Posted March 13, 2013in Civic Skinny, Featured Story
Cityview: “Dear [Rep. Josh] Byrnes. I write a column in Cityview, which sometimes is about politics. I’m told that you have told a few of your colleagues that you are considering switching parties. Is that so? And if so, why?” Rep. Byrnes: “I have a feeling something was taken out
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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 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 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 13, 2013in Civic Skinny, Featured Story
More on the fallout from Tom Harkin’s decision not to run again in 2014. It’s becoming more and more clear there will be primaries in both parties as state politicians eye the First District Congressional seat that Bruce Braley will vacate as he seeks Harkin’s seat. And it’s becoming more
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Posted February 06, 2013in Civic Skinny, Featured Story
When the rich and the powerful get pissed off (continued): When last we left the great vinyl-window-vs.-wood-window dispute, James and Roxanne Conlin had hired Doug Gross — yeah, that’s pretty interesting in itself — to sue the City of Des Moines over the weighty issue of whether the Conlins can
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Posted January 30, 2013in Civic Skinny, Featured Story
There have been four spectacular Democrats in Iowa in the past 50 years: Harold Hughes, Neal Smith, Tom Vilsack and Tom Harkin. Harold Hughes fathered the community-college system and liquor by the drink, fundamentally changing the state. Neal Smith provided Iowa with everything Mother Nature didn’t — lakes and greenways,
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Posted January 23, 2013in Civic Skinny, Featured Story
No one is issuing any press releases, but the plan to move the downtown YMCA to the old convention center is all but a done deal. The money is pledged. By the time the convention complex is purchased and remodeled and an indoor, 50-meter pool and other facilities are added
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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 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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