Iowa City Daily Links: July 31

As always, I'll start with links to stories on this site, but then I'll venture out into the world of other publications. Feel free to suggest links to stories that I might have missed and I can add them during the day.

From Iowa City Patch

I have a wrap up article with from the four day Johnson County Fair, featuring a huge combined gallery.

 is going on today and will continue into  (click for schedule).

Meet our Adopt this Pet of the Week -- Jorie, the .

This week's poll on whether Gov. Branstad should fund a passenger train line from Chicago to Iowa City , with the Yay votes currently taking about 75 percent of the vote. I'll have a new poll up tomorrow.

From Other Sites

The city of Iowa City is again this week going to be talking about adding cameras to traffic lights, writes Gregg Hennigan for the Gazette.

RAGBRAI riders took over Coralville for parts of Friday and Saturday, and Chastity Dillard of the Daily Iowan filed a report.

Ariana Witt of the Daily Iowan has a quick rundown of University of Iowa fundraising numbers for 2011.

The Iowa City Press-Citizen has a cute gallery up from the AnimeIowa event in Coralville.

Lynn Campbell of IowaPolitics.com writes that at least 36 Iowa Workforce Development Offices will be closing Monday due to a veto by Governor Terry Branstad. Democrats were angered by the move (and some Republicans were disappointed) but there still likely won't be a special session to stop it. Branstad also vetoed an increase to the Earned Income Tax credit.

An interesting article from Tom Witosky of the Des Moines Register on the Koch brothers and their growing financial and political influence in Iowa.

Republican candidate Gary Johnson feels excluded from the field in Iowa, writes Regina Zilbermints for the Des Moines Register.

Daily Links Quote of the Day: “This is absurd what is happening. You’re laying off 95 people whose job it is to find people jobs,” said Greg Lewis, an ex-officio board member who’s a Des Moines area union representative for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Iowa Council 61.