Gambling at Iowa casinos levels off — at a high number.
Has gambling topped out in Iowa? It looks like it. Revenue of the casinos regulated by the state has been more-or-less level for the past seven years. And earlier this [...]
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Posted August 19, 2015in Civic Skinny
Posted August 12, 2015in Civic Skinny
Oops: Grassley’s judge pick for Iowa lives in South Dakota.
“Iowan Leonard Strand Nominated for Federal Judgeship,” said the headline on the press release issued the other day by the office of Sen. Chuck Grassley. Well, not quite. Leonard Strand, [...]
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Posted August 05, 2015in Civic Skinny
The rich get richer: Iowa, Iowa State sports money soars.
Money continues to pour into the athletic departments at the University of Iowa and Iowa State University. And the departments continue to find ways to spend it — without shipping [...]
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Posted July 29, 2015in Civic Skinny
Wife-beating charge could complicate plea deal in Sorenson case. Grassley’s money. And Juice.
If you’re awaiting sentencing on federal charges that could send you to prison for up to 25 years but hoping you can cut a deal for lesser time, it’s probably [...]
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Posted July 22, 2015in Civic Skinny
Gronstal joins Clarinda suit; 1973 ruling unearthed.
Four more legislators — including powerful Senate leader Mike Gronstal — have joined the suit challenging Gov. Terry Branstad’s decision to close the mental health institutes at Clarinda and Mount [...]
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Posted July 15, 2015in Civic Skinny
Who will make what in the city and county this year.
Ninety-two of the 1,191 full-time employees of Polk County will make $100,000 or more in the fiscal year that started July 1. And 102 of the 1,555 employees of the City [...]
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Posted July 08, 2015in Civic Skinny
AFSCME will sue Branstad for closing Clarinda facility.
The state’s largest public-employee union certainly will sue Gov. Terry Branstad for vetoing the legislature’s attempt to keep open the mental-health facility in Clarinda — if, indeed, the suit hasn’t [...]
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Posted July 01, 2015in Civic Skinny
Register circulation drops again. Klinefeldt won’t run.
Dave Chivers, the new publisher of The Des Moines Register, has his work cut out for him. Audited figures show the newspaper’s slide in circulation is continuing unabated. In the [...]
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Posted June 17, 2015in Civic Skinny
Happy Father’s Day. A dad who lived to be 102 tells his son the secret to a long life: No left turns
Michael Gartner is on vacation. This column, about his father, ran in USA Today just before Father’s Day in 2006. My father never drove a car. Well, that’s not [...]
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Posted June 10, 2015in Civic Skinny
Gabus Motors gets $72,500 judgment against Marty Tirrell.
This slipped through the cracks: Marty Tirrell has lost his fight against Charles Gabus Motors. In April, after a nonjury trial, Polk County District Judge Douglas Staskal ordered the beleaguered [...]
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