It came. And went.
Peak Iowa: Easy kum, easy go
by Malcolm MacDougallJan 3, 2025- Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
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“Do you really have gas stations called Kum & Go?!” –A half-whispered quote from multiple out-of-state visitors of mine
Sadly, the window of opportunity to scandalize the uninitiated is quickly closing. In April 2023, Kyle Krause, the Des Moines-based owner of Jizz & Jet, announced that he would be selling the company to Utah-based Maverik, whose CEO, Chuck Maggelet, announced at that time that the branding would not change. Since then, they’ve reassessed.
“If you’re growing cross-regionally, which brand do you think will have more appeal to a new audience: Maverik or Kum & Go?” a (notably anonymous) source told trade publication CSP. “No disrespect to Kum & Go, but the answer is pretty clear.” Already the replacement of Smash & Dash signs has begun around the region, with the single-entendre MAVERIK logo replacing the one Iowans have known and loved (or, at least, tolerated) for nearly 60 years.
The famous/infamous Ejaculate & Evacuate logo was designed by Michael Phelan, a Cedar Rapids music teacher, freelance designer and a Von Maur piano player for Lindale and Westdale malls for 25 years. I never met him in person, but a little gesture from him a couple of years ago has made Phelan someone I’ll never entirely forget.
At my previous job, one of my duties was to write and send birthday cards to customers on behalf of the business. It was a simple process: Boilerplate message written in my pinched, vaguely tortured handwriting. Pair with a gift card. Send them out weekly.
One day, I received a card back from Phelan with his family crest on the front, and inside, in beautiful, near-machine-perfect calligraphy, he thanked me for the gesture. Regrettably, over the course of a couple of moves, I’ve lost track of his thank-you card, but I never forgot the way that it had shocked me — the idea that he had taken the time to write this meticulous little note of gratitude to me. I couldn’t even remember writing the card to him.
Phelan passed away in May of 2024. I found that out when I started writing this piece, which was initially going to consist primarily of various alternative names for Kum & Go. But really, there are Reddit threads full of the most innovative minds in obscene puns for that.
In fact, it was probably inevitable, given the fountain of online jokes and memes about Kum & Go, that the name would be changed. It would always be replaced with something so corporate-friendly that it will slither comfortably across the frontal lobe and whip away into oblivion. Soon our highways and streets will be blessedly clear for any who may clutch so firmly at their pearls that they veer across the lanes into oncoming traffic. So it goes.
I drove past a Kum & Go this morning. For the first time, I deeply examined the logo, the custom-drawn lettering, the connecting line that underlines the whole thing and connects the K and the G. I thought about the hand that had drawn the logo, the same one that played the organ at the church down the street from my house, the same one that at 81 had written a thank-you card to me with such deft precision I’d thought it was a font.
Soon the signs will be gone, and all that will be left will be another fun little fact about the Way Things Were When I Was Young that I’ll tell my daughter. But for the moment, some still stand, cherry red and white against the gray winter skies.
'Non-compliance has consequences': Angry judge orders Fani Willis pay attorneys fees for repeatedly violating open records laws over Jan. 6 committee
- Off Topic
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A court in Georgia has harshly upbraided Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and ordered her to pay a substantial sum for repeat violations of Peach State open records laws.
As Law&Crime previously reported, the violation occurred when the prosecutor’s office, in response to an open records request, denied having any documents showing any communications with special counsel Jack Smith or members of the since-defunct House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Late last year, in response to a lawsuit filed by conservative government watchdog group Judicial Watch, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney ordered the district attorney’s office to provide the requested documents and/or offer an explanation for their continued absence — while leaving open possible attorneys fees.
After hearing what Willis and her office had to say, the judge assessed an award of $21,578 in attorneys’ fees and costs for the plaintiffs, according to the court’s latest order, dated Jan. 3 but just released this week.
Related Coverage:
“Fani Willis flouted the law, and the court is right to slam her and require, at a minimum, the payment of nearly $22,000 to Judicial Watch,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a press release. “But in the end, Judicial Watch wants the full truth on what she was hiding — her office’s political collusion with the Pelosi January 6 committee to ‘get Trump.’”
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District Attorney Fani Willis disqualified from Donald Trump's election racketeering case
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In the underlying lawsuit, Judicial Watch accused Willis of making “likely false” representations about the retention of the documents in question.
In sum and substance, the court agreed with the plaintiffs, finding that Willis had both procedurally lost the case by refusing to respond and violated the law on the merits by repeatedly lying about the existence of at least some of those requested documents.
The court’s order is withering in its appraisal of how Willis and her underlings violated the Peach States Open Records Act (ORA).
“Most basically, by operation of law Defendant acknowledged violating the ORA when she defaulted,” McBurney writes. “But actual evidence proves the same: per her Records Custodian’s own admission, the District Attorney’s Office flatly ignored Plaintiff’s original ORA request, conducting no search and simply (and falsely) informing the County’s Open Records Custodian that no responsive records existed.”
To date, Willis has since admitted that documents responsive to the Jan. 6 committee do, in fact, exist. Her office continues to maintain there were never any communications with the special counsel’s office. Initially, and for over a year, Willis claimed no such records — in response to either request — were anywhere to be found.
“We know now that that is simply incorrect: once pressed by a Court order, Defendant managed to identify responsive records, but has categorized them as exempt.” McBurney continues. “Even if the records prove to be just that — exempt from disclosure for sound public policy reasons — this late revelation is a patent violation of the ORA. And for none of this is there any justification, substantial or otherwise: no one searched until prodded by civil litigation.”
But, the court explains, Willis’ office, in fact, also had at least one responsive document that was not exempt — a letter Willis wrote to the Jan. 6 committee chair. Notably, this letter was the focus of Judicial Watch’s lawsuit — the nonprofit came into possession of the document after Willis denied the letter even existed.
Finally, after defaulting, Willis provided the letter directly — attached to a memo filed in response to a court order directing her to do so.
The judge glaringly recounted this turn of events:
The district attorney’s office eventually provided some key admissions about how all of this transpired.
“Plaintiff’s deposition of Defendant’s Records Custodian shed some light on this mystery: he admitted that there was no search for records back in August 2023,” the court order goes on. “Just a ‘no, go away.’ He further clarified that, when Plaintiff did not go away but instead sued, there still was no organized, comprehensive examination of the District Attorney’s Office’s records.”
In a footnote, McBurney further criticizes the DA’s office for the sum of their efforts to comply with the law. The judge observes: “Even after litigation began, Defendant’s Records Custodian initially merely asked certain employees if they thought they had any responsive records; there was no rigorous review of e-mails or case files.”
The lawsuit was filed in March 2024; by April of last year, Willis was in default. The legal process has played out slowly since then; the formal default verdict was entered in December.
After the prosecutor was found in default, Judicial Watch filed a separate motion asking for the court to appoint a special master in order to scour the agency’s files for the documents. Willis has until Jan. 16, to respond to that motion.
For now, her office has a bill to pay — due on Jan. 17.
“The ORA is not hortatory; it is mandatory,” McBurney lectured. “Non-compliance has consequences. One of them can be liability for the requesting party’s attorney’s fees and costs of litigation.”
As Law&Crime previously reported, the violation occurred when the prosecutor’s office, in response to an open records request, denied having any documents showing any communications with special counsel Jack Smith or members of the since-defunct House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Late last year, in response to a lawsuit filed by conservative government watchdog group Judicial Watch, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney ordered the district attorney’s office to provide the requested documents and/or offer an explanation for their continued absence — while leaving open possible attorneys fees.
After hearing what Willis and her office had to say, the judge assessed an award of $21,578 in attorneys’ fees and costs for the plaintiffs, according to the court’s latest order, dated Jan. 3 but just released this week.
Related Coverage:
“Fani Willis flouted the law, and the court is right to slam her and require, at a minimum, the payment of nearly $22,000 to Judicial Watch,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a press release. “But in the end, Judicial Watch wants the full truth on what she was hiding — her office’s political collusion with the Pelosi January 6 committee to ‘get Trump.’”
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District Attorney Fani Willis disqualified from Donald Trump's election racketeering case
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View on Watch
In the underlying lawsuit, Judicial Watch accused Willis of making “likely false” representations about the retention of the documents in question.
In sum and substance, the court agreed with the plaintiffs, finding that Willis had both procedurally lost the case by refusing to respond and violated the law on the merits by repeatedly lying about the existence of at least some of those requested documents.
The court’s order is withering in its appraisal of how Willis and her underlings violated the Peach States Open Records Act (ORA).
“Most basically, by operation of law Defendant acknowledged violating the ORA when she defaulted,” McBurney writes. “But actual evidence proves the same: per her Records Custodian’s own admission, the District Attorney’s Office flatly ignored Plaintiff’s original ORA request, conducting no search and simply (and falsely) informing the County’s Open Records Custodian that no responsive records existed.”
To date, Willis has since admitted that documents responsive to the Jan. 6 committee do, in fact, exist. Her office continues to maintain there were never any communications with the special counsel’s office. Initially, and for over a year, Willis claimed no such records — in response to either request — were anywhere to be found.
“We know now that that is simply incorrect: once pressed by a Court order, Defendant managed to identify responsive records, but has categorized them as exempt.” McBurney continues. “Even if the records prove to be just that — exempt from disclosure for sound public policy reasons — this late revelation is a patent violation of the ORA. And for none of this is there any justification, substantial or otherwise: no one searched until prodded by civil litigation.”
But, the court explains, Willis’ office, in fact, also had at least one responsive document that was not exempt — a letter Willis wrote to the Jan. 6 committee chair. Notably, this letter was the focus of Judicial Watch’s lawsuit — the nonprofit came into possession of the document after Willis denied the letter even existed.
Finally, after defaulting, Willis provided the letter directly — attached to a memo filed in response to a court order directing her to do so.
The judge glaringly recounted this turn of events:
“Somehow something had changed,” the judge angrily went on. “Despite having previously informed Plaintiff four separate times that her team had carefully searched but found no responsive records, now there suddenly were — but they were not subject to disclosure under the ORA.”
The district attorney’s office eventually provided some key admissions about how all of this transpired.
“Plaintiff’s deposition of Defendant’s Records Custodian shed some light on this mystery: he admitted that there was no search for records back in August 2023,” the court order goes on. “Just a ‘no, go away.’ He further clarified that, when Plaintiff did not go away but instead sued, there still was no organized, comprehensive examination of the District Attorney’s Office’s records.”
In a footnote, McBurney further criticizes the DA’s office for the sum of their efforts to comply with the law. The judge observes: “Even after litigation began, Defendant’s Records Custodian initially merely asked certain employees if they thought they had any responsive records; there was no rigorous review of e-mails or case files.”
The lawsuit was filed in March 2024; by April of last year, Willis was in default. The legal process has played out slowly since then; the formal default verdict was entered in December.
After the prosecutor was found in default, Judicial Watch filed a separate motion asking for the court to appoint a special master in order to scour the agency’s files for the documents. Willis has until Jan. 16, to respond to that motion.
For now, her office has a bill to pay — due on Jan. 17.
“The ORA is not hortatory; it is mandatory,” McBurney lectured. “Non-compliance has consequences. One of them can be liability for the requesting party’s attorney’s fees and costs of litigation.”
Cedar Rapids man charged with lighting fires in motel, hospital
- By cigaretteman
- Off Topic
- 8 Replies
A Cedar Rapids man was arrested this week on charges that he lit a fire in a motel, was taken to a hospital — and then lit a fire in the hospital.
Joseph Detrent, 70, is charged with first-degree arson and reckless use of fire. According to a criminal complaint, Cedar Rapids police were called Monday to the Motel 6 at 3325 Southgate Ct. SW, where Detrent lives, for a report of a fire outside the building.
Police found a wheelchair with some clothing on it, sitting outside Detrent’s room, that was smoking and smoldering from being set on fire. Detrent admitted to starting the fire in his room and then pushing the chair outside once it was lit, the complaint states.
Joseph Detrent (Linn County Jail)
Detrent was taken to Mercy Medical Center. The complaint doesn’t say what injuries he had or if they were a result of the fire. Early Tuesday, he started another fire in the hospital room, the complaint states.
Surveillance footage from the hospital shows Detrent applying an accelerant to his jacket and lighting it on fire, then putting his hospital gown on top of it to cause the fire to spread. The fire created a significant amount of smoke and endangered other hospital occupants, according to the complaint.
Detrent was booked Monday into the Linn County Jail and made his first court appearance on the charges Tuesday. He was ordered held on a $26,000 cash-only bail.
www.thegazette.com
Joseph Detrent, 70, is charged with first-degree arson and reckless use of fire. According to a criminal complaint, Cedar Rapids police were called Monday to the Motel 6 at 3325 Southgate Ct. SW, where Detrent lives, for a report of a fire outside the building.
Police found a wheelchair with some clothing on it, sitting outside Detrent’s room, that was smoking and smoldering from being set on fire. Detrent admitted to starting the fire in his room and then pushing the chair outside once it was lit, the complaint states.
Detrent was taken to Mercy Medical Center. The complaint doesn’t say what injuries he had or if they were a result of the fire. Early Tuesday, he started another fire in the hospital room, the complaint states.
Surveillance footage from the hospital shows Detrent applying an accelerant to his jacket and lighting it on fire, then putting his hospital gown on top of it to cause the fire to spread. The fire created a significant amount of smoke and endangered other hospital occupants, according to the complaint.
Detrent was booked Monday into the Linn County Jail and made his first court appearance on the charges Tuesday. He was ordered held on a $26,000 cash-only bail.
Cedar Rapids man charged with lighting fires in motel, hospital
A Cedar Rapids man was arrested Monday on charges that he lit a fire in a motel, was taken to a hospital, and then lit a fire in the hospital.
www.thegazette.com
I didn’t know Chis wrote for Salon.com…
- By FAUlty Gator
- Off Topic
- 3 Replies
…and is a lady,
Article summary:
MAGA = ISIS
ISIS = MAGA
Holy hell. She must be fun at parties.
www.salon.com
Article summary:
MAGA = ISIS
ISIS = MAGA
Holy hell. She must be fun at parties.
Whether MAGA or ISIS, online misogyny fuels terrorism
Bitter men of all stripes are targeted by influencers telling them to double down on toxic masculinity
www.salon.com
Hawks named to Dean’s List
- By Todd Conner
- Iowa Wrestling
- 4 Replies
Hawks named to Dean's List
The University of Iowa Wrestling team announced that three wrestlers were named to the 2024 Fall Dean’s List. Angelo Ferrari, Easton Fleshman and Anthony Lavezzola were named for the honor. To qualify a student must have a minimum 3.5 GPA on 12 semester hours or more of graded coursework...
iowawrestlingblog.com
It is great to be an Iowa Wrestling fan.
Go Hawks!
