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July 22, 2025 by Brent Antisdel in The Culture Buzz

Greetings, Cultural Adventurers:

From Iowa’s cultural epicenter, Mainframe Studios at 900 Keosauqua Way in Des Moines, comes your Listener-supported Community Voice, the Award-Winning independent radio station, KFMG-LP 98.9 FM (streaming simultaneously at www.kfmg.org), bringing you music, literature & cultural content. – John Busbee for The Culture Buzz The Culture Buzz Podcast Library –

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July 21, 2025 by Brent Antisdel in Stray Thoughts

When waste-cutters miss what looks like, umm, waste

Andy McKean is a charming country lawyer from Anamosa. He grew up in New York and was drawn to Iowa by his family roots. He has owned a bed-and-breakfast, called square dances and played in a dance band named the Scotch Grove Pioneers. His tenure in the Iowa Legislature stretched

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July 17, 2025 by Brent Antisdel in Morain

07/17/25

The state of Iowa in 2013 approved its “Nutrient Reduction Strategy” for reducing nitrogen and phosphorus runoff into the state’s streams and rivers, and eventually downstream into the Gulf of Mexico. The voluntary Strategy was officially adopted in 2018, with a goal of reducing the pollutants’ runoff by 45 percent.

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July 15, 2025 by Brent Antisdel in Stray Thoughts

Names make it tough to ignore human impact of news

One longtime truism of journalism is “Names make news.”  That shorthand stems from the fact people better understand the significance and context of news when they learn about events and issues through the eyes and experiences of people they know or with whom they can identify. The late Iowa Supreme

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July 10, 2025 by Brent Antisdel in Morain

07/10/25

Memory is a tricky thing for older folks. Sometimes we can remember specific people, places, and events from decades earlier, while at the same time we can’t remember much about yesterday or even a couple of hours ago. My coffee group of very mature men belabors that failing regularly. The

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July 08, 2025 by Brent Antisdel in The Culture Buzz

Greetings, Cultural Adventurers:

From Iowa’s cultural epicenter, Mainframe Studios at 900 Keosauqua Way in Des Moines, comes your Listener-supported Community Voice, the Award-Winning independent radio station, KFMG-LP 98.9 FM (streaming simultaneously at www.kfmg.org), bringing you music, literature & cultural content. – John Busbee for The Culture Buzz The Culture Buzz Podcast Library – https://archive.org/details/@the_culture_buzz 2014 Iowa Governor’s Award for Partnership & Collaboration

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July 03, 2025 by Brent Antisdel in Morain

07/03/25

The United States system of government is one of the most complicated such mechanisms in the world. It’s a blessing and a curse. A blessing, because it disperses power. That’s what the Founders intended with the Constitution in 1787, and it’s what has guided America since then. Federalism (dividing power

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July 02, 2025 by Brent Antisdel in Feature 1

Buffalo Bill, Des Moines and the Iowa State Fair

By the time the shows ended their 33-year run, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West had played to more than 50 million people. It was the spectacle of the era, performed for European royalty to salt-of-the-earth people in America’s Heartland. With its popularity, William Frederick “Buffalo Bill” Cody became the most recognized

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July 02, 2025 by Brent Antisdel in Feature 2

2025 CHOICE Awards

Inspired by Japan’s Living National Treasures, the idea for CITYVIEW’s CHOICE awards originated 11 years ago. The Japanese program honors “preservers of important intangible cultural properties.” In the years after World War II, anxiety arose in Japan that their unique cultural traditions — noh, kabuki, origami, kumi, sumo, teapot ceramics,

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July 02, 2025 by Brent Antisdel in Business Feature

The business of malls

Popularity and ease of access have made online retailers increasingly attractive for shoppers. According to Shopify, an e-commerce site where businesses can sell their products, global e-commerce sales are forecast to grow from $5.13 trillion in 2022 to $8.09 trillion by 2028. That’s a lot of money, and a good

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