Cityview | Central Iowa's Independent Weekly

Budgeting Brothels

Prostitution legislation quietly pushed through in effort to relieve budget shortfalls

With Iowa legislators making mad scrambles during the final days of the session to push their agendas through, one bill— HF U469 — slipped through the cracks relatively unnoticed. Once signed into law by the Governor, provisions of the bill will legalize prostitution in the state of Iowa, providing fiscal relief for the state’s budgetary woes.

“Dark financial times have fallen on the state of Iowa,” said Sen. Pat Word, (D-IA) who introduced the legislation. “The state is obscenely over budget, and we had to do something that would generate revenue quickly. Prostitution will do that.”...Read More>>

Is Frew leaving? Donald Kaul and other names from the past

First the political news, if it is news: Culver’s chief aide John Frew is telling friends, who are telling Skinny, that he is leaving late this spring. He’s going to Texas, they say, the home state of his wife — who wasn’t ecstatic last year when he told her they were moving to Iowa from Colorado. And, once again, the rumors are that Culver influential campaign consultant Teresa Vilmain will be leaving after the primary. But that rumor crops up every few months. The revolving door moves faster and faster....Read More>>

Rumors of Michael Jackson’s buttery return to fair heat up

If Iowa State Fair officials think that last summer’s Michael-Jackson-sculpted-in-butter controversy has melted away, one group of fans says “they won’t stop ‘til they get enough” of the King of Pop at the annual event to be held Aug. 12-22.

“They must be off the wall to think that Michael Jackson fans would forget what happened last year,” said Billie Jean Madsen, president of the local chapter of Caring Homosapiens Insisting on Michael’s Preservation (CHIMP). “This is a call to fellow MJ fans to tell them that we want to rock with you, and that you are not alone… that to give Michael one more chance is human nature.”...Read More>>

Third Party candidate spices Ag race

The main event in Iowa’s political ring pits four-time champion Terry Branstadt against current heavyweight champ Chet Culver, but a fight on their under card could go further toward redefining Iowa in the 21st century.

At least that was the thinking that encouraged a debate last week between two main candidates for Secretary of Agriculture and Land Stewardship. On paper, that match-up looks like a clash between modern and postmodern philosophies of food production. . ..Read More>>”