Hot off the Press: Remembering Chernobyl edition

Looking to save a little dough, the US Postal Service has proposed closing the branch office in downtown IC and merging its services with those at the main post office just a few blocks away: http://thegazette.com/2011/04/20/downtown-iowa-city-could-lose-postal-branch/. Seriously: why have a branch office so close to a main office? Whenever I have mail to send, I walk from the east side to the main post office, so don't tell me you're too lazy to walk a couple blocks to send letters. Of course, though, the customers would be shifted and possibly create longer backlogs.

In a related DMR article, the proposed closure of post offices in small towns across the state is frustrating those in rural areas: http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20110420/NEWS03/104200359/Munson-Frustration-spreads-as-list-of-dying-post-offices-grows-in-Iowa.

A woman who wants to open a sex-themed shop in IC cannot find a bank to handle her accounts or people to rent her space for the business: http://thegazette.com/2011/04/20/iowa-city-womans-sex-shop-not-exciting-landlords/. Seriously people. IT'S SEX. GET OVER IT.

Here's an interesting profile about an organic beer brewer in Canada: http://www.thestar.com/business/smallbusiness/article/976404--green-beer-costly-to-brew-but-worth-it.

Cursive handwriting, which is still used extensively (and almost illegibly) by yours truly, is no longer stressed or in some cases taught in eastern Iowa schools: http://thegazette.com/2011/04/26/cursive-handwriting-no-longer-stressed-at-eastern-iowa-schools/.

Champions at this year's edition of the Drake Relays will be receiving a Relay-inscribed pair of Oakley sunglasses instead of the traditional wrist watch: http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20110426/SPORTS0204/104260374/Technology-trumps-tradition-for-Drake-Relays-awards.

Despite an estimated 10,000 watts of surplus power in the Midwest, MidAmerican and Alliant, Iowa's two investor-owned power companies, are planning to build new plants, one nuclear (MidAmerican) and one natural gas (Alliant): http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20110426/NEWS/104260368/Utilities-seek-two-plants-does-Iowa-need-them-?.

Sergeant Bluff was the mystery Iowa town involved in the racial profiling settlement: http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20110425/NEWS/110425008/Mystery-Iowa-town-racial-profiling-case-identified.