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September 11, 2013 by justin in Your Money

Paid for by taxpayers in… Des Moines

Amount: $2,828.99 To: BSNSports (Texas) For: Purchase of a four-inch stadium alumagoal for the James W. Cownie Soccer Park.   Amount: $1,687.74 To: ColorFX For: Purchase order to have 66,000 forestry flyers printed for the city Water Works department in August.   Amount: $1,620 To: Competitive Edge For: Purchase of

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September 11, 2013 by justin in Guest Commentary

A lobotomy, depression and a mother’s revelation

My most vivid memories of my paternal grandmother date from my childhood, when my family and I visited Grandma and Grandpa Kirsch at their home in Fairmont, Minn. I remember Grandma hugging me and asking me how I was and generally making a big deal out of me. I pretended

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September 11, 2013 by justin in Locker Room

‘My lance is bigger’

It isn’t enough to simply read about history. One must immerse thy self in the subject to fully understand the time period and why it’s had a lasting affect on our lives today. For some (who are more financially secure) it can be as simple as hopping on a plane

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September 11, 2013 by justin in Joe's Neighborhood

The reincarnation of Mary Brubaker

“This is Midday with Mary Brubaker and Dolph Pulliam…”  “The Mary Brubaker Show weekdays at 9 a.m. on KCCI TV 8.” “The Muscular Dystrophy Telethon, hosted by Mary Brubaker.” “ ‘Time Capsule’ with John Pascuzzi, Connie McBurney, Rick Swalwell and Mary Brubaker.” “Mary Brubaker interviews Jimmy Carter… Ted Kennedy… Jane

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September 11, 2013 by justin in The Sound

Zen and the art of Annalibera

Anna Gebhardt is kind of a Zen master when it comes to self-effacing humility. “I’m just learning as I go,” she said over coffee. “I don’t really know what I’m doing.” That’s not completely true. Gebhardt is a classically-trained singer with a solid collegiate background in opera. It should also

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September 11, 2013 by justin in Game Day

A move of panicked desperation

FIRST DOWN: It isn’t so much that Texas gave up 40 points and 550 rushing yards to BYU — although it sure as hell didn’t help matters — as it is the fact that Mack Brown was building toward 2013, that this was supposed to be the year, circled on

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September 11, 2013 by justin in News of the Weird

Spreadsheet parenting Loco Parentis: First-time mother Amy Webb proudly notates dozens of data points about her child each day and obsessively tracks their detailed progression by computer on spreadsheets, according to the provocative first-person account she wrote for Slate.com in July. In categories ranging from ordinary vital signs, to the

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September 11, 2013 by justin in Book Review

‘Revolutionary Summer’ is insightful confession

Courtesy of Beaverdale Books Review by Harriet Leitch Knopf Publishing Group June 4, 2013 $26.95 219 pp. Pulizer Prize-winning American historian Joseph Ellis conducts an intensive study of the summer of 1776 in this great addition to the plentiful writings on the American Revolution, “Revolutionary Summer: The Birth of American

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September 11, 2013 by justin in Film Review

Searching for Salinger

“Salinger” 3 stars Rated PG-13 120 minutes Documentary Starring: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Edward Norton, Judd Apatow Shane Salerno’s exhaustive bio-documentary about one of America’s most enigmatic and reclusive literary figures nonetheless manages to leave out essential elements that are only alluded to in the film. A cavalcade of interviews with

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September 11, 2013 by justin in On The Tube

Detective in underpants

Andy Samberg is winningly weird in “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” Many of us were concerned when Andy Samberg retired from “Saturday Night Live” last spring. Would the comic genius get trapped in more forgettable movies like “Hot Rod,” then disappear? We needn’t have worried. Samberg stars in “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” a single-camera sitcom

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