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Local Columns

Heather’s Highlights: County Government and You, June 2025

I hope you are having a great summer! My family has been enjoying extra time together during summer break. The Tama County Board of Supervisors had been made aware that the Landfill and Economic Development departments in Tama County have been paying higher insurance premiums than other ...

Magic Mike 6XL: A Screwball Family

I don't care how many of these articles I write; I don't think anyone ever will truly understand the inner workings of my family. I was watching a screwball comedy from the 30s the other day about a madcap rich family that was always going from one farce and insane wild antic to another. I ...

Just Jonathan: Continuing Community Ideas

Ahhh, where did I leave off last week? I believe I had mentioned the idea of helping our community reach higher levels of civic pride through a few ideas. My main point was: through a sense of shared identity between everyone that lives here, we can achieve more. Right off the bat I think of ...

Happy 4th of July

Has it really been 45 years since our middle daughter, Annie, was born? Impossible, I say, 'cuz I'm only around 61, ain't I Deb? What? I'm how old? Holy smokes, that almost puts me at the red tees in "Geezer Golf." Ok, to be honest, I've been at those tees for about four years now. Where ...

Just Jonathan: Civic Pride

The dictionary defines civic pride as a feeling of satisfaction and positive regard for one's city or community, often stemming from a sense of belonging and shared identity. Recently, I’ve been really thinking about how our two towns line up with that definition. Both what we do well to ...

Heather’s Highlights: County Government and You, June 2025

Editor's Note: This column will publish in the Friday, June 11 print edition of the News Chronicle. I hope you are having a great summer! My family has been enjoying extra time together during summer break. The Tama County Board of Supervisors had been made aware that the Landfill and ...

A Fair View

Editor's Note: This column will publish in the Friday, June 11 print edition of the News Chronicle. I was gone for a couple weeks, but I’m back. The Tama County Board of Supervisors meeting on Monday was a good one and had a mixed group of people. There was a lot of talk about ...

Just Jonathan: Horrible heat

Now, I’m not usually one to complain about the heat very much. Yeah sometimes it gets to me, but that’s just part of life. You roll up your sleeves or take off your shirt and you deal with it. I don’t complain about it often but I do know I’m not very good at suffering through the ...

Magic Mike 6XL: The fellowship of the ticket

Sometimes the fates align like an eclipse making a single perfect, beautiful, once in a lifetime moment. When these things happen you have to appreciate them for their rarity, and for the sheer mind-tickling wonder that it is. To cut to the chase, it is my birthday this Friday, and my sister ...