CNNMoney.com tossed some kudos our way in a report on the top spots in the country to launch a business, ranking Des Moines eighth among mid-size cities. The coverage wasn’t all flattering, as its business writer also identified a location in Clive where restaurants have struggled to survive during the last 22 years.

Here are excerpts from both stories and links to the full coverage at CNNMoney.com:

Let’s launch a business: Once defined by rural stereotypes and wide-open spaces, Des Moines has attracted hundreds of new start-ups to its revitalized downtown neighborhoods in the past few years thanks to one big factor: its stable economy. With an unemployment rate of around 6 percent and a cost of living index that falls nearly 9 percent below the national average, the city has seen an explosion of small manufacturing firms, green tech start-ups and social media upstarts bloom around its longstanding insurance and financial services sectors. More than 70 insurance firms are headquartered in Des Moines; its largest employer is Principal Financial Group Inc.

The city’s biggest business expense is the state corporate tax rate, which tops out at a whopping 12 percent for firms with net income of more than $250,000. However, Des Moines offers a half-dozen tax incentive programs for new companies, including credits and exemptions for businesses that make a capital investment of $500,000 and create at least 10 new jobs.

Read more.

Breaking a jinx: Like a blighted soul warding off vampires, Des Moines restaurateur Annie Baldwin is using garlic to repel the hex of 8737 University Ave., where she recently opened a steakhouse. But instead of a bulbous necklace, Baldwin’s weapon comes in the form of a Montreal-like steak rub, which customers use to help sear their chops and sirloin at the grill-your-own concept restaurant.

“In order to make it here, we had to establish a niche,” says Baldwin, 36. “We’re going to make this work.”

Baldwin, who owns seven other Des Moines-area establishments and three in Minneapolis, is the latest in a long line of bar and nightclub owners who have opened a business at the address, which has always been challenged by unfortunate traffic patterns. Located just off a main drag in an affluent neighborhood, the building’s kitty-corner location makes it impossible for cars to turn off 86th Street into the lot. Read more.