Opinion

(Editor’s note: This “End of the Bench” column was published in 1978 about the late, great New York Yankee player and manager, Billy Martin, about his 1968 visit to our town) Being s sportswriter for a small-town daily newspaper in Cherokee, Iowa, has its ups and downs just like every other position in any other profession...

Like noxious weeds springing up through the beautiful greening of our beloved Cherokee, these ugly blue help wanted signs litter our roadside landscape. And the real problem is…nobody has the wherewithal, knowledge, or courage to do a damn thing about it!...

We apologize to owners Jeremy Robinson and Mack Zimmerman if we’ve been overly critical of Iowa Food Group and its “temporary” shut down of the Cherokee meat processing plant two weeks ago after just six weeks of production. The immediate shut down left this community in a lurch, CAEDC officials baffled, vendors empty handed, and approximately 40 employees out of a job - many who had quit other jobs to launch a career with Cherokee’s promising meat processor and its forecasted bright future...

The admitted clerical abuse in the scandals rocking the Catholic Church has scarred thousands of victims and mortified the faithful worldwide. The scandals have spurred global appeals for repentance, hope and renewal - three valuable and critical concepts most appropriate at Easter that portend a long, strenuous healing process for the Catholic Church and its devoted followers...

The admitted clerical abuse in the scandals rocking the Catholic Church has scarred thousands of victims and mortified the faithful worldwide. The scandals have spurred global appeals for repentance, hope and renewal - three valuable and critical concepts most appropriate at Easter that portend a long, strenuous healing process for the Catholic Church and its devoted followers...

At a news conference Thursday morning ahead of his release of special counsel Robert Mueller's redacted report, Attorney General William Barr defended President Donald Trump's actions with regard to possible collusion and obstruction of justice as well as his own decision to speak about the report before releasing it...

Kee Con is over and we have already started planning for next year. Of course, it never ends. It’s a circle of work. However, it’s work that I love. I also walked, like, 10,000 steps in four hours so that’s pretty great. This article is mostly me saying thank you, so get ready for it...

We had an interesting visit recently with a retired educator active in her community who maintains that the duties of a school superintendent have morphed into more or less a ceremonial position. Superintendents now have business managers who monitor and keep the books and plan budgets, principals and guidance counselors who handle the heavy lifting and discipline problems, facilities directors who manage buildings, grounds and greens, transportation directors, athletic directors, cafeteria directors, library directors, and now the new kid on the block - instructional teachers mentoring and monitoring other teachers.. ...

Because we haven’t been told, we don’t know the dynamic at play that forced the closure Tuesday of the Iowa Food Group meat processing plant in Cherokee. Taking IFG management at its word, suddenly shutting down the plant this week was a “temporary pause in production in order to recapitalize the company in preparation for the next stage of operations and growth.”...

We don’t know, we’re not going to look further, and frankly we could care less that the City of Cherokee selected three finalists that morphed into one for the vacant City Administrator position. This perceived shell game really means diddly-squat. What matters is that the Recruitment Committee and ultimately the City Council did their homework and dug deep and diligently to provide us the best possible candidate for this vital municipal position as Cherokee forges ahead with a dwindled population, infrastructure needs, and a business climate that demands helping hands.. ...

Buy a ticket and go have some fun. We’re talking about the annual Cherokee Fireman’s Dance scheduled for 8 p.m. to midnight Saturday at the Little Sioux Events Center in Cherokee. This year’s event features the Damon Dotson Band providing awesome music, a silent auction, and lawn tractor raffle. ...

At a Cherokee School District Management Team meeting Monday night, Superintendent Kim Lingenfelter sought input from the School Improvement Advisory Committee (SIAC) regarding naming the new PK-4 elementary school addition to the Cherokee Middle School...

With April being national poetry month, I feel that this is a good topic to write about. Poetry is actually fairly well suited and represented in children’s literature and comes in many different varieties such as nursery rhymes, limericks, haikus, and many more. ...

Iowa Senator Randy Feenstra (R-Hull) recently attempted to force a merger of the Iowa High School Athletic Association and the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union, but his legislation did not survive to win committee approval. Iowa is the only state in the country with two governing bodies for high school athletic programs - boys and girls. ...

As you may have read on Page 1 of today’s CT, the City is exploring the possibility of closing Spring Lake Drive from the North because of frequent flooding closing the road and damaging and undermining it in the process. This has turned out to be a costly, time-consuming, frequent labor for the City and our Parks Department, so closing the road would inconvenience Spring Lake Park and Little Sioux River visitors, campers, and users...

We’ve heard the rumblings and witnessed some aftermath and we, too, wonder what is going on in the Cherokee School District? A large contingent of Roosevelt faculty accompanied two long-time Cherokee elementary teachers to a recent School Board meeting where those two teachers submitted their resignations. ...