The least-known candidate for chairman of the Iowa Democratic Party is the best choice. And that stands to reason. The party must re-acquaint itself with Iowa’s countryside, the land of the Three Democratic Giants. Tom Harkin sprang from Cumming, Henry A. Wallace is from Orient, and Harold Hughes, as
Read More →One of the more inspiring Christmas stories I’ve ever heard doesn’t involve Tiny Tim and a bunch of lame ghosts. Or Jimmy Stewart and a town called Bedford Falls. (With apologies to Denison native Academy Award-winning actress Donna Reed.) Or that kid who wants a BB gun. That’s fiction.
Read More →Des Moines, or Not Des Moines? That’s a central question for the central committee of the Iowa Democratic Party, according to a northern Iowa activist seeking the state chairmanship. Kurt Meyer of St. Ansgar, the chairman of the Tri-County Democrats (Worth, Howard and Mitchell counties) suggested Saturday the party choose
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Posted December 10, 2014in Political Mercury
Faith and pageantry walked hand-in-hand through St. Rosa of Lima Parish Sunday as more than 700 Latino Catholics celebrated the feast of Guadalupe — a signature event in their culture. Dec. 12 is the official feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe, but Father Paul Kelly, pastor of St. Rose
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Posted December 03, 2014in Political Mercury
In a New York Times editorial two weeks ago, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver endorsed legalization of professional sports betting, saying it is time to bring such wagering out of the shadows and into regulated arenas. “Outside of the United States, sports betting and other forms of gambling are popular, widely legal and subject to regulation,”
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Posted November 26, 2014in Political Mercury
Why should students attend Iowa State? And can they get there faster on U.S. Highway 30? Question: For students with no planned major who are interested in a liberal-arts education, about learning who they are there, or finding that major, why should they go to Iowa State University? Iowa State is known
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Posted November 19, 2014in Political Mercury
U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, captured 37 of the 39 counties the 4th congressional district to easily win re-election to a seventh term. He cleared the 80-percent-vote threshold in some of his more reliable reaches. His opponent, Boone Democrat Jim Mowrer, an Iraq War veteran, lost his home county to
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Posted November 12, 2014in Political Mercury
Eighty-five million dollars. That’s how much Democrats and Republicans and a colorfully striped array of outside interest groups spent on the U.S. Senate race in Iowa, according to the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics (CRP). More money than Georgia ($66 million). More money than Kentucky ($78 million), where Senate Minority Leader Mitch
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Posted October 29, 2014in Political Mercury
U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Kiron, suggests gays won’t make it to heaven. What’s more, in an interview, King intimated that the divorced or cohabitators could be thwarted in the pursuit of eternal salvation as the Christian faith teaches it. Those assessments from the conservative western Iowa congressman came during his
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Posted October 22, 2014in Political Mercury
Joni Ernst is on the verge of cashing in the winning ticket on a crazy bet. She’s wagering Iowa voters, collectively, will assume the mindset of teenage runways and stick with a juvenile defiance until well after Election Day. Run, run from the government, Ernst, the girl-next-door, tells Iowans. You
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