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IOWA CITY – Iowa football coach Kirk Ferentz said Tuesday that Marcus Binns was no longer on the team when the former running back was cited last week for fifth-degree theft. “Due to injuries, Marcus Binns has not been an active member of the Iowa football program for over one calendar year,” Ferentz said in [...]

UPDATED 4:50 p.m. with comment from team spokesman; 3:15 p.m. to correct spelling of “Wylde Green Road.” IOWA CITY – A University of Iowa reserve running back was cited by Coralville police last Friday after allegedly changing the price tag on a shirt to a lower value at a department store. Marcus A. Binns , 21, faces a charge [...]

IOWA CITY – Iowa City and the University of Iowa are partnering in a car-sharing service . Car sharing is like renting a car but for short periods, like for just an hour. The City Council voted 7-0 Tuesday night to award a contract to Zipcar Inc. to provide the service. The UI has served as the [...]

IOWA CITY – The City Council will use an alternate funding option to bypass a petition calling for a public vote on a $2.5 million deal for a 14-story downtown building. That move Tuesday night was criticized  by people who organized the petition drive in an attempt to put the public financing part of the [...]

CORALVILLE – Coralville is zeroing in on a developer for a project it hopes will revitalize an old section of town. The City Council July 10 is scheduled to vote on a resolution to enter into negotiations with Watts Development Team and Fusion Architects Inc. for that team’s proposal to put housing and public features [...]

UPDATED 3:30 p.m. with breakdown on LOST spending IOWA CITY – The penny should stop here – at least for now. That’s the word from Iowa City staff in recommending that the City Council at this time not seek a continuance of the 1 percent local-option sales tax approved by voters in 2009 to pay for [...]

IOWA CITY – The City Council next week will likely reconsider a $2.5 million deal with a developer that has been criticized by some residents. The council voted, 6-0, April 3 to put $2.5 million in public money toward a 14-story mixed-use building developer Marc Moen plans to construct on the Pedestrian Mall downtown. The [...]

Shooting off a bottle rocket in Cedar Rapids this Fourth of July could get someone cited for violating the city’s “missile” ordinance. Even though a citation is more likely under the separate fireworks law, or not at all, the term missile is a reminder that area public safety officials want the fireworks to be left [...]

IOWA CITY – Iowa City has implemented a new housing rehabilitation program that will provide select homeowners with no-interest and low-interest loans. The Targeted Neighborhood Improvement Program, which started July 1, will assist low- to moderate-income homeowners in the following neighborhoods: College Green, Northside, Miller-Orchard, Towncrest, Wetherby and Grant Wood. Loans between $500 and $24,999 [...]

UPDATED 3 p.m. with copy of appeal and comment from county attorney IOWA CITY – Johnson County Auditor Tom Slockett said Friday he is appealing a reprimand he received from the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board. That board, which administers the state’s campaign and ethics laws, voted 5-0 in May to issue a letter of reprimand to [...]

IOWA CITY – Iowa City is a river town, but near the heart of town people don’t interact much with the water. Local and federal officials want to change that. “This city was founded here because this river was here,” said Karl Brooks, administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Region 7 office in Kansas [...]

UPDATED 3:45 p.m. to correct Gurtovoy’s age IOWA CITY – An effort to repeal Iowa City’s ordinance allowing red-light cameras is not valid, the city attorney has concluded. One of the two organizers of the effort said they are not giving up, however, and will rework the proposal. Their target is the ordinance a divided [...]

IOWA CITY – A synagogue does not have to pay property taxes accrued over the past several months, a split Johnson County Board of Supervisors decided Thursday in a decision that touched on the tax-exempt status of religious institutions. The supervisors voted 3-2 to approve the request from the Agudas Achim Congregation to abate an [...]

IOWA CITY – The stretch of the Iowa River near the Burlington Street dam may be opened up to recreation in the coming years, including boating and perhaps whitewater rafting The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has awarded the city of Iowa City a $60,000 grant to study modifying the dam “for improved water quality, flood [...]

IOWA CITY – Some Iowa City elementary school students, but not all who requested it, will be bused to their new school this fall after parents protested  that walking would be dangerous. Iowa City school district Superintendent Stephen Murley said Tuesday some students from the Miller-Orchard neighborhood will be bused to Horn Elementary next school [...]

IOWA CITY – The city and the Iowa City Downtown District are teaming up to offer a community picnic as part of the traditional fireworks display July 4 . The picnic will start with children’s activities at 5:30 p.m., with live music at 7 p.m. People are encouraged to bring their own picnic food or to [...]

IOWA CITY – Federal funding will help the Iowa City Police Department and Johnson County Sheriff’s Office hire more officers, and the new hires must be recent military veterans. Iowa City will get $250,000 and Johnson County $125,000 from the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, the White House announced Monday. That [...]

IOWA CITY – At the I.C. Pit Stop, the clerk who rings up your gas purchase is also the dealer who may buy your gold ring. “We buy gold!” proclaim two signs hanging next to beer and lottery advertisements in the windows of the convenience store/gas station, located at 300 Kirkwood Ave. about a mile [...]

UPDATED 5:35 p.m. with Jones quote and mug IOWA CITY – The Johnson County joint emergency communications center has a new, but familiar, executive director. The board that oversees the center voted Friday to hire Tom Jones for the position. Jones has been the interim executive director since March, and he had also filled in on [...]