At the age of nine when we moved to Storm Lake, it seems the fun of growing up got a supercharged lift. Yes, there were fun times in Ute, Iowa, where I was born, but here I never would have …

The Iowa Public Retirement System is the largest public retirement system in Iowa. There's been a lot of talk about IPERS and the recommendations by the DOGE committee. I have publicly said I do not …

First, a little Trump-USDA history. After U.S. Department of Agriculture researchers “published and funded objective analyses of issues such as climate change, the efficiency of food …

Please excuse my slutty self-promotion, but a book by Art Cullen will be released in late September. Dear Marty, We Crapped In Our Nest: Notes from the Edge of the World is scheduled to be …

Mike Porsch is a good guy. Straight and honest. Diligent. Friendly. Porsch has served as mayor of Storm Lake for eight years, and for eight years before that he was a city councilman. Porsch is …

I’m surprised at how many readers have asked me about my tomatoes this year. Actually, no one has asked me, and that doesn’t really surprise me. But I’ll tell you about them …

It had been months, but I sent another letter to Randy Feenstra, my Congressional Representative (I-04), and he once again added me to his email list. I don’t usually read his missives, but a …

American pundits are prone to designate their immediate time period, whenever it happens to be, as a “turning point.” When the political situation balances on a knife’s edge, as it …

During Hitler’s reign and now under Putin, people were, and now are, encouraged to spy on their neighbors and colleagues at work and report them to the government. In Eastern Europe, during the …

The non-partisan Common Sense Institute Iowa recently issued a report on our state’s worsening “brain drain.” The data are alarming. In 2024, among the 50 states, Iowa had the seventh highest …

The month of August is widely recognized as the ideal time for relaxation and rejuvenation. America’s 435 House of Representatives started their summer recess on July 25 while our 100 …

On the southern Illinois farm of my youth, August always meant heat, humidity, and the best food of the year. While we rarely suffered silently through August's steamy weeks, we usually ate our …

We’re walking across the Iowa Women of Achievement Bridge over the roiling muddy river in downtown Des Moines when Sarah Booz says she is bailing if the midterm elections go sour. She has …

It isn’t often that over 1,000 Iowans will gather on a summer’s Monday evening to learn about nitrogen, phosphorous and water. Something is in the air. People filled Sheslow Auditorium at …

President Donald Trump seized control this week of the Washington, DC, police force, ordering the military and FBI to patrol the streets to stop a supposed crime wave in our nation’s capital. …

Lyman Dillon resides in the dusty recesses of Iowa history for his role in 1839 in one of Iowa’s earliest infrastructure projects. Dillon’s work also figures indirectly in a …

If you’ve ever watched “Better Call Saul” (a great show, by the way), you’ll remember that the main character, Jimmy McGill, aka Saul Goodman, had a brother, Charles …

The Democratic presidential nomination appears to be wide open today. No shortage of obvious hopefuls, with another batch who are probably mulling it over. More will pop their heads up in the weeks …

For sure, 60th high school class reunions are special events.  Quite possibly, a 60th is more significant than a 50th or 40th reunion because the number of potential attendees would have …

Kudos to Joan Zwagerman’s Aug. 8 column about the current state of political differences. In another life, when I had an op-ed column years ago, I wrote that a centrist movement …