A Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper
Having received a monthly ad magazine from a grocery chain out of Colorado, I was intrigued by an article they included in the July edition. The title of the one page article was “Fighting Erosion & Building Biodiversity, One Prairie Strip at a time.”
Once one gets into the article, it is as much about water quality as it is about erosion and biodiversity. They cite Iowa State research that shows “converting 10% of farmland to prairie strips can reduce soil erosion by 95%.” This practice would also reduce nitrogen run off by 70%, and reduce phosphorus and nitrate loss both over 70%.
It would appear the information has been out there, maybe instead of fence row to fence row, there should be consideration of another way to operate. It even is part of “the USDA’s Conservation Reserve Program,” unless that program has been cut this year?
Here is to more prairie strips on Iowa farms, less erosion and less pollution of our water, one strip of deep roots at a time.
Thom Williams, Pleasant Hill
One has to admire the chutzpah of Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic Socialist candidate for Mayor of NYC, born of “privilege,” who is running on a Socialist agenda. His father is a professor of post-colonial studies at Columbia University, his mother an acclaimed movie director.
No socialism “lite” here, Mamdani is the real deal. He is a proud member of the Democratic Socialists of America. The following is from William Daley, a Democrat who was a commerce secretary and chief of staff in the White House:
“The Democratic Socialists of America seek to defund the police by cutting budgets annually to zero. It wants to disarm law enforcement officers, close jails and free all people from involuntary confinement.”
It calls for social ownership of major industries, and the nationalization of railroads, utilities, tech industries, insurance, real estate and finance.
The DSA would slash military spending, close all military bases, and withdraw from NATO. It would end all illegal alien deportations, abolish ICE, demilitarize the border.
It would allow non-citizens to vote.
The Senate would be abolished.
Interestingly, Trump has beaten them to two of its goals, abolishing the Agency for International Development, and the Voice of America.
Mamdani wants to freeze all regulated rents in NYC. He wants to open up government-run grocery stores.
Mamdani is a Muslim who campaigned heavily in Muslim neighborhoods.
He is an antisemite, who has refused to disavow the slogan, “globalize the intifada.” He wants to arrest Benjamin Netanyahu.
You might think such lunacy wouldn't have legs; you may be wrong. Increasingly younger people, many indoctrinated well in elite universities, are embracing socialism. It appears that is where the Democratic Party may be going, and where the energy and enthusiasm lie. If you look at our largest cities, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Denver, Boston, Seattle, Portland, all run by progressive mayors.
Mamdani may take NYC all the way.
Vic Massara, Omaha, Neb.
America has long had a tendency to adore bad boys, and neglect boring good boys. Nowhere is that tendency more marked than in the American presidency. Take Franklin Pierce, for example. Franklin who?
Nobody remembers or cares anything about Franklin Pierce, our 14th president, who was known as “a modest and honest man.” But do you think people will remember porn-star hush-money, 34 felony president Donald Trump? You bet.
During Pierce’s term there was a nation-shaking constitutional crisis, like today. The new state of Kansas was deeply conflicted about whether to support slavery or condemn it. Pierce refused to send federal troops into Kansas to quell the disturbances there, as Trump is doing in California today.
Pierce was a peacemaker and compromiser, and a believer in state control. He said that federal intervention in state matters would eventually produce a military state of “a vast permanent camp of armed men like the rival monarchies of Europe and Asia.” He said, “It needs little argument to show that the President has no such power.” States, if let alone, “will remedy in due season any such incidents.”
Franklin who?
Kimball Shinkoskey, Woods Cross, Utah
Thank you for the (July 11) report of Raquel Nelson, along with rehabbers, golf-players and good samaritans who volunteered to assist Nelson in her effort to aid young foxes in dire need of care.
It's a heartwarming and sad story at the same time. Wildlife habitat diminishes and wildlife suffers. Nelson learned from her grandpas and is quoted as saying, “I’ve been like this my entire life and they both fed that passion by helping me rescue and fulfill that need to save the weak and needy.”
With time and care, hopefully the rescued foxes will be rehabilitated. Their lives are important too.
Gretchen Reeh-Robinson, Mount Vernon
At a campaign rally in 2016, Trump declared, “I love the poorly educated!”
Nine years later, America is waking up to how seriously he meant this, how diligently he would work to increase the ranks of the poorly educated, and how puppy-dog eager his loyalists would be to enable this love affair with ignorance.
The U.S. Department of Education is half the size it was in January. Layoffs and funding cuts have hit nearly every sector of the department, including federal student aid, civil rights, special education and the disbursement of federal funding.
A few years ago, Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback, after tax cuts blew a hole in his state’s budget, tried to plug it with cuts to essential services like education. Thankfully, the Kansas Supreme Court, not collared by servitude to the executive branch, ruled the cuts unconstitutional and ordered a restoration of education spending.
In contrast, the U.S. Supreme Court has just given Trump a green light to continue gutting the Department of Education, creating even more poorly educated for Trump to love.
Every one of Iowa’s federal legislators remain silent — even Chuck Grassley, whose senate career and the Department of Education were both birthed in 1980.
Clearly, an intervention is needed and the midterms will provide it. Ernst, Miller-Meeks, Hinson and Nunn seek re-election. Just say, “NO!”
Karen Heidman, Sioux City
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