Posted July 01, 2015in Civic Skinny
Dave Chivers, the new publisher of The Des Moines Register, has his work cut out for him. Audited figures show the newspaper’s slide in circulation is continuing unabated. In the [...]
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Posted June 17, 2015in Civic Skinny
Michael Gartner is on vacation. This column, about his father, ran in USA Today just before Father’s Day in 2006. My father never drove a car. Well, that’s not [...]
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Posted June 10, 2015in Civic Skinny
This slipped through the cracks: Marty Tirrell has lost his fight against Charles Gabus Motors. In April, after a nonjury trial, Polk County District Judge Douglas Staskal ordered the beleaguered [...]
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Posted June 03, 2015in Civic Skinny
Remember James Conlin’s lawsuit against the city on the pressing issue of wood windows vs. vinyl windows? Probably not. But how about this: Conlin has spent $100,000 in legal fees [...]
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Posted May 27, 2015in Civic Skinny
Jason Noble of The Des Moines Register wrote a first-rate story last week on the woes of the Central Iowa Expo in Boone. In it, he noted that between gubernatorial [...]
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Posted May 20, 2015in Civic Skinny
At least 232 trees planted in Des Moines by Frontline Lawn and Landscapes of Pleasant Hill have died, and the company has refused to replace them, the city said last [...]
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Posted May 13, 2015in Civic Skinny
Chet Culver is testing the waters. The former governor is checking with former aides and former donors with the idea of relaunching his political career, which came to an abrupt [...]
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Posted May 06, 2015in Civic Skinny
Your tax dollars at work: The cost to the state in defending the lawsuit filed by former Workers’ Compensation Director Chris Godfrey now tops $750,000. The state Executive Council this [...]
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Posted April 29, 2015in Civic Skinny
Some of his fellow Democrats are anonymously stabbing Matt McCoy in the back. Or maybe in the front. McCoy, the 49-year-old state senator who represents sections of Des Moines and [...]
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Posted April 22, 2015in Civic Skinny
Bob Brownell, the usually mild-mannered Republican Polk County supervisor, sent an intemperate email six weeks ago blistering Democratic legislator Tony Bisignano (“Senator Boozehound”) and plotting how to use a Bisignano-backed [...]
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