Posted January 09, 2019in Stray Thoughts
During most of my career at the Des Moines Register, all purchases for the news staff and all expense reimbursement claims went through the newsroom’s business manager. Through the years, there was turnover in the job. But two people held the job for much of that time, and they had
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Posted January 02, 2019in Stray Thoughts
On the morning of Aug. 31, shortly after 8:30, a 12-year-old boy pulled out a gun in his seventh-grade classroom in Eldridge, a community just north of Davenport. In an instant, he directed his classmates to get on the floor and then pointed the gun at his teacher’s face and
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Posted January 02, 2019in Feature 1
Lack of demand and consumer confusion are endangering recycling. Learn what you can do to help. Officials will consider removing glass from curbside recycling, building a new processing facility and doing away with residential single-stream recycling in the Des Moines metro area within the next few years. The potential for change is due to higher
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Posted January 02, 2019in Feature 2
Don’t get too cozy; central Iowa has many fun things to do this winter. Iowa’s winter weather is predictably unpredictable, but, sooner or later, arctic winds eventually deliver freezing temps. Be that as it may… don’t give in. Instead, get up. Get out. Get to laughing, living and loving life in the greater Des
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Posted January 02, 2019in Feature 3
Harbinger is our choice for restaurant of the year again, as is Joe Tripp for chef of the year. Iowa has always been identified with food, not always in a flattering way. Yet all things change drastically and often before they are obvious. In my lifetime, our state has gone from the nation’s leading
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Posted January 02, 2019in Civic Skinny
Iowa State University paid Drake University $300,000 to play that football game in Ames on Dec. 1. The figure apparently has not been reported. Drake also got 300 free tickets and free admission for the marching band, mascots and game workers. And parking passes for one truck, four buses and
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Posted January 02, 2019in Political Mercury
There’s a software revolution in America today, and rural Americans need to be armed. It’s possible Ro Khanna did more for Greene County, Iowa, in 16 hours on a past weekend than Steve King has in 16 years. Khanna, 42, a product of rural Pennsylvania who is in his first
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Posted January 02, 2019in Film Review
The second installment suffers from connectivity issues. Sequels typically have a tough time determining how much time they want to spend establishing new characters and locations at the expense of the characters we fell in love with. The “Toy Story” movies do a good job balancing this out. Each of
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Posted January 02, 2019in Food Dude
A simple lesson Godfather’s Pizza founder Willy Thiesen once told us that for a new restaurant to be successful, it first must be fun in its own special way. That seems like a simple lesson, yet it’s rarely at the top of the planning list for new restaurants not named
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Posted January 02, 2019in Your Neighbors
Local rodeo rider gears up to haul full-time professionally. Earning hourly wages at a 9-to-5 is all well and good, but for Briar Dittmer, he prefers to be paid eight seconds at a time. The Southeast Polk graduate is majoring in physical education while competing on a rodeo scholarship at
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