Storm Lake is a portal for refugees in pursuit of happiness, whatever that may be. Lao. Sudanese. Karen. It ain’t easy trying to be free. That’s an immediate impression after a sneak …

It’s not fair to put the blame for ballooning property taxes solely on the Iowa Legislature and Gov. Kim Reynolds. They are responsible. So are local government officials who don’t know what they …

Penpal David Yepsen senses a shift heading into the midterm elections: Rural folks are honked off and voting for change. The retired political columnist for The Des Moines Register and former …

Sure has been warm lately. Unseasonably so. Record-setting days every month in Des Moines. Above-normal, as they say. This week brought another record at 67 degrees. One day, one month, one year do …

Fog set thick outside while serotonin ran thin inside on this early March morning of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) in Iowa. If I had the gumption I would go jump in the lake. It only gets worse …

Belle Plaine farmer Zach Lahn caught the nation’s attention last week talking up conservation agriculture with none other than Tucker Carlson, who was too far over the line for Fox News and is an …

Leading legislators bent on hobbling Iowa’s community newspapers so they can keep the public in the dark are lurching forward. A bill to eliminate public notices from newspapers cleared the Senate …

That damn socialist mayor out in New York threatened to hike property taxes by 9.5% unless he can ram through a wealth tax. Wait a New York minute: Property taxes on our humble metal shed along …

It will take an extraordinary amount of unity and discipline for Democrats to win an open US Senate seat in Iowa. Republican Ashley Hinson, a member of the House and former TV newscaster, will be a …

“The Rock Island Independents had a mighty fine line,” the Republican senators sang at the bar. “I may be right and I may be wrong but you're gonna miss me when I'm gone.” So they pushed …

Kim Reynolds has occupied the spot as the most unpopular governor in America nearly as long as Terry Branstad wore a mustache in Terrace Hill. She ran up a whale of a deficit and is skedaddling after …

The Sac News shared on Facebook my column from last week lamenting our loss of freedom, which generated a lot of insight in the comments, like “Art Cullen sits down when he pees.” That …

ICE is in Mason City. Breathless reports in Iowa City and West Liberty. Just saw the car in Spencer. Blow the whistles! When will the boot drop on Storm Lake or Denison? Chatter, chatter, …

A farmer with beer in the belly and a bur in his britches stormed out of Byron’s Bar in Pomeroy Saturday evening offended by the very idea of a meet-and-greet with Chris Jones, Democratic candidate …

US Rep. Randy Feenstra and Rep. Ashley Hinson joined ranks with House Republicans to vote against subsidies for health insurance policies offered on the federal exchange. Feenstra is running for …

So I’ve become that grumpy old man. Not funny like Walter Matthau. Just grumpy. Curmudgeonly, somebody said. Shrill. I wake up PO’d. It’s hard to stay in good humor when dawn breaks to a …

President Trump said we invaded Venezuela not so much over the drugs or democracy but for the oil. We left the drug runners in charge of the country with gunboats moored offshore ready to invade …

Those with high hopes for a two-party system in Iowa must put their minds and means on reaching rural voters. We had a balanced government a decade ago, before shelled-out river towns went …

State and local officials in Nebraska are giving Tyson the business after the giant meat packer announced plans to shut down the Lexington beef plant and put 3,200 people out of work. Tyson …

2025 was arduous and is good to have behind us. The fever might have broken. Trump was raving mad on TV last week, almost spitting into the camera. This just days after saying that he doesn’t …