The Iowa Cubs team is an institution in Des Moines. I-Cub fans pack the ballpark all season long and even watch at home. The fan loyalty is evidenced by CITYVIEW readers who voted for the Cubbies as the Best Local Sports Team and Best Local Outdoor Sporting Event for yet another year in the Best [...]
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After a challenging season in 2024, the Iowa Barnstormers are looking to make a comeback for 2025. Barnstormers Head Coach Dave Mogensen and his club entered the season after a 5-11 performance by the Indoor Football League team in 2024. They missed the playoffs by just two games last year. “Several games we only lost [...]
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Growing up in 1950s Des Moines, my family’s backdoor neighbor was an elderly German professor of Humanities at Grinnell College. Because our backyards were our baseball fields, we kids had several run-ins with the prof whenever we tried to retrieve foul balls from his fenced-in yard. “Get out of my yard. I will turn [...]
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Chocolate isn’t just a treat. It’s a business built on creativity, strategy and its fair share of planning. At three metro chocolate shops, owners are doing all that and more to satisfy sweet tooths everywhere. The art of trying something new Chocolate Storybook on Grand Avenue in West Des Moines is a family business. Meg [...]
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Iowa is the only state in the union that has not seen its population double since 1900. Don’t expect that to be part of our state’s economic development marketing campaign anytime soon, but it is true, according to the Iowa Chamber Alliance Talent Poll. In 1900, Iowa’s population was 2.2 million. In 2024, it was [...]
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Any conflicted pregnant woman who watched the just-concluded Paramount series sensation “Yellowstone” likely scheduled an abortion before the final cowboy deserted Kevin Coster and Taylor Sheridan’s fictional Montana ranch. Costner should reimburse them. “Yellowstone,” a wildly popular and exceedingly entertaining show, sent strong signals about blood and bloodlines, legacy and lore, and villainized Jamie, the one adopted [...]
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The Warner Bros.-owned franchise began as a series of animated shorts that were released during the golden age of American animation between 1930 to 1969, and more than 1,000 episodes were released under Looney Tunes and spin-off banner Merrie Melodies. Although no one director, writer or artist is ultimately responsible for the brilliant heights [...]
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The year was 1978, a most Dickensian time. A murder/suicide in Jonestown, Guyana, ended 909 American lives while Israel and Egypt were finding accord at Camp David, Maryland. Argentina won its first World Cup after Peru’s national team laid down and allowed six Argentine goals in a strange group stage semifinal, just enough to keep [...]
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Hell must have frozen over, because I am writing about ShowBiz Pizza. As a kid in the early 1990s, spending a birthday or two at a mall arcade blowing a pocket full of quarters on The Simpsons and Mortal Kombat was common. If you had even cooler parents, you had a birthday party at either [...]
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The letter began well enough: “Dear friend.” Who doesn’t want to be a friend? But then it quickly went south: “Back Country will be closing its doors for good in the next few month.” Oof! Aging is a little like playing that game where you take away blocks all stacked on top of each other. [...]
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A constitutional showdown taking shape in southern Iowa’s Decatur County could put taxpayers on the hook financially to defend the county’s efforts to silence a critic of public officials there. The Institute for Justice, a national nonprofit law firm, wrote Decatur County Attorney Alan Wilson last week expressing its concerns about Wilson’s recent threat to [...]
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Mike Zito, a nine-time Blues Music Award winner and founder of Gulf Coast Records, has recorded more than two dozen albums and performed with some of the greatest blues musicians in the world. Yet, when he began a tour with “Saturday Night Live” alumni and actor Bill Murray, Zito declared it was the highlight of [...]
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The world edged a little closer to discovering what art is, thanks to the German court system. At least, Germany’s Federal Court of Justice determined what art isn’t — that being Birkenstock sandals. The German company that makes those, which goes back to 1774, filed a lawsuit against three competitors who sold sandals that were [...]
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When walking into a new bar, patrons often experience an instant vibe. The vibe at Doug’s Pub & Grub is friendly and welcoming, a neighborhood bar feel that many patrons crave. With a name like Doug’s Pub & Grub, one would logically expect to find a guy named Doug as the owner. Not here. The [...]
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Whether he is transferring abandoned shelter dogs on airplanes, taking his dog, Jake, to college to help students de-stress, or simply allowing school kids to cuddle with a pet, it is all about the dogs. Jay Newell, a dog lover his entire life (he even took two dogs on his honeymoon), adopted Jake from the [...]
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David Baruthio is Des Moines’ most traveled top chef. A native of Strasbourg, France, the “cradle of great chefs,” he began working in Michelin star restaurants at age 15 under Hubert Maetz, and then under Gordon Ramsey at Aubergine, his breakout restaurant in Chelsea, England. Baruthio brought new ideas about dining to town more than [...]
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The Cadillac brand conjures up luxury. Songs are written about driving Cadillacs, not Fiats. The Optiq, Cadillac’s newest all-electric vehicle, debuted in 2025. The Optiq Luxury 1 is a smaller SUV than its sibling, the Lyriq. The Optiq lists at $55,615. If you have a red color obsession, it will cost you a bit more, [...]
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