Posted April 23, 2014in Civic Skinny
The planned convention hotel near the Hy-Vee center downtown is a step closer to reality. Last week, Polk County completed the purchase of land where the hotel would go. The purchase of the old Allied Building and adjacent grounds was for $3,338,896. The seller was Des Moines Redevelopment Corp., a
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Posted April 16, 2014in Civic Skinny
First of all, the disclaimer. Just because a doctor gets oodles of money from Medicare doesn’t mean he takes it all to the bank. Doctors have to buy medicines, pay staffs, buy equipment and pay the rent, among other things. Doctors would really, really want Cityview to tell you that
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Posted April 08, 2014in Civic Skinny
Let’s say, just to make conversation, that you’re a pharmacist and that over four-and-a-half years you sold more than 700,000 highly addictive pills out the back door of your pharmacy. Let’s say you made a small fortune doing that — a minimum of nearly $1 million — and you added
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Posted April 02, 2014in Civic Skinny
Gov. Terry Branstad gave the labor people one more reason to be pissed at him the other day. He nominated former Fort Dodge Republican legislator Mike Cormack for the three-person Public Employment Relations Board, and he didn’t reappoint Jim Riordan, the Democrat who has chaired the board for 12 years.
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Posted March 19, 2014in Civic Skinny
Don’t be surprised if the undisclosed site of that data project being proposed for West Des Moines turns out to be the south part of Willow Creek Golf Course along Highway 5. And don’t be surprised if the company is Microsoft. … No one will confirm anything, but the Kum
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Posted March 12, 2014in Civic Skinny
Updates: But first, the news. It was just a couple of weeks ago, it seems, when we explained how Indianola sports broadcaster Marty Tirrell gets those tickets for big sports events that he then gives or sells to listeners and advertisers. He has a simple procedure: He stiffs the sellers.
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Posted March 05, 2014in Civic Skinny
The state commission that oversees Terrace Hill and the nonprofit group that raises money for the governor’s mansion have parted ways. It’s unclear who now owns and controls the valuable collection — art and furniture and artifacts — that the nonprofit group has collected, maintained and insured over the decades
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Posted February 26, 2014in Civic Skinny
How does the voluble Marty Tirrell pay for all those sports tickets that he gives to advertisers and listeners on his radio show? He doesn’t. He stiffs the sellers. That’s clear from reading documents in two federal court cases decided in Chicago in recent weeks. In each case, a ticket
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Posted February 19, 2014in Civic Skinny
Troy Bishop, the executive director of the Polk County Republicans, quit unexpectedly the other day, and in the story about it The Des Moines Register wrote: “The capable April Linder is filling in for now on organizing the March 8 county convention, party insiders told The Register.” Apart from the
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Posted February 12, 2014in Civic Skinny
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 future is unclear. “Since Bob passed away in 2010, it’s no secret that the museum lost its heart and passion,”
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