Posted December 11, 2013in Civic Skinny
“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 nomination to run against Gov. Terry Branstad. She and the couple’s two young children figure prominently in the video. Perhaps
Read More →
Posted December 04, 2013in Civic Skinny
Were matters so out of hand in the U.S. Attorney’s office in Cedar Rapids three years ago that one lawyer there feared for her safety, feared that she might be shot by another lawyer there? And was her boss scared, too? When then-U.S. Attorney Stephanie Rose — now federal district
Read More →
Posted November 27, 2013in Civic Skinny
Your tax and tuition dollars at work: University of Iowa Music Professor Christine Getz will spend the fall semester next year in Milan, Italy, preparing “a critical edition with historical introduction and commentary of Andrea Cima’s II Secondo Libro Delli Concerti (1627)” and will also “investigate the relationship of the
Read More →
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
Read More →
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.
Read More →
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
Read More →
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
Read More →
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
Read More →
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
Read More →
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
Read More →
