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Posted July 03, 2013in Civic Skinny

GOP’s Linder is a thief, but how tall is she?

April Gayle Linder is a member of the Polk County GOP leadership team. She is an executive committee member for the group. She serves on the planning committee for Polk County GOP fundraisers, which is kind of interesting. And, according to Will Rogers, Polk County GOP Chair, “Her political experience

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Posted June 26, 2013in Civic Skinny

Branstad, TV stations play with the numbers.

Before Terry Branstad got to the real news on Iowa Press the other day — the sigh-of-relief-news that Floppy won’t be in the Historical Building’s doghouse for too long — he said: “We’ve created over 100,000 jobs” since retaking Terrace Hill in January of 2011. The Des Moines Register’s Kathy

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Posted June 19, 2013in Civic Skinny

State legal fees hit $460,000 in Godfrey case

When last we left Christopher Godfrey, the only openly gay department head in the Branstad administration, he was toiling away as head of the state Workers’ Compensation office, though he had taken a pay cut of nearly $40,000. When last we left Terry Branstad, he was trying his damnedest to

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Posted June 12, 2013in Civic Skinny

Register circulation plummets (again). GOP ‘tickle pickle.’ Luebke is in prison.

Circulation at The Des Moines Register is in a free-fall. Far fewer people are buying the print edition, where subscribers are also forced to pay for the electronic edition whether they want it or not. And — now that it costs money — far fewer people are browsing the electronic

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Posted June 05, 2013in Civic Skinny

Where’s Aikman? Toyota sues Tirrell

Remember when Marty Tirrell brought Troy Aikman to town a year or so ago to do promotional appearances for Toyota of Des Moines? No? Neither does Toyota of Des Moines. So it would like it if Tirrell would return the $79,284 the company says in court papers that it gave

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Posted May 29, 2013in Civic Skinny

IPR board plotted Herrington exit before vote

Despite a precautionary email from a member of the board of Iowa Public Radio, the board leadership was working out the details of firing chief executive Mary Grace Herrington before the seven directors voted to oust her in February. And for at least a week they were trying to figure

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Posted May 22, 2013in Civic Skinny

Legal bills for IPR. Speaker Cownie?

The Des Moines Register is advertising for a new publisher, but apparently not in The Des Moines Register. An ad on www.linkedin.com seeks a president and publisher for the Register who would be “responsible for operational, strategic and financial success of Register Media and for establishing a culture of success.”

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Posted May 15, 2013in Civic Skinny

Leach is leaving; Appel is re-reconsidering;

No one seems to have noticed, but Jim Leach has resigned as head of the National Endowment for the Humanities, a job he has held since August of 2009. Leach, a Republican, served 30 years in Congress from eastern Iowa before he was upset by Dave Loebsack in 2006. Two

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Posted May 08, 2013in Civic Skinny, Featured Story

Changes at Channel 8. Lawsuits. A dress code.

No shoes, no shirt, no paycheck: There will be a dress code for Des Moines Register workers after they move to Capital Square next month. They’re being told about it at meetings this week. Laura Hollingsworth will continue to oversee the Register from her new job as publisher of The

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Posted May 01, 2013in Civic Skinny, Featured Story

Judge Bennett calls a litigant a jerk;

Edward P. Hagen is an obstetrician who practiced in Sioux City with Siouxland Obstetrics and Gynecology, P.C. from 1993 until November of 2009, when he was fired by his three partners. In May of 2011, he sued his former partners in federal court in Sioux City, charging everything from fraud

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