~a column by Colleen O’Brien Touring the Nina and the Pinta, replicas of two of Christopher Columbus’s famous ships, made a disbeliever out of me. I walked across the gangplank of the tiny boat –the Nina, 65 feet long and 18 wide — that once held 25 crew members, a month’s supply of live animals to butcher, dried food, fresh…
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Q & A with Sen Grassley: Tax Freedom Day
~from Sen Chuck Grassley (R-IA) Q: What is Tax Freedom Day? A: As tax filing season winds down for the year, taxpayers can look forward to reaching another milestone on April 24. That’s the day, 114 days into the calendar year (excluding Leap Day), that the nonpartisan Tax Foundation says taxpayers have worked to meet their federal, state and local…
Read MoreThe Behn Report
~by Senator Jerry Behn, District 24 April 15, 2016 This week in the Senate, we only debated a few bills each day as we try to get budget bills through the legislative process. Hopefully, we’ll see these bills come to the floor soon so we can move closer towards adjournment. Third grade retention and reading proficiency: On Wednesday the Senate passed…
Read More‘What makes a good poem? And how can I write one? Even if I did – what’s the point?’ -Anonymous
~a column by Colleen O’Brien April has been celebrated as National Poetry Month since the Academy of American Poets started it in 1996. Inspiration for it came from the establishing of Black History Month (February) and Women’s History Month (March). For 20 years April’s poems have blossomed exponentially and become so popular, as well as inspirational, that poem writing in…
Read MoreLetter to the editor – John Thompson
To the editor, Fourth District Republicans met Saturday to elect delegates to the national convention and to pick the leadership of the state party for the next two years. Four years ago the Ron Paul campaign had a well-organized delegate grabbing strategy and used the opportunity to replace the board of directors. Insiders feared that the same strategy by the…
Read MoreLetter to the editor – Churdan library board of trustees
To the editor – The Churdan Public Library is very honored to be one of the first recipients of a Grow Greene County Gaming Corporation grant! We have been working very hard for the past two years to raise funds to expand and remodel our library. Our project has a total estimated cost, in 2013 dollars, of $250,000. We have…
Read MoreDreams come true
~a column by Colleen O’Brien Recently I read in the newspaper that a delivery truck for a potato chip company stopped along the shoulder of an interstate in Florida and was struck by a passing delivery truck full of Busch beer. Beer and chips at the ready. Happy Hour on I-95.
Read MoreWomen’s History Month
~a column by Colleen O’Brien Women’s History Month is done with for another year. Women’s history is sketchy — so little written about so few over the millennia; always there but not talked about, the little woman. Or even talked to, in some eras. We know that women were around because the human race is still around.
Read MoreLetter to the editor – Dwight Smith
It is simply not “Iowa Nice” To the editor, I just came from Fareway. Two of the three marked handicap parking slots to the south side of the building were occupied by autos bearing no handicapped plates, the newer plate sticker or mirror hanger.
Read MoreTree Tracings
~by Valerie Ogren for the Greene County Genealogical Society Meeting notice: The Greene County Genealogical Society will meet Saturday, April 2, at 10 am in the basement meeting room of the Jefferson public library. Guess what?! You are all on the program! It’s fun to have a “Time of Sharing” because we always learn from each other. Please be thinking of a family story,…
Read MoreFrom the pol’s mouth to my daily diary
~a column by Colleen O’Brien The Great American Docudrama cum Soap Opera — “What Was that Orange Streak?” — must be a political PR guy’s dream: how to get people who don’t even vote to watch political forum/entertainment/reality TV . . .AND THEN REGISTER to VOTE.
Read MoreLetter to the editor – Greene Co Extension & Outreach staff
Dear Editor, March 28 through April 1 is Iowa State University Extension and Outreach Week. We are proud that 2016 is Greene County Extension’s centennial year, with plans underway for a November celebration.
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