Editorial

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.

The United States Supreme Court and the Iowa Supreme Court each have ruled that automatic, mandatory sentences designed for adults may not be applied to youthful capital offenders. There are some 17 murderers in prison who were under 18 years of age when they committed their offense. One of them is Rene Zarate of Storm Lake, who was convicted of murdering Jorge Ramos 13 years ago by stabbing him nearly 50 times. He was 17 at the time.

There he goes again. Gov. Terry Branstad on Monday was asked at his weekly press conference about not wanting any of the estimated 57,000 homeless Latin American children to be held even temporarily in Iowa. The governor repeated his false assertion: “The federal government needs to secure the border and expedite the process to send them back as quickly as possible.”

Of course, he blamed the humanitarian crisis on President Obama.

A Texas energy company wants to run an oil pipeline from North Dakota to Illinois with Storm Lake right along the route. So we emailed and called Energy Transfer Partners to determine what the precise route is. Will it go near the lake or the city? Or will it be several miles from town? The company claims it has notified all land owners along the proposed route. But representatives have yet to tell us, at least, where the pipe will go. We do not understand why.

What else could Gov. Terry Branstad say when asked Monday whether Iowa would accept homeless children from Latin America caught trying to enter Texas illegally? “The first thing we want is to secure the border,” the Iowa Republican said at his Monday press conference. This is an election year, and that is the election line.

Secure the border.

The Des Moines Register was pretty tough on Sac County Attorney Ben Smith in a couple recent editorials for attempting to deny Tracey Richter a source of income while she serves a life sentence in prison for murdering Dustin Wehde in Early 13 years ago. The Register objected to Smith cleaning out Richter’s commissary and phone accounts as she owes the state more than $200,000 in court costs and victim restitution.

The Iowa Lakes Corridor Development Board has a good opportunity with the installation of a new director to reassess how it does business. Iowa Lakes is supposed to be the primary economic development recruiter for Buena Vista, Clay, Dickinson and Emmet counties. It is not clear to us that the unit of regional government has been much of a benefit to Storm Lake in particular and the county in general. It appears to us to be a networking unit for Dickinson and Clay counties.

A big milestone was reached Monday when Quad County Corn Processors produced the first gallon of ethanol made from cellulose from a new technology developed in Galva. The ethanol plant will produce up to 35 million gallons of ethanol made from parts of the corn kernel previously used for feed in conventional ethanol production. The $9 million investment into this bolt-on technology also will allow the producer-owned facility to greatly expand its production of corn oil.

Dr. Eugene Takle is Iowa’s foremost expert on climate change and its impact on agriculture.  He is the director of the climate science program at Iowa State University and is professor of atmospheric sciences. He earned a bachelor’s degree in math and physics from Luther College in Decorah and earned his PhD in solid state physics from Iowa State. He co-authored (with Jerry Hatfield of the National Soil Tilth Lab) the agricultural section of the National Climate Assessment published in May by the federal government.

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.