Government by the people works best when the people know what the government is doing. Some Iowa legislators are recognizing this fact by proposing Senate File 430, which creates the Iowa Public Information...

Finals week, fall semester: The campus is adorned with sparkling Christmas decorations and a light dusting of snow. Students walk through campus, books and lattés in hand, no coat or wallet in tow. They...

On Tuesday, Rep. Paul Ryan, R-WI, released the proposed Republican budget for fiscal 2012. Our national debt tops a staggering $14 trillion, and it is being compounded by President Obama’s trillion-plus...

YES On March 20 the Senate Education Committee approved a bill that would require teachers convicted of a felony, aggravated misdemeanor, or serious misdemeanor, to pay back the salary they collected...

There are few things that pollute our political system more than vacuous partisanship. Substantive partisanship — the more beneficent variety based on ideology — is less common, largely for institutional...

Throughout the U.S. government, more often than not, agencies responsible for regulating a particular sector are also in charge of promoting that same sector. For some agencies, such as the Environmental...

No number of clichés about making beds or chickens coming home to roost could do justice to the idiotically predictable federal-budget situation. As the president and the GOP continue to assure the public...

YES Apparently, Iowa City is worried about making it remotely easy for people to purchase liquor. I could fully understand hesitation if this bill was going to open up a new venue for the sale of alcohol...

I don’t watch network TV or cable TV, not because I’m some elite liberal snob (though I probably am) but because my TV doesn’t receive any TV signals. (What kind of TV is that, you ask, that doesn’t...

Nationally, 70.1 percent of 2009 high-school graduates enrolled in college, a continuing upward trend. The fall 2010 enrollment numbers echo this trend with Iowa State University reporting an all-time...

YES Whether I agree or disagree with the 21-ordinance doesn’t matter; the fines for underage patrons caught in bars after 10 p.m. are not excessive. Elliot Higgins, the University of Iowa Student Government...

The gerrymander is a curious species of amphibian that emerges only once a decade to feed upon unsuspecting voters. Known to be easily swayed by political interests, these fantastically contorted creatures...