Posted November 20, 2013in Civic Skinny
There’s still a multi-million-dollar shortfall in the financing scheme for a new convention hotel near Hy-Vee Hall, but the gap will close and a 450-room hotel definitely will be built, public officials and private business leaders say. They say the two finalists are proposals from developers and contractors Weitz of
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Posted November 13, 2013in Civic Skinny
Life’s backstage dramas: In a lovely little ceremony, The REACH program at the University of Iowa on Thursday named a suite of offices after former Lt. Gov. Sally Pederson, who was instrumental in getting the university to launch the program for students with autism, Down’s Syndrome and other intellectual challenges.
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Posted November 06, 2013in Civic Skinny
Why would Bill Knapp back Terry Branstad for governor? Bill Knapp — who spent what a less-rich man would call a fortune in trying to get Branstad out of office for a generation or two. Bill Knapp — who is the first guy Democrats call on when they’re thinking of
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Posted October 30, 2013in Civic Skinny
The fact-checker: No. 1. “More Iowans are working now than at any point in our state’s history,” Tim Albrecht, Gov. Terry Branstad’s communications director, said the other day. Not really. At latest report, nonfarm employment in Iowa was 1,518,200. According to the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, in May of
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Posted October 23, 2013in Civic Skinny
Republican Congressman Tom Latham has raised close to $1 million in his effort to keep the seat he won last year when he moved into Iowa’s newly designed Third Congressional District. His opponent, Democrat Staci Appel, has raised a bit more than $250,000, according to reports filed the other day
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Posted October 16, 2013in Civic Skinny
That lawsuit filed last week by Betty and Richard Odgaard against the Iowa Civil Rights Commission is bringing out the worst in some people. And not just the Odgaards. The Odgaards run The Gortz Haus Gallery in a former church in Grimes. The gallery sells art and gifts and runs
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Posted October 09, 2013in Civic Skinny
The resignation of Republican Kent Sorenson and the arrest of Democrat Tony Bisignano last week are screwing things up for both political parties in central Iowa. First, Sorenson: He resigned under pressure Wednesday after special investigator Mark Weinhardt reported to the Senate Ethics Committee that Sorenson probably broke ethics rules
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Posted October 02, 2013in Civic Skinny
Some questions apparently aren’t as easy as they look. On Aug. 9 — that’s seven weeks ago — Cityview asked the office of Gov. Terry Branstad whether he knew in advance of a bonus and big deferred-pay package that the Board of Regents gave its executive director, Bob Donley, a
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Posted September 25, 2013in Civic Skinny
WHO…. …is teaching your children at the state universities? Not necessarily the faculty. At the University of Iowa, only 45 percent of total undergraduate student credit hours were taught by tenured and tenure-track faculty in the fall of 2012, the latest period for which there are figures. Non-tenure-track faculty —
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Posted September 18, 2013in Civic Skinny
Kay Runge is resigning as chairwoman of the board of Iowa Public Radio and is leaving the organization, and the other two remaining original board members — Art Neu and Warren Madden — also are leaving at the end of the month. Two former Republican legislators will join the seven-person
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