The Behn Report

~by Sen Jerry Behn January 21, 2016 This week was a short week due to the Martin Luther King holiday on Monday. In our Education meeting on Wednesday, we heard a presentation on dyslexia. The presentation was an attempt to illustrate the issues dyslexic students face in the classroom. It was a fascinating lesson as we used mirrors and our non-dominant hand…

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Avant garde tombstone, anyone?

~a column by Colleen O’Brien In France, a new kind of grave stone — avant garde, irreverent, meaningful, amusing to some, annoying to the rest — has sprouted in a cemetery in Montmartre, the historically subversive, bohemian area on the Right Bank of the Seine in Paris. The unusual tombstone is the brainchild of a few artists, writers and other…

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Dr Ben Carson campaigns in Jefferson

Dr Ben Carson, retired neurosurgeon and now a Republican candidate for president, spoke to about 140 persons Monday, Jan. 11, at Abundant Life Ministries in Jefferson. Security was tighter than during other candidates’ Jefferson stops, with screening for weapons required before entering the church assembly room and Secret Service agents, uniformed and not uniformed. Carson was scheduled to speak at…

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If you can talk, you can sing

~a column by Colleen O’Brien I was born into a family of singing women — my grandmother, my mother, my two sisters. But the man in the mix, my dad, couldn’t sing a lick. I seem to have taken after him. I tried out for choir a couple of times, but it was painful; I couldn’t carry a tune alone,…

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Letter to the editor – George Naylor

Dear Editor We live in a complex, technological world today filled with many dangers and opportunities.  Our responsibility of choosing our democratic destiny by attending the Iowa Caucuses behooves us to reject ideas that may have been relevant 50 or 200 years ago, ideas that divide us, or distractions cooked up by the lame stream corporate media and the wealthiest 1…

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Letter to the editor – John Thompson

To the editor, President Obama just finished his last State of the Union Address.  He pointed out that our military is still the best in the world. He is right, but he is also the worst Commander-In-Chief to ever lead the best military in the world. Although his leadership hasn’t dropped us down to the readiness and operational capability of…

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Q & A: Iowa caucuses

~with U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) Q: Why are the Iowa caucuses so significant? A:  For more than four decades, presidential candidates have come to Iowa to test the electoral waters. That’s because the Iowa caucuses serve as the first contest in the nation on the road to the White House.

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