Archive

Dear Mr. Berko:

Some months ago, you stupidly recommended Abercrombie & Fitch Co. when it was trading at $29, and now it’s $26. I’d like to know how you could make such an obviously stupid …

In my 30 years of sales training, nothing has frustrated me more than the pathetic questions salespeople ask.

“Who are you using right now?” “How are they treating you?” “Do you have a contract?”

“When …

Mel Pins says he’s cleared away acres of tires during his tenure as an environmental specialist for the Energy and Waste Management Bureau of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

He coordinates the state’s waste-tire …

Cedar Rapids-based McLeodUSA Inc., which is traded on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the symbol MCLD, recently announced its plans to start providing Voice Over IP technology, beginning in June to its business customers and …

F. Scott Fitzgerald once wrote, “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.”

We admit …

Ames missed an opportunity last week to profit from Iowa City’s mistakes. (Hint for warring Cyclone and Hawkeye factions: This column has nothing to do with athletes and coaches of questionable character and everything to …

A week before the Iowa caucuses, Tom Miller was stumping for Sen. John Kerry at a press conference held outside the Capitol. Though the temperature was around freezing, Miller did not wear an overcoat and …

Schaffer’s Bridal & Formal Shop, which for more than a half-century has dressed thousands of Central Iowa women and girls for the biggest celebrations of their lives, on Wednesday will enter the riskiest period of …

When Snyder & Associates Inc. bids on engineering projects, it’s often competing with firms based in Chicago, St. Paul, Omaha and other larger cities.

If the Ankeny-based consuting engineering firm had to begin charging Iowa …

When Civic Center of Greater Des Moines President and CEO Jeff Chelesvig entertains a growing list of out-of-town producers trying to understand the phenomenal long run of “Triple Espresso” in Des Moines, he takes them …