Posted October 14, 2015in Civic Skinny
It sounded too good to be true. And, alas, it was. The best show in town this fall could have been on Nov. 5 at Drake University, with lawyers Jerry Crawford and Doug Gross squaring off for the first time in a courtroom. Republican Gross and Democrat Crawford are old
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Posted October 07, 2015in Civic Skinny
The National Pork Producers is headquartered in a handsome building in Clive. It is assessed at $3,291,000. The Fraternal Order of Eagles has a 6,000-square-foot lodge on Bloomfield Road assessed at $308,000. The PEO has its national headquarters in two nice buildings at 37th Street and Grand Avenue in Des
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Posted September 30, 2015in Civic Skinny, Featured Story
Mell Meredith and Tom Meredith — the two senior members of the founding family of Meredith Corp. — control Meredith stock that will be swapped for $182 million in cash as well as large stockholdings in the consolidated company after Meredith Corp. is purchased by Media General Inc. next year,
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Posted September 09, 2015in Civic Skinny, Featured Story
Iowa State University’s three-year fight against basketball player Bubu Palo ended last week in the Court of Appeals. Once again, Palo won. And, finally, the university is giving up. It let pass the deadline for filing a petition with the Iowa Supreme Court for further review. No matter what the
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Posted September 02, 2015in Civic Skinny, Featured Story
State Sen. Matt McCoy, who has decided not to seek the Democratic nomination for Congress from the Third District, now plans to run for Polk County Supervisor in three years when John Mauro’s term is up. He admires Mauro — “an excellent supervisor, a mentor and, more importantly, a friend”
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Posted August 26, 2015in Civic Skinny
The widow of Paul Gray, the masked Slipknot bassist who died of a drug overdose five years ago, is suing a sort-of-well-known Des Moines artist she hired to help produce a book about Gray and stage an event about his life. The suit, filed Friday in federal district court in
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Posted August 19, 2015in Civic Skinny
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 year, the operator of two of the biggest casinos filed for protection under the bankruptcy laws — though that doesn’t
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Posted August 12, 2015in Civic Skinny
“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, a U.S. magistrate in Sioux City and the man whom Grassley proposed and President Barack Obama (much to the dismay
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Posted August 05, 2015in Civic Skinny
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 any to the libraries or the English departments or any other academic endeavors at the two big universities. The increases
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Posted July 29, 2015in Civic Skinny
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 not a good idea to drink 12 ounces of rum and then beat up your wife. And then get in
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