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Opinion

Magic Mike 6XL: The frontyardsman

Local Columns

I was going to start this little piece by saying, 'Now, that camping season is nearing an end,' but I don't know when camping season is, so I'll skip ahead. Camping, it's not my thing. Firstly, I am not an "outdoors" person. I am sure most of you already know that. I mean, no one has ever ...

Pastor’s Corner: Mind games!

Local Columns

My mom would get frustrated with me when I was a kid. She’d say “Mike, I have ‘half a mind’ to give you a whoopin’!” Now, I don’t know about you, but I knew that if mama ever got a “full mind,” she could shorten my lifespan. So, I’d better not push any more of her buttons ...

Slices of Life: Learning with the littles

Editorials

I just finished a visit with my littles, aka grands. They are five dollars, nearly three dollars and 25 cents, if we are counting in years. It was a giggly, playful, cuddly, I’m not hungry, I’m so hungry, I’m not tired, I just fell asleep sitting up, I don’t have to go, I have to ...

The crazy world of “Shedaville”

Local Columns

In the amazing albeit crazy world of "Shedaville," it's time to empty the circular file and share needless and useless information for you. Not needless or useless to me but definitely so for you. But, what the heck, as long as you started reading this column, you might as well as finish ...

A glance at the past, 75 years ago — September 1948

Local Columns

Supervisors have taken drastic efforts to bring the road fund expenditures down to a level where it will be possible to stay within the 1948 budget. They are laying off 29 men from the maintenance and construction crews and all construction will stop on county roads. The supervisors will ...

Pastor’s Corner: Bikes and Chicken!

Local Columns

Back to school reminds me of bicycling to school as a kid. For some reason, it seemed cool to use wooden close pins to attach playing cards flapping against the tire spokes so that we could make simulated motorcycle sounds up and down the street. Equally cool was a large headlight on your ...

Magic Mike 6XL: Yokels in the Windy City

Local Columns

Alright, I've been putting this off for a while. I went to Chicago a few weeks ago. I know what you're saying, "Hey, Mike, what the chestnuts? You don't travel unless there's a funeral, so who died?" The answer, my friend, is my sister's taste in music. Ya see she got these tickets to a ...

Pastor’s Corner: The hoarding hole!

Local Columns

When my dad was living, I shopped for groceries for him in his elder years. He wanted his “3 P’s” to life: Pizza, Pop, and Potato Chips! How could life go on without these? Cleaning out his home when he went to a nursing home, I found an array of untouched foods that boggles the ...

Between Two Rivers: Lincoln Highway bridge at a crossroads

Local Columns

TAMA - The iconic Lincoln Highway bridge here will have to be replaced in some manner, but the exact strategy has yet to be decided. The Tama City Council held a work session last Monday (Aug. 14) to go over the options. The tug-of-war between the 1915 bridge’s status on the National ...

Letter to the Editor: Secrecy and power

Letters to the Editor

Recently, a lawsuit was filed in the Iowa Courts alleging that Governor Kim Reynolds had violated Open Records Law when she purposely disregarded formal requests to view her office’s public records between 4/2020 – 4/2021. In many cases, such a serious breach of law has led to removal of ...