together, they’d be about the size of West Branch or Aplington-Parkersburg.
Union Township is south-southwest of Remsen.
So that’s why the University of Iowa wouldn’t let “Girls” come over:
“(W)e were told that yes, our neighborhood is supposed to be Iowa in the coming season, and yes, there will be a frat party with some Lena Dunham Jell-O wrestling action,” the site reported in April.
The last few blocks of IA 3 are getting a makeover today. Dubuque is converting a handful of streets that run east-west into two-way streets instead of one-ways, including 9th and 11th, which currently carry US 52 and IA 3 between the US 61/151 freeway and White and Central streets. KCRG and KWWL both have stories.
This should not, or at least doesn’t have to, change the signage of the highways in the area. The exit from US 61/151 is designed with the one-ways in mind. It’s not unheard of for a two-way street to carry only one direction of a road, just really rare. The change will eventually be a moot point for US 52 and IA 3 anyway, because they will no longer run there when the Southwest Connector is built. (Eventually. Very, very eventually.)
October 12, 2001: The flash on this picture reveals that “1st Ave” was a greenout for the original label “Coralville” on this I-80 BGS.
The state just finished rebuilding and expanding I-80 in the Iowa City area, but Coralville is hungry for more. The First Avenue exit, currently a regular diamond, is getting more traffic both because of suburban expansion and new retail in the area. The city has proposed a diverging diamond interchange, which would be the second in Iowa after the upcoming Alice’s Road Grand Prairie Parkway project in Waukee.
Also of interest at the bottom of the article: Converting the cloverleaf at I-380’s south end (taking IA 100’s place on the Real Soon Now timeline) and an exit on I-380 two miles north of there.
“Did you know that the Sioux County town of Hull, population 2,175, supports three high schools?” asks the Sioux City Journal. No, I did not. That’s probably because Trinity Christian, school number 3, has only had two graduating classes and has fewer than 100 K-12 students.
(I didn’t know there was an Ankeny Christian either, until they made the boys’ state basketball tournament against North Tama, but that is perhaps another post.)
Of all the cities in Iowa with three or more high schools including private schools, Hull is by far the outlier by population and characteristics. Western Christian, the more established private school in Hull, is larger than the public school (Boyden-Hull) although not by all that much. The only other place remotely in the same situation is Carroll, where Kuemper has enough clout that the school district is unable to pass any tax levies.
As the Journal helpfully explains, Western Christian is Christian Reformed-based while Trinity Christian is Protestant Reformed Christian-based. (Splitters!)
Unrelated, yet on a similar subject: In Polk County, Grand View Christian, after separating from Grandview Park Baptist Church, has moved into Saydel’s former Norwoodville school just north of Des Moines.
Here’s a big jump that raises the question of whether CO’s and CQ’s were used in the current cycle. They should, because I’m pretty sure they were used the first time around.
EDIT: Incorrect reference to Tama County in 1997.
There’s some grading and the beginnings of culverts for a four-lane US 20 between Moville and Correctionville, reports KCAU*.
After traveling current 20 and old 20 in the area earlier this summer, before any construction began, I can see why this process is going to take a while. When you look at the map, “old 20” by Cushing is where the rolling hills begin and later become the Loess Hills. On paper, it looks easy, but then you see that climb, and lots of trees, right outside of Correctionville.
The intersection ahead of the van is where the new IA 31 will be built to bypass Correctionville. The semi is on one of the frequent passing lanes on current 20, which will have to be torn up when new lanes are built on top of or very near that grade.
The 15 miles between Moville and Correctionville are all that are programmed right now, but that represents a third of the remaining segment to be four-laned in Iowa.
*Nexstar stations continue to avoid using the call letters in Web addresses. In fact, kcau.com is still available.
