Lack of demand and consumer confusion are endangering recycling. Learn what you can do to help. Officials will consider removing glass from curbside recycling, building a new processing facility and doing away with residential single-stream recycling in the Des Moines metro area within the next few years. The potential for change is due to higher processing fees, limited product buyers and [...]
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Don’t get too cozy; central Iowa has many fun things to do this winter. Iowa’s winter weather is predictably unpredictable, but, sooner or later, arctic winds eventually deliver freezing temps. Be that as it may… don’t give in. Instead, get up. Get out. Get to laughing, living and loving life in the greater Des Moines metropolitan area. The city’s [...]
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Harbinger is our choice for restaurant of the year again, as is Joe Tripp for chef of the year. Iowa has always been identified with food, not always in a flattering way. Yet all things change drastically and often before they are obvious. In my lifetime, our state has gone from the nation’s leading cattle producer to a minority [...]
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Iowa State University paid Drake University $300,000 to play that football game in Ames on Dec. 1. The figure apparently has not been reported. Drake also got 300 free tickets and free admission for the marching band, mascots and game workers. And parking passes for one truck, four buses and six cars. Big-time schools regularly [...]
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There’s a software revolution in America today, and rural Americans need to be armed. It’s possible Ro Khanna did more for Greene County, Iowa, in 16 hours on a past weekend than Steve King has in 16 years. Khanna, 42, a product of rural Pennsylvania who is in his first term as a Democrat representing [...]
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The second installment suffers from connectivity issues. Sequels typically have a tough time determining how much time they want to spend establishing new characters and locations at the expense of the characters we fell in love with. The “Toy Story” movies do a good job balancing this out. Each of the sequels builds off the [...]
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A simple lesson Godfather’s Pizza founder Willy Thiesen once told us that for a new restaurant to be successful, it first must be fun in its own special way. That seems like a simple lesson, yet it’s rarely at the top of the planning list for new restaurants not named Chucky Cheese or Dave & [...]
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Local rodeo rider gears up to haul full-time professionally. Earning hourly wages at a 9-to-5 is all well and good, but for Briar Dittmer, he prefers to be paid eight seconds at a time. The Southeast Polk graduate is majoring in physical education while competing on a rodeo scholarship at Missouri Valley College in Marshall, [...]
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Deep-fried delights of love for those with a soul Des Moines certainly offers guilty pleasures. You know, like drinking a craft beer at a movie theater at 10 a.m. on a work day — a direct ticket to hell for any hard-working, sober Iowan. Or going to the farmers market and never once purchasing a [...]
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Savor the wonderful nuances, modern relevance and lyrical wit imbued in “Ordinary Days” at the Rex Mathes auditorium. Mentioning musical theater to someone often evokes images of lavish costuming, intricate production numbers filling the stage and rafter-rattling musical numbers. The past few decades have ushered in a counter-appeal to the big Broadway musical. These new [...]
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I’m not sure you can get Republicans and Democrats to agree on many things these days — not even on motherhood and apple pie. Some people believe a wall along the border with Mexico is a national security priority and is necessary to stop the movement of migrants into the United States. Others think the [...]
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Beatles tribute band performs magical history tour. As a 5-year-old farm kid, Tom Murphy listened to his mom’s big-band era music of Glenn Miller or his dad’s country tunes of Johnny Cash. One day he turned the dial on the radio station and caught the Beatles’ song “Revolution.” Mesmerized, he wondered, “How could this be so different than my parents’ music?” He liked it! His mom [...]
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Buddy’s obsession delights the neighborhood. When Buddy — a soft-coated Wheaten Terrier — and his owner invited me to go for a walk with them, I eagerly joined. After all, I was curious to learn about the tale of Buddy’s stick. Here’s how it started. When Kim and Matt Coulter took Buddy for a walk [...]
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Happy hour, basement party atmosphere are a big draw. On a Monday night, the Flying Moose in Clive bustled with the after-work crowd looking to start the week off right with two-for-one drinks. But these bargain drink hunters don’t need to leave at 6 o’clock, as this happy hour goes until 8 p.m. every night. [...]
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A star-studded year The local art scene experienced a star-studded year in 2018. Two of the really big names in world art visited the Des Moines Art Center for exhibitions of specific areas within their bodies of work. First, Sterling Ruby came for the opening of “Sterling Ruby: Ceramics” a show that will also be [...]
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Part of Winter Jam Tour Spectacular that features 10 acts Christian music’s largest tour brings its Winter Jam Tour Spectacular to Wells Fargo Arena on Jan. 25. With 10 acts, touring in 46 cities, the show boasts Grammy-award winning artists Newsboys United, American Idol finalist Danny Gokey, Rend Collective, and Mandisa, as well as musicians from Skillet, Gotee and more. Newsboys [...]
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Brokering, fishing, skiing and gambling Dick Grangaard is a retired stockbroker. Active stockbrokers cannot talk to the media without jumping through hoops, so I recently asked Grangaard to lunch to discuss a lifetime of changes in the brokering business as well as in fishing, skiing and casino gambling. At the Manhattan Deli, Grangaard told me that he had his first-ever corned [...]
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