Cedar Falls

Early Twentieth Century Iowa Teacher Becomes African Rancher

By Cheryl Mullenbach/Iowa History | August 18, 2018

How did a small town Iowa woman earn the title “African Sheep Queen” in the early 1900s? By becoming owner of a 6,000-acre sheep ranch in Norvalspont, South Africa. Iowa History, a weekly column, appears at IowaWatch on Saturdays. Cheryl Mullenbach is the author of non-fiction books for young people. Her work has been recognized by International Literacy Association, American Library Association, National Council for Social Studies, and FDR Presidential Library and Museum.

Iowa History

Noted Twentieth Century Geologist Always Talked About Iowa’s Revealing Fossil Beds

By Cheryl Mullenbach/Iowa History | May 26, 2018

“Fossils are the remains or traces of animals which lived in past ages of the earth. They show not only the types of life in those periods, but something about the conditions under which they lived,” noted geologist and Iowa native Carroll Lane Fenton explained.

Center News

Link to the Iowa Attorney General website, where they have bulletins posted that explain the regulations and requirements of the Sunshine laws.

Reforms Could Clarify Iowa Open Records Law, Increase Transparency

By Adam B Sullivan | March 10, 2011

IOWA CITY — A police officer fired a gun in the Old Capitol Mall, just a couple hundred feet from stores, a medical clinic and University of Iowa offices.
University officials call the 2009 incident an “accidental discharge” and say nobody was injured. But they refused to disclose who did it, how it happened, or how the officer — a state employee working for University of Iowa police — was disciplined. To withhold those details from the public, the university cites a section of Iowa’s open records law which protects personnel information.