Posted February 09, 2023in Morain
Diplomacy is not for amateurs. Members of our Congress can easily make it political. The ever-present complexity of foreign relations tempts some members of our government to take positions entirely for or against some nation, citing one side of its relationship to the United States and ignoring the other side.
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Posted February 02, 2023in Morain
Sometimes it’s easy to understand legislative proposals. Other times, not so much. House File 3, filed early in the 2023 session of the Iowa Legislature, falls in the second category. To understand its potential effect on needy people, take a quick look at two preexisting food programs whose nutritional goals
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Posted January 19, 2023in Morain
If Senate File 23 were to become law in Iowa, all city and school elections would be partisan, and only partisan. Candidates in those elections would have their names placed on the ballot only by their political party; no independent candidates could run. State Senator Brad Zaun, Republican of Urbandale,
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Posted January 12, 2023in Morain
Political pundits are having a field day with the dramatic election of Republican Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the U.S. House last week. McCarthy finally won by a one-vote margin after 15 ballots, the most ballots needed in a Speaker election since before the Civil War. McCarthy desperately craved the
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Posted December 27, 2022in Morain
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Dec. 21 delivered a dramatic, crisp and impactful address to the American Congress in Washington. Dramatic because it brought front and center the danger the Ukrainian people face continuously from Russian aggression. Crisp because Zelenskyy wasted no words in describing Ukraine’s situation. And impactful because
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Posted December 22, 2022in Morain
Conditions at the U.S.-Mexico border these days are truly disastrous for everyone involved. Thousands upon thousands of migrants seeking entry to this country amass at the border at any one time. The challenge they present threatens to overwhelm both the American organizations and individuals trying to help them, and the
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Posted December 08, 2022in Morain
Christmas music has returned for the season, and we will hear it for the next three weeks or so wherever we go and wherever we listen. I knew the background story of “Silent Night,” but that’s about the only carol with whose origins I was familiar. Research turns up some
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Posted November 24, 2022in Morain
A little more than four years ago—on October 2, 2018—prominent Saudi Arabian journalist and dissident Jamal Khashoggi, 59, was murdered in the Saudi embassy in Istanbul, Turkey. Khashoggi had been living in the United States for a number of years and writing for prestigious publications, especially the Washington Post. Both
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Posted November 17, 2022in Morain
Iowa is a red state. Period. The Republican victories in the state last week rivaled the GOP’s dominance in Iowa back in the years following the Civil War, when most Iowans connected Democrats to the Southern rebellion. Both houses of the Iowa legislature now have Republican majorities of about two
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Posted November 10, 2022in Morain
Unlike everything you’ve read in the last few days, this column’s not about the results of Tuesday’s midterm elections. Well, not specifically, anyway. Because of the way the publishing calendar works, I have a deadline of Tuesday at 10 a.m. to submit my weekly column to the newspaper. Because Election
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