Posted January 14, 2015in Civic Skinny
Tom Vilsack is stepping back into Iowa politics. He has asked a couple of big hitters — Tim and Toni Urban and Fred and Charlotte Hubbell — to gather some other big contributors at the Urban house this Friday evening to “explore how to position the party for better results
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Posted January 07, 2015in Civic Skinny
Gov. Terry Branstad and his fellow defendants in the long and nasty harassment, discrimination, extortion, retaliation and defamation lawsuit filed by former Workers Compensation Director Chris Godfrey, want to turn the tables. If Godfrey wins, besides any damages he might be awarded he will in all likelihood recover from taxpayers
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Posted December 31, 2014in Civic Skinny
The year was 1925. Des Moines was booming; its population had soared to more than 125,000. It had 110 churches, 16 movie theaters and three vaudeville houses. Nine railroads served the city, and there were four passenger depots and eight freight depots. There were 172 barbers, five hat manufacturers,
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Posted December 24, 2014in Civic Skinny
Twelve drummers drumming… … for all those old folks well past 80 who still go to work every day — Bill Knapp and John Pappajohn and Stan Seidler and R.W. and Mary Nelson, among others — and who still keep this town running…and the bright younger ones, too: Zac
Read More →Remember Teresa Wagner? Probably not. Maybe this will help: She’s a Republican — an active, pro-life conservative — on the staff at the law school at the University of Iowa, which should narrow it down to one or two people. Wagner was, until the other day, associate director of the school’s
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Posted December 10, 2014in Civic Skinny
Beleaguered property owner Kirk Blunck denies it, but developers say he is trying to sell some of his properties in the East Village. At least two downtown developers say they got calls from him last week asking if they might be interested in buying one or more of his holdings.
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Posted December 03, 2014in Civic Skinny
The city fathers got together. The population of Des Moines had nearly doubled in just 20 years, to about 120,000, and the city needed a great hotel, they said. Des Moines already had 30 hotels, with 4,000 rooms, but most were down near the Rock Island and Union depots around
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Posted November 25, 2014in Civic Skinny
Your tax dollars at work: Lauren Rabinovitz, a professor of American Studies at the University of Iowa, will be taking a sabbatical next fall. She will use her paid leave to work on a book, “Thrill Ride Cinema,” a book that “argues the amusement park novelty of motion simulation rides
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Posted November 19, 2014in Civic Skinny
Six weeks before Dahl’s filed for protection under the bankruptcy laws this month, it quit paying its former chief executive the severance negotiated when he left the grocery chain earlier this year. And three weeks before the bankruptcy was filed, he sued. According to the suit filed Oct. 20 in
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Posted November 12, 2014in Civic Skinny
The gleaming new downtown Wellmark YMCA suddenly has a $6 million construction shortfall. It didn’t get some special federal tax credits that it was planning on and that its construction financing was based on. As a result, the planned Prairie Meadows Pool — the casino is paying $1,000,001 for naming
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