Winners

Last year was a good one for Principal Financial Group Inc. executives who saw their salaries significantly increase, according to The Des Moines Register. Chairman and CEO J. Barry Griswell was the biggest winner, receiving a 130 percent raise, more than doubling his 2005 salary of $7.3 million to $16.8 million. John Aschenbrenner, president of insurance and financial services, received $5.3 million; Larry Zimpleman, president and COO got $4.5 million; Jim McCaughan, president of global asset management earned $4.3 million; and Michael Gersie, executive vice president and CFO, took home $3.8 million. Not bad work, if you can get it.

The Iowa Senate rightfully voted 28-22 to attach a proposed ban on traffic cameras to a larger transportation bill in hopes of eliminating controversial cameras like those being used in Clive. Pat Ward, a West Des Moines Republican, nailed it when she said “There are better ways to enforce the laws, and that’s using police officers.” Democrat Sen. Matt McCoy added, “Let’s get these things out of Iowa. They can go by the way of the TouchPlay machines.”

Congratulations to Larry Birkhead, winner of the Who’s the Father of Anna Nicole Smith’s Million Dollar Baby contest. Other than edging out rival Howard K. Stern by a sperm for custody of Dannielynn — who could inherit millions of dollars from the estate of Smith’s late husband, oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II — Birkhead one day gets to explain to his daughter how her whorish, drug-addicted mother made her name posing for Playboy and starring in crappy reality television shows.

Losers

A Pottawattamie County jury convicted former Dallas County Sheriff Brian Gilbert of first-degree felony theft. Gilbert faces up to 10 years in prison after the jury found him guilty of stealing about $120,000 last year during a traffic stop. Since the investigation into the stolen money began in March 2006, many signs of guilt have pointed to Gilbert, who alone drove the seized money from a state garage to the sheriff’s department the day of the seizure. Before he returned to the sheriff’s department, Gilbert told a state investigator he drove by his home and noticed that the garage door was open and decided to stop and close it, fearing that dogs would enter his garage. Jurors believe that’s when he stashed the loot — which was not recovered. Gilbert’s supporters say the verdict “ruined a good man.” But would a good man put himself in such a position of suspicion in the first place?

From the kids losing a playground, to the taxpayers who voted in 1999 for an increased sales tax to help pay for school projects, to the Des Moines School Board for not knowing they couldn’t use a $500,000 federal grant to complete its construction, it appears as though there are a variety of groups getting the short end of the stick when it comes to the stalled construction of a $1.1 million elevated playground at Walnut Street School. Two years ago, low sales tax revenue and rising construction costs forced school officials to hold 21 school projects costing more than $200 million. School officials should have seen this coming — especially given the fact they didn’t add the Walnut Street School project into the plan until after they began to realize money was short and costs were on the rise.

Media circuses like the one surrounding fired radio host Don Imus remind us what a hypocrisy America is when it comes to race relations. The Rutgers women’s basketball team and black community have a right to be upset about Imus calling players “nappy-headed hos” — yet such insensitive comments are on par with remarks made by other news radio hosts who go unscathed and pale in comparison to those made by rappers and entertainers. Imus’ firing from MSNBC and CBS Radio is warranted since he made the remarks during his “news show,” though one could argue talk radio is entertainment, too, given Imus’ satirical format [did radio execs expect Imus to completely abandon his shock-jock mentality?]. Imus’ firing likely occurred after big companies threatened to pull their advertising — despite what network officials say. And while it’s predictable and politically correct for corporate America, the news media and black leaders to act outraged about Imus’ remarks, the problem is when the circus leaves town things won’t change. Six months from now, another celebrity will make an insensitive comment and we’ll burn them at the stake, too, without learning anything — again. Someone should follow-up in a few months with corporate America, MSNBC and CBS, and black leaders to see what kind of work they’re doing to truly improve race relations. After all, the only thing worse than racist remarks is the hypocrisy in which they are dealt with. CV

Comment on this story | Return to top