Posted January 30, 2013in Featured Story, Political Mercury
Congressman Bruce Braley admitted he had a hard act to follow. Iowa’s two U.S. senators, Tom Harkin and Charles Grassley, who were both sworn into Congress in 1975, celebrated their 10th presidential inauguration dating back to President Jimmy Carter, who was in attendance in Washington, D.C., last Monday as President
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Posted January 30, 2013in Civic Skinny, Featured Story
There have been four spectacular Democrats in Iowa in the past 50 years: Harold Hughes, Neal Smith, Tom Vilsack and Tom Harkin. Harold Hughes fathered the community-college system and liquor by the drink, fundamentally changing the state. Neal Smith provided Iowa with everything Mother Nature didn’t — lakes and greenways,
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Posted January 28, 2013in Featured Story, Iowa Watchdog
DES MOINES – Iowa leaders have yet to crack down on where and how welfare dollars are used, putting the state at risk of losing at least $6.6 million in federal dollars next year. States have until 2014 to find ways to police where welfare recipients make transactions under a
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Posted January 25, 2013in Featured Story, Iowa Watchdog
DES MOINES – Iowa’s teacher-preparation programs fail to produce graduates who are ready to lead a classroom, according to a new study that has quickly drawn criticism from some educators. The National Council on Teacher Quality released its “2012 State Teacher Policy Yearbook” this week, giving Iowa overall grades for
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Posted January 23, 2013in Featured Story, Food Dude
Andrew Meek makes a short list of people responsible for turning the local culinary scene into a source of civic pride. At the turn of millennium, Meek and John Ross’ Sage brought the public a level of service and fine dining that had only been available at private clubs. That
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Posted January 23, 2013in Featured Story, Political Mercury
Will Iowa Republicans in 2013 accept from first-term U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida what they wouldn’t from war-hero, political veteran John McCain in 2008? One could be speaking for the other on immigration, allowing, of course, for five years difference, and taking into account the Republican Party’s suicidal approach
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Posted January 23, 2013in Civic Skinny, Featured Story
No one is issuing any press releases, but the plan to move the downtown YMCA to the old convention center is all but a done deal. The money is pledged. By the time the convention complex is purchased and remodeled and an indoor, 50-meter pool and other facilities are added
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Posted January 16, 2013in Featured Story, Iowa Watchdog
DES MOINES – Iowa lawmakers oversee a budget of roughly $6 billion in state taxpayer money annually, whether it be providing health care for the needy or luring companies to the state with millions of dollars in tax breaks and loans. They set policy that affects everything from state’s economy
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Posted January 16, 2013in Featured Story, Food Dude
For Latino restaurants in Des Moines, the last 20 years brought the best of times and the worst of times. On the latter part of that Dickensian paradox, three different restaurants named Margarita’s have all come and gone. On the positive side, hard-working individuals have parlayed taco trucks and bare-boned
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Posted January 16, 2013in Featured Story, Political Mercury
What a delight to chronicle the story of Lillian Braden and her 12 brothers and seven sisters, all biological kids of Jans and Elizabeth Peters, German Lutheran immigrants who settled near Glidden in the early 1900s. Mrs. Braden passed away at the age of 92 earlier this month, the last
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