Iowa, Cedar Rapids | featured news

IOWA CITY — Months after the University of Iowa originally planned to allocate millions toward its strategic plan from last year’s blockbuster $1.165 billion public-private utilities partnership, officials Thursday said they&#

Linn County’s planning and development director Les Beck is retiring from the position after 20 years.His retirement, effective Friday, follows two decades of service that included two major flooding events and a derecho.

DES MOINES — The state court administrator for the Iowa Judicial Branch announced his resignation Thursday after running the day-to-day operations of the eight district courts since September 2017.

IOWA CITY — At a time demanding “stability anchored by insightful leadership,” the University of Iowa has opted to skip a lengthy and costly search for another new executive vice president and provost by appointing its interim to assume the position permanently.

Many companies are focused on the “employee experience.”According to Gallup, “The employee experience is defined as the journey an employee takes with your organization. It includes every interaction that happens along the employee life cycle, plus the experiences that involve an employee’s role, workspace, manager and wellbeing.”

IOWA CITY — University of Iowa Health Care vaccinated nearly 1,000 Johnson County residents aged 65 and older Wednesday, among the first members of the community to receive the COVID-19 shot as the health care system moves its vaccination effort beyond front line health care workers to focus on the broader general public.

Jennifer Goodlove’s business got a boost from an unexpected source during the pandemic — gnomes.“The gnomes and takeout are what saved me last year and this year,” Goodlove said. “We’re talking thousands of gnomes.”

The University of Iowa has received an $8 million grant to create a mobile program to train health care providers and first responders in rural areas on rarely seen procedures using patient simulation.Called Simulation in Motion-Iowa, the program was envisioned by the College of Nursing as a way to bring state-of-the-art training directly to rural health care workers.

The Cedar Rapids Metro Economic Alliance will hold this year’s Cedar Rapids Restaurant Week Feb. 20 to 27. This will be the ninth year for this event in which food lovers will be treated to limited time dishes at specialty prices at 20 Cedar Rapids area restaurants.

The Englert Theatre’s strong voice for arts advocacy has grown even stronger.