As a life-long marketer and consumer behavior professor, it’s interesting to observe how people’s opinions change as details of an issue become more apparent. Behavioral change — …

Despite all his accolades and achievements, Dwight D. Eisenhower remained modest and plainspoken. “The proudest thing I can claim” he noted after his triumphant return to the U.S. from …

The woman on the phone from the Mayo Clinic was growing exasperated as she ran through how to sweep up my medical records. “So, you got the CT scan in Storm Lake? And the hormone therapy …

Joni Ernst is a US senator because she understands Iowa voters and speaks their language, cynical as it is. She castrated pigs. Gonna make ’em squeal in DC. Roast and ride a hog. Wear bread …

I had only been to Decorah once, nearly 50 years ago, and Mary had never been there, so on our way back from Out East a couple of weeks ago we passed through the northeast Iowa community. It was a …

If an opinionated old guy from southern Iowa delivered the recent commencement address at the United States Military Academy, my message would have contrasted with the one given by another …

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 …

Christianity began as a cell network. Small pockets of believers gathered to worship and spread the story of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. A few centuries later, Emperor Constantine …

June 6 is the anniversary of D-Day, the invasion of Normandy, France, in 1944. Many events will be held around the country in commemoration. We will hold one here in Storm Lake Friday, June 6, at …

Our admiration goes to the Davids of the world: those who stand up, speak out and fight back, refusing to let the Goliaths intimidate or silence them. A recent example is a story by Clark …

My mother watched six sons leave home to serve in the military. Mom was a great believer in the rosary. As a family we had our rosary half an hour every evening. There were no exceptions. She said we …

For U.S. farmers and ranchers, Thursday, May 22, was right out of a Dickens novel: It was the best of days and the worst of days. Early — and I do mean cow-milking early — that …

In April, I met Nancy, a parent of a disabled child enrolled in Medicaid.  With tears in her eyes, Nancy shared her story with me of her family being forced to deal with roadblocks and red …

“Not sure, we’ll have to wait and see” is a typically Midwestern way of declaring Hell No. What’s the weather have in store? Not sure, we’ll have to wait and see. …

Unless the senate steps in and imposes order, Congress is on track to cleave the coalition that has supported the farm bill and permanently weaken the crop safety net. The Big, Bad Bill passed the …

I’m back in the saddle after taking a hiatus last week so your reporter could attend the graduation of son Justin from Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, DC. It was a very …

Last week, the Pentagon accepted the emir of Qatar’s gift of a Boeing 747, a $400 million bauble donated for our president to enjoy by a monarch whose family has ruled the tiny Mideast nation …

In March, Netflix released Adolescence, a four-part series that was based on real-life events where two young boys, in disparate parts of England, each killed a female peer. While the series creates …

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 …

After graduating from St. Mary’s in 1963, for the summer I got a job as a deckhand on the dredge on Storm Lake. Additionally, after a brief few months at Devry Tech in Chicago, I returned to the dredge …