Posted August 17, 2026in Stray Thoughts
You would think a school district readily knows its A-B-C’s. Not the Des Moines Public Schools — at least not when informing the public what its 6,600 employees were paid during the academic year that ended June 30. Yes, grade school teachers still call roll in alphabetical order.
Read More →DES MOINES, IA (08/13/2026) (readMedia)– The Iowa State Fair is excited to welcome music legend John Waite, the acclaimed singer-songwriter behind the No. 1 hits “Missing You” and “When I See You Smile,” to headline the Grandstand for a free concert at 8 p.m. on Friday, August 14. Waite steps
Read More →Des Moines Area Companies Claim Their Trophies DES MOINES, Iowa, Aug. 12, 2026 – Winners of the Des Moines Corporate Games presented by Wellmark will be celebrated at the Awards Celebration – returning to the Iowa State Fairgrounds on Friday, August 21. Join us on the main concourse for a
Read More →DES MOINES, IA (08/11/2026) (readMedia)– Due to medical issues, Rod Stewart’s Grandstand performance at the Iowa State Fair will not take place as scheduled. We are deeply sorry for the change. The Fair is currently looking for a replacement act. Tickets for the Rod Stewart concert will be refunded to
Read More →The Chicago-based artist’s new initiative Ways and Means Reclaims and Reimagines the American Flag for a More Expansive and Positive American “We” WHO & WHAT On Wednesday, August 12, 2026, nationally recognized Chicago artist and designer Bob Faust will present a large-scale public activation of his new participatory artwork, Ways
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Posted August 11, 2026in Stray Thoughts
Game shows have one virtue Iowa’s open-records enforcement system does not: Winners and losers know on the spot what prizes are theirs to keep. Hendrik Van Pelt learned this firsthand. In February, the Guttenberg man won a case before the Iowa Court of Appeals when the judges affirmed
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Posted August 11, 2026in The Culture Buzz
From Iowa’s cultural epicenter, Mainframe Studios at 900 Keosauqua Way in Des Moines, Iowa comes your Listener-supported Community Voice, the Award-Winning indie radio station, KFMG-LP 98.9 FM (streaming simultaneously at www.kfmg.org), bringing you music, literature & cultural content. Quote of the Week – “Correct what you can; learn from what
Read More →DES MOINES, Iowa – August 10, 2026 – Greater Des Moines Supportive Housing (GDMSH) announced the closing on two former extended stay hotels that will become an 89-unit campus at 2701 Westown Parkway in West Des Moines and a 104-unit campus at 3940 114th Street in Urbandale. Both cities gave
Read More →Community radio station KFMG-LP, at 98.9 FM, announces that several new radio hosts are joining its programming. Longtime central Iowa broadcaster and media personality Maxwell Schaeffer will be the host of Morning Music with Maxwell, airing Monday through Saturday from 5-10 a.m., beginning July 30. KFMG is a listener-supported, nonprofit
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Posted August 05, 2026in Stray Thoughts
The Iowa Supreme Court typically opens its rulings on the state’s public-records and open-meetings laws by reciting that the cases start with a “presumption of openness.” But a new study of the court’s open-government decisions finds the presumption now wins only about half the time. That is a marked
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