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Posted November 18, 2015in Civic Skinny

Chet Culver moves closer to a Congressional run.

Former Governor Chet Culver is getting closer to deciding to run for Congress in the Third Congressional District. He is looking at the numbers — the money numbers and the registration numbers — and lining up a staff. He is studying the issues and talking to longtime supporters. He is

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Posted November 11, 2015in Civic Skinny

Why the downtown Y still has no swimming pool.

He has sold the naming rights for $1 million. He has built the building that will house the Prairie Meadows Pool at the new $40 million Wellmark YMCA downtown. Now all Vernon Delpesce needs is the pool. But to get it, the chief executive of the YMCA of Greater Des

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Posted November 04, 2015in Civic Skinny

High court ponders: When is a meeting a meeting?

Is it a public meeting if the public officials don’t actually meet with one another? That sounds odd, but that’s the central question in an Iowa Supreme Court case that was argued last week. It’s not a simple issue — if it were, it probably wouldn’t be at the Supreme

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Posted October 28, 2015in Civic Skinny

Challenger Charleston sues Sheriff McCarthy again.

The bad blood between Sheriff Bill McCarthy and Dan Charleston is spilling over into court again. Charleston is a sergeant in the Polk County Sheriff’s Department. He ran against McCarthy in 2012 and was pretty well trounced, getting just 41.4 percent of the vote. He is running again next year.

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Posted October 21, 2015in Civic Skinny

Grassley snubs Klinefeldt. Rick Brown is leaving Register.

Nick Klinefeldt is the United States Attorney in Des Moines who is responsible for, among other things, going after drug dealers who violate federal law in this area. Charles Grassley is the Republican United States Senator from Iowa who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee and who is up for re-election

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Posted October 14, 2015in Civic Skinny

Jerry Crawford v. Doug Gross in court? Not this round.

It sounded too good to be true. And, alas, it was. The best show in town this fall could have been on Nov. 5 at Drake University, with lawyers Jerry Crawford and Doug Gross squaring off for the first time in a courtroom. Republican Gross and Democrat Crawford are old

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Posted October 07, 2015in Civic Skinny

No taxes are levied on $2.5 billion of Polk property.

The National Pork Producers is headquartered in a handsome building in Clive. It is assessed at $3,291,000. The Fraternal Order of Eagles has a 6,000-square-foot lodge on Bloomfield Road assessed at $308,000. The PEO has its national headquarters in two nice buildings at 37th Street and Grand Avenue in Des

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Posted September 30, 2015in Civic Skinny, Featured Story

Big payday set for Mell Meredith and Tom Meredith.

Mell Meredith and Tom Meredith — the two senior members of the founding family of Meredith Corp. — control Meredith stock that will be swapped for $182 million in cash as well as large stockholdings in the consolidated company after Meredith Corp. is purchased by Media General Inc. next year,

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Posted September 09, 2015in Civic Skinny, Featured Story

It’s final: Bubu Palo didn’t rape Hunter Elizabeth Breshears.

Iowa State University’s three-year fight against basketball player Bubu Palo ended last week in the Court of Appeals. Once again, Palo won. And, finally, the university is giving up. It let pass the deadline for filing a petition with the Iowa Supreme Court for further review. No matter what the

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Posted September 02, 2015in Civic Skinny, Featured Story

McCoy eyes John Mauro’s seat. Hagenow gets strong foe.

State Sen. Matt McCoy, who has decided not to seek the Democratic nomination for Congress from the Third District, now plans to run for Polk County Supervisor in three years when John Mauro’s term is up. He admires Mauro — “an excellent supervisor, a mentor and, more importantly, a friend”

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