Because some voters will believe anything I tell them, no questions asked, I, Donald Trump... ...promised voters “Mexico will pay for” my wall. (But you did — and swallowed all my promises …

Downtown master plans come and go with time. Each administration has one. We can’t recall who the mayor was when they put up metal canopies over Lake Avenue sidewalks. They were practical but ugly. …

We set out last week from Dubuque to follow the Mississippi River down to New Orleans. Adjacent river bottoms rich in fertilizer, freshly planted and exposed, were inundated from heavy spring …

At 4:23 a.m. on Saturday, April 20, we adjourned Sine Die (which just means final adjournment for the session). It was an early morning and a late night. There were a lot of broken hearts over …

The story of our National Weather Service is one of catching up and staying ahead. For more than 200 years, meteorologists, both amateurs and professionals, have steadily employed new scientific …

Perhaps the term “hidden gem” is overused, but the Buena Vista County Historical Museum truly is one.    On a recent visit to the museum, I found the exhibits to be far more …

I’m bleary and road-weary after a pioneering trek in an electric pickup truck to the Gulf of Mexico and back last week. We made it, no small feat. We being Tom Lentz of St. Paul, Mike …

Randy Feenstra has a republican primary challenger for Iowa’s Fourth District US House of Representatives.   Kevin Virgil grew up on a farm in O’Brien County in Northwest Iowa. He has …

A strange echo of immunity bounced around courthouses from Washington to Storm Lake last week. Donald Trump claimed before the US Supreme Court that he is immune from prosecution because he was …

From Ackley to Zwingle, probably no Iowan knows more about Iowa than Randy Evans, executive director of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council. Randy came to Storm Lake Monday to speak to the …

Dick Davis, the California benefactor who supports the Zacatlan mural artists beautifying Storm Lake, delivered this message Sunday at the ribbon cutting ceremony for the muralists’ fourth public …

Last month Prof. Steve Corbin’s letter to the Times Pilot complained about both presidential candidates, with more complaints about Trump. He wrote that 43% of voters are independent and that 63% …

Storm Lake will be a hot mess if local police are bound by state law to arrest and deport undocumented immigrants. Presumably, it’s the direction we’re headed since the legislature passed a …

Congress may finally be getting it together. Overruling a few outspoken ultraconservative Republican members, the U.S. House by wide margins last Saturday belatedly approved crucial aid for …

Genetic fragments of the avian flu virus have been found in milk, federal authorities reported last week, suggesting that the disease is more widespread among dairy cattle than previously thought. …

The Legislature took an important step last week in voting to toughen penalties for state and local officials who violate a key government transparency tool, Iowa’s open meetings …

As the Iowa Legislature completed its work, Iowans wondered what happened to our state. Iowa has long been a beacon of high-quality public schools where students thrived and which parents supported. …

I must admit, I like trees. I wouldn’t call myself a tree-hugger, but then, I’m not much of a hugger in general! I am blessed to have grown up and to live on an old farm in the shadows of …

Recent demonstrations on a few U.S. college campuses over the Israel-Hamas war reminds me of the turmoil on campuses during the Vietnam war. I was a college student in the 1960s during the Vietnam …

It was reassuring last weekend to see that the will of the majority can prevail on issues of urgency. House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana put his short tenure at risk by finally moving security …