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We could make it easier to attract young people to rural Iowa
All our friends say they’re having a hard time finding people to fill good jobs. Mike Franken said it was one of the first things he heard while campaigning for the U.S. Senate last fall. It is a common lament in Iowa community newspaper circles — small towns have an increasingly difficult time recruiting young […]
Singing a different tune on ag conservation
Cutting in corporate America on climate policy appears to be clearing a path for a rational farm bill discussion as the new Congress organizes. House Republican leaders are making sympathetic comments about a strong conservation title in the five-year farm bill that is supposed to be written next year. Incoming House Ag Committee Chair Rep. […]
Trump has declared Iowa his turf for 2024
Donald Trump blew into Sioux Gateway Airport last week not so much to praise Chuck Grassley and Kim Reynolds but to tell the cold, windblown diehards that he “very, very, very probably will do it again.” He set the stage for the 2024 presidential campaign before the midterm election was cast. Trump was loud enough […]
The bicoastal view does not match rural reality
Storm Lake is 150 miles from the Iowa Capitol and 240 miles from the major leagues, and we have two electric vehicles. So this headline in The New York Times caught our attention: “You want an electric car with a 300-mile range? When was the last time you drove 300 miles?” Clearly, the headline writer […]
Dead carp and institutional credibility
Thousands of carp washing ashore stinks. It draws flies and suspicions. Why just young carp? The tests came back saying herpes was killing them. It was too much for me to resist: “Cause of death: HERPES” read the headline in a funereal black box draped over a photo of a carp belly up in our green […]
Iowa is the thumping heart of the Midwest
So Iowa is the most Midwestern of places, The Washington Post discovered. Who’da thunk? The data journalists took a side trip from wildfires and shootings after stumbling upon Air BnB collections of how their hosts described their place. If you talk walleyes or tater tot casseroles a lot, it speaks Midwestern. We talk about these […]