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The Insider Notebook

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NOTEBOOK: The failed music career of Bill Even

Agricultural leader Bill Even, who returned to the Des Moines area this year to run the National Pork Board, can tell you everything you want to know about raising hogs. In an interview for a …

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NOTEBOOK: Solheim Cup eyes record, sells staffers on Des Moines

None of the six Solheim Cup staffers are from Iowa. None of them had been to Iowa before joining the Des Moines staff of the women’s professional golf event, as far as marketing and sales …

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NOTEBOOK: Hubbell owns the Riverfront Y site; now what to do with it?

Hubbell Realty Co.’s $4.7 million purchase of the former Riverfront YMCA at 101 Locust St. completed a complicated land swap that started four years ago and has resulted in redevelopment of an unappreciated convention hall…
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NOTEBOOK: A new tech hub, its designer, and some really big fans

I was impressed with the new Vermeer Applied Technology Hub I saw during an open house of the new building at the ISU Research Park last week. The space is an innovation sandbox of sorts …

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NOTEBOOK: LightEdge makes the “Today Show”

CEO Jim Masterson’s Des Moines-based LightEdge Solutions, which provides cloud services, was featured along with its SubTropolis location in Kansas City on NBC’s “Today Show” Oct. 16. Host Harry Smith, a graduate of Central College …

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NOTEBOOK: Altoona is getting bigger

Word is out and out and out that Outlets of Des Moines is meeting its construction schedule in Altoona, but what might not be as well known is that in recent weeks the city has …

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NOTEBOOK: Grand View leads effort to increase minority membership on nonprofits’ boards

A few months ago, Grand View University’s Rob Barron called just about every organization he knew of that represents minority and underrepresented groups to ask them a simple question.


Barron, special assistant to the president…
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NOTEBOOK: Marriott makes some noise for Gov. Branstad

You could say the downtown Marriott made some noise for Gov. Terry Branstad when he spoke at the Iowa Food Leadership Reception Oct. 12, a side event of the World Food Prize. “Someone pulled the …

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NOTEBOOK: Iowa gets love for work on broadband, but tasks remain

I had the pleasure of moderating a discussion with FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai the other day at a luncheon sponsored by the Technology Association of Iowa. Pai, appointed by President Barack Obama in 2012, was …

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NOTEBOOK: Consultant: Iowa ripe for federal food aid

Dan Silverstein of Heuristic Management LLC, in town for the World Food Prize, gave the keynote address at chamber groups’ annual Terrace Hill breakfast attended by Gov. Terry Branstad and his wife, first lady Chris …