It's odd how a simple arbitrary policy can affect someone's life. Take a school practice, for example; In junior high when all the new sixth grade students from both our town's elementary schools were...
Q: What red flags are catching your attention in the U.S. farm economy?
A: As a lifelong family farmer, I understand Iowa farm families weather the storms of cyclical markets and natural disasters....
Mr. Ryan had blue eyes, black hair and bulging biceps. On Homecoming Day when everyone dressed like Dogpatch characters, he made a perfect Li'l Abner in his bib overalls and ragged straw hat. He was...
Andrea King, Solon Community Housing
• September 25, 2025
The Solon Community Housing Corporation is in the very early stages of a new project called The Windflower, which would provide affordable housing for seniors and people with disabilities. Before anything...
Q: What is the Rural Health Transformation Fund?
A: Congress approved this summer a historic $50 billion federal investment to rebuild rural health infrastructure that was included in the health and...
Miss Hunnicutt could have been a twin to my maternal grandmother. Tiny and energetic, she had the same pixie-like sense of humor, a tendency toward mischief and a hunger to solve mysteries. I never did...
During decades as a journalist, I had countless conversations with interesting people — future presidents, wannabe leaders, governors, business executives, religious thinkers, crooks, and ordinary...
Nell McGowan presided over the teachers and students in the original high school building that housed sixth, seventh and eighth grades. The building consisted of two levels with about half the second...
Even the best salesman would struggle explaining away the reasons for the latest contradiction from the president of the United States.
He believes crime in Washington, D.C., is so out of control that...
I could hardly wait for the first day of kindergarten. I had “visited” school on two separate occasions, both to my older sister's fifth grade classroom. The first visit had included the afternoon...
Randy Evans, Iowa Freedom of Information Council
• September 3, 2025
Government regulates business to protect the health, safety and welfare of the public. That is the theory behind enacting and enforcing regulations, and it is a commendable mission.
But, too often the...
My first real date in high school had been with a boy in the class ahead of ours. Oldest son of a doctor, he was expected to follow in his father's footsteps and enrolled in what was then known as Iowa...
