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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Posted November 05, 2014in Civic Skinny
Lawyer Jeff Stein withdrew his application to be executive director of the Iowa Public Information Board just in time. He was about to be booted off the list of four finalists after political aides from both parties alerted the board to the fact that Stein had twice had his law
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Posted October 29, 2014in Civic Skinny
Three years ago, John Pavone won a $10 million judgment against Gary Kirke. Now, Pavone is suing Kirke again, on the same issue. Pavone claimed — and the Iowa Supreme Court agreed — that in 2004 Kirke had agreed to negotiate a management agreement with Pavone for any casinos Kirke
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Posted October 22, 2014in Civic Skinny
The opening for police chief of Des Moines was posted on Friday, and since it’s a Civil Service job, it’s an elaborate process to choose a chief. There will be interviews and exams of a sort, and up to 40 names could be sent on to new city manager Scott
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Posted October 15, 2014in Civic Skinny
Some numbers: At the end of last week, there were 835 inmates in the Polk County jail. Of those, 128 had been in jail for less than a week — many for just one night as they awaited release following arrests for things like drunk driving or prostitution. But four
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Posted October 08, 2014in Civic Skinny
The United States Department of Labor is checking with some current and former Des Moines Register reporters to see if they were paid for all the hours they worked. The Department says it “can’t comment on ongoing investigations” — which sort of confirms there is an ongoing investigation. A former
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Posted October 06, 2014in Civic Skinny
The United States Department of Labor is checking with some current and former Des Moines Register reporters to see if they were paid for all the hours they worked. The Department says it “can’t comment on ongoing investigations” — which sort of confirms there is an ongoing investigation. A former
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Posted October 01, 2014in Civic Skinny
Randy Evans, the editor of the editorial pages of The Des Moines Register who has spent the better part of his life in the newsroom, is leaving the newspaper in December. Bryce Miller, the sports columnist and former sports editor for The Des Moines Register, also is leaving the newspaper.
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Posted September 24, 2014in Civic Skinny
The restructured Des Moines Register newsroom will “deliver much more,” Amalie Nash told the newspaper’s readers Tuesday, but the newspaper will be delivering that “much more” with much less. The staff is being cut by 16 percent — 18 positions. Nash, the top news executive at the newspaper, told Cityview
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Posted September 17, 2014in Civic Skinny
Unless something goes awry within the next few days, Scott Sanders soon will be the city manager of Des Moines. The council is going through the motions of another broad search to replace the retired Rick Clark — the first one failed this summer when Sean Stegall of Elgin, Illinois,
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