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Government Policy and Law

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Three tax proposals

Another tax to cover fee refunds?

It may seem ironic, but raising property taxes is one method Des Moines has proposed to refund $40 million in franchise fees – a fee that was created to …

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Stocks decline after election — a market tradition

U.S. stocks declined this morning, after a two-day advance in the Standard & Poor’s 500 index, reported Bloomberg. 

All 10 groups in the S&P 500 retreated today, with phone, financial and energy companies seeing the biggest …

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Drawn-out drama is worst-case election scenario

Traders and investors seem to agree on one thing about Tuesday’s U.S. presidential election: The markets want a clear winner by Wednesday morning, Reuters reported.

The most recent Reuters/Ipsos tracking poll shows a tight national race, …

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San Jose mayor to speak on pension reform Friday

San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed will be the featured speaker at a Friday luncheon event sponsored by the Taxpayers Association of Central Iowa.  The event will be from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at the …

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With no thanks to presidential winner, economy set for extended growth

Mitt Romney says Barack Obama’s policies will consign the U.S. to an extended period of sluggish economic growth, at best. The president says his Republican challenger’s plans will sow the seeds of another mammoth recession. …

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State bar produces educational video on judge retention process

A newly released video produced by the Iowa State Bar Association explains the importance of participating in the judicial retention vote on Nov. 6. The five-minute video, which features former Gov. Robert Ray and former …

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Sorry Mitt; that’s the way the cookie crumbles

Mitt Romney may have won the Des Moines Register’s editorial endorsement, but President Barack Obama won the Principal Financial Group’s cookie poll Tuesday.

The president beat Romney, 431-376 cookies. Employees at the company’s downtown campus voted …

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Are Iowa state employees overpaid?

A consultant’s report says base pay for 18,500 state of Iowa workers is nearly 18 percent higher than comparable workers in the marketplace. 

The report from Aon Hewitt says pay ranges for 11 Iowa positions …

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Claims mount against lawyer Wanek’s estate

Developers David Walters and Randal Walters have filed a lawsuit against the estate of bankruptcy attorney Jerrold Wanek in which, among other things, they seek punitive damages “designed to insure that ‘Wanek’ will cease and…
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Drug company to pay $95 million in whistleblower settlement

Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals Inc. has agreed to pay $95 million to resolve allegations it improperly marketed its stroke-prevention drug Aggrenox, the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease drugs Atrovent and Combivent and the hypertension drug Micardis, the …