Can’t live with them, can’t live without them. Farm subsidies, that is. They distort markets, suppress diversity, and create winners and losers. We can’t get by without …

Rising electricity costs are becoming a prickly issue in politics. Higher rates and costs were a major issue in recent state and local elections nationwide. Data centers and cryptocurrency are …

We’re waiting on snowmageddon to dump on Storm Lake this morning after Thanksgiving. Forecasters hyperventilate. Plans are cancelled to gather with the extended family for supper in the happy …

Any reform plan offered by Gov. Kim Reynolds demands skepticism and invites dismissal, especially since she will not run for re-election next November. Reynolds hung her hat on Medicaid …

Iowa has reeked for several weeks as an armada of honey wagons sprayed their brown bounty on black dirt, followed by the white anhydrous ammonia tanks. They’re everywhere as I traveled …

Don’t expect too much from President Trump’s announcement last week that the Justice Department is launching probes into price-fixing among big beef processors, namely Tyson, JBS, …

First impression of Keokuk: beautiful and blighted, drained away with the currents of time at the confluence of the Mississippi and Des Moines rivers on Iowa’s southeastern tip. You could …

It sure smells like Gov. Kim Reynolds is cooking up something behind closed doors that will gut local government to make up for her bad fiscal decisions. The governor reportedly warned local …

Wisdom from the Stable Genius on Truth Social last week: “I believe that China purposefully not buying our Soybeans, and causing difficulty for our Soybean Farmers, is an Economically Hostile Act. We are considering terminating …

Back and forth all over Iowa I trundle hawking my book — "Dear Marty, We Crapped In Our Nest." Everywhere I go one message emerges: We want our good old Iowa back. That is moderate, …

The campaign has begun to turn Iowa community colleges into four-year baccalaureate institutions competing with our highly valued network of private colleges. This ill-considered idea was requested …

Rob Sand appears to be in tune with a wide swath of Iowans who aren’t happy with the way things are going. Substantial crowds are showing up across the state to hear the state auditor …

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 …