By Michael Swanger, Sean J. Miller and Andrew Brink

January

The new year starts off predictably enough with a recap of films, art and food from 2005, then takes a weird turn when the Indianola Police Department telephones Cityview’s offices to inform us they have arrested Randy Ruiter for identity theft. Among the items found in his car: a laminated 1999 issue of Cityview featuring a cover story about Ruiter and his criminal past including time spent in prison for theft, forgery and resisting arrest in five counties. Hello, 2006.

Republican Speaker of the House Christopher Rants tells Cityview that despite what we write, he is “neither the self-appointed ‘moral authority’ in Iowa, nor is he the state’s ‘most powerful’ individual. He is a Methodist guy who goes to church when the weather doesn’t allow for golf.” Readers are grateful to him for setting the record straight.

On the cover: stories of how the state of homeland insecurity even has pacifists labeled as domestic threats; homelessness in the suburbs is on the rise; and the first serious look at Gov. Vilsack’s snowball-in-hell chances of being elected president.

We remember David Kruidenier.

We demand that student-athletes should have to pass to play high school sports, warning parents, coaches and athletic directors: “You are encouraging losers to grow up to be bigger losers.”

Civic Skinny dishes on a behind-the-scenes battle brewing between Gary Kirke and Bill Krause about something called the Iowa Lottery TouchPlay program.

For the first time in Cityview’s history, we’re unable to come up with a “Loser” in the “Winners & Losers” column.

February

Gubernatorial candidate Chet Culver dismisses comments published in Civic Skinny from a Mike Blouin supporter that his campaign has peaked. “Mike is trying to take a dire situation and create some buzz… it’s going to take a miracle for him to make a race of it.” Culver later wins Terrace Hill, but Blouin does make things interesting for a few months.

Food Dude sings the praises of Des Moines’ boldest chef and closest thing to a Soup Nazi [in a good way] — Rob Beasley.

With more votes than ever before, Cityview readers pick what’s best about Central Iowa in our annual Best Of poll.

On the cover: a bitter single’s guide to surviving Valentine’s Day, and lesbian and gay Iowa students share their experiences of being targeted for harassment.

Cops from Des Moines and West Des Moines trade barbs over “professional courtesy” after Des Moines Police Sgt. Ken Brown complains about being pulled over for dim headlights and is made to wait for a few minutes while officers process his information and is finally let off with a warning. Oh, the horror.

BarFly drags herself out of bed to cover the High Life Lounge’s Groundhog Day party. Polk County Paul, the bar’s mascot, is quoted as saying, “I’m a red-blooded American groundhog, but I’ve always been into beaver.”

March

On the cover: the latest scuttle on eminent domain; the story of how one woman bucked a history of domestic violence and regained control of her life; a look at the mental war Iowa veterans face upon their return home.

Sucks to be you: Kimberly Du allegedly tries to weasel her way out of several traffic tickets by creating fake documents citing her death in 2005. But her death-by-car-crash is called into question when she’s stopped for another traffic violation.

Cityview introduces Off The Record [now Media Matters], Des Moines’ lone media watchdog.

West Des Moines school district sides with parents opposed to a committee’s proposal of earlier start times for students to save $700,000. Meanwhile, Des Moines parents lose their battle to save five schools.

Local bands host fundraiser concerts for victims of Hurricane Katrina.

A whirlwind of controversy surrounds the Iowa State University men’s basketball program. In a week’s time, the program is accused of participating in a scheduling scam, its coach Wayne Morgan is fired and its two star players leave school and enter the NBA draft.

Des Moines Register columnist Rob Borsellino gets his dying wish: a benefit concert in his honor by Bob Dylan and Merle Haggard. Developer Bill Knapp flips the bill.

April

Gullible fans of the Rolling Stones [including those over 55 allegedly to be admitted free of charge] line up at the Val Air Ballroom the morning after Cityview publishes its annual April Fool’s issue, which includes a “story” about how the World’s Greatest Rock ‘n’ Roll Band decides to interrupt its tour of Japan and fly to Iowa — not to mention forgo the new Wells Fargo Arena — to play the ballroom. KCCI-TV interviews Cityview Entertainment Editor and author of the story Michael Swanger about the “confusion” on the 10 p.m. news that night. In other Fools news, Cityview unveils why Iowans have more difficulty eliminating solid waste from their bodies than any other state. Nobody reacts.

On the cover: revealing what happens when hospitals become the source of sickness; a case for increasing state funding for the arts; and how Republicans are about to face an uphill battle in upcoming midterm elections.

Skinny digs into the fallout from the CIETC scandal.

Mother Earth tells why residents worry a zoo expansion will trample a prized public park. Sound familiar?
The mainstream media falls over itself reporting the opening of the new Central Library in downtown Des Moines.

The City of Des Moines Music Commission continues early talks about designating live music venues and proposing an amendment to an ordinance to allow minors into said venues after hours.

Drake University student Skyler Bartels blows his 15 minutes of fame by telling the world he lived in the Windsor Heights Wal-Mart for three days [actually 41 hours]. Anyone heard from him lately?

May

With a month to go until the 2006 primary, Civic Skinny reports on a poll showing gubernatorial candidate Chet Culver leading Democrat opponent Mike Blouin by 25 percent. Skinny also reports on the narrowing rift between Democrats and Republicans at the Polk County Building, who had been divided because of “insensitive remarks” made by EJ Giovanettis and Bob Brownell over the CIETC fiasco. A top Polk County source noted, “This is not a Democrat-versus-Republican deal. It’s a disaster for everyone.”

On the cover: invoking Shakespeare — “What’s past is prologue” — a look at what Iowa will look like in the year 2020, a year when the percentage of Iowans over the age 80 is predicted to increase by a quarter and the state will be home to only 34,000 25-year-olds (read: brain drain); a story about the group Save Our Schools and its controversial coordinator, Nan Stillians, who documents the movements of the Des Moines School Board.

Food Dude discovers Star Bar’s nearly erotic salads and Granite City’s smothering friendliness.

In Losers, Cityview reports that The Des Moines Register laid to rest 12 of the 13 papers in the Press Citizen/Shopper Network purchased by Gannett. The only edition to survive the slaughter is the Ankeny Press Citizen. Before their untimely deaths, Press Citizen ad rates were affordable (dirt cheap) and circulation had grown to more than 150,000.

June

June begins with Cityview’s first annual issue of lists, covering everything from the dirtiest restaurants in Des Moines and West Des Moines (China King, 100. E. Euclid Ave., won with 20 violations but was closely followed by West Des Moines’ Simo’s, 220 5th St., with 19 violations) to Iowa’s leading causes of death (heart disease, cancer and strokes top the list).

Sucks to be you: Charlie Cole Stroud learned it doesn’t pay to crash a wedding. Or at least, it doesn’t pay to crash a wedding, be asked to leave the wedding by an off-duty Polk County deputy and then grope a guest on the way out.

Belly Up drops in on the Des Moines chapter of Drinking Liberally, a group that mixes a love of beer with a love of political discourse.

Media Matters talks with Jonathan Narcisse, the community activist and newspaper executive about his decision to step down as publisher of the Iowa Bystander, Iowa’s longest-running black newspaper.
On the cover: pregnant inmates and another battle over eminent domain.

July

Cityview’s staff of top-notch drinkers compiles the annual summer bar guide, paying respect to the cornerstone of a city’s drinking culture, the neighborhood bar, observing the proliferation of upscale drinking establishments and reminding everyone that it’s nearly impossible not to have fun at a gay bar.

On the Tube, a weekly television column, and Sore Thumbs, a video-game review, debut.

Food Dude sets off on a fast food safari, attempting to answer the question: What are the 10 best fast foods available at drive-by windows in Des Moines? The answers: McDonald’s sausage biscuit; Grounds for Celebration coffee; B-Bop’s hamburger; Coney Island’s chili, beef burger, gyro and falafel; Popeye’s red beans and rice; KFC’s Original Recipe fried chicken; Taco John’s refried beans and Culver’s frozen custard. Yum.

Loser: Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley for proposing to make it illegal — or more illegal? — for pimps to peddle women’s assets without paying taxes.

Civic Skinny reports on the meeting of state Republicans to write a new platform, which, among other things, would eliminate the U.S. Department of Education oppose any minimum wage and favor drilling in the Arctic national wildlife preserve.

On the cover: Gannett Corp.’s entry into the business of distributing and displaying free papers in what appears to be an attempt to stymie and eliminate competition (like Cityview).

August

Iowa ranks 17th in the nation for the most premature deaths from power-plant pollution, reported Mother Earth, which looked into LS Power’s, a New Jersey company, proposal to build a 750-megawatt coal-fired power plant just outside of Waterloo’s city limits.

On the cover: One of Iowa’s most popular outdoor sports, four-wheeling, is hard on Iowa’s fragile ecosystem; how sales taxes hit middle- and low-income people the hardest, and the fall arts and entertainment guide.

Belly Up locates Des Moines’ best spot for a liquid breakfast: Jimmy’s American Café, where they serve up mighty Bloody Marys and mimosas.

After the closing of the state’s best smokehouse, Hawgeye’s, Food Dude visits Jimmy’s Bar-B-Que Pit in Ankeny to sample their menu.

Cityview welcomes guest columns from Herb Strentz, retired administrator and professor in the Drake School of Journalism and Mass Communication, and Gil Cranberg, former editorial page editor at The Des Moines Register.

What would August be without our annual spotlight on Fair Fashion? This year’s Best in Show was awarded to Matt Riggs, who shaved his chest hair in the form of the male symbol. Fair coverage went beyond showcasing the usual mullets and sunburns as Cityview investigated the fairgrounds after hours, when a 50-person team removes all traces of manure and corndog carcasses, leaving the grounds immaculate for yet another day’s worth of manure and corndog carcasses.

September

We opened the month with Bo Ramsey on the cover, and inside giving readers the narrative of the Iowa musician’s journey from the banks of the Mississippi River to blues legend.

Here’s a telling exchange from our interview.

CV: Are you comfortable being looked upon as someone who has helped shape the Iowa blues scene?

Bo: “I don’t think of it like that. I just do what I do. I’m serious about it. I’m passionate about it, and I try to do good work.”

The next week, we publish an essay by Michael Gartner about his late father, who stopped driving at 25 and lived to be 102. With Gartner now caught up in the vicious infighting among the University of Iowa’s Board of Regents, his essay reminds us that even public figures have souls.

Religion was big in September. We reported that churches in Des Moines, like in the rest of the country, were adding stadium-like seating capacity.

Fueling the growth of these mega-churches was the growth of suburban towns like Ankeny. The Des Moines suburb of about 36,000 people has added 9,000 residents in the last five years. To accommodate this influx of new residents, Ankeny is set to build a planned community, called Prairie Trail, on land bordering the DMACC campus and a Deere and Co. plant. Cityview learned the land is reportedly contaminated with heavy metals, including lead and iron — the legacy of a World War II ordinance plant. The new community, set to have 3,000 new houses, is still going ahead.

October

The month started on a lighter note, when we recognized in a cover story five Iowan activists working to make our state more tolerant of its diversity. As Cityview publisher Shane Goodman recently noted, we are often accused of being overly critical — these are the issues wherein we like to show we’re not above recognizing those working for a worthy cause.

We also brought you the story of Darcy Emehiser, whose two dogs were shot dead in January and the Jasper County Sheriff wouldn’t take a report because legally a dog can be shot in Iowa. Emehiser is campaigning to change that law — she says it should be unlawful to shoot a dog with a rabies vaccination. Some lawmakers disagree; she faces an uphill battle.

If you’re expecting a visit from any Christmas ghosts this season, you might want to reread our Oct. 19 cover story about local ghost hunters, the Des Moines Iowa Extreme Paranormal Advanced Research Team (DIEPART). The 20-member group, led by Joe Leto, of Bondurant, is who you gotta call for all your paranormal related questions, or crises.

At the end of the month, we touched on whether Iowa politics could benefit from voter-financed elections. The ‘clean elections’ experiment has succeeded in Arizona and Maine, and activists say it could work here. We’ll be watching to see what happens in the next legislative session.

November

Last month was all about politics, not least because of the now-historical Midterm elections Nov. 7. We started off by exploring how political affiliation influences coverage in Des Moines’ media market, and took the liberty of printing the party affiliations of many local media personalities.

Keeping with the political theme of November’s first issue, our Food Dude reviewed 801 Steakhouse and credited some of its far-reaching reputation to R.W. “Johnny” Apple. The late, great New York Times reporter made the steakhouse his haunt during the campaign season, and many others have subsequently followed his lead.

Mid-month we took aim at Iowa’s sacred cow — corn ethanol. Our cover story weighed the effectiveness of corn ethanol against the effectiveness of cellulosic ethanol. We found politics had a lot to do with “our” preference for corn ethanol, as opposed to the cellulosic kind, which some experts say can produce significantly more energy, more cleanly.

At the end of the month, we examined the state’s changing music scene. In cover stories, we touched on the rise of Latino radio and the no-holds-barred world of music royalties. As Iowa has seen a growth in Latino radio stations and Spanish-speaking audiences, some Des Moines clubs have fought to pay Broadcast Music Inc. the licensing fees required to play its songs.

December

This month, we’ve looked at two issues that dominated the Midterm election: the Iraq War and raising the minimum wage. Our story about Iraq, (“Ten fallacies about the violence in Iraq.”), garnered a strong response from some of our readers. One reader posted this comment in the Rant and Rave section of dmcityview.com, “Combined with the ignorance and lack of compassion displayed by the post-911 American public and we, as a nation, have a lot to answer for to the rest of the world.” Other readers dismissed the article. One wrote, “John Tirman should be tried as a traitor. Disgusting commentary and analogies. Cityview should be ashamed to publish crap like that.”

Our recent cover story about the Democrats’ proposal to raise the minimum wage to $7.25 (“Working on the minimum wage.”) weighed the benefits of such a policy. Whether it’s the best course of action or not, leading Democrats say they are bent on fulfilling their campaign promise.

Last week, we profiled eight people who are making a positive difference in Iowa. While many of us struggle to find our Christmas frame of mind amidst busy work and personal schedules (last minute shopping trips aren’t known to inspire cheer in anyone), these people remind us it is possible to do more. CV

Comment on this story | Return to top