Last week was the sixth week of the legislative session, and we remain focused on our work as we are only a couple weeks out from our first legislative deadline of the year. On Tuesday, the Iowa …

A combination of factors is driving property tax increases in Storm Lake. The state has been shifting the tax burden from income to property for years. We are paying off construction bonds for a …

President Donald Trump and DOGE top gun Elon Musk have been in power for a month. How have they changed life in Greene County? Probably not much — yet. Musk has ordered the firing of …

A year ago, I didn't think that I would see this. The President of the U.S. has thrown Ukraine under the bus. Do you understand (perhaps you don’t get it) that Putin’s goal is …

On Tuesday, Feb. 18, the Iowa House Agriculture Committee passed House Study Bill 131 by a bipartisan vote of 21-1. HSB 131 makes a number of modernizing changes to the state grain indemnity …

They put the oxygen mask over my face whereupon I reeled into my Hail Marys and probably an imperfect Act of Contrition. I went dark. I woke up in the University of Iowa Hospital with a …

Iowa’s private colleges have enough troubles without the state legislature piling on. They are major components of our economy, and the death of Iowa Wesleyan in Mount Pleasant is a grim …

Over the past few years there has been a huge increase of attention to math and science in our schools. That’s all well and good, but it seems like it’s been to the detriment of the …

When Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and their pals set their quill pens to parchment to write the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, Decatur County, Iowa, was still a half century off in the …

How to resist, Part 2 Iowans have been flooding the phone lines of our congressional representatives and reporting on a Facebook group that the staffers have been testy, if not downright rude. …

With the creation of the Department of Government Efficiency, and the unprecedentedly disruptive actions taken by DOGE and President Trump in the name of government efficiency, one agency in …

Thank you to Mike Frantz for his excellent letter to the editor (Feb. 12) encouraging  volunteer service with the Red Cross.  The congregation I serve hosted the Red Cross shelter for those …

President Trump and senior administration officials reportedly are frustrated with the pace of immigrant deportations. Border “czar” Thomas Homan reported Feb. 11 that just 14,000 …

Donald Trump pledged repeatedly that he would lower food costs on Day One — Jan. 20. Instead, egg prices shot up 15% last month. Since Trump was sworn in as president, Waffle House added an egg …

In the aftermath of a home fire in which they lost everything, the victims weren’t immediately concerned about their next meal, how to get a change of clothes, where to sleep that night, or how …

The Modern Ag Alliance has been running full page ads in the Des Moines Register claiming that “Farmers need your support” regarding “certainty around pesticide labeling …

Last week the House Health and Human Services Committee advanced 15 bills out of committee to address mental health, parental consent, and childcare. Psychiatric Deterioration — House File …

The best bill the Iowa Legislature might pass this session will protect your free-speech rights and is sponsored by two of the most conservative politicians: Rep. Steve Holt of Denison and Sen. Jason …

I had gone years without suffering the indignities of the common cold, attributing it to superior genetics and clean living. Turns out I was just lucky. Last week it caught up to me. After …

I’ve been thinking a lot about what resistance looks like, and it’s easy to think about heroic characters. “The Hiding Place” by Corrie Ten Boom tells the …