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Columnists

St. Patrick’s Day pranks

St. Patrick’s Day is one of my favorite “Special Occasion Days” like April Fools and Friday the 13th. I like to play pranks on these days. Actually, as I write this, it is Friday the 13th. Hmm, what kind of a prank can I pull today? Last year on St. Patrick’s Day I had an appointment ...

District 53 Newsletter from Rep. Dean Fisher

This week, Iowa House Republicans in the Ways and Means Committee passed House Study Bill 596, our property tax bill. The committee amended the bill to reflect the feedback we’ve gotten from Iowans and it includes pieces from the Senate Republicans’ and the Governor’s property tax ...

Des Moines hides details of costly settlement with police chief candidate

City leaders in Des Moines are making it difficult to understand why they selected the new police chief, considering how they have imposed a code of silence about their recent $975,000 payout to one of the candidates who did not get the job. The payout and, even worse, the sealed lips are ...

Haymow hoop dreams

March Madness has begun and I can truly say this is my favorite time of the entire year. I grew up with a love of basketball that began in the early 1970’s on our small hobby farm located 30 minutes south of the state capital in Madison. Our large gambrel style barn was a working barn that ...

Rural America needs to band together against corporate greed

Last year, John Deere announced plans to go 100 percent robotic by 2030. That’s right: in just four more years, the world’s largest tractor manufacturer plans to replace every corn and soybean farmer with robots. Farmers won’t own the machines, of course. Right now they can’t even ...