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Partnering to Reduce Poverty in India (2/1/12) Jay Sehgal, Executive Vice President of the Sehgal Family Foundation based in Des Moines, discusses the foundation's work in rural India to establish models for improving agricultural practices and water management. His presentation was at a meeting of the Iowa City Foreign Relations Council. | Being on Time for the Revolution. (1/31/12) Leonard Pitts, a columnist for the Miami Herald, whose writings appear regularly in the Cedar Rapids Gazette, is the speaker for Coe College's annual Contemporary Issues Forum. He is critical of religious conservatives who are always "late" to embrace movements seeking justice for the oppressed. | Grants & Programs Committee [City of Cedar Rapids]. (1/26/12) First meeting of the year. Committee responsibilities are reviewed by staff. Election of officers. Discussion of managing requests for funding using CDBG monies, especially requests that are tendered late. | Northwest Neighbors Neighborhood Assn. (1/26/12) The regular monthly association meeting at the Flamingo on Ellis Blvd. Reports on new parking meters downtown. An update from the new director of the City's Building Services. An update on the next "cruising the Boulevard and and upcoming carnival at St. James UMC. The meeting was at the Flamingo Restaurant, 1211 Ellis Blvd NW. | Legislative Forum (1/21/12) Linn County legislators address reforms in mental health, education, and taxation of commercial property. Sponsored by the League of Women Voters. Held at Mercy Medical Center. |
| "Fragile States," (1/19/12) The United Nations Association of Linn County presents a film that focuses on four (4) countries whose governments are precariously perched between stability and instability—for different reasons—is the focus for discussion. | Penford's Pitch to Purchase Public Park to Parlay Plentious Production after Paper Passes (1/16-18/12) Penford Products, on the river at the corner of 1st Street and 8th Avenue SW, has propostioned the Cedar Rapids City Council to purchase Riverside Park—11+ acres immediately south of the company's present facility—for future expansion. Plans also include purchases of homes between the park and 12th Avenue SW. This is the first of three public meetings aimed at explaining the company's plans. Meetings were at Taylor Elemtary School, CSPS, the Chamber of Commerce. | Move to Amend, Again, with more to Come (1/13/12) Move to Amend, Cedar Rapids, invited Ben Manski, Executive Director of the Liberty Tree Foundation, a Wisconsin-based think-tank, to help organize local efforts to amend the US Constitution in response to the Supreme Count's decision in Citizens United vs. FEC, and to discuss the implications of Iowa's "home rule" for local efforts. This three-part video includes Manski's presentation on the situation created by the Court's decision, a Q & A session following the presentation, and a presentation on Home Rule. Explore the issues further by watching a dramatization performed at Campbell Steele Gallery in May 2011. | School Closings Recommended (1/9/12) The Cedar Rapids Board of Education attended to public comment on and recommendations of closing of schools in the Cedar Rapids School District. Lots of public comment. | Palestine/Israel: An update (10/20/11) Dr. Jeremy Brigham and Yaser Abu Daga provide an update on the situation in Palestine/Israel, both the West Bank and Gaza. | Before a Disaster Strikes (12/10/11) In this presentation by Rich Patterson, Director, Indian Creek Nature Center in Cedar Rapids, he tells how he prepares emergency supplies and equipment for the eventualities of power outages, evacuation, flood, tornadoes. |
| Clean Air Forum (12/6/11) Panelists discuss efforts to secure cleaner air in Iowa in the face of continued use of coal in fueling utilities and industrial sites. The forum was at the Iowa City Public Library. | Protesting the Drones (12/3/11) Occupy Cedar Rapids and friends from Des Moines, Iowa City, Dubuque and points across Iowa protest the manufacture of small drones by a company renting space in the Cherry Building, 329 10th Avenue SE, Cedar Rapids. | "’But God said I could be President!’ Is God confused or are we?" (11/30/11) Rev. Dr. C. Welton Gaddy lectures of politics and religion at Coe College. Dr. Gaddy is President of Interfaith Alliance in Washington, D.C. | Grant Wood's Neighborhood (10/29/11) A walking tour with Cedar Rapids historian Mark Stoffer Hunter of the Moundview neighborhood where artist Grant Wood grew up. Sponsored by the Moundview Neighborhood Association. | The Upper Cedar River Watershed Tour: Flood Control and Urban & Farm Conservation Practices (9/13/10) The tour begins in Charles City, ends near Nashua, and includes updates on the Iowa Flood Center's capabilities, visits to Charles City's recreational development on the Cedar River and their use of permeable paving in a flood-neighborhood, a specially designed water-retention site, a soil run-off demonstration, an experimental nitrogen bioreactor, and a tour of a farm near Rowley where care use of conservation measures manages water and preserves the soil. (8 videos). | Move to Amend The Prosecution of Judge Waite or How The Supreme Court Helped Corporations Steal Our Democracy. This dramatization, produced by the Iowa Chapter and performed at the Campbell Steele Gallery in Marion, is part of a national effort to amend the US Constitution in response to the Supreme Court's decisions declaring that corporations are "persons" and that "money" equals "speech." |
| Arab Spring (5/11/11) Brian Katulis, Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, discusses Egypt, the Middle East and implication for US foreign policy of the Arab Spring in an address to the Iowa City Foreign Relations Council. | Reconciliation in South Sudan (1010/11) Peter Tibi is speaking in Eastern Iowa about his agency's efforts to bring about reconciliation among citizens of recently formed South Sudan. This presentation was made at the Iowa City Public Library, sponsored by the Presbytery of East Iowa and St. Andrew Presbyterian Church, Iowa City. |
Don't Forget Sudan (5/3/11) Omer Ismail, a Sudanese ex-pat, speaks to an audience gathered by the Iowa City Foreign Relations Councils, the U of I's Human Rights program, the Iowa UN Association and other related groups about the present situation in Sudan, following the plebicite to divide the county north and south, and its prospects. | Nation Building in South Sudan(11/17/11) Nathan Miller, Senior Fellow in Human Rights and Social Justice, at the University of Iowa's Law School, discusses his work in assisting with nation building in the newly emerged nation of South Sudan. | The South Sudan To Be Omer Ismail, a Sudanese ex-pat, speaks to an audience gathered by the Iowa City Foreign Relations Councils, the U of I's Human Rights program, the Iowa UN Association and other related groups about the present situation in Sudan, following the plebicite to divide the county north and south, and its prospects. |