It makes us nervous when legislators commit themselves to historic property tax reform. If they knew what they were doing, the taxes on our humble offices would not be shooting through the tin roof. …

After my recent column that mentioned I played in a rock band in high school, I received this from a Times Pilot reader. MY NAME is Rick Davis, age 80, a native of Laurens, now living in San …

Uh-oh. Trump is hearing voices again. And the voices are telling him to do something truly stupid. As he puts it, “There is a lot of talk about the Postal Service being taken …

I have a ten-month-old grandson (and another grandson on the way), and as I watch him crawl and make new sounds, it’s sometimes overwhelming to consider all the time and effort he (and his …

Of all the startling foreign adventures President Donald Trump has proposed in recent weeks, the American takeover of Gaza takes the prize as the most bizarre. Who does he think he is? More …

Last year, 60-year-old Iowan Susan McKinney started a new job working from home for a travel agency. Susan suffers from diabetes, arthritis and atrial fibrillation (AFib), and her insurance coverage …

Last week was the first legislative funnel deadline for legislation to pass through committee. The State Government Committee continued to work hard passing 45 bills out of the committee. These bills …

There is common ground for those who voted for, or against, Donald Trump to be President of the United States again.  First, we can all agree that he won the election.  Second, Kamala …

Big business might be waking up to who butters its bread. A think tank populated by bankers, builders and chambers of commerce called “Common Sense Institute Iowa” says that our …

Here’s something more to scare and depress you: An Iowa Senate subcommittee voted 2-1 to advance a bill banning mRNA vaccines like those used against Covid-19. The bill was put forward by …

Watching Drake play in the Missouri Valley Conference tournament last weekend reminded me of my freshman college days in Indiana, when this Iowa boy followed Drake in the NCAA tournament. It was …

On Feb. 7, 2025, President 45/47 summarily fired Colleen Shogan, Director of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). She joins the company of thousands of other federal workers who …

The terms “DEI” and “Woke” are often floated these days with little thought given to their complexity, or what they mean to people of various minority classes, and those in …

I may have this backwards but... one of my sons left for Peace Corps after graduating from U of Iowa. After his tours in East African locations, I finally quit asking when he’d come home …

Last week the House Local Government Committee reported out of committee House Study Bill 246, which enhances and improves Iowan's recovery efforts for communities affected by natural disasters. This …

A big congratulations to the schools representing Senate District 3 in Des Moines the last two weeks: Cherokee, Newell-Fonda girls’ basketball teams, as well as the Storm Lake boys’ …

One of the first marketing lessons offered to me, a wet-behind-the-ears ag editor, by a steely and successful ag futures trader was as simple and useful as a feed bucket. “Markets hate …

Iowa farmers are about to plant into a seedbed of chaos. Tariffs on Mexico and Canada are on one day and off the next. Markets are whiplashed. Consumer confidence is tanking. Corn and soy prices …

We’ve come full circle. The Storm Lake Times launched in 1990 as a weekly, and now we are back on that printing schedule after iterations as a daily and a twice-weekly. Dramatically rising …

Storm Lake lost some good people over the past couple of weeks. My old friend Bill Hott, age 74, passed away unexpectedly Feb. 11 after a long and impressive career in music. Bill and I …