The assassination of Charlie Kirk set off a national convulsion, as it should. It’s horrible. Frightening. It is not a civil war, which is vital to keep in mind. Kirk’s murder is part of …

Matt Bormann feels used and abused as a model for stewardship by an ag establishment that does not want to invest in comprehensive conservation. The St. Joe farmer, age 46, is a registered …

It should astonish us that the City of Storm Lake and Buena Vista County are deposing each other in an absurd lawsuit where justice will be done only for the Des Moines lawyers. The city is suing the …

The corn looks record-setting, but Iowa State Extension figures it a loser because of falling prices. The heck, you say. We should be kings out here. The black soil, rain at the right time, …

President Trump gave Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., marching orders: Go wild on health. That’s just what RFK2 is doing at the helm of the Department of Health and Human Services. His order to cancel …

The earth beneath Iowa politics shifted last week as Democrat Catelin Drey of Sioux City flipped a red Iowa Senate district, and word leaked that Republican US Sen. Joni Ernst of Red Oak would not …

We live in a militarized police state. Los Angeles is occupied by National Guard troops and Marines, against the wishes of local authorities and the duly elected governor of California (whose …

Please excuse my slutty self-promotion, but a book by Art Cullen will be released in late September. Dear Marty, We Crapped In Our Nest: Notes from the Edge of the World is scheduled to be …

Mike Porsch is a good guy. Straight and honest. Diligent. Friendly. Porsch has served as mayor of Storm Lake for eight years, and for eight years before that he was a city councilman. Porsch is …

We’re walking across the Iowa Women of Achievement Bridge over the roiling muddy river in downtown Des Moines when Sarah Booz says she is bailing if the midterm elections go sour. She has …

It isn’t often that over 1,000 Iowans will gather on a summer’s Monday evening to learn about nitrogen, phosphorous and water. Something is in the air. People filled Sheslow Auditorium at …

Dolores came down from the attic with a handful of albums from a collection of hundreds and the suggestion that we should get rid of them. Dylan. Van Morrison. The Allman Brothers. The Stones …

Chuck Grassley has a case of the fleas from sleeping with dogs. The senior Republican senator from Iowa intimated at a Senate Judiciary Committee meeting July 30 that President Trump had hurt …

Water quality and cancer are emerging as central issues in Iowa politics, and should lead the debate in the 2026 midterm elections. More people are paying attention to our polluted water and the fact …

Getting old is serious business. Rochester is booming off the boomers. I was fortunate enough to pay a visit to the Mayo Clinic last week and see a man about my bum. The Gonda Building gleams in …

Iowa may be lagging last in economic performance, but we are Number One in hogs. Eggs too. Celebrate that we have the most polluted surface water on the continent. On some things we will not be …

Central Iowa is under mandatory water conservation orders because of high nitrate levels in the Raccoon and Des Moines rivers, the primary drinking water sources for Des Moines and its suburbs. A …

Just to be clear: No amnesty, no sir, no how. That’s Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins after President Trump bopped into the Iowa State Fairgrounds to say this about undocumented ag …

President Trump came to the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines on July 3 ostensibly to set the stage for celebrating the USA’s 250th anniversary next July 4. Trump indicated that the Iowa …

Rob Sand pines for the days when you could safely take a dip in the Upper Iowa River near Decorah. He is not so sure it is safe for his sons, 9 and 11, and that says a lot about the state of the …