Breaking News

Your View

I need a favor from you

Whenever you begin a project that is years in the making, costs lots of money and tons of personal time, you keep your eyes fixed on the finish line. You know the community will appreciate it. All along the way, the group creating the project are dogged by the “we don’t need this, our community doesn’t deserve nice things” from people on Facebook and in person. Yet the people behind the project trudge on to completion. When the project finally becomes reality, it is more beautiful than anyone in the community could have imagined. Ribbon cuttings and celebrations abound from ...

Politics shouldn’t come at the expense of decency

Political campaigns should be about ideas, leadership, and the future of our communities—not personal attacks aimed at families and small businesses. Recently, Annette Sweeney and her campaign chose to distribute misleading and negative mailers throughout Senate District 27 targeting me, my family, and the business we have worked tirelessly to build. The ads reflected a style of politics that I believe falls short of what Iowa voters deserve. Rather than encouraging an honest discussion about issues and priorities, they focused on creating division and casting doubt on the character ...

Bible Truth or Tradition response

I am disturbed by the recent spat of columns written by Mark Rohde challenging and undermining traditionally held Christian beliefs. He seems convinced that he alone is capable of going back into the Scriptures to find their *real* meaning, saying to 2,000 years of Christians looking over his shoulder, “I know better.” Doesn’t he know that’s exactly what all of the heretics think? Arius to Joseph Smith to Jim Jones? While Scripture is infallible, we are not. We are limited and sinful and prone to error. When we’re not sure about some Scripture, we need the wisdom and guidance ...

Factory farming pollution

Lawmakers are now investigating toxic gas emissions from animal farming, including ammonia pollution that threatens nearby communities (The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, Feb. 17, 2026). For residents living near these facilities, this isn’t new—it’s daily life. We often talk about factory farming in terms of animals or climate, but the human cost is just as real. Families are breathing contaminated air so the rest of us can consume cheap meat and dairy. This raises an uncomfortable question: how cheap is “cheap” if others are paying with their health? If we value ...

World Elder Abuse Day

June 15, 2026, is World Elder Abuse Day. Northeast Iowa Area Agency on Aging joins communities worldwide to raise awareness and highlight solutions to this systemic social challenge. As Americans, we believe in justice for all, but we fail to adhere to this value when we allow older members of our communities to be abused or neglected. Older people are vital, contributing members of American society, and their maltreatment diminishes everyone. Just as we have confronted the social issues of child abuse and domestic violence, we can also find solutions to address elder abuse, which also ...

Ernst silent on Trump’s fleecing

“Folks, the fleecing is occurring in plain sight,” wrote Joni “Make ‘em squeal” Ernst in a column in the T-R of May 26th. You may have wondered, as did I, why Donald Trump and his family has not been awarded her Squeal Award every month since his inauguration. Why hasn’t she ever objected to the billions of dollars Trump and his family have raked in since his second term began? Gifts and contracts from foreign governments, contracts with questionable construction businesses, dodgy bit-coin offerings, multiple stock deals with companies the Trump sons recently invested ...