My son Nate Willems is running for Iowa Attorney General. As a mom I was prepared for negative ads against him. But the ugly, vicious lies currently running are way beyond the norm for negative ads. …

Iowa is setting up for a course correction one month out from the November midterm elections. The Republicans’ 10-year grip over the state’s politics is slipping. Iowa is aiming to elect a …

Rep. Ashley Hinson has been a loyal soldier for President Trump in Congress and a tireless partisan in the Second District. This week she voted in support of the war on Iran while her Republican …

Writer Wendell Berry died on Aug. 31. A smidge over two weeks later, writer Annie Dillard died at the age of 81. Compared to Berry, who was 92, she was a pup. They both wrote fiction, poetry, and …

When dealing with the Iowa Public Information Board, being a mind-reader helps. That is one takeaway from the board’s dismissal last week of a public-records complaint against Attorney General …

This year is the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States of America. It’s also the 150th anniversary of the closest America has ever come to a constitutional meltdown over the …

As State Auditor, I’ve devoted the last eight years to uncovering waste, fraud and abuse of Iowans’ tax dollars, identifying, on average, more than $4.3 million in misused public funds each year …

The Nov. 3 midterm election is about seven weeks away. According to recent research, 27% of U.S. adults identify as Democrats, 27% as Republicans and 1% belong to a third party. This leaves a massive …

Growing up, organized sports consisted of Little League or high school baseball in the spring and summer. Fall and winter meant basketball since our school was too tiny for football.  No adult …

If you think that pinko Rob Sand will make a hash of Iowa, rest easy buckaroo. We’re tops in cancer and rooting around the bottom in economic performance. So things are not that great after 10 …

President Trump’s trade wars and shooting wars help provide clarity. Oil is killing us. It keeps us stuck in a permanent war in the Middle East. The trade war with China ruined soy export markets …

I recently read “Nobody’s Girl” by Virginia Roberts Giuffre. She was one of many young girls who were trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. It’s not a read I would easily …

Succession planning and public celebration typically accompany executive retirements. They provide for an orderly leadership transition and public acknowledgment of a job well done. So, two …

We’re seven weeks from the midterm elections. Mail-in and absentee voting has already begun in some states. Voters are starting to pay more attention to the candidates and to the parties they …

Attorney General Brenna Bird recently traveled with the Quad City Back the Blue Flight to Washington, D.C., where participants visited the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial. Bird rightly …

It’s so noisy out a fella can scarcely hear himself think. You may seek refuge in the back yard listening for the songbird, but the hedge trimmer has a job to do. The dog barks at the hedge …

Last week was tough for Zach Lahn, the Republican candidate for governor. The ground trembled a bit when the Iowa Farm Bureau political action committee did not endorse the self-described Belle …

Gloria Steinem died recently, and all sorts of writers and journalists memorialized her, which was fitting. One of the first things I thought, when I heard that she died, was to recall her trenchant, …

This week the United States and its people are soberly remembering the stunning terrorist attacks that weaponized jetliners to kill thousands of people in the American homeland on September 11, 2001. …

As another Iowa football season gets underway, local football fans have plenty of reasons to be excited. In recent years, Northwest Iowa has proudly watched athletes like Adam Timmerman and Cooper …