The University of Iowa men's and women's basketball teams made their first public appearances of the 2013-14 season on Friday at the annual Black and Gold Blowout.

The UI's selection for 2013 Mom and Dad of the Year are, respectively, Tammy Taylor of Callender, Iowa, and Willie Delfs of Sioux City, Iowa. The parents were nominated by their students and then honored during Family Weekend festivities.

The East Central Iowa Council of Governments will hold a meeting on the University of Iowa campus Thursday, Oct. 31, to gather information as part of an effort to develop a comprehensive, multi-jurisdictional hazard mitigation plan for Johnson County.

The top bands of the University of Iowa School of Music will take center stage with the annual Band Extravaganza at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 5, in Carver-Hawkeye Arena. The Band Extravaganza is a popular showcase for the Johnson County Landmark jazz band, the Symphony Band, and the Hawkeye Marching Band.

The University of Iowa School of Music will present a free recital by the Tuba/Euphonium Studio at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 3, in the University Capitol Centre Recital Hall. The recital will feature solo and ensemble performances by tuba and euphonium students of professor John Manning.

Rural Iowans are quickly losing access to legal services as aging attorneys retire and close their small practices, leaving a void that younger lawyers aren’t rushing to fill. But University of Iowa College of Law graduate Kelsey Hollingshead went against that grain, starting her career in the summer of 2013 as a solo practitioner in Britt (population: 2,000) under the wing of a local attorney.

Shelby Rheinschmidt is your normal teenager, except she just got a cochlear implant. Not just any cochlear implant—a hybrid cochlear implant, as part of a trial pioneered at the University of Iowa. Follow her journey from the decision, through the surgery, to the turning the implant on.

Works of art created during the New Deal are the subject of a free public lecture to be presented by Ann Prentice Wagner on Wednesday, Nov. 6, at 7:30 p.m. in 240 Art Building West on the University of Iowa campus.

Jack Bickel was born with moderate to severe hearing loss and was fitted with hearing aids when he was 6 months old. At age 3, he moved on to a more powerful hearing aid. At age 9, what was left of Jack’s hearing started to decline significantly. A “hybrid” cochlear implant invented at the UI turned things around.

Madison Van Winkle celebrated her first birthday with something new—bilateral cochlear implants.

Bruce Gantz, head of the Department of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery, directs a multidisciplinary center at the University of Iowa that is driving improvements in cochlear implant technology, developing new implants for deaf children and adults, and preparing the field for advances in regenerative medicine.

A University of Iowa Faculty and Staff Health Fair will be held Wednesday, Nov. 6, from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the UI Field House main deck.