It’s wrong to ban Fair visitors for speaking up
This year’s Iowa State Fair received spotlight attention from coast to coast, thanks in large measure to the presence of just about everyone with an itch to be the next [...]
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Posted August 27, 2019in Stray Thoughts
Posted August 20, 2019in Stray Thoughts
We can see what is important to UI
The people of Iowa have gotten a look at the University of Iowa’s priorities in recent weeks. I doubt this was the message administrators in Iowa City intended to send. [...]
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Posted August 06, 2019in Stray Thoughts
Congress has dithered long enough on guns
How many more will it take? How many more mass shootings? How many more bodies of adults and children will need to pile up — in the aisles of retail [...]
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Posted August 01, 2019in Stray Thoughts
There is no asterisk in this disclosure law
When he was governor, Terry Branstad often voiced his frustration that he was not able to comment on the reasons a state government employee was fired or demoted. In Branstad’s [...]
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Posted July 16, 2019in Stray Thoughts
Iowans’ wardrobes don’t need these overalls
This is a good week for Iowans to put away forever what a friend once called our “mental overalls.” The label was his way of describing the tendency of Iowans [...]
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Posted July 09, 2019in Stray Thoughts
We need these reminders about immigrants
Years ago, when I was a young pup of a reporter for the Des Moines Register, my assignment was covering state and federal courts. Normally, it amounted to reporting on [...]
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Posted July 02, 2019in Stray Thoughts
What’s going on in our school classrooms?
One of the most common types of violence in Iowa’s K-12 schools does not involve fistfights or guns. This form of violence often flies under society’s radar, not receiving attention [...]
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Posted June 26, 2019in Stray Thoughts
Campaign losers should be thanked, not jailed
What in the world has gotten into us? Through the years, we poured ourselves into political campaigns, put out yard signs for our favorite office-seekers, and held “coffees” to encourage [...]
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Posted June 18, 2019in Stray Thoughts
Congress needs to focus on this caravan
A small caravan crossed the United States border last month, but this was not the kind of caravan that has been in the news for more than a year. The [...]
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Posted June 12, 2019in Stray Thoughts
There’s judicial activism you like — and dislike
One of the most contentious issues in the Iowa Legislature this year involved the way the state’s judges are chosen. That process was established 57 years ago when voters amended [...]
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