Opinion

Fairfield has eight public works projects involving streets, sewer and water lines on tap this summer and a meeting was held at city hall Thursday to answer the public?s questions.?I?m glad to learn this [separating storm water and sanitary sewer] project is a phased project,? said resident John Maguire.The city?s sewer system has rain run-off draining into the sanitary sewer and if the volume of storm water is ...

BRIGHTON (GTNS) ? In the latest of a line of setbacks that has plagued the project, the dredging phase of the Lake Darling restoration project is being rebid, Iowa Department of Natural Resources fisheries management technician Vance Polton reported today.Polton said he did not believe that the rebidding of the project would impact the completion date of the project. He said the shoreline and boat ramp projects ...

DES MOINES (AP) ? Visitors to the Iowa State Fair can soon get their hands on some tickets to this year?s event.The annual fair?s ticket office will open July 8 and will offer discounted passes on admission and rides.Adults save several dollars if they buy ahead, and they save a $1 on kids. Children ages 5 and under are allowed in for free. A ticket purchased is good for any day of the fair.The ticket office ...

DES MOINES (AP) ? The Iowa Supreme Court has thrown out the drunken driving conviction of a northwest Iowa man, saying a police stop based on an anonymous tip violated the man's constitutional protection against improper searches.The case is about Rock Valley businessman Leon Kooima's 2010 arrest after a charity golf event in Okoboji. A man who knew him called police to anonymously report an intoxicated driver.T...

COUNCIL BLUFFS (AP) ? A Council Bluffs family of three adults was arrested Wednesday on kidnapping charges after the father's 20-year-old son claimed he was severely burned and abused for several years, according to an affidavit.The court document said the son, who ran away from home around March, was at times starved, chained with a dog leash and forced to sleep while standing.The son told authorities that his ...

BRITT (AP) ? A federal report says a crop-dusting pilot had been distracted by using his cellphone just before fatally crashing in northern Iowa last year.Pilot John Larson, of Buffalo Center, died about eight hours after his plane crashed into a cornfield three miles northeast of Britt on July 17, 2012. Authorities say the plane struck a power line, clipped a power pole and then crashed.The National Transportat...

Fairfield High School Class of 2013 answered 18 questions about their school, their educational experience and teachers in the annual exit survey before graduating.Monday, school board member Jeri Kunkle said a couple responses concerned her.The statement: Fairfield High School maintained a drug-free environment, could be answered with ? excellent, good, average, below average, needs improvement and no response....

Waterworks Park will be closed next week from Tuesday through Friday and re-open Saturday, June 29.The city will be doing work at the park with heavy machinery. Fairfield parks and recreational department director Derik Wulfekuhle deemed the heavy machinery would present a problem for pedestrians and has ordered the park?s closure.

IOWA CITY (AP) ? Days after two Iowa girls were kidnapped, a national group that provided faith-based counseling to their abductor before his release from prison was putting a public relations plan in motion and preparing to protect its image, records released Thursday show.A Prison Fellowship vice president sent a prepared statement to the Iowa Department of Corrections that he said would be made public only if ...

WATERLOO (AP) ? Waterloo is considering whether the city should take over its animal control services full time, after an outsourced group that splits those duties complained about the arrangement.The City Council is set to vote Monday on a plan that would hire more employees and assume all animal control duties instead of splitting them with the Cedar Bend Humane Society, the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier ...

DUBUQUE (AP) ? The city of Dubuque is acknowledging that changes to its low-income housing program have had an unintended negative impact on black applicants.The city said in a statement Thursday that it "deeply regrets these impacts" and would seek to correct them as soon as possible.The problems were identified during a review of the city's Section 8 rental assistance program by the U.S. Department of Housing ...

INDEPENDENCE (AP) ? A two-hour police standoff with an armed man in eastern Iowa has ended with an arrest.The Independence Police Department says officers were sent to an apartment complex about 10:40 p.m. Thursday after someone reported that a man had pointed a gun at someone else.Officers say 50-year-old Daniel Flack shut himself inside his apartment and initially wouldn't come out.Flack did leave after a ...