And what are they doing with it? Swipe your loyalty card at the grocery store, and all of those purchases are now tracked. Browse for an item on a company’s website, and the next time you’re on your computer, an ad will likely show up for that product or another from that company. Track your food and exercise in [...]
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Ripping up the rulebook with slow-pitch softball heroes as they share their best on-field moments Slow-pitch softball is played nightly by all kinds of people at various levels of competition. Power hitters dominate the sport, and one such super-slugger forced Des Moines’ leagues to rip up the rulebook. “His name is Justin Butler, and he [...]
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The season just got even hotter It’s finally here. The season Iowans dream about on dark and frigid February nights. The landscape is once again lush and green, sweat beads form immediately after stepping outside, and there’s music in the air: It’s summer music festival season. You want a festival near a river? There are four. How about country music? [...]
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The budget cuts and pay freezes at the University of Iowa and Iowa State University have some big exceptions: Athletic budgets aren’t touched, and coaches will continue to get very big raises. After a lot of back and forth, legislators in their wisdom cut $40.9 million from the general university appropriations for this fiscal year, [...]
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Protecting the unborn. In answering a wide-open question about what he’d most like to see associated with his re-election campaign, U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Kiron, didn’t hesitate in spotlighting the anti-abortion beliefs that motivated the now eight-term congressman to enter politics more than two decades ago. “I think people know what I stand for,” King [...]
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Do you like wisecracks and sarcasm in your comedy? Following up from where the first film left off, Deadpool is taking care of business the only way he knows how — wholesale slaughter with a smile. After a job goes south, Deadpool must carve a new spot in life. He meets Russell/Firefist (Julian Dennison), an [...]
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Some ethnic cuisines here are modeled on the same templates and recipes. There must be more than a dozen Mexican restaurants now that serve pretty much the same menu. Italian restaurants are far more diverse. Mexico is bigger than Italy and tastes change in different regions, yet most places differ little or at all in [...]
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Friends become family while serving Polish sausages and meat nachos Daisy Duke shorts adorn various customers of both genders as they wait in line for concessions at the Greater Des Moines Softball Park. The sun beams through an American flag whipping in the warm summer wind. The hand of an 8-year-old tightens on the leash [...]
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“I don’t do interviews,” he says without a smile. His eyes sweeping both sides of the bar while he pours the beer. Really? The timbre of his voice catches me by surprise as it rumbles softly across the room like the early hint of an Iowa thunderstorm, dry and gravelly and deep. “Let’s not call it an interview,” I [...]
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Des Moines Metro Opera prepares for another stellar summer rep season Perhaps the most difficult ticket to get this summer won’t be for a pop concert or sporting event. It will be to the prime performing nights for the 2018 internationally acclaimed Des Moines Metro Opera (DMMO) season. Patrons travel to Indianola from nearly 40 [...]
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When Gov. Kim Reynolds signed the large tax-cut bill into law last week, she talked about how the legislation will allow hard-working Iowans to keep more of their paychecks. What the governor did not mention was how there are other real-life consequences for the people of Iowa that go beyond paying less in state income taxes. [...]
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A cartoonishly violent, freemium videogame Most every tech-enabled marketplace celebrates a new industry darling each year. Whether it’s movies, social media, podcasting, transportation, applications, music or any other silo of technologically enhanced goods creation, some unforeseen innovation captures the industry eyes. But every once in a while, something rises above the intended producer/consumer ecosystem to [...]
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Two smart and fluffy friends A hairstylist by day and student by night, Courtney Lovan never imagined she would be giving a rabbit a haircut. However, that doesn’t mean she’s ready to become a full-time pet groomer. “It’s too stressful,” Lovan says. “At least if I tell a human to sit still, they’ll do it. [...]
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Graham Steffes-Clayton loves lifting heavy stuff Strongman Graham Steffes-Clayton likes calculus, his hometown of Pleasant Hill, being a college student, playing tennis and eating food. But most of all, Steffes-Clayton likes lifting heavy stuff — and the 18-year-old is good at it. “I won the United States Strongman Association national championship for the Teen Lightweight [...]
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Top-shelf spirits Overlooking a cornfield just 10 minutes south of Des Moines, the Iowa Distilling Company is in a picture perfect rural setting. The ambiance inside the building is quaint and cozy. It features light-grain wood walls separating the production facility from the bar and craft cocktail lounge. Barrels are on display along with authentic wood tables, and thoughtful lighting [...]
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Remodel spans three decades and turns up 26 rare books inside a plaster wall One-hundred-year-old secrets were discovered within the walls of one Sherman Hill residence, but the remodeling project that Lyn Loheed began three decades ago hasn’t been all roses. When she bought the home, Loheed was 25 years old, single, and didn’t understand [...]
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Andy Fales is WHO TV’s morning anchor and a longtime media presence in the sports scene. His features “Andy Answers,” “Iowa Icons,” and “What’s Bugging Andy?” reveal sharp senses for irony and quirkiness. He’s also a serious food and dog lover like myself, so I asked him to lunch recently, and he chose Akebono, the [...]
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