But in River City, Iowa, Hill falls in love with the librarian and decides to stick around and face the consequences.

FORBES: Magazine Article

Mississippi River communities in Iowa, Illinois and Missouri are expected to see significant flooding some near-record levels by the weekend, a sharp contrast to just two months ago when the river was approaching record lows.

NPR: Floodwaters Rising After Storms Deluge Heartland

In eastern Iowa and western Illinois, the River Bend Foodbank now helps 1, 500 children in 30 schools through one such scheme.

BBC: The children going hungry in America

Strait-laced Omaha, which has no casino gambling, pays many of the social costs of having casinos just across the Missouri river in Council Bluffs, Iowa, while sharing none of the tax revenues.

ECONOMIST: Gambling��s critics

Iowa State University economist Philip Baumel says the river, could get by with small fixes like extending lock chamber walls or replacing the first-come-first- serve system with a reservation system to relieve congestion.

FORBES: A river of subsidies

Fox River Mills Inc. of Osage, Iowa, has six research and development employees who slide prototype socks onto a knee-high mannequin leg with pressure sensors installed that measure whether the fit is too tight.

WSJ: It Ain't Rocket Science, but Sock-Making Comes Close

You could buy a complete house, and they would float it down the river to a railhead on its way to Iowa, Miller points out.

FORBES: A most unromantic river