Opinion

By ART CULLEN

Virgins on a voyage in an aging Nashville band van often wonder what they’re getting in on for a first-time gig at Byron’s Bar in Pomeroy.

By DON BEHM

With the start of the football season, I thought it would be a good time to write a Cracker Barrel story about Notre Dame. I have been a Notre Dame fan for as long as I can remember. I always say it’s the pope, then Notre Dame and not always in that order.

Only one prominent Iowa politician, Sen. Tom Harkin, has mustered the courage to advocate for the human rights of the homeless Latin American children stranded at the Texas border. The senator fully supports privacy for the children to keep them safe, and supports their due process rights to receive a hearing for permanent residency based on a 2008 law signed by President George W. Bush.

By JOHN CULLEN

The next time you hear a member of Congress claim they are going to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse, tell them to start with themselves.

Last month Federal Energy Regulatory Commissioner John Norris of Ames announced he will not seek re-appointment to the powerful five-member board. Norris did not find a fan in Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who urged that someone else should be appointed chairman of FERC upon the retirement of its former chairman. “I couldn’t get confirmed if I wanted to,” Norris said of his prospects with the Senate. His term expires in 2017.

By ART CULLEN

Rep. Steve King got another 15 minutes of infamy Friday for bringing down House Speaker John Boehner over a bill responding to the homeless children at the Texas-Mexico border.

By DON BEHM

I just finished reading The Storm Lake Times. There was about a half page of various crimes the Storm Lake police were called to. This goes on every day in The City Beautiful. If ever there was proof that the Storm Lake Police Department is doing a great job, all you have to do is read the paper or watch the news. The Sioux City TV station reports some of the Storm Lake news.

You could not find a group of people more sensitive to farmers than the Pocahontas County Board of Supervisors. Still, Supervisor Louis Stauter of Fonda at the board’s July 22 meeting raised a ruckus about farmers planting in public right-of-way, according to our friends at the Pocahontas Record-Democrat. “It’s just getting ridiculous,” the farmer-politician told his fellows on the board. “Some of them, you can damn near reach out the window and grab the stalks!”

By Jim McDiarmid

Old sports enthusiasts should avoid unanswerable questions that veer into congested mental underbrush.                

Our hearts go out to the families directly affected and the entire community of Cherokee as it copes with the news that the Tyson Foods plant there will close in late September. The processing plant that makes hot dogs, sausages and lunchmeats employed as many as 700 three years ago, and current employment is reported at 450. There will be a confusing period of adjustment, but the workers will find jobs and Cherokee will recover stronger than ever.