Posted April 27, 2016in Guest Commentary
U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) — in his efforts to make the judiciary as dysfunctional as Congress — does not mind agreeing with Democrats President Obama or Vice President Biden when necessary to cover his butt from the backlash to his anti-court campaign. Nor, unfortunately, does Grassley mind disagreeing with
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Posted April 20, 2016in Guest Commentary
We’ve actually heard presidential candidate Donald Trump promise that, under his leadership, we’d potentially get “bored” with winning so much and so often. Now, however, we’re seeing him get the most votes in Louisiana, but fewer convention delegates. The same in Colorado. The same in South Carolina. In Washington State,
Read More →The “Oyez” cry — a French/Middle English version of “Hear Ye!” — is heard at the start of U.S. Supreme Court sessions, but it could well serve as an announcement in Iowa courts because, Lord knows, the Iowa judiciary merits and needs all the saving it can get. By many
Read More →I am not a Donald Trump supporter. My newspapers endorsed Bernie Sanders and Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton and Marco Rubio. I also know my country is strong enough to survive any presidential administration, including his. At the same time, why are people, including members of the media and the
Read More →Iowa lore has it that after Monday the only ones still caucus-minded will be hotels and motels and car-rental agencies wondering if they will ever collect money owed by candidates whose campaigns fizzled during their Iowa ordeal. For the rest of us, caucus 2016 — and how it was trumped
Read More →Wasn’t that outrageous at the Rose Bowl? To recall lyrics from The Music Man and the pool table crisis in River City, “Make your blood boil? Well, I should say.” No, I’m not upset about the Leland Stanford Junior University Marching Band making fun of Iowa. What bugged me was
Read More →With the praise lavished upon the Iowa caucuses as grassroots democracy and the attention that supposedly makes Iowa “the center of the political universe,” perhaps it is worth hearing from a few who would see the Feb. 1, 2016, caucuses as counter to the American dream. No, they are not
Read More →Cue the organist: A popular church hymn begins, “Onward Christian soldiers, Marching as to war…” That’s appropriate for Gov. Terry Branstad and his cohorts, and lots of Iowans who want to ban Syrian orphans and widows and others from being refugees in Iowa and the U.S. — and maybe even
Read More →The proposed Iowa Events Center Hotel will be the biggest boost Des Moines has seen in centuries. In terms of development, we haven’t seen something this game-changing since the Iowa Events Center opened in 2005, or since the Iowa Events Center needed another $40 million to expand in 2010 because
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30 years ago: Sex and booze rocked the Iowa House
The country learned that we in Iowa can indeed have a good time Thirty years ago last week, thousands of Iowans retrieved their Des Moines Sunday Register, “The Paper That All Iowa Depends On.” Most were shocked to learn from the front-page story that 24 Democratic members of the Iowa
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