It's not just limited to the emergency services. All other city and county departments have to make the switchover as well. So busses, refuse trucks, snowplows, recycling trucks, SEATS minibuses, etc. all have to have new radios buy the end of 2012. As I understand it, the City of Iowa City will be acquiring about 300 new radios soon.

Why can't we just start our own Corn Bowl and play the unpicked bowl contendors from, say, the Big 12?

I know of a middle aged couple that moved to San Francisco when a job opportunity opened up. They returned 7 years later saying they missed Iowa. "This state has a subtle beauty of it's own," they said. Here you can spread out and be yourself for half the price. Also, the real Field of Dreams is more than a particular location for a great movie. The real one exists within one's own heart. You don't have to spend hundreds of dollars to travel half way across the country to play ball. Look to your own back yard or a nearby park.

I know of some wind turbine farms in Iowa already and mostly running. There's one near Charles City on it's west side of town. One on both sides of I-35 in Worth County. One on both sides of I-35 in Hamilton County. One in Story county east of Nevada. And one under construction in Franklin County between Iowa Falls and Hampton, slated to be turned on in late December. This is owned by Alliant. Any others I missed?