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Posted October 16, 2013in Your Money

Paid for by taxpayers in… Polk County

Amount: $360.90 To: Acme Signs For: Payment for repairs to the police graphics, including reflective stripes and an American flag, on a Sheriff’s Explorer at $65 per hour.   Amount: $3,391 To: Ahlers and Cooney PC For: Payment for legal services regarding IEC v. Populous Inc. through Sept. 19.  

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Posted October 16, 2013in Tech Talk

Tablets, like tech crack to kids

Remember the good old days when lousy parenting meant plopping your kids down in front of a TV for hours on end? Cartoons, “Sesame Street” and sing-a-long VHS tapes were the cure-all for kids who wouldn’t settle down. Today, it appears tablets are slowly supplanting the idiot box for babysitting

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Posted October 16, 2013in Cover Story

Vinyl

What is it about vinyl that captures the imagination? People don’t get glassy-eyed with nostalgia over wax cylinders or eight-tracks or MP3s. Some in the punk scenes might argue that cassettes still have a healthy following, but it’s more a function of portability and the ability to record over them.

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Posted October 16, 2013in News of the Weird

Haute couture A few still-primitive cultures inexplicably celebrate such female adornments as the stacking of metal neck rings and the inserting of saucer-sized disks into pierced earlobes. For “civilized” society, there is the annual Paris Fashion Week in September, when renowned designers outfit brave, otherwise-gorgeous models in grotesque clothing. Among

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Posted October 16, 2013in Belly Up To...

Up-Down barcade is a nostalgic utopia

Kurt Cobain was a social blessing bestowed upon teens across America in the 1990s. The Seattle grunge-rock movement gave kids permission to be… well, grungy. I have a special gratitude. Finally the ratty T-shirt, torn jeans and cotton flannel hand-me-downs I’d been wearing my entire life were now “in style”

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Posted October 16, 2013in Your View

Comments on comment

I read Michael Gartner’s “Comment” in (Civic Skinny, Oct. 10): “But, the poll makes clear, they do not have highly partisan feelings about The Affordable Care Act.” This is wrong and contradicts his previous sentence and the poll. A correct statement would be that they do not have highly partisan

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Posted October 16, 2013in Locker Room

Systema, a Russian martial art

Think you know martial arts? Think again. Forget your belts, your uniforms, your stances, techniques or katas (loosely translated as “form”). Systema is a comprehensive system in the fullest sense. Never heard of it? “Systema can be a little hard to explain if you haven’t had any experience with it,”

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Posted October 16, 2013in Civic Skinny

Gortz Haus owners like gays — but up to a point. Look who voted — and who didn’t — last month.

That lawsuit filed last week by Betty and Richard Odgaard against the Iowa Civil Rights Commission is bringing out the worst in some people. And not just the Odgaards. The Odgaards run The Gortz Haus Gallery in a former church in Grimes. The gallery sells art and gifts and runs

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Posted October 16, 2013in The Sound

Water Liars grinds out its sound on third album

Water Liars is a band just like thousands around the country. Formed as a two-piece in 2011, the group has a couple of albums under its belt with a third just about ready to record. Its last album, “Wyoming,” was released in March of this year and received a smattering

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Posted October 16, 2013in Duffy

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