This famous editorial, written by Francis P. Church, first appeared in The New York Sun on Sept. 21, 1897, in response to a letter to the editor from an 8-year-old girl. The Storm Lake Times Pilot is …

This is the story behind the “Yes, Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus” editorial, the most famous editorial in newspaper history. It is reprinted annually in the Storm Lake Times Pilot …

’Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that St. …

A share of Iowa’s Republican electorate appears ready to abandon Senator Joni Ernst in favor of a more Trumpian replacement in the 2026 Iowa Republican primary election. It’s yet another …

If you go to your doctor for an annual checkup and the doctor says your cholesterol is high, is that the end of discussion? That is the way Summit Carbon Solutions addresses the need for its …

Storm Lake is fortunate — blessed, if you will — that the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe on Dec. 12 takes such a prominent place in our holiday schedule. Mexicans, especially, venerate …

Professor Grammar will provide my column this week. Because it’s Christmastime, it concerns the proper use of the word “gift.” In the past couple of years, gift has …

A public policy dispute over plans for about 1,000 miles of carbon dioxide pipeline across Iowa took a concerning turn last week. The pipeline company’s latest tactic demonstrates why Iowa …

My daughter is in a wedding again. Not hers, mind you. She’s already had her big occasion, but she is asked to attend to her many friends as they become brides. She is unlike her …

Iowa’s Kim Reynolds joined 25 other Republican governors last week to declare that they will use the National Guard and local law enforcement to ship out immigrants. It’s dishonest but …

It’s a week before Christmas, which means it is time for that Annual Holiday Letter and a good shot of freezing rain. Last Christmas Dolores and I both came down with Covid. Bah humbug! …

President Joe Biden’s recent pardon of his son Hunter Biden has reignited the debate over the presidential pardoning power. And argument over this constitutionally protected prerogative of the …

Cullen, your editorial take on the Biden Administration Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack Politico interview, for an old, seasoned reporter, does not comport with reality. In fact, it strikes me as shockingly …

The Christmas tree was a scrub cedar hacked from the edge of the woods that bordered the farm. Big-bulbed lights, strung in barber pole fashion, generated almost as much heat as the nearby …

Public reaction to to the assassination of a health insurance executive in New York was as shocking as the murder itself on a sidewalk outside a hotel. The suspected assassin, Luigi Mangione, 26, has …

Color photographs in newspapers are common today. Each issue of the Times Pilot includes dozens of them. But when I started out in newspapers over 52 years ago, color news photos were rare. They were …

When and why did the United States turn into such a cesspool of hatred? Some people may disagree with that characterization. But events last week have or should put those questions front and …

At home My mother was born in 1924 in Orange City, Iowa, and her first language was Dutch. If you know anything about Orange City or Sioux County, you know the Dutch influence is ever-present. …

Bird flu is back, if it ever left. It was unfamiliar to most of us back in 2015, when it wiped out five million chickens at Rembrandt and hundreds of thousands of turkeys. Two commercial poultry …

Tom Vilsack deserves a better exit interview than what he gave to Politico’s Jonathan Martin last week. Vilsack came across as irritated, which is familiar enough. The Democrats lost rural …