Category Archives: Iowa Miscellaneous

Apr 27

Kossuth County Area Schools and Rural Iowa’s Population Collapse

Posted on Saturday, April 27, 2013, at 7:41 PM by Jeff

As population and school enrollments in rural Iowa keep shrinking, many districts are finding it increasing difficult to stay afloat. One place this change is keenly being felt is in north-central Iowa. Rather than make this essay a blog post, … Continue reading →

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Apr 19

Mmm…pi

Posted on Friday, April 19, 2013, at 10:20 AM by Jeff

Des Moines got a record 3.14 inches of rain for April 17 on Wednesday. To add a little perspective on this, its wettest April day ever was April 28, 1974 with 3.8 inches.

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Apr 12

Getting wetter

Posted on Friday, April 12, 2013, at 2:44 PM by Jeff

Much of Tama County has now been upgraded to “abnormally dry” while farther east, the drought is “over” inasmuch as there are “normal conditions.” This week’s rain will shrink the red and orange areas even more.

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Apr 12

142 Addisons, 103 Bentleys(?!), 67 Jaxons, 60 Nevaehs, 33 Makennas

Posted on Friday, April 12, 2013, at 1:18 AM by Jeff

…and only five Melissas and five Jeffreys were born in Iowa in 2011. A bunch of other names in the Class of 2000 were also in single digits.

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Apr 10

April in Iowa, continued

Posted on Wednesday, April 10, 2013, at 1:03 AM by Jeff

At 6 PM Tuesday, Remsen was simultaneously under a severe thunderstorm warning, ice storm warning, and winter storm watch. The Register has more coverage of the weird weather. Thursday’s forecast has shifted to that most unpleasant of conditions, “wintry mix”.

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Apr 08

April in Iowa

Posted on Monday, April 8, 2013, at 12:13 PM by Jeff

Perfect sense. Remember, winter isn’t over until the second weekend of April.  

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Apr 06

Everything except an Olive Garden

Posted on Saturday, April 6, 2013, at 1:57 PM by Jeff

Altoona is currently in the midst of opening up a subdivision called Tuscan Estates — “a quiet country oasis”. (City regulation PDF) The development is near subdivisions or subsets of the subdivision called Tuscany and Tuscany Villas on, what else, Tuscany … Continue reading →

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Apr 02

What is it with all these special elections?

Posted on Tuesday, April 2, 2013, at 1:14 PM by Jeff

On the first Tuesday after the first Monday (unless noted), Iowa looooves special elections this year. The Secretary of State lists seven allowable scheduled dates, and that doesn’t include votes that must be held within a certain number of days … Continue reading →

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Mar 13

Periods. Do. Not. Go. In. Phone. Numbers.

Posted on Wednesday, March 13, 2013, at 11:39 AM by Jeff

Attention Iowa Legislature: Please stop doing that. The proper style is with dashes, and preferably parentheses for area codes, no matter how many advertisements appear otherwise. Periods aren’t supposed to be used for dates, either, USA Today redesign notwithstanding. It is not … Continue reading →

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Mar 11

2012 RAGBRAI map out

Posted on Monday, March 11, 2013, at 12:46 PM by Jeff

Available as a PDF from the Register’s web site. Historical route notes based on my research: This will be RAGBRAI’s first visit to West Des Moines. The closest it has been was 2004, when the overnight town was Waukee and riders … Continue reading →

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