Winners

Whether or not you like hunting you must admit conventions like last weekend’s Pheasant Fest are good for the local economy and for building Des Moines’ reputation as a tourist destination. Tourism officials say nary a hotel room could be found last weekend when the popular national group Pheasants Forever brought its three-day outdoor-consumer show to town, attracting thousands of visitors to the Capital City. It’s the kind of activity taxpayers envisioned when the publicly funded Iowa Events Center was built, and it’s the kind of success Iowans continue to demand.

When the new Iowa Public Radio network was created, many listeners were concerned that the consolidation of Iowa Public Radio’s three news stations — WOI-AM in Ames, WSUI-AM in Iowa City and KUNI-FM in Cedar Falls — would lose their identities and ignore the public’s feedback regarding programming. Last week, IPR’s director of programming Todd Mundt helped quell some of that fear by honoring listener complaints to drop the “Diane Rehm Show” and bring back an old favorite, “On Point.” Though the “Diane Rehm Show” is popular in other markets — and Iowans might regret not giving it a long enough listen — it is encouraging to know that public radio continues to value listener feedback.

Losers

As much as we appreciate innovative thinkers and risk takers, we’re not convinced Iowa State University Athletic Director Jamie Pollard is on the right track with his latest marketing scheme in which only ISU season ticket holders will be admitted to this year’s Iowa State-Iowa football game. It isn’t that we don’t blame him for trying to increase season ticket sales at ISU, considering how the school ranks at the bottom of the Big 12 in athletic revenues — though we suspect his plan will drive away dedicated, blue-collar Cyclone fans and families who can’t afford season tickets, not to mention children, thus jeopardizing the team’s future fan base. It isn’t even the fact that it might alienate Hawkeye fans — though those who want to go badly enough to the state’s largest sporting event will surely find tickets through scalpers or eBay. No, it’s the inconsistent logic of Pollard that has us perplexed. In his short tenure at ISU, Pollard has been obsessed with raising money to finance improvements to Jack Trice Stadium. So why would he turn down a guaranteed sellout when his school desperately needs the money and then rely on a fickle fan base to pick up the slack? As much as ISU fans enjoy watching their team play the Hawkeyes, they also revere games against Nebraska, Missouri and Oklahoma — teams whose fans also travel and spend money in Ames. Why not require Cyclone fans to purchase a season ticket to attend all Cyclone home games? After all, if you’re going to roll the dice with an unproven head football coach and returning players from a dismal 2006 campaign, you’re not relying on the proven marketing method that a winning team is the best way to attract fans. If you want to test the Cyclone fans’ mettle, don’t ask them to purchase a season ticket for one game, ask them to purchase one for the entire season.

Some may find it baffling that former Gov. Tom Vilsack has the gumption to run for president given his mixed results as leader of Iowa for the past eight years, but for Vilsack to gouge taxpayers on the way out the door for the printing and mailing costs of a book where he boasts about his accomplishments is unconscionable. Vilsack fleeced taxpayers for about $36,000 to publish “Changing the Landscape of Iowa,” a 40-page, color booklet filled with photos and charts and accompanying marketing materials that include headlines such as “Eight years of leadership” and “Promises Made, Promises Kept.” Vilsack got the Iowa Department of Economic Development to foot the bill for about $32,000 to pay for its printing and spent an additional $4,114 from the governor’s office budget to pay for its mailing to mayors, chambers of commerce, economic development leaders, universities, libraries and other public officials. We’re guessing copies of the book weren’t mailed to underpaid teachers, low-wage workers, Republicans or those who can’t read or speak the English language.

Public notices may not make for sexy reading, but they’re an essential part of our democratic society and the public’s right to know regarding how their money is being spent by elected officials. So we disagree with the Metro Advisory Council, a group made up of 21 representatives from Des Moines-area cities and surrounding counties, which asked local legislators to review a new law requiring publication of notices of public meetings, salaries and spending by some governmental agencies. Though Cityview doesn’t reap the financial rewards of publishing such listings like other newspapers do, we believe in their importance, which is why we go out of our way to seek similar information and publish it weekly in our It’s Your Money page. Such information might just help prevent another CIETC scandal.

Finally, we can only assume that Emmalee Bauer, the 25-year-old Elkhart woman who was fired last week from her job at a South Side Sheraton hotel for keeping a detailed journal of her efforts to avoid work, isn’t the slouch she claims to be. During the course of her near two-year employment, Bauer used a company computer to compose a journal of 300 single-spaced pages describing her efforts to avoid work. Not surprisingly, a judge denied Bauer unemployment benefits. Still, 300 pages is quite a feat. Don’t sell yourself short Ms. Bauer, you’re a tremendous slouch. CV

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