Archive for March 2004

In a rare act of defiance not seen since my teens, I plunged my shovel into a snowdrift in December 1995 and left it there. I had finally joined Iowa’s brain drain – mercifully, they …

Iowa needs more casinos like it needs an income-tax hike on senior citizens and low-income wage earners. Oh, wait, they amount to about the same thing, don’t they?

The Legislature has gotten itself into royal …

Having a child suddenly disappear is a parent’s worst nightmare.

With a product being offered by a West Des Moines startup company, a parent could make one call to turn over their child’s identifying information …

Exciting.

Talk to developers and investors who are renovating commercial spaces in the East Village, and that word comes up again and again.   

“It’s probably not a word I would have used five years …

If the Grow Iowa Values Fund had been put in place seven years ago, the state wouldn’t be in the budget crunch it is today, says Michael Blouin, director of the Iowa Department of Economic …

Laura Belin, a member of the Business Record’s fifth annual Forty Under 40 class, mentions almost as an afterthought her yearning for a restaurant in Greater Des Moines offering the fiery hot Ethiopian cuisine she’s …

New construction, slow absorption and low long-term mortgage interest rates luring first-time home buyers away from rental units are responsible for the highest vacancy rates recorded in the 34-year history of one Greater Des Moines …

Call it “Extreme Makeover – Hotel Edition.”

Soon, workers will apply sledgehammers to the walls of the Kirkwood Civic Center Hotel’s guest rooms to begin the makeover of the historic structure into a 63-unit apartment …

For the first time in about four years, there’s probably some excess supply in downtown parking, says Assistant City Manager Rick Clark.

Last week’s initial approval of plans by Employers Mutual Casualty Co. to build …

Jerry Foster, chief executive of the Foster Group, local financial management company, has written a book, “lifeFocus: Achieving a Life of Purpose and Influence.” Foster is a financial adviser and life coach.

“As I worked …