Editorial

EDITORIAL

BY ART CULLEN

People were bringing little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” And he took the children in his arms, placed his hands on them and blessed them.

  — Mark 10:13-16

EDITORIAL

BY ART CULLEN

As Mike Naig won the Republican nomination for agriculture secretary at the state convention Saturday, President Donald Trump handed a cudgel to the Democratic opponent Tim Gannon. Trump ordered tariffs on Chinese products, which caused the Chinese to slap retaliatory tariffs on American soy and pork. Naig was asked to explain by a reporter from Esquire Magazine. The Buena Vista University graduate and interim secretary of agriculture couldn’t.

Gannon did.

EDITORIALS

BY ART CULLEN

For all the sourness of politics, take heart: Nice guys can finish first. Congratulations to Kelly Snyder of Marathon, who beat incumbent Buena Vista County Supervisor Dale Arends of Newell, in the Republican primary election on Tuesday. Snyder is a nice man with a good heart. He is a retired sheriff’s deputy, and for a good cop has remarkably few enemies. Even the people in jail liked him. We do not know if they voted for him.

EDITORIAL

BY ART CULLEN

EDITORIAL

BY ART CULLEN

Gov. Kim Reynolds, Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig and Iowa State University in concert Tuesday celebrated the five-year anniversary of the Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy. They talked of the hundreds of thousands of acres signed up for some sort of conservation treatment (600,000 on 12 million state acres). Which suggests, of course, that it is a pittance. They say we are now through the demonstration phase and into the execution phase — scale up, ramp up, spread out, and scale up again.

EDITORIAL

BY ART CULLEN

EDITORIAL

BY ART CULLEN

Storm Lake has taken its share of lumps. So we were thrilled to watch Katie Couric’s take on The City Beautiful in her documentary “White Anxiety” that aired this week as part of her series America Inside Out on National Geographic TV. Our part of the story lasts about 10 minutes and provides a serious look about how an isolated rural community is making the best of it through the vitality brought by young people of color.

EDITORIAL

BY ART CULLEN

It would appear that all systems are “go” for a new early childhood education center in Storm Lake. The school board last week purchased 16 acres just north of Faith, Hope & Charity along Hwy. 7 from the Friedrich family for a reasonable price of $27,000 per acre. That was a big question. Another was the fate of the school sales tax. The legislature addressed that by extending the local-option school sales tax by 20 years, which will finance the bulk of this project.

EDITORIAL

BY ART CULLEN