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...

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...

It makes me feel hopeless to have a Senator like Chuck Grassley, stuck in the mud of ignorance for decades. His recent editorial in The Solon Economist is just one example, writing that those of us...

My mother owned three cedar chests. The first was built by her father from solid cedar wood, plain but beautiful in it's simple lines and glossy finish. Meant as a hope chest, in those days, intended...

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 modern-day lesson on...

One of my earliest memories of food preservation involves helping get peaches ready for canning. (That was before we had our home freezer, and I still prefer canned peaches to frozen ones in spite of...

Macbride Pointe (currently 26 homes) wants to hook onto Solon’s water to resolve its arsenic issue – illegally discharging its treated water into Lake Macbride. The developers knew about this problem...

Raising a family is no easy task, but it shouldn’t bankrupt you. As both a parent and grandparent, I’ve seen how much harder it is for Iowa families to afford housing, groceries, and especially child...

When Kim Reynolds gave her big annual speech at the beginning of the year, she told Iowans that “the condition of our state is strong” and that “childcare has been a longstanding priority for my...

Until I was about ten years old, nearly every birthday and Christmas brought at least one coloring book, paper dolls to cut out or other “activity” book. One rather short-lived version consisted...

Like many of you, I understand what it feels like to lead in a world that rarely slows down. The demands of daily operations (urgent emails, packed calendars, and the constant pull of the immediate)...