Three weeks in Australia — visiting one of our daughters — offered a respite from the Iowa winter, but not from Iowa issues. Reading Australian newspapers was like reading newspapers in Iowa. It wasn’t that international crises — like those in Syria, Israel and Algeria — dominated the news, but
Read More →I have been a teacher in central Iowa for 14 years; in that time I have taught classes for children with social and emotional issues. Those of us who teach in these classrooms are aware that we will be dealing with a variety of behavioral issues from students who are
Read More →“Tin soldiers and Nixon’s comin.’ We’re finally on our own. This summer I hear the drummin,’ four dead in Ohio.” Those of us of a certain age might know these lyrics to the song “Ohio” by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young written in 1970. It was a very emotional time
Read More →Wal-Mart just announced that it will not offer health insurance to new employees who work less than 30 hours a week. It’s reserved the right to do the same for existing workers. For these new policies, Wal-Mart’s employees can thank Obamacare. The federal health reform law’s “employer mandate” requires companies
Read More →In the decade of the 1920s, journalist and muckraker Lincoln Steffens was much impressed by the Communist revolution in Russia. So much so that — until he soured on Russia in the early 1930s — he often said, “I have seen the future, and it works.” Now almost 100 years
Read More →In this day and age, examples of win-win situations are rare. It seems there is always a winner or a loser, or at least someone claiming to be one or the other. So when an idea clicks, and people are happy, it’s worth talking about. When Sam Knutson attended a
Read More →Is there anything worthwhile left in Iowa for the religious and political right to demean or destroy? In the Hawkeye equivalent of Sherman’s March through Georgia, the folks on the political and evangelical right have done much to devastate Iowa. If you doubt that, consider some of the best aspects
Read More →Q: What do words like fraud, scam, joke, hoax, swindle, racket and farce have in common? A: Although all are appropriate, few if any are used by the watchdog free press in news coverage of the Iowa GOP’s Ames Straw Poll. The poll,
Read More →1. Guy in his 50s, ballot in hand, abruptly asks a poll worker: “Which judge is for homosexuals?” Receiving no satisfactory answer, he says, “It’s a guessing game, huh?” and votes against lord knows whom. 2. Couple, apparently new citizens, is accompanied by a son or grandson to cast their
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Costs of ethanol should not include Iowa principles
We have another chapter about right-wing attacks on cherished Iowa principles and how institutions and people who should know better let them get away with it. This chapter begins with a member of the Iowa Board of Regents and a spokesman for the ethanol industry upset with a University of
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