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Columnists

The Texas floods are a warning: Fund public services

Growing up in Texas, many of my summers were spent at summer church camps just like Camp Mystic, where 27 girls died in the recent flash floods. Over 130 people in central Texas have been confirmed dead overall. Had I been just a few years younger, it’s hard not to feel like I could’ve ...

When waste-cutters miss what looks like, umm, waste

Andy McKean is a charming country lawyer from Anamosa. He grew up in New York and was drawn to Iowa by his family roots. He has owned a bed-and-breakfast, called square dances and played in a dance band named the Scotch Grove Pioneers. His tenure in the Iowa Legislature stretched for nearly 30 ...

Praying that the Camp Mystic families find meaning in the madness

On July 16, 1945, the United States detonated the first nuclear bomb in New Mexico on what’s now the White Sands Missile Range. About 40 miles away from the Trinity test site, a group of girls at a dance camp were thrown from their bunks in the explosion. Thinking a water heater had exploded, ...

Keeping deadly drugs out of our communities

On Wednesday July 16th, I had the privilege of being at the White House when President Trump signed the HALT Fentanyl Act into law. Joined by families who have tragically lost loved ones and children to an overdose, the ceremony was a sobering reminder that too many Americans – especially ...

Eliminating $9 billion of waste in Washington

Over the past decade since my fellow Iowans sent me to Washington to make the big spenders squeal, I’ve been exposing waste, fraud, and abuse almost too insane to believe. This week, I was proud to see some of that work deliver a win for Iowa taxpayers. Both the Senate and House passed the ...

Gathering around the table to build a stronger Marshalltown

When we think of storytelling, we often picture something ordinary — a moment shared across a kitchen table or a memory told beside a campfire. But those small moments carry great power. Storytelling helps us build bridges between communities, preserve culture, share traditions, invite ...