Saturday, July 25, 2026

Join our email blast

Posted February 03, 2016in Book Review

‘Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words’

How much do you know about how your hand computer (smart phone) works? What about the box that cleans food holders (dishwasher)? Ever feel completely lost when talking about your car to a mechanic? Randall Monroe is here for you. The genius behind the Internet’s most popular comic — XKCD

Read More →
Posted February 03, 2016in Your Money

Paid for by taxpayers in…

Paid on Jan. 21, 2016 Amount: $2,000 To: Nestingen Inc. For: Annual license for legal opinion library software Amount: $26.50 To: TestAmercia Laboratories, Inc. For: Wastewater samples — total organic carbon Amount: $37,900 To: Iowa Demolition For: 2829 E. 35th St.; 3501 Hull Ave.; 3827 E. Jefferson Amount: $203.50 To:

Read More →
Posted February 03, 2016in Joe's Neighborhood

The post office

The post office was established at Fort Des Moines in 1845, and was known as Raccoon River until June 1, 1846, when the name Fort Des Moines was given it. Josiah Smart, who was the Indian interpreter for the military authorities at the Fort, was appointed as the first postmaster

Read More →
Posted February 03, 2016in Civic Skinny

The double life of Kirk Blunck — architect and debtor.

Kirk Blunck, who died last week under what the medical examiner called “suspicious” circumstances at the bottom of some stairs in the Teachout Building that he had restored in the East Village, was a good architect and a bad businessman. Like many of the best local architects of the past

Read More →
Posted February 03, 2016in Sound Circuit

She has the power

For the past several years, Lavonne McRoberts has been the songwriter and frontwoman for Peace Love and Stuff, a four-piece rockabilly outfit that put on one of the highest energy shows in town. But when you have four people as talented as Peace Love and Stuff’s lineup working together, it

Read More →
Posted February 03, 2016in Locker Room

Red Running Hood

We’re still a few months from spring, but that doesn’t mean you can’t see some central Iowans getting into the spirit. It’s about this time of the year when February ice storms form over the horizon, and only the bravest of souls throw on shorts and a T-shirt whenever the

Read More →
Posted February 03, 2016in Political Mercury

What I learned with Jim Hightower

National radio commentator, writer, public speaker and author Jim Hightower, 73, of Austin, Texas, one of America’s most well-known populist voices, has spent four decades battling what he calls the “Powers That Be” on behalf of the “Powers That Ought To Be”  — consumers, working families, environmentalists, small businesses and just plain

Read More →
House - Rack Locations