Posted March 06, 2024in Political Mercury
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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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Posted July 05, 2023in Political Mercury
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 May 31, 2023in Political Mercury
There is, of course, only one Tom Harkin, a retired U.S. senator who constructed a legislative and political legacy few Democrats in Iowa — and indeed the nation — have. [...]
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