In 2016 I spent three days interviewing letterpress legend Jim Daggs. I could have reported the story in a day, but why do that when instead I could follow Jim around his shop, laughing at his jokes and listening to his stories, which I turned into this: timescitizen.com/lasting-impres… Jim died on Friday. He was 64. Like so many things this year, it feels very unfair. But if there's any fairness in this universe, he's somewhere out there, in a shop full of presses, turning lead into type and applying ink to print Jim-isms (seen here: timescitizen.com/gallery/jim-da…)

The @IAPublicHealth is altering COVID testing dates for people who've been tested multiple times. Why does that matter? Because it hinders our ability to fully understand the history of the virus in Iowa. timescitizen.com/kifg/epidemiol… In Hardin County, over the past two weeks, the total number of tests performed per day since March have changed for 67 of 161 days. Most of those changes are one or two tests per day, but some are four or five tests per day (in a county w/population 16,800).

Built myself a spreadsheet to track Hardin County’s rolling 14-day COVID positivity rate because Iowa doesn’t provide that data, even though that’s the number schools are supposed to use to determine whether students should attend in person or online. 🤦‍♀️ A note: the daily testing and positive results data on this spreadsheet come from the state website, which seems to have some very serious problems, which could cause issues with the 14-day positivity rate. Here's what I know:

I didn’t grow up in rural Iowa, but I’ve lived here (and written about it) for 12 years, which has given me a ringside seat to its successes and struggles. Lately, I’ve felt overwhelmed by the number and magnitude of the problems facing our communities. They seem insurmountable. This week that feeling is larger-than-life. Today I published two stories: one about our community’s only day care center closing, and the other about our local hospital ceasing delivery of babies.