On November 2, I was dismayed when a Facebook wall post from local radio show host Ed Fallon popped up on my news feed. It displayed a video of architect Richard Gage, founder of Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth, who proclaimed that he knew the Bush administration perpetrated the worst domestic attacks in US [...]

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From Politico, quoting Herman Cain’s campaign-suspension speech: “I believe these words came from the Pokemon movie,” Cain said. “Life can be a challenge. Life can seem impossible. It’s never easy when there’s so much on the line. But you and I can make a difference. There’s a mission just for you and me.” Cain finally [...]

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On Tuesday, Under the Golden Dome unearthed a gem about Terry Branstad. Last week, our protest-bashing governor told Iowa Public Radio, responding to questions about the Occupy Des Moines demonstrators, that he had never participated in a protest himself because he was “too busy working on the farm” and “didn’t have time for that.” Not [...]

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Courtesy of City Councilman Matthew Goodman’s Facebook wall, I present you with this survey to weigh in on the future of Campustown. Relatedly, check out all our great coverage/criticism of the stalled Lane4 development plans for Campustown here.

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Ames sensation Leslie Hall, who Ames Progressive’s Nate Logsdon profiled in 2009, performed on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon Monday night with Yo Gabba Gabba, who sang “We’re Gonna Party Tonight” with some additional help from Fallon’s house band The Roots. Check it out (Hall’s got a solo at 1:21): Related articles Nate’s Tour Blog [...]

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What began, oddly enough, as a call to action from an anti-consumerist Canadian magazine to set up camp to protest financial corruption on Wall Street has spread from Manhattan across the United States and world. Occupations, as they’re being called, started in Iowa last week and quickly spread to Des Moines, where demonstrators faced arrest [...]

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I’m a few days late to the game on this one, but I think this is good vindication of my previous criticism of the city’s decision to blow $78,500 on a California marketing firm to rebrand Ames: The city of Ames has been advised to discard its newly adopted tagline, “The Heartland’s Leading Edge,” because [...]

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Last week, when I was back in Ames covering the straw poll, a friend introduced me to the uninspired proposal for the new city logo: Not surprisingly, the design failed to impress Ames residents. As the Tribune reported, the city council “tabled discussion of the new logo at its meeting Aug. 9, after concerns were [...]

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AMC/Fair Use Earlier tonight, I was catching up on Breaking Bad, the brilliant AMC drama by former X-Files producer Vince Gilligan. In the episode that aired last Sunday, meth cook Walter White flips through documents of meth recipes that his oblivious DEA-agent brother-in-law shows him. On one of the pages is a sticker endorsing Ron [...]

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By now, Bob Vander Plaats’ ill-fated marriage pledge is old news. More on that in a minute, but last week, the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), another group pushing the incomprehensible argument that allowing same-sex marriage somehow infringes on religious freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment, issued a pledge of its own. The NOM pledge [...]

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