A gift can reveal an amazing amount about a person. From giving and receiving gifts, we can tell who cares, who pays attention, who remembers. I once gave in full sincerity a faceless rubber pig to my sister. I don’t know what this says about me or her, but she still has it. My sister and I ...
Imagine this series of events: On a rainy morning, someone wakes up and gets ready for work. While getting dressed, they glance out the window and decide it's going to be a pretty good day. Not even ten minutes into the drive, a message comes through saying work has been delayed for a few ...
Chris Jones fancied himself trolling for walleyes in the backwaters of the Upper Mississippi River near Lansing in his retirement. Instead, the 65-year-old found himself disembarking at Philadelphia for the NetRoots conference on his way to a goal of raising $1 million in his uphill Iowa ...
I’m going to depart from my usual commentary on what’s going on around town. I think a more zoomed-out take of mine could be something interesting. As of late, I’ve been thinking about information and how it spreads, not only to me, but to other people in our community. Now, right off ...
My father, the Old One, as well as my sister, seems to take precautions against ever admitting that they are wrong. I could give a multitude of examples for both, but here is a single example for just the Old One. So, I was taking my father somewhere the other day, and Dixie came along as ...
There are not many times when I use this space to outright endorse an event, but today is one of them. This Sunday, the Tama County Flag Day program will take place on the courthouse square in Toledo, with festivities beginning at 2 p.m. The program will feature local residents sharing the ...
I think I’ve pretty well established the madhouse in which I live. If such a thing as a normal person exists, no member of my family can be considered one. My experience on Sunday over a 20 minute period perfectly illustrates this point. The 20 minutes started off with my Ma. We had been ...
Political campaigns should be about ideas, leadership, and the future of our communities—not personal attacks aimed at families and small businesses. Recently, Annette Sweeney and her campaign chose to distribute misleading and negative mailers throughout Senate District 27 targeting me, my ...
One of the best parts of my job is that it constantly reminds me how much I don't know. Not in a discouraging way, but in an exciting one. On Monday, I found myself in downtown Tama waiting for the train to arrive. I thought I was being smart by getting there early. In fact, I was more than ...
June 2, 2026, was a Tuesday. A hair before five AM on June second, my dog, Dixie, dragged me out of the house to use the bathroom. The sun wasn’t up, but it was on its way as the sky was a deep navy blue. As Dixie wandered, attempting to find the perfect spot, I looked upward. It was there I ...