Iowa’s senior U.S. Senator, Republican Chuck Grassley, met with more than 50 of us from the Jefferson area here last Thursday morning. Unlike most Republican members of Congress these days, …

It’s called “collective punishment” when an entire group or community is sanctioned for an act of one member, or a few of them. It’s a form of bullying. The punished group …

Rarely, if ever, has Iowa’s congressional delegation found itself situated to alter the course of America’s economy. But right now it can, and one of the six in the delegation has already …

There are few comparisons — maybe none — in American history to what President Donald Trump proposes for takeover of Greenland by the United States. Trump refuses to rule out …

  It takes courage to stand for the right course of action. It takes more courage to do something about it.   John F. Kennedy’s 1956 book “Profiles in …

Of all the startling foreign adventures President Donald Trump has proposed in recent weeks, the American takeover of Gaza takes the prize as the most bizarre. Who does he think he is? More …

The terms "DEI" and "Woke" are often floated these days with little thought given to their complexity, or what they mean to people of various minority classes, and those in the majority as well. …

The word “peace,” like many words, carries a number of meanings. Sometimes it’s convenient to choose one of them. U.S. President Trump and Ukrainian President Zelenskyy use …

President Donald Trump and DOGE top gun Elon Musk have been in power for a month. How have they changed life in Greene County?   Probably not much - yet.   Musk has …

A Jan. 9 Iowa Appeals Court decision could bring a major change to the conduct of meetings by Iowa's local government bodies, including county supervisors, city councils, and school boards. The …

This year marks the centennial of the notorious Scopes trial. The trial played out in 1925 in Dayton, Tennessee, and addressed the question whether a state could ban the teaching of e - - - - - - - - …

Each of us probably has a list of family members and friends to whom we give gifts at Christmastime (and sometimes on other special days as well, like birthdays.) It’s a heartwarming tradition, …

A share of Iowa’s Republican electorate appears ready to abandon Senator Joni Ernst in favor of a more Trumpian replacement in the 2026 Iowa Republican primary election. It’s yet another …

President Joe Biden’s recent pardon of his son Hunter Biden has reignited the debate over the presidential pardoning power. And argument over this constitutionally protected prerogative of the …

Remember the “Grandfather’s Clock” song? How the clock kept accurate time for the old man’s entire life? “Ninety years without slumbering, tick, tock, tick, tock?” …

A list of President-elect Donald Trump’s nominees for Cabinet positions suggests strongly that he envisions the U.S. Cabinet playing a very different role from those that key appointees have …

I played a role in a movie three weeks ago, without even so much as a screen test. Well, technically speaking, I suppose, I didn’t actually debut on the big screen. It was more of an …

What effect will the 2024 election have on the immigration situation? I’m writing this column on Sunday before the Tuesday election, so I don’t know its outcome. But the outlines of …

Last Sunday, at a concert Kathy and I attended, one of the introducers referenced countries where political campaigning lasts only a few months. The audience erupted in applause. By all …

Pundits are fond of saying that elections are about the economy, and people’s relationship to it. “It’s the economy, stupid” and all that. It may be true - but there’s …