Author Archives: Jeff

Jul 13

Weather Service recap of not-tornado

Posted on Wednesday, July 13, 2011, at 6:00 PM by Jeff

Technically, it’s called a “derecho.” As the system passed through the northern Des Moines metro area at 3:30am, it rapidly intensified and accelerated eastward. Over the next hour and a half the storm plowed eastward through Story, Marshall, and Tama … Continue reading →

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Jul 12

US 30 four lanes across Marshall County

Posted on Tuesday, July 12, 2011, at 3:23 PM by Jeff

Delayed many years by budget troubles and one more year by rainy weather, US 30 is now four lanes from State Center to IA 330 – and, by extension, from Ogden to the casino in Tama County. It happened last … Continue reading →

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Jul 11

License plates to be printed in black

Posted on Monday, July 11, 2011, at 12:37 AM by Jeff

Now they’ll be even harder to tell apart from Minnesota’s. The color of the print on newly issued Iowa license plates will change from blue to black starting next week. Now at YMC, the standard plates have about a thousand … Continue reading →

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Jul 09

Livermore school torn down

Posted on Saturday, July 9, 2011, at 12:25 AM by Jeff

Sometime between July(ish) 2010 (lower left)… (Iowa Geo Info Server) …and Wednesday, when I drove by and found stairs leading to an expanse of dirt. The Algona Upper Des Moines recently had an article about reunions in nearby Ottosen. Livermore, … Continue reading →

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Jul 03

WA state DOT: Maps are obsolete, but GPS has issues

Posted on Sunday, July 3, 2011, at 1:05 PM by Jeff

Compare and contrast. From the official site: Due to state budget reductions and advances in new driver-assistance technologies such as GPS, online driving directions and in-vehicle navigation systems, WSDOT is no longer offering paper copies of the state highway map. From … Continue reading →

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Jul 01

I-80 welcome center to close

Posted on Friday, July 1, 2011, at 1:33 PM by Jeff

Quad-City Times: The Mississippi Valley Welcome Center, a one-stop source of information for visitors to the Quad-City area, will close after more than 20 years of operation. The Quad-Cities Convention & Visitors Bureau manages the center, located on a bluff … Continue reading →

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Jun 25

License Plate Countdown – YMB

Posted on Saturday, June 25, 2011, at 11:58 PM by Jeff

This will be a periodic feature. I’ll be keeping track of new letter combinations I see on Iowa license plates until we reach 999ZZZ and the system divides by zero. (This category will also apply to anything else plate-related.) In … Continue reading →

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Jun 23

Iowa 2010 City, County Population Rankings

Posted on Thursday, June 23, 2011, at 6:16 PM by Jeff

The State Data Center of Iowa’s website was redesigned just in time for release of the 2010 census data. The new site is completely dynamic without a single directly downloadable PDF or Excel file in sight. It does not seem … Continue reading →

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Jun 22

Hello world!

Posted on Wednesday, June 22, 2011, at 1:05 PM by Jeff

This is a setup for the Iowa Highway Ends blog. Nothing is going to happen here for a while. *Jedi hand-wave* You may go about your business. Actual content: http://homepage.mac.com/jeffmorrison/ends/iaends.html

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