Local Online Penny Auctioneer Dibzees Receives $500,000 Grant for Expansion:Iowa City Daily News Links, Jan. 7

OK. Monday again is it? Here it goes.

On to the Links!

Adam Sullivan of the Iowa City Press-Citizen has a nice article about wealth disparity in the Iowa City School District and why trying to balance that out while maintaining perfect "neighborhood schools" is neigh impossible.

Ryan Foley of the Associated Press writes about a Iowa female prison guard's lawsuit saying she was subjected to abuse from inmates for attempting to limit sexually explicit and violent movies. Interesting article, and I sympathize with the prison guard, but the article makes it sound as if female prison guards are only abused by inmates after they watch violent or sexually explicit movies. Sadly, not true.

Tara Bannow of the Press-Citizen writes that Dibzees, a locally based online penny auction site, has just received a sizeable $500,000 grant from the Iowa Economic Development Board, which will lead to its expansion locally.

Josh O'Leary of the Press-Citizen writes about a program that the Iowa City Fire Department hopes will attract more women and minorities to their ranks.

O'Leary also writes that the Iowa City Senior Center's membership jumped 14 percent over the last year.

A collection of nice sports photos from Press-Citizen photogs from the week that was, including a great shot by David Scrivner of a couple of wrestling coaches defying gravity. 

Janelle Rettig and Terrence Neuzil are your new chairperson and vice chair, respectively, of the Johnson County Board of Supervisors. (Press-Citizen)

David Scrivner of the Press-Citizen caught up with some ice fishermen for a feature. (Press-Citizen)

Iowa City West finished third in their own duel that featured some tough competition. (Press-Citizen)

Mitchell Schmidt of the Press-Citizen has a feature on Friendship Yoga, now open for its 20th year.

Schmidt writes about the farewell party for Johnson County Auditor Tom Slockett.

Daily Links Featured Excerpt of the Day: 

The problem is clear: The poverty rates of Iowa City schools vary wildly, ranging from 6 percent in one building to 79 percent in another.

On paper, it’s easy to fix. Redistrict some poor neighborhoods here and some rich neighborhoods there and get each school closer to the district’s average of 34 percent and, researchers say, test scores will rise.

But each of those percentages on paper represents dozens of kids in real life, and Iowa City Community School District leaders say they’re reluctant to force many of them to attend new schools.

Iowa City Community School Board members soon will vote on a new diversity policy for the district. If approved, the document will set benchmarks to more evenly spread poverty around the district. Faced with geographic, economic and political challenges, though, how school leaders would obtain those goals isn’t totally clear.

Daily Links Featured Directory Listing: Fin and Feather