Posted May 22, 2025in Morain
Have you ever heard someone refer to an “emolument” in a context other than the U.S. Constitution? Probably not. The word is somewhat archaic, and rarely appears other than as a reference to a gift provided to a public official, especially the President. It came into its own during President
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Posted May 15, 2025in Morain
The Trump tax cuts, enacted in 2017, are due to expire at the end of this calendar year, 2025. The new 2025-26 federal fiscal year doesn’t kick in until this October 1, 2025. Plenty of time for Congress to decide whether or not to renew the cuts. Right? Right. But
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Posted May 08, 2025in Morain
The deeper one dives into history, the more nuanced and complicated it seems. The nuances are all-important, though, because they enrich our understanding of human nature and of why things happened as they did. Last month marked the 250th anniversary of the skirmishes at Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts, generally recognized
Read More →Iowa’s senior U.S. Senator, Republican Chuck Grassley, met with more than 50 of us from the Jefferson area here last Thursday morning. Unlike most Republican members of Congress these days, Grassley has continued to make himself available to his constituents in all 99 Iowa counties. Some of his meetings are
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Posted April 17, 2025in Morain
It’s called “collective punishment” when an entire group or community is sanctioned for an act of one member, or a few of them. It’s a form of bullying. The punished group generally has no connection with the perpetrator other than living in the same area, with no control over the
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Posted April 10, 2025in Morain
Rarely, if ever, has Iowa’s congressional delegation found itself situated to alter the course of America’s economy. But right now it can, and one of the six in the delegation has already taken a first step to do so. President Donald Trump last week, on April 2, imposed harsh tariffs
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Posted April 03, 2025in Morain
There are few comparisons—maybe none—in American history to what President Donald Trump proposes for takeover of Greenland by the United States. Trump refuses to rule out military conquest of the huge Arctic island. Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark, has not attacked us. Denmark has not attacked us. Neither Greenland
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Posted March 06, 2025in Morain
The word “peace,” like many words, carries a number of meanings. Sometimes it’s convenient to choose one of them. U.S. President Trump and Ukrainian President Zelenskyy use “peace” to describe two different scenarios. When Trump says peace, he means the absence of physical fighting. He says the goal in Ukraine
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Posted January 30, 2025in Morain
This year marks the centennial of the notorious Scopes trial. The trial played out in 1925 in Dayton, Tennessee, and addressed the question whether a state could ban the teaching of e – – – – – – – – (rhymes with “revolution”) in its public schools. This month the
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Posted January 23, 2025in Morain
A January 9 Iowa Appeals Court decision could bring a major change to the conduct of meetings by Iowa’s local government bodies, including county supervisors, city councils, and school boards. The decision centers on the legitimacy of closed sessions by those public bodies. The specific citation of Iowa law at
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