Donald Trump likes to boast that America is experiencing its greatest economy in history during his presidency, but most economists — and people like me who lived during that time — agree that …

Our long national nightmare is over. The elections are finished and now we’ll find out if all those nasty ads made a difference. All politicians claimed they were bipartisan. We’ll see if they …

Mary and I spent the past week driving to the east coast and back. We visited our daughter and her husband in northwest Indiana and our son and his wife in Washington, DC. Like so many of Iowa’s …

Last week I wrote how a proposed Iowa constitutional amendment making it harder to raise income taxes would actually be bad for Iowa taxpayers. It would shift the burden to property taxes, which are …

Like most Iowans, we paid our property taxes a couple weeks ago. In the past three years, the taxes on our 90-year-old home have increased nearly 50%. The taxes on our modest metal Times Square …

This will probably be the most expensive election in Iowa history, judging by all the money that’s being spent on political advertising. The political ads seemingly run non-stop. I’ll bet …

Watching all the political ads on TV these days, you can tell which candidates are getting desperate. They’re the ones who are still freaked out about girls and boys playing on the same sports …

A trip to Illinois and Indiana last week gave us a view of the economic future — and it doesn’t look pretty. Gasoline prices were $5 per gallon and diesel was going for as much as $7.28 …

Donald Trump and his followers are crying wolf again, trying to scare Americans that Democrats are communists. They’re even trying it out on Rob Sand and Josh Turek, Democrats running for Iowa …

Can you remember what you were doing when something historical happened in your lifetime? For each generation, there seems to be at least one date that, as President Franklin D. Roosevelt said …

The Advertising Guide, which has been published weekly for nearly six decades in the Storm Lake and Cherokee trade territory, is switching to a monthly schedule beginning now. This free …

The United States of America reached a milestone last week that didn’t get the attention it deserves. Our national debt exceeded $40 trillion for the first time. That deficit far outstripped …

Hey Boomers! How many of you remember Iowa’s old-style license plates that began with the number for each county according to its alphabetical order? So license plates on cars registered in …

We’ve been in Michigan for the last few days. Over the weekend we were in Benton Harbor for a wedding, then took a side trip to the Upper Peninsula to visit famed vacation getaway Mackinac Island. …

Hardly a week goes by that we don’t get a press release from our United States Senators, Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst, hoopin’ and hollerin’ about waste, fraud and abuse in various government …

We were bummed last week by the announcement that St. Mary’s High School is ending its athletic program after a century of competition. Beginning this fall the former Panthers will compete as …

“The Odyssey” is one of the most-hyped movies in years. We’ve been hearing about it for months, and it finally opened last weekend in Storm Lake and across the nation. The three-hour epic …

Storm Lake’s Star Spangled Spectacular, Iowa’s biggest Fourth of July event, had another successful celebration of our nation’s birthday Saturday. The Big Day was kicked off by the Big Parade …

Have you ever noticed that whenever you do something nice for someone, it makes you feel good? Even little things, like holding the door at the Post Office for someone juggling an armful of mail. …

On Saturday Storm Lake joins the rest of the nation in celebrating the 250th birthday of the United States of America. It was on July 4, 1776, that our nation’s founders, meeting in Philadelphia, …