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EMPTY NEST

Being unable to keep up with a large garden anymore, I laid my latest brainstorm on our landscaper, 22-year old Caden. “Caden,” I said. “Tear out Buddy's dog pen that is right outside our kitchen door—we don't need it now that Buddy's in puppy heaven—and build us a raised garden.” “What kind of raised garden do you want, Curtis, on the ground or on legs?” he asked. “Build it on the ground, out of railroad ties,” I told him. “Two ties long, one tie wide, and three ties high. Fill it with black dirt. Try to get old used railroad ties, where the creosote is about ...

The prosecutor’s dilemma

"That it is better 100 guilty persons should escape, than that one innocent person should suffer." -- Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) The hardest decision a government prosecutor may ever face is also one of the most important tests of the rule of law: What do you do when you believe a crime ...

The system worked in the Cornell 7 case

We've heard it from politicians, celebrities and influencers -- the system failed the accuser in the Cornell 7 case. This near-universal view is advanced with great certainty and a sense of outraged righteousness, but mistaken nonetheless. Based on the information available to them at the ...

How death penalty opponents share the blame for botched executions

"Botched" is a perfectly fine word for golf, cooking, or home repair. It seems inadequate for the taking of a life, even the life of Christa Pike, a heinous murderer. In 1996, a jury found Pike guilty of the torture and murder of her Jobs Corps classmate, Colleen Slemmer. Pike was sentenced to death. In the 30 years since, her case has gone through at least seven major rounds of appeal and judicial review, including four petitions to the Supreme Court. All were rejected. This doesn't even include the many more attempts to reopen or reverse her sentence that went nowhere. She is guilty, ...

The Barker Bulletin: Special session

Last Friday, I returned to Des Moines with my colleagues in the Iowa Legislature for a special session focused on an extraordinary economic development opportunity for our state. President Trump recently announced that Mesabi Metallics plans to build a new steel mill in Iowa. The proposed $15 ...

The attendance snowball: When a few absences become a pattern

If a student missed nearly a full month of school all at once, any parent or teacher would immediately sound the alarm. Yet when school absences are scattered quietly throughout the year, it may not trigger concern. But, what starts as a few absences here and there can quickly snowball into a ...