Posted January 16, 2013in Civic Skinny, Featured Story
Iowa Secretary of State Matt Schultz, who is turning over every rock and checking every driver’s license and database in his search for persons who are voting illegally, is on his website advising tens of thousands of disenfranchised Iowans that it’s OK if they vote. Huh? Let’s say you are
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Posted January 10, 2013in Featured Story, Iowa Watchdog
DES MOINES – Iowa’s pension fund for police officers lost $7.3 million in investment returns last fiscal year, a newly released report from the state auditor’s office shows. The Peace Officers’ Retirement, Accident and Disability pension system, which is partially propped up by taxpayer dollars, has an unfunded liability of
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Posted January 09, 2013in Featured Story, Iowa Watchdog
DES MOINES — Iowa lawmakers and taxpayers have no way of knowing where and how welfare recipients spend roughly $100 million a year in federal and state money. Federal banking laws prohibit state officials from obtaining transactions made on EBT — Electronic Benefit Transfer — cards issued to welfare recipients, according to
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Posted January 09, 2013in Featured Story, Food Dude
In greater Des Moines, new national chain restaurants debut amidst a barrage of hype. Openings last year of Twin Peaks, Whole Foods and Chick-fil-A became publicity circuses attracting campers and live television news reports. Even smaller Iowa companies like Pizza Ranch and The Other Place attracted huge crowds here from
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Posted January 09, 2013in Featured Story, Political Mercury
State Sen.-elect Mark Segebart, a Vail Republican who will represent a wide swath of western Iowa starting next week, says the purpose of the Second Amendment is to empower Americans to protect themselves from tyranny. “It’s really why we have a Second Amendment,” Segebart said in an interview. “It wasn’t
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Posted January 09, 2013in Civic Skinny, Featured Story
Circulation of the Sunday and daily Des Moines Register has fallen more than 7 percent in the past year, the newspapers’ audit reports show. The drops accelerated after June 1, when the newspapers raised subscription prices by more than 30 percent and forced print customers to pay for digital access
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Posted January 04, 2013in Featured Story, Iowa Watchdog
DES MOINES – Want a job that fully covers health premiums? How about one that pays more money if you work a later shift? And provides stipends for clothes and shoes? And what about work that gives pay raises of as much as 15 percent even as other companies slash
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Posted January 02, 2013in Featured Story, Political Mercury
It’s the National Rifle Association’s Big Solution. And Iowa Department of Education Director Jason Glass says it’s an idea worth considering. We are talking about armed guards in our schools. Glass is right. Armed guards are worth considering. We should make one major stipulation, though. Any armed guards in Iowa’s
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Posted January 02, 2013in Civic Skinny, Featured Story
Hell hath no fury like a lawyer scorned. The Iowa Supreme Court last week ruled — unanimously — that a Fort Dodge dentist did not unlawfully discriminate against his dental assistant when he fired her because his wife felt the attractive younger woman posed a threat to their marriage. There
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Posted January 02, 2013in Featured Story, Food Dude
In this post-New Year’s season of diets, resolutions and purges, even a meat-eating sinner such as I figured it was time to try out New World Café, Des Moines’ first all vegan restaurant. What’s that? Vegans avoid eating all the things that vegetarians refrain from eating plus any foods derived
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