What a relief! The torrent of malicious TV ads faded to black with the election. Kim Reynolds will not be governor; Democrat Rob Sand will be. Josh Turek will help put a check on President Trump as …

It’s been a tough 10 years. Trump. Covid. More Trump. A decade of decline for Iowa — dead last in mental health beds and women’s health care. Next to last (chasing Mississippi) for economic …

Moderation is all we ask. Iowa has been under one-party rule for over a decade. It shows. We have become meaner and poorer. Our schools are weaker. Regulations are spurned as the rivers run toxic and …

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 …

“CBS Sunday Morning” was in full swing for Halloween on Oct. 25, running a segment on ghost building signs. Ghost signs are found on the sides of old brick buildings where the business names …

Government of the people belongs to the people.   So, it should come as no surprise that one of their most frequent concerns is how government spends taxpayers’ money. Those concerns …

Certain admirable qualities have identified the United States for many, many years: prosperity, power, creativity, entrepreneurship, world leadership, personal freedom. You can probably name others. …

Throughout the past few months, if not years, the Storm Lake Times Pilot has criticized the county on the lawsuit between the City of Storm Lake and Buena Vista County concerning tax increment …

Remember the good old days when you bought something and it was actually yours? You bought computer programs and you could use it basically forever, or at least until your needs changed. Now, it …

My mom warned, if the Fuller Brush man comes knocking, lock the door. Back then, fast-talking Fuller Brush salesman literally would stick a foot in the door to make a sale. Mom knew once …

I recently returned from the third agriculture and soil health conference I’ve attended and/or presented at this year. I cannot get the painfully expressed words of a fellow presenter out of my …

What to do about Iowa’s rising cancer crisis? “Funding cancer research” is often the response from elected leaders of our state and from most candidates running for public office. The …

A number of years ago (2021 to be exact), I wrote an opinion which Art Cullen published in The Storm Lake Times, titled “All the News.” As a writer of opinion for the Charleston Gazette-Mail …

An empty school-lunch account can mean a mom simply needs to reload an app. It can also mean a mom is desperately struggling to find the money to replenish it. Those are profoundly different …

People lined up for a mile to hear President Trump’s impression of a carnival barker in a Sioux City airport hangar festooned with red, white and blue bunting on Thursday. He came to help gin …

The Storm Lake City Council should fire its lawyers and the city manager for fleecing the taxpayers in a lawsuit the city is waging against Buena Vista County that Mel Brooks and Sid Caesar could …

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 …

As we ramp up to the mid-term elections, MAGA candidates are pulling out all the stops. A church organist, who wants to envelope the space with overpowering sound, pulls selected knobs all the way …

When a city plans something big, it should not check driver's licenses at the door. That is what happened Monday night in Woodward. The City Council cancelled its regular meeting and instead …

The United States is now involved, to varying degrees, in three hot wars: in Iran, Ukraine and Gaza/Palestine. We’re a principal party to the war with Iran, having initiated it in late February. …