While gathered around the picnic table, sipping coffee after a bike ride on one of those few warm March days, conversation with friends was flowing. No topics are off limits with this group so when we started discussing gender, race and equality we all became highly engaged.
Back in the day when “Saturday Night Live” was funny, Chevy Chase would open the “Weekend Update” segment by saying, “I’m Chevy Chase ... and you’re not.”
At first, I thought it must be a typo: A bill in the Iowa Senate moved out of subcommittee last week with the votes of far-right Republican Sen. Jim Carlin and Iowa City progressive Sen. Joe Bolkcom.
April is National Poetry Month, and we are celebrating accordingly at the library.
Christian Butler will go to almost any length to help send underprivileged kids to summer camp.
The historic election challenge in Iowa’s 2nd District has come to the underwhelming conclusion everyone saw coming.
I saw it as I was driving to work on Thursday last week: a red, shimmering something floating in the air. It grabbed my attention, so I pulled over and took a walk.
The Iowa Supreme Court chamber is a magnificent venue for the seven justices who referee the thorniest legal questions in our state.
Iowa is among the many states that has become a cesspool of idiocracy since the 2020 election. We had a great election season, urging people to vote, and the numbers were incredible. But now, Iowa’s GOP is changing that thanks to a new law that shortens the closing time of voting from 9 p.m.…
West Virginia is unique among America’s 50 states. At a convention in Wheeling, Virginia, in 1861, delegates from Virginia’s northwest counties, which were loyal to the Union, voted to break away from that state over the issue of slavery and their refusal to be part of the Confederate states.
Many years ago, during a conversation with an old lawyer, he made a comment I still remember: “You can sue the bishop of Boston for bastardy, but that doesn’t mean you are going to collect.”
Bernard Malamud, author of The Natural, is quoted as saying, “We have two lives... the life we learn with and the life we live after that.”
I’m looking forward to Easter this year for so many reasons. Number one is that my oldest son will be visiting. We haven’t seen him in person since November 2019. He is a nurse in Chicago, and he’s spent the last year working in close contact with many COVID-19 patients. My in-laws also will…
The actions of journalists and police officers were in the spotlight last week in a Des Moines courtroom.
National Agriculture Day, March 23, could be a good time to pause and reflect on a farm economy, and more importantly, a food supply system that has been buffeted by everything from unstable supply chains and shortages, weather extremes to retaliatory tariffs and a world-wide health challeng…
If the Iraq War were a person, it would have to register for the draft by now but still wouldn’t be old enough to buy beer or marijuana. This week marks 18 years since the United States started dropping bombs near Baghdad.
Iowa Republican lawmakers, as you’ve read in this space, have been so terribly concerned about the First Amendment this year that some are willing to destroy Iowa’s state universities and potentially harm business recruitment to make a point about free speech.
In a surprise to absolutely no one, former President Donald Trump used his first post-presidency speech to rehash mistruths about the 2020 election.
Tucked away among hundreds of bills being considered this year by the Iowa Legislature is one people might have quickly embraced in a different era.
Six weeks ago, Americans were assured that Donald Trump had left the presidency disgraced and forever ruined politically.
“Mankind will never see an end of trouble until … Lovers of wisdom come to hold political power, or holders of power … become lovers of wisdom.”
Two different Clinton residents came within moments of losing tens of thousands of dollars in two separate elaborately structured tech support scams last week.
Some Iowa leaders are looking for a new slogan to welcome travelers to our state.
When we bought three newspapers in Eastern Iowa more than six years ago, our goal was to be nonpartisan.
Iowa’s 2020 election was one for the record books – with 1.7 million people marking ballots.
The Iowa GOP is the party of big local government.
A tiny rural district in Iowa, some years ago, before the mandate.
My COVID fatigue has me dreaming – quite literally – of warmer days ahead. The melted snow in the parking lot and the warm sun beaming from the blue sky fill my heart with hope that soon the outdoor adventures can begin again. I’ve already taken my bike to the shop for its annual tune-up so …
I never viewed baseball legend Henry Aaron as a civil rights icon. In the late 1950s and 1960s, when Aaron was hitting home runs and chasing fly balls for the Milwaukee Braves, I compared him to Willie Mays, Roberto Clemente, Mickey Mantle — other hard-hitting outfielders at the time — not w…
The Jackson County Jail has been failing state inspections since 2014, and eventually, our community will suffer if nothing is done.
Gov. Kim Reynolds’ message for Iowans has been consistent since the coronavirus pandemic arrived a year ago:
Through the years, the Iowa Legislature has chosen an official state flower and a state bird. There’s also a state tree and even an official rock.
I was talking on the telephone with my older sister the other day.
Jackson County residents have been engaged in a conversation about a new county law enforcement center for the past several years. As property taxpayers, the Jackson County Farm Bureau Board of Directors has been monitoring the ongoing discussion and provided input at various opportunities. …
Should the Republican Party of Iowa be prohibited from discrimination against Democrats in its hiring practices? Should the NRA’s local chapter be forced to hire a gun-control advocate who otherwise qualifies for the job? Should presidential candidates running in the Iowa caucuses run afoul …
Editor’s note: The Jackson County Prevention Coalition is part of the Alliance of Coalitions for Change.
A cord of red oak firewood, fresh cut and green, can weigh over 5,000 pounds. That’s estimating moisture content at 40-45%. Give it six months to a year to dry under a roof and it will be almost 1,400 pounds lighter.
The Jackson County Regional Health Center will open the doors to their new facility on the south end of Maquoketa in March of this year. The project, a $36.8 million undertaking over the span of five years from planning through construction, will serve as the center for critical healthcare s…
As school started up again earlier this month, I have noticed an increase in engagement of family therapy services with the clients I have seen. Whether this be due to remote learning, working from home, being in the same space with one another for the large part of the past year, or a combi…
The purpose was pretty simple when the Iowa Legislature wrote the state’s public meetings law many years ago:
Forty-five words that were first written with a quill pen 230 years ago form what may be the most consequential sentence in United States history.
On Jan. 21, 2021, Joe Biden was sworn in to be our 46th president. The event made history, for many different reasons. A worldwide pandemic is going on, the Washington, D.C., Capitol was stormed just two weeks beforehand, and the first female vice-president was elected in the United States.
We have a crisis of credulity in this country. We’ve become a nation of dupes. The inability of far too many Americans to separate fact from fantasy, and the people who are eager to take advantage of that failure, are the root of the rot in our country.
While many of us are happy to say goodbye to 2020, it’s still fun to look back at the highlights.
Want to learn more about yourself? Note your Google searches for a week — that’s what I did.
I was a kid from small-town Iowa when I first laid eyes on the United States Capitol.
Iowa Republican lawmakers, as you’ve read in this space, have been so terribly concerned about the First Amendment this year that some are willing to destroy Iowa’s state universities and potentially harm business recruitment to make a point about free speech.
In a surprise to absolutely no one, former President Donald Trump used his first post-presidency speech to rehash mistruths about the 2020 election.
Tucked away among hundreds of bills being considered this year by the Iowa Legislature is one people might have quickly embraced in a different era.
Six weeks ago, Americans were assured that Donald Trump had left the presidency disgraced and forever ruined politically.
“Mankind will never see an end of trouble until … Lovers of wisdom come to hold political power, or holders of power … become lovers of wisdom.”
Two different Clinton residents came within moments of losing tens of thousands of dollars in two separate elaborately structured tech support scams last week.
Some Iowa leaders are looking for a new slogan to welcome travelers to our state.
When we bought three newspapers in Eastern Iowa more than six years ago, our goal was to be nonpartisan.
Iowa’s 2020 election was one for the record books – with 1.7 million people marking ballots.
The Iowa GOP is the party of big local government.
A tiny rural district in Iowa, some years ago, before the mandate.
My COVID fatigue has me dreaming – quite literally – of warmer days ahead. The melted snow in the parking lot and the warm sun beaming from the blue sky fill my heart with hope that soon the outdoor adventures can begin again. I’ve already taken my bike to the shop for its annual tune-up so …
I never viewed baseball legend Henry Aaron as a civil rights icon. In the late 1950s and 1960s, when Aaron was hitting home runs and chasing fly balls for the Milwaukee Braves, I compared him to Willie Mays, Roberto Clemente, Mickey Mantle — other hard-hitting outfielders at the time — not w…
The Jackson County Jail has been failing state inspections since 2014, and eventually, our community will suffer if nothing is done.
Gov. Kim Reynolds’ message for Iowans has been consistent since the coronavirus pandemic arrived a year ago:
Through the years, the Iowa Legislature has chosen an official state flower and a state bird. There’s also a state tree and even an official rock.
I was talking on the telephone with my older sister the other day.
Jackson County residents have been engaged in a conversation about a new county law enforcement center for the past several years. As property taxpayers, the Jackson County Farm Bureau Board of Directors has been monitoring the ongoing discussion and provided input at various opportunities. …
Should the Republican Party of Iowa be prohibited from discrimination against Democrats in its hiring practices? Should the NRA’s local chapter be forced to hire a gun-control advocate who otherwise qualifies for the job? Should presidential candidates running in the Iowa caucuses run afoul …
Editor’s note: The Jackson County Prevention Coalition is part of the Alliance of Coalitions for Change.
A cord of red oak firewood, fresh cut and green, can weigh over 5,000 pounds. That’s estimating moisture content at 40-45%. Give it six months to a year to dry under a roof and it will be almost 1,400 pounds lighter.
The Jackson County Regional Health Center will open the doors to their new facility on the south end of Maquoketa in March of this year. The project, a $36.8 million undertaking over the span of five years from planning through construction, will serve as the center for critical healthcare s…
As school started up again earlier this month, I have noticed an increase in engagement of family therapy services with the clients I have seen. Whether this be due to remote learning, working from home, being in the same space with one another for the large part of the past year, or a combi…
The purpose was pretty simple when the Iowa Legislature wrote the state’s public meetings law many years ago:
Forty-five words that were first written with a quill pen 230 years ago form what may be the most consequential sentence in United States history.
On Jan. 21, 2021, Joe Biden was sworn in to be our 46th president. The event made history, for many different reasons. A worldwide pandemic is going on, the Washington, D.C., Capitol was stormed just two weeks beforehand, and the first female vice-president was elected in the United States.
We have a crisis of credulity in this country. We’ve become a nation of dupes. The inability of far too many Americans to separate fact from fantasy, and the people who are eager to take advantage of that failure, are the root of the rot in our country.
While many of us are happy to say goodbye to 2020, it’s still fun to look back at the highlights.
Want to learn more about yourself? Note your Google searches for a week — that’s what I did.
I was a kid from small-town Iowa when I first laid eyes on the United States Capitol.
Economic stimulus payments authorized by legislation passed by Congress and signed into law by the president on Dec. 27, started direct depositing into banks accounts on December 29.
Through history, the decisions by our presidents to issue pardons and commutations have always been topics of controversy.
Last Wednesday, a mob incited by President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol during a joint session of Congress convened to carry out the task of certifying the results of the Nov. 3 general election. The loss of five lives and the desecration to “the people’s house,” our highest institu…
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