[Editor’s note: Dean is going to temporarily ignore his fear of coming off as a massively arrogant prick for this week’s column. Enjoy.] So I’m smart. I mean that in the most informal way possible:...

We’re freaks for media. We watch TV while we eat breakfast, listen to the radio on our drive to work or our iPod while we walk to class. We’re connected through Facebook, My Space, and Twitter. Some...

Phoenix Police Chief Jack Harris, a solid block of a man with a shock of thick gray hair, is stolid and patient, but there are limits. Clearly, he is weary of explaining that this is one of America’s...

Republican Party of Iowa Chairman Mike Strawn has a new comedy routine that he’s taking on the road. Filled with ironic self-deprecation, the act is bound to be a hit. “We don’t need to change who...

What do you call home? Is it your place of birth, the family house? Or maybe less literal, the “home is where the heart is” kind of deal: the ragged and rotting bedroom in a five-person one-bathroom...

Charles Dickens, who visited in 1842, described Washington as a “city of magnificent intentions” because of the incongruity between the city’s grand aspirations and muddy, swampy actuality. Today,...

All over Iowa City tonight, students will hit up Wal-Mart for suntan lotion, a new swimsuit, or maybe a suitcase. They’ll ditch their sweatpants and North Face jackets for flip-flops and those (hideously)...

As we reach nearly one year since Gov. Chet Culver signed Iowa’s Smoke-Free Air Act, the excitement has begun to die down. The general public has forgotten about the bill and has moved on, with the exception...

A bipartisan group of Minnesota lawmakers is putting forth legislation to legalize the growth of cannabis, or hemp. The Industrial Hemp Development Act (HF 608) would provide licenses to qualified farmers...

On Tuesday night, the City of Coralville issued a proclamation co-naming First Avenue as Hayden Fry Way. The new street signs will be unveiled in September before Iowa’s first home football game at the...

I’ve been fired for stupid reasons. Like that editor of Entertainment Weekly who believed — based solely on book sales, Google hits, and other empirical data — that people enjoy reading Stephen King...

Pity President Obama’s economic advisers. The blogs are now demanding their scalps, and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and his colleagues face a nasty dilemma: There are no solutions to the banking...