Posted September 16, 2015in Featured Story, Political Mercury
It’s one of those moments that cements a friendship, reveals character in a longtime pal, makes you happy to be riding shotgun in his car. My friend Matt, a Cedar Rapids native now living in Texas, pulled up to a stop sign in Florida. We looked to our left and saw an overweight woman who was slowly,
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Posted September 09, 2015in Political Mercury
Republican presidential candidate Scott Walker says he’d cut short the run of the of the Renewable Fuel Standard to a “couple of years.” The ethanol-boosting federal mandate supported by a raft of farm groups is scheduled to expire in 2022. “I’d love to have a phase-out over time,” Walker said in
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Posted September 02, 2015in Political Mercury
An overflow audience at the Santa Maria Winery in Carroll Friday gave Carly Fiorina her most sustained applause before the Republican presidential aspirant even entered the room. Craig Williams, chairman of the Carroll County Republican Party, introduced Fiorina with an exhortation to the more than 150 in attendance: send a message to
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Posted August 26, 2015in Political Mercury
Anti-abortion candidates like Carly Fiorina apparently don’t have much confidence in their ability to prevail. They haven’t thought or don’t want to talk about the key question a in Roe-reversed world in which abortion is illegal. Should this happen, there’s this little matter of the punishments phase. And just what should the
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Posted August 19, 2015in Political Mercury
Call it the night the Iowa Democratic Clinton doubts died. Hillary Clinton didn’t sing. Or break out any instruments. But, according to several key Iowa Democrats, and by measures of applause and animation in the audience, the presidential candidate rocked an audience of 2,000 Democratic Party regulars Friday in a fiery
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Posted August 12, 2015in Political Mercury
Maybe you’re yelling at your kid a little too much in the grocery. You hear your own voice raised, recognize the fault in it as Lucky Stars spill from the cereal box your son, with snot-nosed precociousness, ripped wide. Perhaps, you’ve screamed something at another driver you regret because it’s
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Posted August 05, 2015in Political Mercury
Hillary Clinton says the next president of the United States must understand modern America, the changing nature of families, strong role of women, and use the Oval Office to bridge what she called an achievement gap so all young people toe the same starting line early in school. “Our families are different
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Posted July 29, 2015in Political Mercury
Only minutes into a town hall in Carroll Saturday morning, U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, interrupted a compliment on his longevity and consistency of service from Dr. Walter Anneberg. “You’re a medical doctor, and I’m supposed to be in a home,” joked Grassley, 81. Later on, Grassley delighted the 40-member audience (Grassley
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Posted July 22, 2015in Political Mercury
Back in 1938, Orson Welles famously exposed the Great American Gullibility. With his Mercury Theatre On The Air, Welles, adapting “War Of The Worlds,” used a series of simulated news bulletins to convince radio listeners that aliens were attacking Earth. Earthlings of 2015, welcome to Mars. With each new outrage, provocation, charge
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Posted July 15, 2015in Political Mercury
No other state, North or South, had a higher percentage of its “military age” male population — between 15 and 40 — serve during the course of the Civil War than Iowa, according to Iowa Public Television. By the end of the war in 1865, 76,534 Iowa men had served in
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