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Is euthanasia ever morally justifiable? The term euthanasia is derived from two Greek words: eu which means well or good, and thanatos which means death. Many believe that certain kinds of voluntary euthanasia (those instances where a patient does request death or grants permission to be put to death) can be morally justified. The arguments these ethicists present are based on several assumptions. The first may be categorized as “person-hood.” They would argue that someone in an irreversible coma is no longer a person but only a biological organism. The distinction is often made ...

Trump is the Picasso of corruption

Columnists

Trayon White, a member of the city council in the District of Columbia, just walked away from a hung jury in a bribery trial. The facts were kind of wild. Though White admitted to accepting $35,000 in cash from a city contractor (who turned out to be an FBI informant), and the prosecution ...

Round River: Why did the caterpillar cross the road?

Columnists

I SWEAR! I am not distracted driving; I’m just trying to avoid the caterpillars! I have my speech ready in case I get pulled over. For the record, I do not drive recklessly or swerve over the line; I’m just trying to avoid killing every caterpillar that thinks the grass is greener on the ...

Don't fall for the hype — data centers are a lose lose lose

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Supporters and developers of a data center in Marshalltown keep promoting the tax revenues, jobs, and infrastructure boon that a data center will bring to town. These benefits are misleading and short-term at best, but data center expansion should be extremely worrying to anyone looking at ...

Shaggy lawns and free burritos

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My riding lawnmower has been giving me dirty looks when I open the shop doors. Mowing should almost be ending, but like most of you it still seems like June. I need to catch up (again) with my mowing. After an entire month of rain, the trees have hardly begun to turn colors. I was starting ...

FUTURES FILES

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Corn Crushed, Soy Smashed Friday’s USDA crop report showed US corn stockpiles at 1.849 billion bushels, 155 million above earlier estimates. Corn futures fell the limit down but bounced slightly to close down 23 cents on the day and down 20 cents/bushel on the week. This was the largest US corn crop in history. Soybean’s numbers were also quite bearish and took beans down more than 15 cents per bushel midday but then recovered slightly by Friday’s close. Wheat was pulled down by the others despite a relatively small size crop. Food Prices Eat Up Savings Despite the lower prices ...