Pay attention to officials’ talk vs. their actions
Voters have busy lives — families to care for, jobs demanding their attention, bills to worry about. So, they can be forgiven if they do not closely track their government [...]
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Posted February 12, 2024in Stray Thoughts
Posted February 05, 2024in Stray Thoughts
Simple solutions rarely are simple or solutions
One of the fallacies of politics these days is the notion of simple solutions. Regardless of whether the problem is immigration, the homeless, gun ownership or transgender people, too many [...]
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Posted January 29, 2024in Stray Thoughts
This is not what leadership looks like
These days, with political campaigns that seem to go on forever, Iowans may not recognize the significance of what occurred at polling places across the state on November 5, 1968. [...]
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Posted January 17, 2024in Stray Thoughts
Iowa needs to stop creeping secrecy over names
The increasing secrecy by Iowa law enforcement and their lawyers about identifying people by name raises important questions underlying public confidence in the critical work of first-responders. The question deals [...]
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Posted January 08, 2024in Stray Thoughts
It is time to look for ways to reduce tragic toll of guns
Like many Iowans, my thoughts have been rather chaotic since the horrible news from Perry High School last week. The events were so sad and senseless. A 17-year-old student was [...]
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Posted December 26, 2023in Stray Thoughts
An issue that hasn’t been unfurled yet in Iowa
We Iowans apparently have been kidding ourselves. Somehow, as we focus on taxes, water quality and allegations of big-government overreach, as we wrestle with immigration, inflation, drug abuse, school choice [...]
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Posted December 18, 2023in Stray Thoughts
Here we go again: Banning is not the solution
I really should not be surprised by some comments that represent what passes for civic dialogue in Iowa these days. The latest example leaves me shaking my head, not just [...]
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Posted December 11, 2023in Stray Thoughts
Secret gov’t settlements are wrong — period
City leaders in Davenport have forgotten that city government there belongs to the people. It does not belong to the folks who were elected to city offices. This reminder is [...]
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Posted November 28, 2023in Stray Thoughts
Government should face up to care center concerns
A few months ago, I bumped into a former aide to Gov. Robert Ray. As we reminisced about the governor, our conversation turned to his nearly daily meetings with journalists. [...]
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Posted November 20, 2023in Stray Thoughts
Kindness is medicine that helps all of us
This is my favorite time of the year. There is no late-night bombardment from infernal fireworks like there is with the Fourth of July. There is not the pressure of [...]
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