March 09, 2021 by Brent Antisdel
in Stray Thoughts
Tucked away among hundreds of bills being considered this year by the Iowa Legislature is one people might have quickly embraced in a different era. But times have changed. It has been 38 years since Robert Ray left the governor’s office. State government today is far messier than it was
Read More →
March 03, 2021 by Brent Antisdel
in Feature 1
On Sept. 29, 1905, F. D. Harriman, an attorney from Hampton, lost control of his vehicle, hit a bridge and crashed into a ditch. Tragically, Harriman died as a result, and he became the state’s first car-related fatality on historical record. Des Moines doesn’t have a middle name. If it
Read More →
March 03, 2021 by Brent Antisdel
in Feature 2
Since 1995, the top 1 percent of American farm subsidy recipients have received 26 percent of subsidy payments, and the top 10 percent have been handed 78 percent of the total. The top 1 percent of wealth earners in the country got 26 percent of those. Fifty members of the
Read More →
March 03, 2021 by Brent Antisdel
in Business Feature
For those of us who grew up with “Lassie,” the beloved Timmy-saving Collie, our pet dogs were wonderful companions, even part of the family. We took them for walks and occasional car rides. They greeted us at the door when we got home. If they were really “spoiled,” they got
Read More →
March 03, 2021 by Brent Antisdel
in Civic Skinny
Print circulation of The Des Moines Register continues to plummet. Reported digital circulation is holding more or less steady, but at a low level, but internal numbers show it rising nicely. Executives can’t explain that discrepancy. In the six months ended Sept. 30, the latest period for which figures are
Read More →
March 03, 2021 by Brent Antisdel
in Political Mercury
At age 87, U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley, first elected to office during the Eisenhower administration, smiled broadly when pressed by audience members about a potential re-election campaign next year in a town hall at Landus Cooperative in Jefferson recently. “I can do 20 right now,” Grassley said, referring to push-ups.
Read More →
March 03, 2021 by Brent Antisdel
in Film Review
On Dec. 4, 1969, the Chicago Police burst into the apartment of Black Panther Fred Hampton. Equipped with machine guns, rifles, shotguns and handguns, the police not only fired first but discharged upward of 90 shots. The Panthers, according to the findings of a grand jury, fired, at most, a
Read More →
March 03, 2021 by Brent Antisdel
in Food Dude
There are few restaurant genres that Des Moines expects to conform to formula. Seafood cafés here are all over the place, from the air freighted opulence of Splash to the northwest Mexican bounty of Isla del Pacifico, to the fried wonders of Seafood Trap, the it’s-all-about-the-fish attitude of Waterfront, the
Read More →
March 03, 2021 by Brent Antisdel
in Des Moines Forgotten
Millennials can be split into two groups: those of us born in the 1980s and those born in the 1990s. The 1980s-born kids still had a chance to enjoy life before the Internet, which included climbing trees, renting videos from a store, and trying to steal our old man’s Playboy.
Read More →
March 03, 2021 by Brent Antisdel
in Joe's Neighborhood
Should I take the steep, black diamond run on the mountain to the left, or the longer, curving run on the mountain to the right? Do I want deep snow that sprays at every turn, or a slick track with speed? A chair lift for three, or a moving platform
Read More →
