This is why anxiety about secrecy led us into court
In 2017, the Iowa Legislature responded to concerns from Gov. Terry Branstad and amended Iowa law to ensure when government employees are forced out of their jobs the reasons must [...]
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Posted May 19, 2023in Stray Thoughts
Posted May 02, 2023in Stray Thoughts
Keeping Iowa in the dark is not acceptable
If you watch the Iowa Legislature in action, there are some truisms you see time and again. Such as: Each political party is in favor of transparency and accountability — [...]
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Posted April 26, 2023in Stray Thoughts
Who knew there are 2 sides to waste, fraud, abuse?
I thought the often-repeated desire to weed out waste, fraud and abuse from government spending was something Republicans, Democrats and independents could all agree on in Iowa. Boy, am I [...]
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Posted April 17, 2023in Stray Thoughts
It was a week to celebrate accountability
Last week was one to savor. But it also was a week to reflect on how far we still need to travel to have true citizen engagement in our state [...]
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Posted April 11, 2023in Stray Thoughts
Have we forgotten how to agree to disagree?
My friend Denny and I were as different as night and day. He was conservative; I wasn’t. I accused him of being to the right of Atilla the Hun. He [...]
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Posted April 05, 2023in Stray Thoughts
With parents’ rights, Iowa giveth and taketh away
The Iowa Legislature and Governor Kim Reynolds cannot seem to make up their minds whether they support parental rights or are against Mom and Dad being the decision-makers when it [...]
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Posted March 20, 2023in Stray Thoughts
Is it right to treat big whales differently from small fish?
On a late summer afternoon in Bloomfield 40 years ago, the people of Iowa learned about an unofficial government principle we have seen repeated in recent weeks. Although this has [...]
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Posted March 14, 2023in Stray Thoughts
Iowa out of step on access to police video
Every few months, someone is killed or injured by police somewhere in the United States under circumstances that lead to inevitable questions about what exactly occurred. Typically, answers come when [...]
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Posted March 01, 2023in Stray Thoughts
A rural school teaches lessons on governing
There is an interesting study in contrasts playing out right now in Iowa. One example comes from the Davis County School District in Bloomfield. It is the 96th-largest of Iowa’s [...]
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Posted February 27, 2023in Stray Thoughts
Libraries shouldn’t look for excuses to exclude
This has not been an easy time to be a librarian. Sixty-plus years ago, back when the library card was a coveted sign of my status as a young reader, [...]
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