Posted August 27, 2019in Stray Thoughts
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 United States president. The Iowa Tourism Office could never afford all of the glowing imagery of Iowa and the fair
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Posted August 20, 2019in Stray Thoughts
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. But I don’t know how else to interpret the juxtaposition two recent news stories created. The first came in early
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Posted August 06, 2019in Stray Thoughts
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 stores, in churches, in the classrooms and corridors of schools, in offices, in movie theaters, in nightclubs? How many more
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Posted August 01, 2019in Stray Thoughts
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 view, the public — the taxpayers of Iowa — deserved to know why the action was taken against the employee.
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Posted July 16, 2019in Stray Thoughts
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 to downplay the state’s importance in anything other than dirt-under-your-fingernails agriculture. Being a farmer certainly is nothing to be ashamed
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Posted July 09, 2019in Stray Thoughts
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 the dirty laundry of society that gets scrubbed in the courts — the murders, the robberies, the embezzlements and the
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Posted July 02, 2019in Stray Thoughts
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 it should from school boards, the governor, the Legislature, and from the news media. This explosive behavior involves students who
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Posted June 26, 2019in Stray Thoughts
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 our friends to back our candidates. It wasn’t unusual for our views to be at odds with those of our
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Posted June 18, 2019in Stray Thoughts
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 caravan was not being led by a “coyote” who was guiding hundreds of illegal immigrants to the border so they
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Posted June 12, 2019in Stray Thoughts
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 the Iowa Constitution. It’s worth noting that Republicans held solid majorities then in the Iowa House and Iowa Senate. In
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