Lots of unanswered questions need answering
One of the frustrations of being a **former** newspaper editor is no longer having a few dozen reporters to pursue answers to questions going unasked and unanswered each day.Two of [...]
Read More →
Posted August 05, 2025in Stray Thoughts
Posted July 28, 2025in Stray Thoughts
Demolition reflects poorly on Iowa officials’ stewardship
My family has called Davis County home for 185 years, all the way back to when William D. Evans and William Henson climbed down from their wagons in 1839 [...]
Read More →
Posted July 21, 2025in Stray Thoughts
When waste-cutters miss what looks like, umm, waste
Andy McKean is a charming country lawyer from Anamosa. He grew up in New York and was drawn to Iowa by his family roots. He has owned a bed-and-breakfast, called [...]
Read More →
Posted July 15, 2025in Stray Thoughts
Names make it tough to ignore human impact of news
One longtime truism of journalism is “Names make news.” That shorthand stems from the fact people better understand the significance and context of news when they learn about events and [...]
Read More →
Posted June 17, 2025in Stray Thoughts
There’s more at stake in Iowa than brown lawns
People living in central Iowa received a wake-up call last week that should drag water-quality back in front of the state’s 3.2 million residents. Iowa’s largest water supplier, one serving [...]
Read More →
Posted June 09, 2025in Stray Thoughts
A modern day version of ‘Pride and Prejudice’
Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” focused on manners and goodness, two virtues sometimes forgotten today. Shortly before the novel was published, our Founding Fathers settled on the free exchange of [...]
Read More →
Posted June 02, 2025in Stray Thoughts
Dutch devotion belies message given to West Point grads
If an opinionated old guy from southern Iowa delivered the recent commencement address at the United States Military Academy, my message would have contrasted with the one given by another [...]
Read More →
Posted May 27, 2025in Stray Thoughts
Iowa law would ground Trump’s donated jet with a thud
Last week, the Pentagon accepted the emir of Qatar’s gift of a Boeing 747, a $400 million bauble donated for our president to enjoy by a monarch whose family has [...]
Read More →
Posted May 19, 2025in Stray Thoughts
Supreme Court spikes an excuse for hiding public comment
The Iowa Supreme Court gave citizen engagement and accessibility to public meetings a much-needed boost Friday in an appeal of a lawsuit against the Iowa City Community School District. The [...]
Read More →
Posted May 12, 2025in Stray Thoughts
Why Iowa lawmakers merit an ‘F’ on consistency
You may be experiencing whiplash this spring just trying to track the Iowa Legislature’s zig-zag movements. It comes from what some might charitably call a lack of consistency on a [...]
Read More →
