Traveling around Des Moines guarantees a few things. At some point, you will need to stop for food. Lucky for us, Des Moines has one of the most underrated food scenes in the entire country, but it’s certainly not underrated by its diners. You can shop in most any part of this city and find [...]
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Family businesses often blur the line between work and home, where dinner-table conversations double as strategy sessions and legacy weighs as much as the bottom line. For these local business leaders, working with family isn’t just a career path; it’s a daily challenge and a source of deep pride. Growing up in hospitality Pritesh Patel’s [...]
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Each February, we review the sabbaticals (or, as stated by the Iowa Board of Regents, “professional development assignments”) granted to the professors at the state’s three public universities: Iowa State University, the University of Iowa, and the University of Northern Iowa. For us common folk, a sabbatical may be used to take time off of [...]
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Early into the first speech I heard her give, Stephanie Steiner said she had a child at age 15. It’s defining in many ways for Steiner, an Iowa Democratic congressional candidate who would go on to have six more kids, battle her way through a truant and self-described wayward childhood in Alabama and Iowa to [...]
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In the shadowy glow of Joe Carnahan’s “The Rip,” the most dangerous criminals are not the cartel operatives lurking off-screen but the badges meant to protect and serve. This Netflix thriller, “inspired by true events” within the Miami Police Department, is a masterfully constructed pressure cooker of paranoia, a film where loyalty is the first [...]
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Small-town cafés are so precious to nostalgia addicts that it is difficult to find much of anything negative written about them, even on the many social media platforms that attract the meanest critics. The reality is that most of small-town cafés are average at best, employing all the kitchen short cuts that keep labor costs [...]
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Several times a year, I make the trek on Interstate 80 across the state of Iowa to the Quad Cities to visit family. My nieces and nephew are getting older. My sister and I have finally cultivated a relationship in our adult life. My dad is nearly 70, and, at some point, I know this [...]
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“BE KIND!” OK, OK, I heard you the first time. And I do want to be kind, but I’m in a rush and I don’t want to be taken advantage of and shouldn’t I first be kind to myself? All arguments I have made over the years to justify NOT being kind. But don’t we [...]
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We’re past the January scarcity of performing arts opportunities, finally pushing into a February filled with a variety of alluring options. From a classic murder mystery to a sassy re-interpretation princess musical to Pooh and Oliver. Add an internet-based twist on Jane Austen and the national touring hit, “Kimberly Akimbo,” and theatres are coming alive. [...]
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Each winter, the desire to shut the doors, close the blinds and stay hunkered down while the wind, snow and cold weather creep in grows stronger. We would say we don’t blame you, but we do. When winter comes, instead of staying under the blanket with a warm cup of cocoa, we get to work [...]
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We all need reminders now and then. Some of us believe there is only one correct way to think and speak and act in these United States of America. But that is not true. Americans are not who we are because we are the same. Americans are who we are, and our nation has long [...]
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Ashlee Crawford’s two passions are her four-legged friends. Her dog, Layla, is a 4-year-old black labrador. She rescued her from a breeder who got out of the breeding business. “When I saw her, she was the only female. I liked her personality,” she recalls. Crawford’s love of the labrador breed began as a child when [...]
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Jamie Farrington is a chef/mortgage broker who is opening The Rabbit Room in Johnston Feb. 9. To our minds, only a deep Romantic would open a wine bar devoted to the works of The Inklings, an early 20th century gang of Oxford professors who met regularly in the back room of The Eagle and Child [...]
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The juiciest story in the art world last month was that of Thomas Doyle, a Kansas-born con man who has been arrested numerous times under at least five different names. Wall Street Journal’s Jenny Strasburg catapulted Doyle to the big time as far as infamy goes telling how he conned a revered London art dealer [...]
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As SUV sales soar among seemingly all car manufacturing brands, inching in the market with an affordable version is essential. When it comes to BMW, can those two words — affordable and BMW — be used in the same sentence? BMW believes “The Ultimate Driving Machine” can with its compact SUV, the BMW X3 xDrive [...]
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As a child, Brandon Hudspeth was intrigued with Big Bird and other characters from “Sesame Street.” When the show featured various guest stars, Hudspeth took note of a man dressed in black, playing guitar and singing. The famed musician, Johnny Cash, commanded more attention than Kermit the Frog, and Hudspeth begged his parents for a [...]
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Des Moines’ newest sports bar, Heroics, is like most any sports bar in some ways — a full bar, fascinating conversations and the latest game on the big-screen TV. However, there is one distinction that sets it apart from other sports bars — all the games shown feature women athletes. Basketball, hockey, roller derby and [...]
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