Posted March 05, 2014in Civic Skinny
The state commission that oversees Terrace Hill and the nonprofit group that raises money for the governor’s mansion have parted ways. It’s unclear who now owns and controls the valuable collection — art and furniture and artifacts — that the nonprofit group has collected, maintained and insured over the decades
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Posted February 26, 2014in Civic Skinny
How does the voluble Marty Tirrell pay for all those sports tickets that he gives to advertisers and listeners on his radio show? He doesn’t. He stiffs the sellers. That’s clear from reading documents in two federal court cases decided in Chicago in recent weeks. In each case, a ticket
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Posted February 19, 2014in Civic Skinny
Troy Bishop, the executive director of the Polk County Republicans, quit unexpectedly the other day, and in the story about it The Des Moines Register wrote: “The capable April Linder is filling in for now on organizing the March 8 county convention, party insiders told The Register.” Apart from the
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Posted February 12, 2014in Civic Skinny
The Bob Feller Museum in Van Meter is in danger of folding. It is closed for the winter and it hopes to reopen by Opening Day this spring, but the future is unclear. “Since Bob passed away in 2010, it’s no secret that the museum lost its heart and passion,”
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Posted February 05, 2014in Civic Skinny
How much money do big hitters give to state candidates in a year? Last year — not an election year for statewide candidates — Jim Cownie gave $89,850, Bill Knapp gave $78,900 and Bruce Rastetter gave $71,150.32, according to newly released figures from the Iowa Campaign and Ethics Commission. This
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Posted January 29, 2014in Civic Skinny
The Board of Regents late Wednesday asked the Iowa Supreme Court to intervene in the case involving Iowa State University basketball player Yempabou Palo. The action was taken without a meeting of the board, without a vote of the board, and apparently without discussion by the board. So who made
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Posted January 22, 2014in Civic Skinny
Consider the odd case of Bubu Palo and university justice. Bubu Palo was, or maybe is, a basketball player at Iowa State. He went to Ames High School, and he is a good student and a good athlete. On Sept. 18, 2012, the Story County Attorney charged Palo with sexual
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Posted January 15, 2014in Civic Skinny
Rick Green, The Des Moines Register’s new publisher, has his work cut out for him. The latest audited figures show a continued steep drop in the circulation of the print editions of the Sunday and weekday newspapers. They also show a significant decline in online readership. The report, for the
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Posted January 08, 2014in Civic Skinny
The lawyers who beat the city in the franchise-fee case aren’t satisfied with their $7 million in fees awarded by Polk County District Judge Joel Novak. On the day after Christmas, the last day possible to file an appeal, Brad Schroder, Bruce Stoltze and Steven Brick went back to court,
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Posted December 31, 2013in Civic Skinny
Des Moines City Manager Rick Clark will retire later this year and move to the Cleveland area, where his wife, Mary Grace Herrington, has taken a job in public broadcasting. It will be a homecoming of sorts for Clark, who was born in Cleveland. Clark has spent almost his entire
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