A family acquaintance was on Vice President Dick Cheney’s Secret Service detail during George W. Bush’s presidency. His Christmas photo one year was a portrait of him, his wife and Cheney together...

Clear the shelters, they tell us. Adopt an abandoned or abused animal. Donate to pay for the care of animals someone else has mistreated or didn't want to be responsible for. What's wrong with this...

As an artist, I've always loved October for its brilliant colors. The sky seems bluer, and it actually is. Ripening fruit and dying leaves add brilliant contrasts of yellow, gold, red and orange against...

Over 50 years ago, there was a small grove of poplar trees on the corner of Hazelwood Avenue and Rohret Road in southwest Johnson County. Once, coming home at sunset, I saw that grove turn a brilliant...

I wonder if school children are still as misinformed as my generation was about the discovery of America - why our native people are called Indians, and a number of other mysterious inconsistencies. In...

Thirty-three years ago on a snowy Friday in November, the nightmare of mass school shootings shocked Iowa like it has never been shocked before. It was 3:40 p.m. A former University of Iowa graduate...

I guess I've known for most of my life that time is relative. To a four-year-old, four years is in fact a lifetime. To a college student, it's the fleeting memories of high school days. To the couple...

If you've read this column for more than a few weeks, you must be aware that I blame the advertising community for some of the things that are going wrong in this world. Some of the reasons I do that...

WASHINGTON, DC — Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) joined Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) on a bill to hold the Veterans Affairs Department (VA) accountable for running a $3 billion deficit on its 2024 fund...

For more than 100 years, the League of Women Voters of Johnson County, Iowa has been a grassroots organization dedicated to empowering voters. The League is a trusted source of objective information...

As Iowans have come to expect of this Senator, in August, I finished my annual 99 county meetings, holding at least one Q&A meeting in every county across my home state. I’ve kept this tradition...

I have fielded a bunch of emails, text messages and phone calls in the days since the school shooting in Winder, Georgia. Each one is from Perry, Iowa. Each one had the same question for me and the...