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NOTEBOOK: We used to hunt mammoths. Now we hunt housing (and parking)

Small-town living has ruined apartment hunting for me. 

Life before Des Moines was a matter of checking one local renter’s guide and getting to know the coffee shop regulars on Main Street. If it wasn’t …

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NOTEBOOK: Going Out to Lunch?

In one of the surest signs yet that winter really has given up and we can make summer plans, an expanded Out to Lunch series begins May 23 downtown. These events, which will be around …

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NOTEBOOK: 2,000 school board members

Teachers usually get the thanks for their many hours and tireless work with students.

But the Iowa Association of School Boards and its executive director, Lisa Bartusek, want to remind us that May is School …

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A Closer Look: Mike Naig

Mike Naig took over as Iowa agriculture secretary as his boss and mentor, Bill Northey, emerged from a colorful confirmation period and took his new job as U.S. secretary of agriculture. Naig settled into his …

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NOTEBOOK: Credit union opening is another sign of vigor in rehabbed center

A groundbreaking set for Thursday in Urbandale is noteworthy for a couple of reasons: A Greater Des Moines business is growing and its growth is occurring in a once dowdy retail center that is coming …

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UnitedHealth Group’s doing wonderfully — and Wellmark is having a better year, too

When I saw recently that the nation’s largest health insurer, UnitedHealth Group, reported a 25 percent increase in shareholder earnings to $10.56 billion in 2017 and added about 1.1 million additional policyholders nationally, it made…
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University Research: Creating and preserving reputation and trust

OVERVIEW
In October 2017, Japan’s Kobe Steel, a company with more than a century of reputation on the line, admitted that it had falsified data to show some of its copper, aluminum and steel products …

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University Research: Wind turbines alter crop field climate

OVERVIEW
Iowa is the nation’s top corn grower. When wind energy boomed here, farmers began signing leases to provide a small patch of land for each of the hundreds of turbines that can make up …

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University Research: CEOs who wear rose-colored glasses

OVERVIEW
Overconfidence may be detrimental in some situations, but for an insurance company CEO, it could very well be a desirable trait for the company and its shareholders, says a University of Iowa researcher. 

Chief …

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University Research: How genetic testing data affects the insurance market

OVERVIEW
As the cost of genetic testing continues to drop and people gain more widespread access to information about their individual risk for serious health conditions, policymakers will need to weigh whether prevailing laws are …