Posted March 08, 2013in Featured Story, Iowa Watchdog
DES MOINES – New legislation introduced by the Iowa Department of Human Services would bar welfare recipients from using the taxpayer money they receive at strip clubs, bars and casinos and make the misuse a fraudulent act. But it fails to address how the department plans to enforce the proposed law
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Posted March 06, 2013in Featured Story, Political Mercury
Congressman Steve King — not a person one usually associates with Shakespeare in word games — is playing a convincing Hamlet with his teasing and toying over a possible bid for the U.S. Senate. The Kiron politician is the Republican keeping other Republicans in a holding pattern. The rest of
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Posted March 06, 2013in Civic Skinny, Featured Story
Maybe the board of Iowa Public Radio could have screwed things up more when it met and fired IPR chief executive Mary Grace Herrington last week, but it’s hard to see how. As starters, it was an illegal meeting. As enders, one of the seven directors broke a confidentiality agreement
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Posted March 06, 2013in Featured Story, Food Dude
Not too many years ago, Des Moines scrapped its motto “the surprising place.” At the time, people complained that outsiders would swallow it with a spoonful of sarcasm. In the culinary realm, it’s been a long battle to convince national, even regional, media that we have surprising things to offer
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Posted February 27, 2013in Civic Skinny, Featured Story
Marty Tirrell, the very loud sports-radio guy, is suing the owners of Toyota of Des Moines, the car dealership that housed his radio show on 1700 AM. He says his deal was supposed to run through 2014 but that on Nov. 2 the dealership’s lawyer sent him a letter canceling
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Posted February 27, 2013in Featured Story, Political Mercury
The thing about a bully is, nobody expects the bullied to win the fight — they just want to see some fight. So let’s say you’re on the school bus, a squirmy, gangly, pimple-faced seventh-grader so uncomfortable with talking to girls that you run from animated female characters when playing
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Posted February 27, 2013in Featured Story, Food Dude
With federal financial aid, C Fresh Market opened recently on University. Besides bringing a supermarket to an underserved part of the inner city, it fills several niches in the city’s appetite for exotic foods and bargains. Reminiscent of the Ranch 99 chain in California, the store’s fresh fish section provides
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Posted February 26, 2013in Featured Story, Iowa Watchdog
DES MOINES – Members of an Iowa board charged with doling out millions to lure business to the state often work for companies that benefit from the incentive programs they oversee, an Iowa Watchdog review shows. Additionally, Iowa Economic Development Authority board members donated thousands of dollars to political campaigns,
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Posted February 20, 2013in Civic Skinny, Featured Story
Democrats say former legislator Swati Dandekar is looking at running for Congress in the First District. She didn’t respond to Cityview’s query, but if she is running she’ll be a formidable candidate next year to fill the seat being vacated by Senate-hopeful Bruce Braley. But she’ll have to win a
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Posted February 20, 2013in Featured Story, Food Dude
During the four decades I’ve been writing about the local food scene, a few new places brought transformational upgrades to Des Moines. The all-prime 801 Steak and Chop House saved downtown dining. Bistro 43 precipitated a rebirth of fresh, seasonal and local menus. South Union and Basil Prosperi bakeries gave
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