Winners

To all the Thanksgiving Day hosts who carry on the family tradition of slaving over a hot stove, waking up at 4 a.m. to put the turkey in the oven, cleaning the house the night before and breaking out your best table cloth and fine china to make Thanksgiving memorable for family and friends, we thank you. That goes double to the volunteers who serve the homeless and the needy, those who have an even deeper understanding for what it means to give thanks on this day. They remind us to slow down our lives for a day to appreciate what we have.

Band geeks rejoice. Though you likely won’t make millions of dollars someday playing your own music, take solace in the fact that there is a good chance you will earn more money than your athletic counterparts in the real world. That’s the good news according to the results of a poll by independent researchers Harris Interactive that showed that 88 percent of the more than 2,500 people they polled with a post-graduate education were involved in music while in school, and 83 percent of people earning $150,000 or more had a music education. Experts say the rigorous discipline of learning music and working in ensemble situations bodes well for music students in their careers. Now, back to practicing those scales.

Global Spectrum, operators of the Iowa Events Center, received an Environmental Award from Orion Lighting for continued improvements in energy savings at the facility. Hy-Vee Hall recently upgraded the existing metal halide lighting system with fluorescent lighting in the exhibit halls, which will produce an energy savings of about $15,000 a year. The lighting change is the latest effort by the staff at the Iowa Events Center to cut down on energy costs. That’s good news for taxpayers, too.

Losers

A federal grand jury indicted Barry Bonds last week, just three months after the former San Francisco Giants star angrily defended himself against steroid allegations on the night he broke Hank Aaron’s home run record. Bonds faces charges on five counts of perjury and obstruction of justice that could result in a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison if he’s convicted. Bonds and his lawyers said the government targeted him for political gain and that the investigation into his alleged steroid use is racially motivated. The indictment mainly consists of excerpts from Bonds’ 2003 testimony before a grand jury investigating BALCO and cites 19 occasions in which Bonds allegedly lied under oath. Baseball analysts speculate Bonds, recently dumped by the Giants and in search of a new club, won’t play again as teams won’t want to endure what surely will be a long, well-publicized legal matter.

If you’re sitting at your favorite coffee shop reading this, you might perk up when we tell you that Starbucks Corp. stock dropped nearly 40 percent in the past year. Experts said the corporate coffeehouses are feeling the pinch after dairy prices have skyrocketed, fast-food chains have made it easier to find a “high-quality” coffee, and traffic at Starbucks stores has flattened amid high fuel prices. Analysts project that Starbucks will earn 21 cents a share on $2.43 billion in revenue, which is about the equivalent of 27 tall mocha lattes.

What’s with the Iowa Hawkeye football team this year? As though the games themselves haven’t been frustrating, it seems its off-field problems have only magnified the palpable tension in Iowa City. The latest incident involves a criminal investigation into allegations of sexual assault involving three Hawkeye football players after a woman said she was attacked Oct. 15, in a room in the Hillcrest Residence Hall. No arrests have been made, though coach Kirk Ferentz and athletic director Gary Barta released statements expressing concern for the victim’s well being. Already, two football players have been kicked off the team and several others have been suspended for charges involving arrests for suspicion of unauthorized credit card use, drunken driving, disorderly conduct, possession of alcohol and driving with a suspended license, all of which tarnishes the reputation of the school, team, coaches and players and adds salt to the wounds of a season-ending loss to lowly Western Michigan, which likely will keep the 6-6 Hawks out of a bowl game.

We realize we’re preaching to the choir, but we would be remiss if we didn’t mention Des Moines Register vice president and editor Carolyn Washburn’s front page advertorial last week pitching the daily’s new Web site and dining guide. Come on, front page, with a full-page jump on how to use a Web site? We remember when the front page was reserved for news. It appears as though the daily has resorted to using the print publication as little more than a promotional piece for its Web site where online content managers (reporters) work in the information center (newsroom) editing reader blogs and uploading photos of honor roll students in lieu of doing some real reporting. CV

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