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September 28, 2012 by justin in Guest Commentary

Chicago and the psychology of teacher bashing

In a deeply unequal society, the affluent will always sneer at public services and the men and women who provide them. Last year, state lawmakers in Illinois did their best to make a Chicago teacher strike impossible. They passed a new law that required at least 75 percent of the

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September 28, 2012 by justin in Game Day

Ferentz on the Hot Seat

FIRST DOWN: And goal to go… The running joke in Manhattan is that when Bill Snyder starts a sentence, Collin Klein can finish it. Although lately, it’s become more of a passing joke. Kansas State’s coach and quarterback are in total sync right now, one mind, as evident in the

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September 28, 2012 by justin in Featured Story

An editor’s son, an arrest, an article, an ethics issue

The rest of the story: A couple of weeks ago, Fred Van Liew, a former prosecutor, wrote a piece on the op-ed page of The Des Moines Register wringing his hands over the case of “a bright and engaging 17-year-old, a boy with so much promise…a nearly straight-A student a

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September 28, 2012 by justin in Food Dude

Exile on Walnut Street

EBC is already drawing people who want to show off Des Moines to outsiders. Their first two beers are dramatic. Hannah Weiss is a bubbly, unfiltered beer with deep spicy flavors. Betty Blonde is an all-American pilsner that refuses to be simple and boring like most such blondes. The menu

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September 28, 2012 by justin in Belly Up To...

Chicken Coop thrives in new Urbandale location

Thunderhead beer came into this world in very much the same way as the idea for the establishment that touts it — from Nebraska. The Chicken Coop originally hatched out of Kearney, Neb., and its second location came to West Des Moines in 2005. The third opened in Urbandale in

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September 28, 2012 by justin in Uncategorized

By Chad Taylor

soundcheck@dmcityview.com Abe Goldstein, host of Jazz at Caspe Terrace, has announced that this month’s performance will be cancelled. Shelia Jordan and Cameron Brown were scheduled to perform at the Waukee venue’s Bucksbaum Auditorium on Tuesday, Oct. 18. Unfortunately Jordan and Brown’s tour has been plagued with problems, which has resulted

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September 28, 2012 by justin in Uncategorized

By Chad Taylor

Trouble Lights ‘The Endless Prom’ Maximum Ames If you live in central Iowa and enjoy electro-pop, you had damn well already be familiar with Trouble Lights. With apologies to the Midwest’s other purveyors of dance floor pop, there’s nobody around doing it better than the Ames duo. The thing that

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September 28, 2012 by justin in The Sound

The Des Moines Symphony celebrates 75 years

soundcheck@dmcityview.com The Des Moines Symphony enjoys an important milestone this season: its 75th anniversary. “It means a lot to this organization and to the city,” said Sophia Ahmad, Director of Marketing and Public Relations. “Seventy-five years of continuous playing — coming out of the Great Depression, surviving a World War.”

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September 28, 2012 by justin in Sore Thumbs

By Matthew Scott Hunter

‘BORDERLANDS 2’ (M) ****1/2 2K Games Xbox 360 It’s been three years since we last explored the wastelands of Pandora, and what was once desolation is now teeming with quirky characters, savage beasts and an abundance of sweet, sweet loot. Like the first game, “Borderlands 2” is a first-person shooter/role-playing

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September 28, 2012 by justin in On The Tube

By Dean Robbins

Our terrorist in Washington ‘Homeland’ is just too silly to take seriously Everyone — including President Obama — has jumped on the bandwagon for “Homeland,” Showtime’s melodrama about a mentally ill CIA agent named Carrie (Claire Danes) on the trail of a brainwashed U.S. congressman (Damian Lewis) who’s secretly working

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