Editorial

EDITORIAL

BY ART CULLEN

EDITORIAL

BY ART CULLEN

EDITORIAL

BY ART CULLEN

They never give up. Agri-industry has won every battle at the ballot box and in the courtroom in Iowa to pour chemicals into our surface waters without limit, so long as it is poured through a drainage tile. Still, it uses front groups to spread what comes out of a cow’s trailing side about the state of surface water pollution. Former Des Moines Mayor Preston Daniels got sucked in to pen an essay last week in The Des Moines Register claiming that nitrate levels in the Raccoon River are not rising.

EDITORIAL

BY ART CULLEN

EDITORIAL

BY ART CULLEN

EDITORIAL

BY ART CULLEN

We would wish for contentment in that 7 million cubic yards of silt have been removed from Storm Lake over the past 15 years. We never thought it would get this far, after all. Way back when, the state planned to dredge a small patch on the west side of the lake to make certain that walleyes didn’t suffocate from shallow water in the winter. The effort was enjoined by the citizens of this town from all walks of life, enlarged and sustained through a model partnership between the state and community.

BY ART CULLEN

Because of an $800,000 increase in road-use tax fund receipts, Buena Vista County will be able to spend $800,000 this year on bridges and culverts. At one time nearly 50 bridges in the county were labeled structurally deficient. County Engineer Bret Wilkinson is happy to begin catching up with all that deferred work because Gov. Terry Branstad allowed a fuel tax increase two sessions ago. Safety will be enhanced. Driving will be smoother. The economy gets a little boost. Carbon consumption is discouraged at the margins. This is good.

BY ART CULLEN

We’ve been reading up on climate change and how it might affect agriculture and food processing. First, you should be happy to know that Iowa State University and its associated labs have taken the lead in research and reporting. Deserving special note are Drs. Gene Takle, Jerry Hatfield and Rick Cruse, who have contributed substantially to the national discussion; Takle shared in a Nobel Prize for his work on climate modeling. These are top-flight scientists, agronomists and climatologists who have issued sober analysis about climate impacts.

This editorial from the first issue of The Storm Lake Times, June 29, 1990, expresses the philosophy that gov­erns this news­pa­per. It is published annually on the anniversary of The Times founding as an affirmation of our principles.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pur­suit of Happiness.

BY ART CULLEN