Posted December 03, 2025in Civic Skinny
Elections were in full swing across the nation and Iowa in November. City council seats were up for grabs, with one race finishing incredibly close, and school board elections were interesting once again. But who is donating to these campaigns? And how much? Three Des Moines city council elections took
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Posted November 05, 2025in Civic Skinny
Each November, we take a look at some of the highest salaries among nonprofit organization employees in the state of Iowa. Using candid.org, we sort by the highest-grossing nonprofits in the area and review their most recent 990 tax form. Here are the largest salaries we found: Prairie Meadows Race
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Posted October 01, 2025in Civic Skinny
Ever wonder who buys those $3 million homes? Wonder no more. Here are six homes with some of the highest sale prices we found this year. Two sold for $3 million. Two were in West Des Moines. Two were in Johnston. One was in Clive. One was in Urbandale. But,
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Posted September 03, 2025in Civic Skinny
The theme at the Iowa State Fair this year was Fair Sweet Fair, and the grandstand concert attendance was sweet, indeed. The 131,616 attendees for 2025 broke the previous record of 128,504 set in 2019. Megan Moroney’s performance on Saturday, Aug. 16, drew the largest crowd at 16,371. T-Pain was
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Posted August 06, 2025in Civic Skinny
University coaches are often the highest-paid state employees, which is true in Iowa. For example, the University of Iowa’s head football coach, Kirk Ferentz, is compensated $7 million a year before bonuses and incentives, making him the state’s highest-paid employee. Iowa State University’s head football coach, Matt Campbell, makes $4
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Posted July 02, 2025in Civic Skinny
Park place. Des Moines continues to be a solid destination for those looking to live within walking distance to a park. According to Trust for Public Land (TPL), a national nonprofit that helps create parks and protect public land, 75% of Des Moines residents live within a 10-minute walk to
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Posted June 04, 2025in Civic Skinny
Ever wonder how — or if — our elected officials are dealing with Artificial Intelligence and how they are juggling the risks and benefits for their constituents? The National Conference of State Legislatures recently released a tool showing Artificial Intelligence legislation by state. In 2025, 48 states and Puerto
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Posted April 30, 2025in Civic Skinny
In the aftermath of March Madness, the Wall Street Journal released a ranking of the most valuable NCAA college basketball teams. As you may expect, two of the sports’ most dominant, blue blood programs — the University of North Carolina and Duke University — grossly outrank the rest, each eclipsing
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Posted April 02, 2025in Civic Skinny
Iowa is the only state in the union that has not seen its population double since 1900. Don’t expect that to be part of our state’s economic development marketing campaign anytime soon, but it is true, according to the Iowa Chamber Alliance Talent Poll. In 1900, Iowa’s population was 2.2
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Posted March 05, 2025in Civic Skinny, Just Released
Starving artists? Maybe not. The Iowa Cultural Coalition (ICC) released a report on the state of Iowa’s creative sector, which includes nonprofit and for-profit participants ranging from museums, theaters and performing arts centers to independent artists, directors, live music venues, galleries, dance studios, filmmakers and design firms. Venues, event organizers,
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