Happy New Year, or happy new fiscal year that is! July is always an exciting and busy time at the City of Marshalltown as we end one fiscal year and start another. This translates into a lot of work for the Finance Department, as they can now start to prepare for an audit of the year that ...
The legislature adjourned for the year on Sunday, June 14. This year’s session was definitely different than previous years. While we didn’t get to all the legislation we wanted, we were able to accomplish a lot in the time we did have. Before we paused the session in March, the Senate ...
Throughout the Barack Obama years, the Republican Party beat a dead horse, repeatedly trying to kill the Democratic program providing the government-overseen health care plan. Officially, it’s called the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, but the GOP derisively nicknamed it ...
He’s 6’9” tall. When Bobby Quayle (pronounced “Quail”) was in grade school in Mt. Pleasant, he was always the tallest kid in class. That’s one of the reasons he commands attention and respect. The other reason is people instantly like him. He has charisma. Quayle: “Sports ...
Gov. Kim Reynolds says her signature on a COVID-19 immunity bill for businesses and health care facilities that fail to protect their staff and customers or patients represents a “balance.” Reynolds discussed the legislation in response to questions from reporters about the story first ...
Earlier today, I was in the middle of a phone conversation with a young writer when she confessed to being surprised by a particular longing. “I miss seeing my friends,” she said. “We text, and now we sometimes even call each other. It helps to hear their voices, but I miss sitting ...
When I was a young boy, I tried to look ahead in time to what I would become. In 1942, with poverty and war the world over, I was wishing for peace and a good job. Because of my youthfulness it was difficult to see past my years and into the future; perhaps most of it was wishful thinking. ...
As a physician in our community, I am very concerned about the recent guidelines for Return to Learning put forth by the State of Iowa Department of Education that fail to recommend that schools require face masks for all students and staff. There are a few facts that we know: • Personal ...
Cancel culture is exploding across the country, with predictably disastrous effects. First, the statues of the Confederacy started coming down. Even among those who declared this to be justified and overdue, voices warned that it wouldn’t stop there if “removal by riot” were to become the ...
Last week, Senator Ernst bemoaned the lack of support by Democrats for the Republican Policing bill in the U.S. Senate. Democrats said it didn’t go far enough - it didn’t require anything, merely recommended, suggested, encouraged. You know, the same policy that has the U.S. suffering from ...
Eminent domain is the process used to take your private property to be used for what the government determines to be more beneficial. It is what the Iowa Utilities Board has proposed through a rule change, Docket NO. RMU-2020-0028, to make the process of building more industrial wind sites and ...
As we’ve closed out a busy planting season and the legislative session, some harsh economic realities have set in. Agriculture in particular, a sector that employs one in five Iowans, has been hit hard. Half of the biofuels industry was forced offline, which sent shockwaves through our ...
When a tornado tore through Marshalltown in 2018, it left a wake of destruction in the historic central business district. Winds of 144 miles per hour swept through the main square, shattering windows, ripping off roofs, and reducing brick walls to piles of rubble. It was a devastating blow for ...
This is an emergency. Election Day is little more than four months off, voters facing their most important choice since 1860: Donald Trump or America? It’s a decision that will define the future. And millions of us wonder if we’ll get to have our say. Such is the state of things seven ...
For weeks since the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, protests have erupted across the globe. While demonstrations in larger cities have drawn the most attention in the U.S., smaller communities can be — and are — involved in the fight for racial justice. From Medford, Oregon ...
Chipmunks dug up Curt and Ginnie’s bodacious sweetcorn and ate the seed. Grrrr! I did not know that chipmunks, also known as “squinneys,” can destroy a garden. They’re so cute and, I thought, harmless. Oh, they leave holes in a yard, and chase each other around like life is a lark ...
Truly, we live in auspicious times. Those who have sinned will be cast down; those who are sinless will set new social standards for the rest of us. After all, we now live in the only generation ever to produce truly virtuous human beings. What else should we make of the graceless ...
When I was a child, I learned to believe that Americans valued freedom and equality more than any other place on the planet. I learned that, in our criminal justice system, we were innocent until proven guilty. It’s hard to still believe that now. Call me a cynic, but as Independence Day ...
Growing up on a farm, my dad was your “out of the box” thinker. He could build anything out of scrap metal, recycled wood pallets and old doors. Even today, he still has the ability to solve uncommon situations with everyday materials. A recent article by Zero To Three suggests ways that ...
On Thursday, the Supreme Court stopped President Donald Trump from inflicting the devastation that candidate Trump had vowed to inflict on 700,000 young immigrants in this country. This is a temporary reprieve, which makes this another reason why this year’s presidential election is the ...