Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack arguably made his poorest political decision last Friday, when he vetoed a bill that would have strengthened the rights of property owners. House File 2351 provided for new restrictions on governments using eminent domain to condemn private property for economic-development projects, whether public or private.

The River Cities' Reader launched its new Web site last week, and we hope that it's a visual improvement. But we're most interested in it being an interactive improvement. Our goal from the outset with this Web site has been that it will be a space for the community to gather and discuss community and cultural issues.

On March 28, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia took his seat at the nation’s highest court to hear Hamdan v. Rumsfeld. His task, along with the other justices, was to determine whether Salim Hamdan, a captured enemy combatant, should be afforded a fair and basic trial. The court would hear, for the first time, arguments from both sides over whether Hamdan should be afforded basic due process rights as a war-time detainee – an outcome that would establish a dramatic precedent in American law governing times of war.

The lawyers for Hamdan knew they were facing an uphill battle. But the problem wasn’t in their argument. It was in persuading a justice who had already made up his mind about the issue.