College football is here once again, and fans are geared up to cheer on their treasured favorite(s). What stokes such ferocious lifetime loyalty to a bunch of guys playing a game for a few weeks …

A year ago this month, U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York, introduced the No Kings Act with 36 co-sponsors. With the Senate under Republican control, the bill did not …

American pundits are prone to designate their immediate time period, whenever it happens to be, as a “turning point.” When the political situation balances on a knife’s edge, as it …

The Democratic presidential nomination appears to be wide open today. No shortage of obvious hopefuls, with another batch who are probably mulling it over. More will pop their heads up in the weeks …

Do elected leaders grow to covet great power once in office, or do they assume power already coveting it? And what about those who resist the siren song of power, and instead choose to serve their …

French President Emmanuel Macron shook up world diplomatic circles last Thursday with his announcement that come September, France will recognize Palestine as an independent nation. How much …

I’ve been thinking lately about wealth. Not mine — I’m woefully short on acquaintance and familiarity with the subject, and that’s not going to change. But as I age, I …

The state of Iowa in 2013 approved its “Nutrient Reduction Strategy” for reducing nitrogen and phosphorus runoff into the state’s streams and rivers, and eventually downstream into …

Memory is a tricky thing for older folks. Sometimes we can remember specific people, places and events from decades earlier, while at the same time we can’t remember much about yesterday or …

The United States system of government is one of the most complicated such mechanisms in the world. It’s a blessing and a curse. A blessing, because it disperses power. That’s what …

What links Dwight Eisenhower, the Lincoln Highway and Greene County? nnLocal history buffs know. “Ike,” at the time a 28-year-old lieutenant colonel, volunteered to help lead an Army …

Iowa’s DOGE task force, a Governor Reynolds’ creation channeling the 2025 federal DOGE Department headed until recently by Elon Musk, last week discussed the possible consolidation of …

Donald Trump got it half right about the recent omnibus tax-plus-everything else bill that the U.S. House passed on Tuesday last week. It’s big, but it ain’t beautiful. The bill …

Luke 10:30: King James Version, (KJV): A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half …

Have you ever heard someone refer to an “emolument” in a context other than the U.S. Constitution? Probably not. The word is somewhat archaic, and rarely appears other than as a reference …

The Trump tax cuts, enacted in 2017, are due to expire at the end of this calendar year, 2025. The new 2025-26 federal fiscal year doesn’t kick in until Oct. 1, 2025. Plenty of time for …

The deeper one dives into history, the more nuanced and complicated it seems. The nuances are all-important, though, because they enrich our understanding of human nature and of why things happened …

It usually takes a while for specific changes by the federal government to work their way down to the local level. But after about 100 days of President Trump’s second term, executive orders …

Iowa’s senior U.S. Senator, Republican Chuck Grassley, met with more than 50 of us from the Jefferson area here last Thursday morning. Unlike most Republican members of Congress these days, …

It’s called “collective punishment” when an entire group or community is sanctioned for an act of one member, or a few of them. It’s a form of bullying. The punished group …