Last week’s Iowa Arts Summit was the biggest event of its kind in my memory. First Lady Chris Branstad presented awards and scholarships. Our daily paper covered it with multiple stories and an editorial. Delegates left with the confidence of acknowledgment. Richard Florida’s relentless advocates had conquered Iowa. Florida published
Read More →NINTENDO AT E3 The 20th annual Electronic Entertainment Expo kicked off last week at the Los Angeles Convention Center, where game developers from all over the world converged to showcase their wares. As usual, Nintendo had a large presence on the show floor, but for the second year in a
Read More →She doesn’t want to call it vindication, but Bonne Finken is starting to see the payoff of trusting in herself. After years of doing things her own way — often to what others perceived as her detriment—Bonne’s newest album, “Fairytails/LoveAffairs” is taking her to the ever elusive next step. “I
Read More →Tickets have now gone on sale for the second installment of the new Music Under The Canopy series, set to take place July 11-13 at the Brenton Skating Plaza. The event will feature headliners Anna Nalick and Greg Brown, with additional lineup information to be announced in the coming days.
Read More →Marking Japan’s latest unfathomable social trend, two paperback photo books — both consisting only of portraits of the rear ends of hamsters — have experienced surprising and still-growing printing runs. Japanese society has long seemed easily captured by anything considered “kawaii” (or “cute”), according to a May Wall Street Journal
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Posted June 18, 2014in Locker Room
What do soccer and bowling have in common? Aside from being two sports that can’t get proper air time on ESPN, they require a fair amount of eye-hand coordination. Now imagine combining the two sports and removing vision from the mix. What’s left is Goalball, one of the most exciting
Read More →The Shoppes at William Pointe, an 18,000-square-foot center, is slated to open in mid-to-late June at 1352 East Hickman Road. Businesses moving into the retail center include Louie’s Wine Dive, Polished Nail Salon and The Draught House, which is owned by Tom Baldwin Jr., who also owns 1908 Draught House
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Posted June 18, 2014in Joe's Neighborhood
Yes, dear reader, you have now turned to that part of the newspaper where we traditionally focus on some amazing young professional in the Des Moines area as an inspiration for those of us who might be slacking just a bit and need to shape up. These are always great
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Posted June 17, 2014in Iowa Watchdog
DES MOINES, Iowa — The way they tell it at Judy’s Country Curl, Brenda Simmons was nice enough, but she hadn’t done much in her 22 years as city clerk of Menlo, Iowa. The Country Curl crowd couldn’t have known how wrong they were. From 2001 through 2013, Simmons spent
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Jesus the candidate: Soft on crime, He’ll tax and spend
Consider yourself cursed for the next 850 days or so. With the November election 120 or so days away and the 2016 election adding 731 more to the total, you’ll be cursed with tens of thousands of messages of hate, lies and stupidity — all appealing to the worst that
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