Author Archives: Jeff

Feb 20

Fixing West Fork’s ancestry

Posted on Thursday, February 20, 2025, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

A reader informed me that my school timeline page had the merger of Meservey-Thornton off by a year. I double-checked through the Mason City Globe Gazette archives, and the reader was right. M-T formed in 1962. The thing is, the … Continue reading →

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Feb 17

Headline goes here

Posted on Monday, February 17, 2025, at 11:16 AM by Jeff

January 8, 1883, was the last Monday that residents of Cedar Rapids didn’t have a hard-copy newspaper sold at stores or delivered to their doorsteps. Until today. Tuesday will be 600 days since I lost my job there.

Posted in Iowa Miscellaneous | Comments Off on Headline goes here
Feb 14

Remember January?

Posted on Friday, February 14, 2025, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

Like I said, and say at the opening of the short-takes piece below, it’s been … yeah.

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Feb 11

License Plate Letters — PHX

Posted on Tuesday, February 11, 2025, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

January 31, 2012: Downtown Phoenix is pictured minutes after takeoff from Sky Harbor International Airport. PHX was the layover for a Southwest Airlines flight from Omaha to Austin. To date, it’s the last time I was in Arizona, but it … Continue reading →

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Feb 04

US 30 construction starting next week

Posted on Tuesday, February 4, 2025, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

In a very rare move, a construction project is beginning in February. Three bridges on US 30 between Calamus and Wheatland, all turning 70 years old, are going to be replaced this year. The DOT press release says work will … Continue reading →

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Jan 30

Meteorologists staying on at KWWL

Posted on Thursday, January 30, 2025, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

When news of what Allen Media was planning to do to local weather desks across the nation got out, the reactions were all the same, and all bad. Even though the move had not been announced publicly, the rumble was … Continue reading →

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Jan 27

Cedar Rapids’ last Maid-Rite is gone

Posted on Monday, January 27, 2025, at 10:10 AM by Jeff

The Westside Maid-Rite, Cedar Rapids’ oldest restaurant in the same location (1935), closed Jan. 15. I wrote about it on my Substack. It was the feature image in the second new “Flipside” story roundup from the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative that will … Continue reading →

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Jan 23

Noting correction to 2023 news graphic

Posted on Thursday, January 23, 2025, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

I’m not going to redo my graphic from 2023 about newspaper frequency, but since the information that one line is inaccurate has come to light, I need to acknowledge it. In May 2022, the Ames Tribune announced that at the … Continue reading →

Posted in Iowa Miscellaneous | Comments Off on Noting correction to 2023 news graphic
Jan 20

License Plate Letters — PDS

Posted on Monday, January 20, 2025, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

The National Weather Service has the rare designation “Particularly Dangerous Situation” for potentially extreme weather. The most recent one issued in Iowa, according to the Iowa Environmental Mesonet, was in a pair of tornado warnings issued for parts of Polk … Continue reading →

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Jan 16

Well, _I_ care

Posted on Thursday, January 16, 2025, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

Cyclone Fanatic forum thread title: “The 3-point streak ends, but no one seems to care” There’s another piece of college sports I can’t count on anymore, I guess. The end of Iowa State women’s basketball’s 945-game 3-point streak, which started … Continue reading →

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