Posted September 24, 2019in Stray Thoughts
Consistency can rise up and snare political leaders if they are not careful. A recent example is Gov. Kim Reynolds, who is now squirming after questions were raised over whether she favors local control or state control. The question came up this summer when Madison County officials began studying a
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Posted September 18, 2019in Stray Thoughts
There was a sobering news report a few weeks ago that did not get the attention it deserved here in Iowa. That’s unfortunate, because the report should put to rest once and for all the shortsighted attempts by some members of the Iowa Senate to interfere with public safety. Here
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Posted September 10, 2019in Stray Thoughts
Some of my friends who are Democrats are asking Iowa party officials some very uncomfortable questions these days. I applaud these people for standing up. Their questions go something like this: Is the Iowa Democratic Party more concerned about keeping the Iowa caucuses first in the nation in the presidential
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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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