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My hope is that by sharing these stories, we can all get to know our community a little better. I feel thankful to have met so many amazing people in the Storm Lake area who are working hard to build better lives. They are truly remarkable, and I believe their stories deserve to be shared. So, here is the fourth:
We often think we know our neighbors. But how well do we really understand the journeys that brought them here? Some stories are full of joy. Others are marked by loss and challenge. All of them can help us see each other with more understanding. It’s easy to believe the struggles we see on TV, or hear about in the news, only happen far away. But many of those same struggles affect people right here in our community.
The details in this story are changed to protect privacy, but the person is real. They might be standing next to you at the store or waiting in line for coffee. My purpose in sharing these stories is to help us connect with, and feel connected to, the people around us. After all, I believe that when we know each other’s stories, it is harder to hate or harm one another.
Our fourth neighbor’s story begins in another state, where she was born. It was her idea to move back to her then-boyfriend’s home state after he lost his job in Georgia — a decision that ultimately brought her to Iowa. Before that move, much of her childhood and young adulthood were marked by frequent relocations caused by unpaid bills. She estimates that she attended approximately 25 schools, including public schools, homeschool programs, community schools and a vocational-technical program focused on automotive studies.
These frequent moves were closely tied to her mother’s mental health challenges, which contributed to financial instability and made it difficult to remain in one place for more than two years at a time. As a result, her education was inconsistent, and she struggled to find a sense of belonging.
She was placed in foster care at ages three and four and was later turned over to the state of Virginia at age 15. Eventually, her grandmother, who lived in California, stepped in and provided a more stable home environment. During this time, she learned that she has multiple disabilities, both visible and invisible. Because of her disrupted education, these disabilities went undiagnosed for years, leaving her academically behind her peers. While she ultimately decided that traditional schooling was not the right fit for her, she always recognized education as a pathway to long-term stability.
Determined not to repeat the cycle she experienced, she focused on building a stable foundation for her own family. She prioritized paying bills, maintaining housing stability, and fostering healthy relationships, including positive connections with her ex-husbands. She also sought and accepted support for her disabilities — an important step in navigating daily life and engaging with social systems. Above all, she instilled in her children the value of education. She is proud that her daughter will graduate this spring and that her son went on to college, completing his studies at Universal Technical Institute. Like her daughter, she recently made the decision to return to school herself.
On her first day back in a classroom at the age 45, she was anxious. She worried she would be judged or looked at differently by her classmates, as she had been earlier in her life. Encouraged by family and friends, she returned despite concerns that others might not understand her accommodation needs or her life experiences. While confident in her beliefs and values, she was fully aware that not everyone sees the world the same way and wondered whether her classmates would be accepting of difference. What she has come to learn is that people can surprise you, and that appearances or ways of speaking do not determine someone’s openness to difference or new experiences.
Her long-term goal is to improve her family’s future through education. She hopes to work in the computer technology field and is currently working toward earning her high school diploma then college. With the goal of graduating this spring.
She is our neighbor.
Sarah E. Schoper, Storm Lake
I understand there is a growing job market in Artificial Intelligence What a great opportunity for Democrats and CNN reporters who have already displayed skills in this area.
Brad Strader, Storm Lake
WolfTornabane’s editorial is extraordinary because it reveals plainly the cognitive dissonance of life in this moment. The American government acts dishonestly, violently, as imperialists, colonizers, renegade pirates. “It’s clear they do not value human life, and it is time for removal before more damage is done”(page 10B).
To illustrate, Kristi Noem throws out this nugget, telling Democratic leaders in Minneapolis to “act like people who are responsible, who want people to be safe and the right thing to be done” (Noem speaking on CNN). What Noem has done is attribute to others what actually applies to herself. Trump is notorious for the same rhetoric. In accusing others, they are describing exactly what they themselves are doing.
Gretchen Reeh-Robinson, Mount Vernon
It’s the beginning of yet another session of the Iowa Legislature with the unresolved issue of eminent domain for CO2 pipelines frustrating legislators and landowners, alike. Numerous bills to address the problem were introduced during the past four sessions, but only one made its way to the Governor’s desk. Nevertheless, Gov. Kim Reynolds vetoed that bill, HF-639, with a stroke of her pen.
The Governor argued the bill was too broad and would hinder other utility projects while threatening Iowa’s economy. Reynolds said she wanted “a clean bill.” To that end, we propose the Property Rights Protection Bill which would simply prohibit the use of eminent domain for carbon dioxide pipelines.
Privately-owned companies build CO2 pipelines solely for profit. They are not a public utility because they are not used by the general public. Unlike water, electricity, and telephones, the public isn’t waiting excitedly for CO2 to reach their homes. CO2 pipelines do not meet the constitutional requirement of public necessity to invoke the use of eminent domain.
The Property Rights Protection Bill does not affect any pipeline infrastructure other than carbon dioxide pipelines. This bill does not ban CO2 pipelines from Iowa, nor does it prohibit Summit and other companies from building them. The proposal simply disallows the use of eminent domain to build carbon dioxide pipelines in this state.
With the safety net of this bill, property rights will be protected, and landowners will not be forced into eminent domain easements when they do not want a CO2 pipeline on their land. Negotiations will be fairer when landowners can say, “No,” without the threat of eminent domain tipping the scales in favor of the pipeline company.
Some state senators support a bill to widen the corridor (the land the pipeline company might potentially use for the project) from one-half mile to 10 miles either side of the proposed route. This, they say, will solve the problem because Summit will have a broader area in which to find landowners willing to sign voluntary easements.
This may be true, but a wider corridor does not protect property rights. For example, if one landowner along the route does not want to sign, but all the neighbors in both directions have signed, how likely would it be for Summit to re-route 10 miles out of the way to accommodate this landowner? A bill to prohibit the use of eminent domain for CO2 pipelines should be the legislature’s top priority.
Landowners with property targeted for eminent domain have been living in limbo with this threat looming for over five years. We have been unable to make plans for our land or the future. It’s time for the Iowa legislature to do the right thing and pass the bill requested by Governor Reynolds. A clean bill: No eminent domain for carbon dioxide pipelines. Protect property rights in Iowa.
Bonnie Ewoldt, Milford, targeted landowner in Crawford County
After posing as a pacifist to get elected, our president has revealed his true colors: blood red and black gold. He is carrying out military action in Venezuela first, Colombia next, and Cuba, Mexico, Greenland, and Iran not far away. He is in a hurry. He must work before America and Congress wake up.
Peace through strength presidents of the past like George W. Bush increased defense spending in the range of 6-7% a year. Trump is demanding a 50% increase in the defense budget for 2027. He is threatening war contractors like Raytheon who are too slow in amping up production.
He changed the name of the Defense Department to the War Department. He installed a Pentagon secretary who speaks about nothing but “lethality” and “war fighters.”
He has announced a new doctrine of force, control and retribution he calls the Don-roe Doctrine that says he can kill and pillage at will in the Americas.
He says, “I can do anything I wanna do. I’m the President.”
Welcome to your worst nightmare America.
Kimball Shinkoskey, Woods Cross, Utah
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