Child Abuse Prevention Month

April 18, 2026

It’s April and that means Spring has arrived and we are eager to get out, get moving and feel a newness of life. Children are out and about with Parents trying to keep up and the Blue Kids about town are reminding us it’s Child Abuse Prevention month, as well as a time to celebrate children and the gifts they give us- joy, love, curiosity, inspiration, challenges, hope and more. Children are the seedlings (of the future) while Parents are the gardeners charged with nurturing them each and every day. We as individuals and as a community also play a role in supporting children and ...

Media lying by omission

April 15, 2026

The TV news flaunts the gas price at every newscast because they have Trump. If you ask your device to google the highest gas price, it says over $5 nationally and $4.76 locally in June 2022 which is when Joe Biden was in office. Our media by omission is lying and I think the only unbiased news is the weather. P.S. that’s about $1 more than now.

Adopt a plant-based diet this Earth Day

April 9, 2026

Earth Day highlights the urgent need for evidence-based solutions to the climate and ecological crises. But what most people don’t realize is the biggest impact we can make as individuals starts on our plates. Extensive research shows that animal agriculture is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, deforestation, biodiversity loss, and freshwater depletion. In contrast, plant-based food systems require significantly fewer natural resources and generate lower emissions, making them a more efficient and sustainable way to feed a growing global population. Adopting ...

Wake up, Iowa!

March 31, 2026

Often, I wonder what it will take for Iowans to wake up and pay attention to the State Auditor’s office. I pray it won’t take a massive scandal like what happened in Minnesota. What is the point of paying taxes if we are not going to properly oversee how those dollars are spent? Right now, $51 million levied through township property taxes goes with virtually no oversight. On top of that, more than $100 million a year in small-town property taxes can go without an audit for up to eight years. I find it ironic that taxpayers are required to keep careful records and report our ...

East Marshall boys basketball

March 30, 2026

I would like to express my sincere gratitude for the coverage your newspaper provided on the East Marshall boys basketball season. Your commitment to covering local community athletics and thoughtful storytelling means a great deal to our student athletes. The articles highlighted the successes of the season and motivated us to keep making our community proud. This team’s advancement to the Class IA Substate game started ten years ago when my fellow seniors Cody Weaver, Blake Neuroth, Dallas Miller, and Kaden Good started playing AAU basketball together in third grade here locally ...

Enough is enough: Let Iowa libraries do their work

March 27, 2026

Enough is enough. For years, Iowa’s libraries have faced a steady stream of legislative attacks, which are often driven by special interests and advanced through processes that avoid full transparency. The latest example, the library amendment attached to SF 2432, is not just concerning for what it does, but how it was done: quietly bundled into an unrelated health bill, limiting debate and obscuring accountability. Libraries are not a problem to be solved. They are essential infrastructure. At a time when communities are navigating an increasingly complex digital world, ...