Posted October 08, 2014in Political Mercury
A 16-year-old Buena Vista County farm kid died last week in a farming accident. The story led the Sept. 24 issue of The Storm Lake Times. The young man perished near Truesdale when he lost his footing trying to clear a piece of machinery that had been plugged while harvesting
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Posted October 01, 2014in Political Mercury
In a race that has Iowans sharply divided — and could decide the partisan balance of the U.S. Senate for the next two years — Joni Ernst and Bruce Braley offered opposing worldviews on Sunday that rarely touched the other’s orbit, as they differed on abortion rights, immigration, health care,
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Posted September 24, 2014in Political Mercury
You can’t separate the man from the law. Literally. The two blend for the word: Obama + Care = Obamacare. How you feel about the sea change in health-insurance reform largely — and in many cases, exclusively — depends on your thoughts on President Barack Obama. It’s personal. Visceral. Instinctive.
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Posted September 17, 2014in Political Mercury
Just weeks or days away from becoming a grandmother, Hillary Clinton says she has a few things on her mind these days. “I’m calling Chelsea every five minutes to make sure everything is going all right,” Clinton said of the former first daughter who is expecting her first child. Then
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Posted September 10, 2014in Political Mercury
State Sen. Joni Ernst deserves points for candor on her pro-life stance on abortion. The Red Oak Republican’s stated position would be that the person performing the abortion should be punished — if the leading goal of her social ideology is realized, and abortion is criminalized. Her exact words, reports
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Posted September 03, 2014in Political Mercury
Bryce T. Bauer, the Audubon-raised author of a just-released book on Templeton Rye during Prohibition, spent about two hours reading selections from his work and answering questions at signing event in Carroll. Bauer, 27, a native of a farm four miles north of Audubon on U.S. Highway 71 — land
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Posted August 27, 2014in Political Mercury
Political question of the day for Iowans: What’s worse, being Sarah Palin, or wanting to be like Sarah Palin? Many opponents of Joni Ernst, the Red Oak Republican seeking a Hawkeye State U.S. Senate seat, make the easy reach in comparing Ernst with another conservative female political figure, Sarah Palin,
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Posted August 20, 2014in Political Mercury
Just hours before celebrating the opening of a $1.7-million community center they helped fund, members of the Templeton Rye Spirits brain trust gathered at their distinctive facility in this southern Carroll County city. What emerged from that meeting were some big announcements for the future of the legal incarnation of
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Posted August 13, 2014in Political Mercury
It started as instinct. I was 10. I didn’t have the words to summon an explanation. But I knew it, felt it. These are my places — the places along the journey to celebrated destinations. My father was a music professor at Simpson College in Indianola, which afforded our family
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Posted August 06, 2014in Political Mercury
U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, says the federal government should keep confidential the location and identities of the 139 undocumented, unaccompanied immigrant children who have come to the state in the last year. Releasing the information, as some Republicans are demanding of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
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