Posted September 04, 2024in Civic Skinny
The Des Moines City Council’s proposed ban on camping within city limits, which criminalizes encampments of the city’s homeless, has raised the ire of some citizens and has been delayed and amended several times. To recap, in June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that cities could ban people from sleeping
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Posted July 31, 2024in Civic Skinny
The salaries of state employees are public information, and, to the surprise of some and the unsurprise of others, coaches from Iowa’s three state universities continue to be some of the highest-paid state employees. The UNI men’s basketball Head Coach Ben Jacobsen has won more than 300 games with the
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Posted July 03, 2024in Civic Skinny
Des Moines’ Parks and Recreation system was ranked among the top 20 in the country, according to the Trust for Public Land’s (TPL) 2023 ParkScore, which compares 100 of the largest cities in the United States. Des Moines Parks and Recreation’s score improved by three points from 2023 to 2024,
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Posted June 05, 2024in Civic Skinny
RSM US LLP released its audit of Polk County for the year ending June 30, 2023. The financial report highlights the County’s revenues, which totaled $476,155,345, a 2% decrease from 2022. The decrease is primarily due to “$26.6 million in charges for services and $17.6 million decrease in operating grants
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Posted May 01, 2024in Civic Skinny
Connie Boesen began her term as mayor of Des Moines on Jan. 2, taking over for the city’s longest serving mayor, Frank Cownie. As a result, Boesen’s at-large seat on the city council needed to be filled. Five candidates — Dr. Claudia Addy, Benjamin Clarke, Justyn Lewis, Mike Simonson and
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Posted April 03, 2024in Civic Skinny
The citizens of Des Moines have some of the best work/life balance in the country, according to a study by CoworkingCafe.com. With the 32-hour work week proposed recently by Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and mentioned under hushed tones by office workers who are slacking off at water coolers, work/life balance
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Posted March 06, 2024in Civic Skinny
A recent study by innerbody.com ranked Des Moines 43rd in a list of the top 100 U.S cities with the highest sexually transmitted disease (STD) rates. The ranking came from the amount of STD cases per 100,000 people. Des Moines was listed as having 942 cases per 100,000. The report
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Posted January 31, 2024in Civic Skinny
For most of us, taking a “sabbatical” is veiled as a simple vacation. It is a nice break from work, if nothing else. However, the definition, at least according to the Oxford dictionary is, “a period of paid leave granted to a university teacher or other worker for study or
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Posted January 03, 2024in Civic Skinny
The IABD (Iowa Alcoholic Beverages Division) released its annual report for the 2023 fiscal year. It reported a total revenue of $478,259,852, which is a 3.34% increase from 2022. Unsurprisingly, $445,830,313 of that came from liquor sales. It appears many Iowans enjoy the Christmas spirits considering December had the highest
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Posted December 06, 2023in Civic Skinny
DART recently released information on how much Des Moines and the surrounding communities contribute to the public transportation service. They say a 40% cut to their services is looming if additional funding is not received. Des Moines has contributed $9.8 million this year, but under the new funding formula needs
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