Breaking News

What happened to Marshalltown’s data center ordinance?

I've spent a lot of time over the last few days going back through Marshalltown's data center ordinance process. Not just the current ordinance. I went back through the Planning and Zoning packets, the different drafts, the public listening sessions, the meeting minutes and the changes that ...

Voters lose when journalists don’t push for candidates’ tax returns

Iowa voters have spent this fall hearing two men who want to be the next governor call each other rich, rootless and dishonest. What Iowans have not seen, however, are documents that would settle much of the argument. Neither Zach Lahn nor Rob Sand has released his tax returns, and Iowa ...

ASK AUGUSTINE

Should churches be celebrating Reformation Day, which is on Oct. 31? I have a mixed reactions to celebrating Reformation Day. I’m disappointed that most Protestants and Catholics have no more idea of what the Reformation was about than they could explain the Theory of Relativity. This, no doubt, is because few churches today bother to teach about Reformation Day. Yet it is a significant historic event. It was on Oct. 31, 1517 an Augustinian monk, Martin Luther nailed his 95 thesis to the church door in Wittenberg as an invitation to scholars in the church to debate those issues. What ...

FUTURES FILES

Pork Market Meltdown The breath-taking crash in the hog futures was caused by a sudden realization of supply of large hogs coming to market and not finding buyers. Brazilian pork output and exports have been large and are expected to keep growing. Though the extent this could continue is not known, there were precedents only old-timer hog producers can remember. In 1998, for example, cash hog prices fell roughly 75% with some communities seeing a drop to near zero due to the supply glut. Here in Indiana, for example, your author recalls home-made signs on State Highway 41 giving away ...

Skeletons, broken bricks and cheeseburgers

This coming week, the old Keen Edge brick building along Madison/Nevada Street should be demolished. Our Housing Department and City Administrator plus other staff has helped this project along. The owner of the property is taking the building down and paying all costs to do so. Good for them, ...