‘Nuclear War: A Scenario’
Deep in the warm hurricane of 1980s nostalgia-minded groups on Facebook are the occasional references to fearful school-kid preparation exercises for a forefront haunt to humanity at the time — [...]
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Posted May 01, 2024in Political Mercury
Posted April 03, 2024in Political Mercury
‘The Beekeeper’ is a not-so-subtle Trump fantasy movie
If civil judgments don’t drain the Trump Machine into cashless-ness, the former president may want to open up theaters in the swing states for free showings of the Jason Statham movie “The Beekeeper.” Screenwriter Kurt [...]
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Posted March 06, 2024in Political Mercury
The dehumanizing formula of a school shooting
We were all in the formula, the algorithm of horror that is a modern school shooting. Death for some, dehumanization for others. In covering the Perry school shootings Jan. 4, what struck [...]
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Posted January 31, 2024in Political Mercury
What Tom Harkin would do if he were running for political office in 2024
Tom Harkin still has it. The pulse of Iowa on instinct auto dial and a force of moral clarity and that defining doggedness, an aw-shucks ease with voters, and a [...]
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Posted January 03, 2024in Political Mercury
‘A Fever In The Heartland’
Twenty one years ago, Chuck Offenburger and I had ringside seats for a rare and fascinating journalistic forum: the now late George “Lefty” Mills, the legendary Des Moines Register reporter; the late [...]
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Posted December 06, 2023in Political Mercury
A pioneering Iowa Democrat
Six-year-old Hayes Hofmeister of rural Cedar Rapids, a Springville, Iowa, farm kid, can’t stop talking about Josh Turek — “that guy in the wheelchair” — the one who plays basketball [...]
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Posted November 01, 2023in Political Mercury
Burgum’s answers on rural, small-town economic battle with ‘Generica’ suburbs
It’s the defining issue in Iowa. Heartbreak in rural towns. Heave-ho construction in the suburbs. Framing it further, we are talking about rural decline versus the explosive growth in certain [...]
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Posted October 04, 2023in Political Mercury
Presidential candidate Burgum positions himself as ‘small-town kid’
Republican presidential candidate Doug Burgum, a North Dakotan with rural roots, says energy independence and strategies to develop a strong economy are central features of his campaign. What’s more, the [...]
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Posted September 06, 2023in Political Mercury
DEI is so politicized now — and misunderstood
Life at its best — the growth of family, development of friendships and pursuit of professional passions — is about addition, not subtraction. That’s the mindset I walked away with [...]
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Posted August 02, 2023in Political Mercury
Presidential candidate wants to chase hate from public life
A pastor and businessman from Texas, with roots in Georgia, is pinning his presidential bid on a Christian ethos of bringing divided people together on common issues. Ryan Binkley, a [...]
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