DES MOINES, Iowa—West Des Moines city officials have cued up $36 million in local and state tax incentives for a company, but won’t tell its citizens who that company is. “I shouldn’t say anything,” West Des Moines Mayor Steven Gaer told Iowa Watchdog. “The company has asked us not to.”
Read More →DES MOINES, Iowa — Decorum flew out of the Iowa Legislature on Tuesday when political games led state Sen. Randy Feenstra, R-Hull, to describe as “bullshit” a bill before a Senate subcomittee. SSB 3207 would restrict the amount of state investment tax credits a fertilizer plant being built in Lee
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Posted April 02, 2014in The Sound
Wayne “The Train” Hancock is about as close to no-nonsense, blue-collar America as you can get. “I don’t have a tour bus. I don’t have a fancy house,” said the man whose last album, “Ride,” peaked at No. 68 on the Billboard Country charts. “I live in a trailer park
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Posted April 02, 2014in Duffy
‘DARK SOULS II’ (M) ****1/2 Namco Bandai Games Xbox 360 In “Dark Souls II,” your completely customizable avatar is cursed, and it shows. You’re tasked with exploring a sprawling and exceedingly hostile open fantasy world, and since you have the freedom to go anywhere at any time, you might find
Read More →Awesome! As soon as I got too FEARA (Federal Environmental Anomalies Reserve Agency) I knew something was up (“Snake Bite,” March 27), and the names were very clever! Well done. This (issue) was sent to me by a freaked out friend who knows I ride that trail. Great job! Allen
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Posted April 02, 2014in Civic Skinny
Gov. Terry Branstad gave the labor people one more reason to be pissed at him the other day. He nominated former Fort Dodge Republican legislator Mike Cormack for the three-person Public Employment Relations Board, and he didn’t reappoint Jim Riordan, the Democrat who has chaired the board for 12 years.
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Posted April 02, 2014in Political Mercury
The West Tennessean walked tall. And he spoke in a manner one would expect from the curator of so many things associated with the famous 1973 movie based on tall-walking Sheriff Buford Pusser. The question from my quick acquaintance came as easy as his syrupy drawl on this spring afternoon
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Posted April 02, 2014in Cover Story
There was only one point in the past six months when I thought I was going to die. I was sitting in a house on the south side of Des Moines with six Skinheads, discussing the “beat in” ritual for initiating new members. Midway through the conversation, a seventh member
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Branstad and Iowa, a sequel to film ‘Ground Hog Day’
The Iowa film industry — beset by tax-credit scandals a few years ago — can regroup and recoup in producing a sequel to the 1993 film, “Ground Hog Day.” Remember that flick? Bill Murray is the TV weatherman stuck in a loop of Ground Hog Days. The film was directed
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