Winners

Pollstar Magazine has nominated Wells Fargo Arena for Best New Major Concert Venue of the Year, though it's become painfully obvious the folks running the place don't have their shit together, and admit as much. Nominations are based on (get this) the number of concerts, concert grosses, percentage of sellouts, attendance, venue design and acoustics. The 17,000-seat Wells Fargo Arena is competing with bigger venues in Charlotte, Omaha, New York City, Chicago and San Juan, Puerto Rico, for the award. The winner will be announced Feb. 15. The $100 million venue also received the award for Best New Sports Facility at the Fifth Annual Horizon Awards for Sports Business. We're sure Andy Long, Ed Larsen and Joy Giudicessi will have plenty to say about all of this on the unemployment line.

Losers

One has to wonder if this is simply more "attack on the rich West-Siders" or a case of an individual skipping his meds, but newly elected Des Moines School Board member Dick Murphy didn't make any friends last week when he proposed the closing of Roosevelt High School and creating a Central Campus where the long-time school stands now. Murphy claims to just want to get a conversation going regarding how to save five elementary schools that are scheduled to be shuttered, and so he offered up the closing of Roosevelt as a means of doing so because it sits right off the highway (Did they move East High again?). However, rather than being the leader of some beneficial discussion, what Murphy actually did was come off as a complete, well, dick. Of course, he likely does not care that, as he says, "people might be mad at him," but starting off his term this divisively just to make the front page of the daily will likely leave him odd man out - and rightfully so - when it comes to any important discussions this already-brittle board has to make in the future. And while it's true that a little brainstorming is always a good thing, when people without brains try to do it, it tends to make them look like complete dumbfucks - just like Dick Murphy.

With about as much credibility as their conservative buddy President Bush unveiling a new "strategy for victory" in Iraq, the Iowa Republican leadership trotted out their own shiny, political distraction last week, making clear that they will stay the dead-end course and raise again the death penalty as a political issue in the upcoming legislative session. Sure, the bid to reinstate capital punishment for those convicted of kidnapping, raping and murdering children will be dead upon arrival at the capitol next year, with top Democrats shooting down debate before it can start. But, hey, who needs that boring logic stuff when you've got an election to win? Everyone knows that acting in a rational, constructive manner on behalf of voters has never been a strong suit of the Republican party, but this issue is so dead in the water, Jesus Christ himself would admit it's nothing more than political grandstanding, a convenient attempt to replace the GOP's current image as a lying bunch of rich guys in bed with illegitimate interests (or women) with the veneer of bleeding-heart crusaders for cute little white girls murdered by sick twists who certainly didn't research prison terms before their lower extremities directed them to rape and murder. Adding to the fun of distracting the populace with non-issues that have zero traction: Beating this dead horse provides a great opportunity for a endless rounds of pin-the-tail on the pro-death penalty Democrat. Let the games begin. CV

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