Two of a kind? Flavor Flav was arrested for speeding in January when police said he was driving 79 in a 55 mph zone. It doesn’t stop there, though. Police discovered Mr. Flav also had 16 license suspensions for a variety of unpaid tickets, and they found a small amount
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September 24, 2014 by justin
in Your Money
Paid for by taxpayers in… of the City of Des Moines
Amount: $598 To: Acme tools For: Two mobile bases for ICS saws Amount: $297 To: Johnson Reporting Services For: Des Moines Civil Service Commission Hearing — half original transcript and copy Amount: $500 To: Mark Burnham For: Reimbursement for damages to Burnham’s car by a city garbage truck Amount: $1,250
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September 24, 2014 by justin
in Sound Check
Leonard Cohen “Popular Problems” Columbia No bones: “Popular Problems” only exists because Leonard Cohen is broke. The nearly 80-year-old Cohen was set to enjoy his retirement after the release of 2004’s “Dear Heather,” but that was before his former manager swindled him out of nearly 9 million dollars. However, if
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September 24, 2014 by justin
in GoodNightIowa
Vice President Joe Biden visited Des Moines recently to help promote a voter turnout effort led by Catholic nuns touring the country on a bus… Biden said he hasn’t been on a bus that full of single women since campaigning with President Clinton in 1996. A routine inspection at a
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September 24, 2014 by justin
in Political Mercury
Why didn’t Joni Ernst just film her shoot-the-Negro ad in Memphis?
You can’t separate the man from the law. Literally. The two blend for the word: Obama + Care = Obamacare. How you feel about the sea change in health-insurance reform largely — and in many cases, exclusively — depends on your thoughts on President Barack Obama. It’s personal. Visceral. Instinctive.
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September 24, 2014 by justin
in Book Review
‘Dear Committee Members’
Courtesy of Beaverdale Books Review by Shirley Shiffler Doubleday Books Aug. 19, 2014 $22.95 180 Pages Jason Fitger is a disenchanted professor of creative writing and literature at a small, mediocre liberal arts college in the Midwest, and “Dear Committee Members” is the hilarious look at one year of his
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September 24, 2014 by justin
in Film Review
Box of trash
“The Boxtrolls” 1 star Rated PG 97 minutes Animation Starring: Ben Kingsley, Jared Harris, Nick Frost This animated 3D children’s picture is as clumsy, tone-deaf and useless as they come. Laika, the Oregon animation production company behind “Coraline” (2009) and “ParaNorman” (2012) takes more than a few a steps backward.
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September 24, 2014 by justin
in Sound Notes
If you haven’t had a chance to check out Des Moines’ new public pianos yet, there are a few chances coming up to listen to them played by some folks who know what they’re doing. On Oct. 1, the cast of “Carrie: The Musical” will be performing at the Gateway
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September 24, 2014 by justin
in News of the Weird
New frontiers The WE cable network disclosed in August that it had ordered a nine-episode adaptation of a British series, “Sex Box,” in which a couple enters a large opaque chamber on-stage and has intercourse. The pair, pre- and post-coitally, are clothed and seated before a panel of probably D-List
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