I’m not a believer. And if people ever ask me to explain what that means, I won’t tell them. You can interpret that however you want to. That’s fine by me. A week before writing this story, I took a trip to Farrar Elementary School in Maxwell. I knew nothing about it outside of what [...]
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The Iowa Wild hockey team has reached 27 wins in three straight seasons now, finishing last year with a record of 27-36-6-3. Last season, the Wild hired a new head coach in Greg Cronin. Cronin’s stint in Iowa was short-lived, now having left to be an assistant for the St. Louis Blues in the NHL. [...]
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Before the digital age, people gathered in homes, farms and auction houses to bid on items from estates. Food was often provided, friendships were formed, and memories were made. Travis Mansfield, owner of NativeBid Auction Services, grew up attending in-person estate auctions with his grandfather. “I loved it,” he said. “You could find these amazing [...]
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For this month’s Cars in the City column, I am trading four wheels for two and taking a look at the growing popularity of e-bikes. An e-bike is a bicycle equipped with an electric motor and rechargeable battery. The motor provides assistance while you pedal, making it easier to travel longer distances or tackle hills. [...]
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Each October, we take a look at property sale records and various home sale sites like Zillow and Redfin to see what the highest-priced residential homes were in the metro since January of this year. The focus seems fitting right now, as the most expensive home in Iowa just listed for $10.2 million. If it [...]
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This appears to be the year of bargain stalking. It’s the No. 1 thing our readers ask about, and that’s never happened before in our 38 years on the food beat in Iowa. Young people are foregoing the old rites of youth like going out to restaurants and bars on dates, binge drinking alcohol and [...]
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U.S. Sen. Cory Booker — a potential candidate for the presidency in 2028 — is keeping in touch with at least one influential Iowa supporter. Does Booker’s check-in one recent weekday with Nancy Bobo of Des Moines mean Booker sees Iowa as filling its historic role in the presidential nominating process? Is that why he [...]
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I loved going to the video rental store as a kid. In the Quad Cities, there was Hogan’s Video in Moline along with The Movie Store and Jeff’s Corner in Milan. The first two shut down when chains such as Blockbuster Video moved in. Jeff’s got in trouble for dubbing bootleg tapes to increase its [...]
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The cleverly named law firm of Avery, Jones and Maltese (after legends Tex Avery, Chuck Jones and Michael Maltese) tells you right away how much affection is baked into this merrie melody. It’s a small miracle “Coyote vs. ACME” exists. Warner Bros. shelved the finished film as a tax write-off, and, well, that was all, [...]
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Halloween brings a special theatricality to our lives. A glut of horror film reruns and literary choices are as plentiful as pop-up Halloween supplies shops with classics from Poe to the modern king of horror Steven King to more recent delights such as R. L. Stine. For many, it’s the seasonal live performing productions that [...]
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In 1968, as rock styles emerged with the Beatles, the Who and other classic rock groups, one genre slowly began making headlines: progressive rock. Leading the prog-rock revolution was King Crimson. The band’s 1969 debut album, “In the Court of the Crimson King,” is regarded as a landmark of progressive rock. The band released seven [...]
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At its haughtiest levels, the art world believes it is more evolved than everybody else. It is married to the concept of the avant-garde, always pushing boundaries and defying convention. It is a cult beholden to no outside influences. It occupies the cool kids’ table and rarely grants a seat to outsiders, until its funding [...]
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Football season kicked off more than a month ago, and one question is on the minds of sports fans everywhere: Where can I go to watch the game? Fortunately, Des Moines and its suburbs have sports bar options galore. One of the newest, The Huddle, is recruiting hungry and thirsty fans who are ready to [...]
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Alexis Thompson’s life changed in an instant when she survived a horrific car accident as a young adult. The crash left her with broken bones, a ruptured tailbone and four brain hemorrhages. She was briefly confined to a wheelchair, and the traumatic brain injury forced her to leave college and begin an extensive rehabilitation process. [...]
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Dmitry Iakovlev owns Irina’s Steak & Seafood in West Des Moines with his wife, Irina Khartchenko. Since the restaurant is now 20 years old in Des Moines, we asked him to lunch to reminisce and talk about changes in the restaurant business and the couple’s long, strange trip to Iowa and citizenship. He suggested we [...]
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The school field trip tragedy last week at Lake Macbride State Park again demonstrated the adage that a rumor can travel halfway around the globe while the truth is still putting on its shoes. Government silence during a public crisis or mass-casualty event creates an information vacuum that rumor, speculation and misinformation quickly fill. [...]
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Shannon Earhardt is sports reporter/anchor at KCCI TV 8. Last year she became the first woman ever named “sportscaster of the year” in Iowa by National Sports Media Association. Earhardt impressed us four years ago immediately after arriving in Des Moines directly from University of Oklahoma (OU) journalism school after growing up in Chicago. We [...]
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