By Ann Schnoebelen A crowd gathered on Oct.9 in Des Moines to begin Occupy Des Moines, a movement associated with Occupy Wall Street and other spin offs cropping up around the U.S. There were dreadlocked heads and tattooed arms, mom jeans and dentures, socialist worker party members and a “Don’t...

By Ann Schnoebelen To me, the environment seemed to be part inspiring locker room speech, part Sesame Street episode and part sorority recruitment. The Obama For America-Iowa team convention on Drake’s campus last weekend was my first real inside look at how a campaign works. I really didn’t know...

  We all know that younger generations are reading less and less, but they know more about presidential candidates than some adults. By Ann Schnoebelen They don’t use vowels. They’re completely unfamiliar with the concept of privacy and are too busy updating their Facebook statuses to figure...

Des Moines, Iowa — Drake University students visited Wesley Acres Retirement Community to dance, listen to live jazz music and reminisce with residents. By Ann Schnoebelen and Mary Bess Bolling

Hosted by local wine shop, Casa di Vino in Johnston and Chocolaterie Stam, this Feb. 8 free wine and chocolate tasting was open to all. Visit www.casadivinowine.com for a schedule of upcoming events. Multimedia by Lizzie Pine and Ann Schnoebelen