Posted February 13, 2013in Cover Story
Connecticut is more than a thousand miles away from Des Moines. But two months ago, on Thursday, Dec. 13, it felt like the national news was reporting about a neighbor, a friend. The reports of 20 children murdered within the supposedly safe confines of their elementary school evoked tears and
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Posted February 13, 2013in Featured Story, Political Mercury
Let’s get straight to the point. The Harkin Institute of Public Policy shouldn’t be located anywhere that’s accessible by taking a taxi from an airport. Visitors and researchers should have to traverse — by car or small plane — the farms U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin has so ably represented for
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Posted February 13, 2013in Locker Room
These days there seems to be no telling which way the weather will turn. One afternoon it’s sunny; the next we’re being blanketed by fresh powder; finally, we’re washed with a melancholy-inducing rain. As the weather continues to put mail delivery personnel to the test, why not beat your winter
Read More →The good VolunteerLocal of Des Moines received national accolades last week when it was selected from a record-number of applicants as a winner of the Blue Ribbon Small Business Award. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce chose VolunteerLocal because of its dedication to the principles of free enterprise and its contributions
Read More →‘DEAD SPACE 3’ (M) ***1/2 Electronic Arts Xbox 360 Most popular game franchises nowadays like to play it safe, with tiny, incremental changes from one entry to the next. So it’s admirable how willing EA was to mix up the tried-and-true survival horror formula with its “Dead Space” threequel. And
Read More →Mews played host to a plethora of metal acts on Sunday, Feb. 10, headed up by Colorado’s Asylum and Wisconsin-based Micawber. Opening the event were central Iowa acts Shadow of Indra and They Will Repent, which combined to kick off the show with a study in contrasts. Shadow of Indra’s
Read More →Muddy Rails ‘Muddy Rails’ Brolester Muddy Rails is a throwback to the glory days of SoCal punk-pop. “The Green Automobile” and its opening declaration of “My my how the years can change a man/and this is what I’ve settled into” is straight out of the Social Distortion playbook. And just
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Posted February 13, 2013in Featured Story, Food Dude
Readers frequently ask questions that begin, “Who makes your favorite…?” Answers, being a matter of taste, can start arguments. That’s why I appreciate tips from folks who believe they’ve discovered a new favorite of anything. Recently I received a tout for Hong Kong’s Chinese buffet. Most Chinese buffets here seem
Read More →Courtesy of Beaverdale Books Review by Fay Jones Putnam March 2013 $26.95 320 pp. Hesketh’s haunting, heartfelt first novel tells the story of Albert Honig, an elderly beekeeper who lives in Southern California. As the book opens, Albert comes upon the dead bodies of his longtime neighbors, Claire and Hilda;
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Iowa and Aussies share language, culture and problems
Three weeks in Australia — visiting one of our daughters — offered a respite from the Iowa winter, but not from Iowa issues. Reading Australian newspapers was like reading newspapers in Iowa. It wasn’t that international crises — like those in Syria, Israel and Algeria — dominated the news, but
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