Category Archives: Iowa Miscellaneous

Des Moines doesn’t charge for parking in the ramps or on the streets on weekends, which was a benefit for me. But part of that is going to change. Tonight, the Des Moines City Council will have the first of … Continue reading →

FiveThirtyEight looks at Howard County, the county in the nation with the largest presidential election swing, going from an Obama landslide to a Trump landslide. Howard County is on the edge/just outside of the Driftless Area, a region of the … Continue reading →

October 4, 2016: A 1959 trailer is on display at the Winnebago visitors center in Forest City. The center is where factory tours begin, but not where you’ll find the company’s top management anymore. Last year, as I finished visiting every … Continue reading →

Why, my second Gunderburger, of course. (The first was almost six years to the day earlier, supper before North Tama played Valley-CEW at the school between Elgin and Clermont.) September 12, 2017: Yes, inject that Midwestern-ness directly into my arteries.

June 20, 2017: The centerpiece of the Merle Hay monument in Glidden has artwork from “Ding” Darling. Click here for larger version. One hundred years ago today, Merle Hay of Glidden became the first Iowan and one of the first … Continue reading →

I’ve made a lot of blog posts and writeups about Iowa population and politics-adjacent issues, but the 2016 election brought forth a forehead-smacking-obvious postulate that eluded me until June*: If level of education becomes a political factor, Iowa’s “brain drain” … Continue reading →

Yesterday’s “Message Monday” from the Iowa DOT: If you don't get the message today – ask the nearest millennial. https://t.co/RnUAg8GpyS pic.twitter.com/GPSVXQ1WI9 — Iowa DOT (@iowadot) October 2, 2017

When I saw the copies at the Alumni Center, I thought what was there was either an insert or a mistake. But then I looked closer. An eight-page paper the same physical size as a Farm Bureau Spokesman, with four … Continue reading →

Iowa’s youngest “big three” network affiliate turns 50 years old today. KMEG Channel 14 in Sioux City, a CBS station, is the only such affiliate in Iowa on the UHF spectrum. The switch to digital has largely rendered the VHF/UHF … Continue reading →

The sprawl monster has 4,500 more acres of Iowa to feast on. A few months ago, Waukee added two huge tracts of land* and one smaller one in annexation procedures. The vast majority is undeveloped but that will change. A … Continue reading →