So many questions, but so few answers
You don’t need a crystal ball to see that private school vouchers appear to be barreling toward passage by the Iowa Legislature, just three weeks into the 2023 session. These [...]
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Posted January 23, 2023in Stray Thoughts
Posted January 09, 2023in Stray Thoughts
When ‘reasonable’ becomes unreasonable
The Legislature wrote Iowa’s public records law 55 years ago, and one of the tenets of the statute was the belief people deserve to know how state and local governments [...]
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Posted January 03, 2023in Stray Thoughts
This Iowa ‘trifecta’ drops the ball with vets
In politics, having a “trifecta” in government is a good thing for a political party — until the trifecta’s inaction on some popular issue starts to haunt the party. Iowa [...]
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Posted December 19, 2022in Stray Thoughts
The news has uncorked plenty of dusty memories
It is amazing what takes up room in our memory. Yes, our basement can accommodate stacks of storage bins and shelves lined with boxes filled with what we politely assure [...]
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Posted December 12, 2022in Stray Thoughts
If we aren’t careful, we could fall on this slippery slope
Few people like being told what they must do. Lorie Smith is one of them. The suburban Denver, Colo., business owner, a devout Christian, builds websites for customers. She wants [...]
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Posted December 05, 2022in Stray Thoughts
Iowa D’s shouldn’t lose sight of what is truly important
Judging from the furrowed brows and dire predictions in Iowa, you might have thought a national Democratic Party committee had voted to eliminate motherhood and apple pie last week. Actually, [...]
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Posted November 29, 2022in Stray Thoughts
Message hasn’t changed: You must serve the customer
A couple of generations ago, an up-and-coming Arkansas retailer was spreading out across America, and Kenneth Stone was inundated with requests to speak around Iowa and far beyond about the [...]
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Posted November 21, 2022in Stray Thoughts
Rural Iowa should brace for school ‘vouchers’
It won’t be long before empty parking spaces near the Iowa Capitol will be as hard to find as a compromise between Democrats and Republicans. The Legislature returns to Des [...]
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Posted November 08, 2022in Stray Thoughts
Could another Mamie Till bring gun change?
Mamie Till came along at the right time in American history. During the 1950s, in an era when many Americans were blind to the grotesque toll of racial hatred, this courageous [...]
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Posted November 02, 2022in Stray Thoughts
Ferentz fields Q’s, but governor rarely does
It is safe to assume Kirk Ferentz has not enjoyed the glorious autumn in Iowa the way he would prefer.He has feverishly worked his Bubble Yum during the Hawkeyes’ games [...]
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