What is the Page Program? Each year the Iowa Senate, Iowa House of Representatives and Legislative Services Agency employ high school juniors and seniors to serve as Pages for the legislative …

Rob Sand appears to be in tune with a wide swath of Iowans who aren’t happy with the way things are going. Substantial crowds are showing up across the state to hear the state auditor …

Most Storm Lakers already know that I have officially started a write-in campaign for Mayor of Storm Lake. But I think it’s important to follow through with a little more explanation about why …

We’re grateful that Charles Hernandez stepped forward to run for mayor of Storm Lake in the Nov. 4 election. Mayor Mike Porsch has decided on a well-earned retirement but nobody filed …

While we were in Northern California last week for our son’s wedding, we spent a day on a wine-tasting event in Napa, the center of America’s wine country. I am not a wine …

I spoke to two groups in recent weeks, and people at both gatherings wanted to know about the work of the organization I lead, the Iowa Freedom of Information Council. If I had known then what I …

The saga of the Alta library is long, and I have written about it before. Suffice it to say that the library needs a new home. It deserves a new home. The library board has looked at retrofitting …

There’s a reason the phrase listing the Three R’s puts Readin’ first and Ritin’ second. To write competently, you first need to see how to do it. What you’re reading …

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 …

Politicians in Washington, D.C., are getting ready to shut down the federal government once again, despite single-party Republican control of the House, Senate and the Presidency.  This …

While my father and mother were far from apolitical, neither allowed any political signs or flags in the yard or on any barns on our southern Illinois dairy farm. The reason, my father once …

A cardinal rule as elected officials is not to break things — as in, if it isn’t broken, don’t “fix” it — not unlike the medical profession’s Hippocratic …

I have spent decades in healthcare, both in clinical settings and in policymaking, and one thing has become crystal clear to me: the best solutions for rural Iowa’s healthcare challenges come …

When they soak you for the fare, the airline tells you that one bag is allowed on board. False. “We’re checking that bag. The flight is too crowded. You can collect it at …

The City of Storm Lake has formed a water study committee to help determine how to manage increasing water demand with a faltering treatment system. Its most useful work should be to sort out what is …

If you dear readers wondered why this column did not appear in last week’s Times Pilot, Mary and I were in Northern California for the marriage of our son Justin to a wonderful woman, Piper …

Dear readers, Grab your guitars and join in the sing-along to the tune of Carly Simon's "Anticipation"   We can never know about the storm to come But we know it will come …

Last March, six months ago, Congress averted an impending federal government shutdown by reaching a bipartisan compromise, which extended the government funding deadline by six months, to the end of …

Maybe the reason you see black when people see white or you say “down” when they say “up” is because — in these troubling times — black is white and up is …

In my Senior year while Sr. Dominica was the music director, Ed Bodaken, a previous graduate from St. Mary’s and a college graduate, returned as an assistant to Sr. Dominica. That year he was put in charge of …