For years and years, Republicans demanded increased border security before there could be any comprehensive immigration reform. A bipartisan group of senators delivered on those demands with a border …

O ne of the fallacies of politics these days is the notion of simple solutions. Regardless of whether the problem is immigration, the homeless, gun ownership or transgender people, too many leaders …

Buena Vista County’s 27% health insurance rate increase is the latest example of what’s wrong with our system. Much of the increase is driven by expensive drugs needed for a relatively few …

Congressional leaders for more than four months have been negotiating a major agreement to fund military aid for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan; provide humanitarian aid to people in a number of nations …

How much longer can we wait for our elected officials to act? Please don't let them continue to ignore you and the mandate that Iowa voters overwhelmingly gave them in 2010. In 2010 63% of …

On behalf of the subcommittee, thank you to the 82+ people who attended the marina property public meeting on Jan. 25. The turnout was better than expected, with quite a few new faces in attendance. …

A congenital optimist, or so he claimed on social media, had turned to despair over the superficiality of our politics and civic life. I know the feeling — the despair part. The Iowa Legislature is …

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources obviously doesn’t know what it wants to do with the Storm Lake Marina. One day the state says it wants to deed over the property to the county except for …

We finished up the fourth week of this year’s session, and remained as busy as ever as we worked on several major priorities in the legislature. It was a pleasure to meet with students from …

Fifty years ago, we put students before politics and the AEAs were created with the help of Senator Chuck Grassley, through bipartisanship, to create equal opportunities for all students, so that …

These days, with political campaigns that seem to go on forever, Iowans may not recognize the significance of what occurred at polling places across the state on Nov. 5, 1968. Voters approved an …

You have to admire Ready, Set, Grow daycare for its determination. It is seeking a different site after its operation in the old Alta High School flooded. The volunteer operation has been beset with …

As a result of the governor’s proposed reforms to Area Education Agencies, the AEAs have been a very hot topic so far this session. At this point, the governor’s office has stated that an …

Rural historian Keith Orejel of Wilmington College in Ohio presented a compelling series of charts recently on X (Twitter) that illustrate the decline of manufacturing and failure to recover from the …

When clumsy attempts at capital punishment proved too obviously cruel and inhumane, Alabama officials came upon a better way to kill people: gas them with nitrogen. Last Wednesday, prison officials …

I know there isn’t anything I would write or say that will change the way you think or believe.  Scripture speaks of truth. It also speaks of wisdom. Most of what you write shows very …

The presidential election of 2024 will in all probability be decided in the usual fashion, with a candidate receiving a majority of the electoral votes declared the winner. That’s the way it’s …

Our dim hope for a border bill was, predictably, quashed when Donald Trump piled on late last week. Blame it on me, Trump wished. Yet another bipartisan Senate compromise on immigration falls by the …

Texas defied the authority of the US Supreme Court by moving to install more razor wire in the Rio Grande River after the court ruled 5-4 last week that federal authorities could remove the deadly …

I’m not a big professional football fan, but I have been following the Kansas City Chiefs for the past few years, long before it became fashionable with Taylor Swift fans. I probably got …