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Posted February 12, 2014in Civic Skinny

Are days numbered for the Bob Feller Museum? College president blasts colleague. More on Bubu.

The Bob Feller Museum in Van Meter is in danger of folding. It is closed for the winter and it hopes to reopen by Opening Day this spring, but the [...]

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Posted February 05, 2014in Civic Skinny

Knapp, Cownie and Rastetter gave big in 2013. Zaun, once a deadbeat, says U.S. should pay bills.

How much money do big hitters give to state candidates in a year? Last year — not an election year for statewide candidates — Jim Cownie gave $89,850, Bill Knapp [...]

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Posted January 29, 2014in Civic Skinny

Regent appeal in Palo case done without a vote. Mike Gronstal throws Jack Hatch under the bus.

The Board of Regents late Wednesday asked the Iowa Supreme Court to intervene in the case involving Iowa State University basketball player Yempabou Palo. The action was taken without a [...]

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Posted January 22, 2014in Civic Skinny

Bubu’s plight: It’s about justice, not basketball.

Consider the odd case of Bubu Palo and university justice. Bubu Palo was, or maybe is, a basketball player at Iowa State. He went to Ames High School, and he [...]

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Posted January 15, 2014in Civic Skinny

Register’s circulation plummets. WHO drops Deace. Chiodo takes on Bisignano in south-side shoot-out.

Rick Green, The Des Moines Register’s new publisher, has his work cut out for him. The latest audited figures show a continued steep drop in the circulation of the print [...]

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Posted January 08, 2014in Civic Skinny

Franchise-fee lawyers appeal for more fees. John Deeth is funny. Godfrey will get his day.

The lawyers who beat the city in the franchise-fee case aren’t satisfied with their $7 million in fees awarded by Polk County District Judge Joel Novak. On the day after [...]

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Posted December 31, 2013in Civic Skinny

Rick Clark to resign as city manager

Des Moines City Manager Rick Clark will retire later this year and move to the Cleveland area, where his wife, Mary Grace Herrington, has taken a job in public broadcasting. [...]

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Posted December 26, 2013in Civic Skinny

The suddenly open Congressional seat. More woe for Tirrell. Tom Miller and gays.

Here’s an astounding fact: The last time there was a Congressional race in Polk County without an incumbent seeking re-election was in 1940. GOP Rep. Cassius Dowell, a Des Moines [...]

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Posted December 18, 2013in Civic Skinny

Merry Christmas, one and all…

Twelve drummers drumming… …oh so vigorously for Phil Dorweiler and his many Kirke in-laws, especially Bob and Laurel…loud enough to be heard through vinyl windows for James and Roxanne Conlin…to [...]

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Posted December 11, 2013in Civic Skinny

Tyler Olson flounders. Nigerian scam works. Tirrell owes $96,656. Field of Nightmares?

“What I’ve always really most admired about Tyler is he’s a family guy,” Tyler Olson’s wife, Sarah, says in a campaign video supporting her husband’s effort to get the Democratic [...]

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