Nov 22

Five of six state football champions are private schools

Posted on Friday, November 22, 2013, at 5:38 PM by Jeff

Don Bosco won its first state championship in eight-player football. Iowa City Regina is on a 56-game win streak. Sioux City Heelan had a perfect season and broke or tied 13 state championship records.

Friday afternoon, Carroll Kuemper beat Waukon on a 39-yard field goal that bounced off the crossbar. Dowling and Xavier play at night.

The only public school to win a football title this year was West Lyon. In a postgame interview, West Lyon’s QB thanked God, his coaches, and his offensive line, in that order.

In volleyball, four of the five classes had a private school in the final, but all lost.

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Nov 21

Code talking tribes honored

Posted on Thursday, November 21, 2013, at 5:36 PM by Jeff

The Congressional Gold Medal was awarded yesterday to the Meskwaki (Mesquakie) Indian tribe of Tama County, among others, for their work in World War II.

This sentence about the training, though, makes you go “hmm”:

They received jungle warfare training in Louisiana and code talker training in Scotland and England before being sent to North Africa.

The Cedar Rapids Gazette also has an article.

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Nov 21

I-74 bridge moves fractionally closer

Posted on Thursday, November 21, 2013, at 11:41 AM by Jeff

Speaking of things destined to be built Real Soon Now, WQAD reports that construction of a new I-74 bridge across the Mississippi River is expected to begin in 2017 and won’t be done for another five years. All you will see for the next few years, though, are vacant parcels of land cleared for future construction. So, while it’s programmed, it’s still closer to “believe it when you see it” territory.

The spans will be 85 and 61 years old in 2020.

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Nov 20

Tama County US 30 meeting tomorrow

Posted on Wednesday, November 20, 2013, at 11:35 AM by Jeff

The Iowa DOT is holding a hearing in Toledo on Thursday to discuss proposals for upgrading US 30 east of Tama.

What makes this hearing different from many of those in the past few years is that there will be a formal presentation along with the display of the environmental assessment. (I don’t know if that’s different from the EIS, perhaps an earlier stage.)

The hearing opens at 5 and the presentation is at 5:30.

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Nov 19

150th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address

Posted on Tuesday, November 19, 2013, at 12:35 PM by Jeff

gettysburgmarker
July 30, 1999: This marker was seen on our tour of Gettysburg. (video frame)

Related articles:

A reading of the Gettysburg Address (NPR)

Thousands gather to commemorate 150th anniversary of Gettysburg Address (Fox News)

Ken Burns working on Gettysburg Address project (USA Today)

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Nov 19

History? What history?

Posted on Tuesday, November 19, 2013, at 10:45 AM by Jeff

“Des Moines” as slang for “Middle America” strikes again:

Southern women are different. That is a fact. It is not posturing, or hyperbole, or marketing. (See: all those song lyrics about California girls and their undeniable cuteness.) Southern women, unlike women from Boston or Des Moines or Albuquerque, are leashed to history.

I think I’ll just furrow my brow at this and say “Bless your heart.”

(h/t Instapundit)

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Nov 18

IA 175 bridge transfer, end to tolls scheduled

Posted on Monday, November 18, 2013, at 1:06 PM by Jeff


September 17, 2007

The second-to-last privately owned toll bridge on the Iowa part of the Missouri River is about to be free.

A story earlier this month from the Sioux City Journal (reprinted in the Lincoln Journal Star) said the Burt County Bridge Commission was preparing to turn the IA 175/NE 51 bridge over to their respective states, and a press release Friday from the Iowa DOT confirms the approval of the transfer. Nebraska will be in charge of most of the bridge maintenance.

Both items say Nov. 30 will be the last day tolls will be collected.

Six years ago, the US 34 bridge across the Missouri River was transferred from private ownership to Iowa and Nebraska but  remains tolled. The IA 370 bridge is still privately owned.

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Nov 16

7 of 12 state football finalists are private schools

Posted on Saturday, November 16, 2013, at 7:15 PM by Jeff

For the second year in a row, the 1A final will be all-private (Fort Dodge St. Edmond vs. Iowa City Regina), and the 4A final will follow suit (Dowling vs. Xavier). The other private-school finalists are Don Bosco in 8-player, Carroll Kuemper in 2A, and Sioux City Heelan in 3A. Only Class A has four public schools in the semis.

This post has been edited.

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Nov 16

The forecast

Posted on Saturday, November 16, 2013, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

Just mentally swap “today” for “tonight”. May also apply to Sunday’s basketball game.

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Nov 14

IA 100 plans out, but will still take a decade

Posted on Thursday, November 14, 2013, at 3:06 PM by Jeff


March 18, 2004: This sign near Edgewood Road won’t be going anywhere for a while.

The Iowa DOT had an open meeting on IA 100 Wednesday in Cedar Rapids and put the plans online. KCRG has a news story about the meeting, embedded below.

The extension would be completed in two stages, from Edgewood Road (interchange rebuilt into a SPUI) to Covington Road (old IA 94) and then to US 30. There would be essentially two new interchanges built at the latter, with the current 16th Avenue end area torn up for flyover ramps. The whole thing would be finished in 2020, according to this latest plan, but that carries a tinge of “if everything goes right and without any more setbacks”. Early parts are in the current five-year plan, though.

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