Last week the Federal Emergency Management Agency announced it would not be providing individual assistance to Marshalltown and its residents hit hardest by the July 19 tornado. The news left a sour taste for many who wondered how FEMA came to its decision. Did the agency leaders not see the ...
We take our role in documenting history very seriously. Starting minutes after the July 19 tornado tore through Marshalltown, we’ve been keeping our community informed about the breadth of the devastation and recovery efforts. We’ve also thought long and hard about how best to capture this ...
Marshalltown has the chance to make lemonade out of lemons. The tornado destroyed downtown as we knew it, but it also opened a chance for rebuilding and rebranding. A community’s downtown is a key indicator of its success. A flourishing, vibrant, visually-appealing downtown makes life ...
November and December tend to be a time of giving and generosity. People make philanthropic donations, volunteer their time, give food items and initiate supply drives. So many organizations in our communities are worthy of donations as they work on any variety of issues to help those less ...
News that UnityPoint Health - Marshalltown would be eliminating its intensive care unit was another indicator of the cyclical issues the local hospital has faced. Simplistically, when businesses don’t make money, they can’t sustain all of their resources and when consumers believe an ...
Political ads, campaign stunts and election surveys are finished for the time being. Now, it’s time for action. The residents of Marshall County expect our elected officials at the local, state and national level to work tirelessly on our behalf for the issues that matter most to us. We not ...
Historically, voter turnout is always higher during presidential elections. From a magnitude perspective, it makes sense — it’s the highest office in the United States and the president is a leader who represents us all around the world. But from a more prudent perspective, turnout ...
October has been designated National Pork Month. That makes it an especially good time to reflect on the importance of the pork industry to this state. It’s unlikely that anyone who lives in Iowa does not already know that pork production contributes mightily to the economic vitality of the ...
Domestic violence is complex. It often goes unreported. It is often is repetitive. And it often is an unhealthy solution to relationship challenges. Domestic violence is also complex in who it impacts. Not only are survivors forever changed by the abuse they endure, many times children are ...
Managing taxpayer dollars is no easy feat. There will always be people unhappy with how the city decides to allot its budget. This week the city council was influenced by those constraints and made a decision to demolish the Senior Citizen’s Center. The decision was highly contested by some ...
Have you gotten your flu shot yet? Why not? Many health care professionals are urging the public — especially those who, because of age or existing health conditions may be more vulnerable to the flu — to get immunized as soon as possible. They have a very good reason for being worried. ...
While our newspaper has had many names and leaders over the years, our goal to keep Central Iowa informed has not wavered. A building fire in the 1900s and a tornado hitting our building a few months ago did not stop us from getting the news out. The strength of a newspaper goes hand in hand ...
Iowa tragically lost two young women — Mollie Tibbetts and Celia Barquin Arozamena — recently. The stories have not only shaken our state, but they have made their way around the world. While their lives should be fondly remembered and not politicized, our communities must look at the ...
In light of the past two months in Marshalltown, annual community celebrations mean more than ever. Oktemberfest and Marshalltown High School’s homecoming have always been about pride for our city, but this year it means a little bit more. The celebrations come just more than two months ...
Since human beings first learned to cultivate the soil, harvest time has had extraordinary significance. In earlier centuries, good crops meant prosperity and security. They signaled that the winter months just ahead could be faced without fear of starvation. In 21st-century Iowa, harvest ...
No doubt many eyes are on Moscow after the revelation recently that an attempt to hack into the Democrat National Committee’s computers was thwarted. Coming two years after Russian hackers stole information from the DNC database, the new attempted electronic B&E does raise questions ...
Pope Francis took precisely the correct attitude in his letter responding to a grand jury investigation of sexual abuse by priests in Pennsylvania. “The missive admitted that too many in the Roman Catholic church “showed no care for the little ones; we abandoned them.” Since it was ...
Thousands of American families are awaiting bittersweet news in the wake of what, for them, was much more than a new chapter in the long history of tension between our country and North Korea. They want to know simply this: Are our loved ones’ remains among those returned recently by the ...
Before Donald Trump took office as the President of the United States, he hinted at an ominous relationship with journalists while campaigning in Iowa. We figured singling out one of the state's lead political reporters as "the worst" and banning members of the newspaper media from a campaign ...
Ready or not, local kids will go back to school in mid-August. From kindergarten to senior year of high school, good schooling is fundamental to a child’s success as an adult. Of course, life circumstances also play a role in that success, especially when it comes to household income. When ...