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Opinion

Magic Mike 6xl: We are all just brains

Local Columns

I was out and about this past weekend, and I met someone new. Now, this isn't odd in itself as I do not know the world's population over; however, the conversation that transpired is what was truly the oddity. In fact, it was one thing that the person said in particular that has stuck with ...

Pastor’s Corner: Farmer Archie lost more than a shirt!

Local Columns

Being an impatient kid, my mother often said, “Mike, keep your shirt on!” This didn’t compel me to wait, but it gave me an idea about gifts for my uncle, Archie. At Christmastime and birthdays, I started buying him gifts of dress shirts, because I didn’t know what to get him! He ...

District 53 Newsletter April 20, 2023

Editorials

Week 15 of the session was a short week. We debated bills on Wednesday and Thursday in the House. Many of the bills we debated were bills that were amended in the Senate earlier in the week and sent back to the House for consideration. House File 317, a bill that I filed known as the ...

The Tama-Toledo Travelogue

Local Columns

If you've ventured around Toledo for any sort of time or frankly just haven't been spending your days under a rock, then you'll have heard of, or at least seen, our Mayor Brian Sokol. A six foot man usually cruising around town in his massive black pickup, Sokol has been the Mayor of Toledo ...

You’ll figure it out!

Local Columns

Finally, the opportunity to relieve all those little and mild irritations that bug us so much. Pet Peeves! Those actions of others that just simply annoy us, (er, I mean, me). Now to be fair, they're not like "root canal" sufferings but just those tiny little disturbances that get on that ...

Pastor’s Corner: Ladder clatter!

Local Columns

What’s fascinating about ladders is that you can make them out of anything and into anything! My neighbor in Newton leaned his ladder against his two-story house for years. When he sold the house, the new neighbors leaned their ladder against the house for several more years! The more ...

District 53 Newsletter: April 13, 2023

Editorials

After completing the second “funnel” where Senate bills have to be passed through a House committee to remain active, we are now entering a phase of the session where budget work is more intense in the Appropriations and Ways and Means Committees, and floor action is more sporadic. This ...

Magic Mike 6XL: Reading, an origin story

Local Columns

I've read books. I've written books. I love books, but I haven't always. I grew up in a family of readers, in a house where if you trip, often enough, it was a paperback underfoot. My ma read many subjects while mainly focusing on crime. If there’s any piece of literature that has a ...

Pastor’s Corner: Who’s winning?

Local Columns

The track team in high school practiced daily on an oval cinder track. As usual, the runners paced themselves and the same ones would place first, second and third each time with the same stragglers lagging. At one of the meets, the competing team was highly favored to win. As the starting ...