To the editor, Last weekend in Des Moines residents celebrated the 14th annual Latino Heritage Festival. On Sunday I volunteered at the Polk County GOP booth filling balloons for kids. Many presidential candidates posted staff at the event to answer patron’s questions.
Read MoreCategory: Opinion
Tree Tracings
~by Valerie Ogren for the Greene County Genealogical Society Meeting notice: The Greene County Genealogical Society will meet Saturday, Oct. 3, at 11 am in the basement meeting room of the Jefferson public library. (Please note change of time.) Speaker that day will be Rick Morain. He will share some family memories and tell about “Preserving Your Stories” to pass on to…
Read MoreWorld Rivers Day Sunday, Sept. 27
Communities across the globe are celebrating World Rivers Day on Sunday (http://worldriversday.com/). The observance was founded 10 years ago in Western Canada, and now is being celebrated in dozens of countries. World Rivers Day is a good time to take stock of our rivers in Iowa – a state bordered by our nation’s two greatest rivers, and laced with 70,000 miles…
Read MoreQuestion all famous folk
~a column by Colleen O’Brien Because we live in Iowa, home of the first caucus in a Presidential election year, we get all the candidates sometime in the two years prior to the vote; in this case, November of 2016. They’re flocking to Iowa already, in case you haven’t noticed, and it is indeed a privilege, for they come here…
Read MoreGOP holds fundraiser, reps of seven presidential candidates on hand
The Greene County Republicans’ annual fall fundraiser included the announcement of candidacy by Kirk Hammer for county sheriff. According to GOP party chair Roger Olhausen, Democrat sheriff Steve Haupert has already announced he will not run for re-election in 2016. Republican chief deputy Jack Williams, who ran against Haupert in the last election, has already announced that he also is…
Read MoreLocal Dems hold fundraiser, meet King challenger
Greene County Democrats had their first opportunity to meet Kim Weaver of Sheldon, an Iowa Democratic state committee member and an announced candidate to run against Steve King in the Fourth Congressional District. Weaver attended the Greene County Democrats’ fall fundraiser dinner and pie auction at the Greenewood Center in Jefferson Sept. 19. About 40 persons attended the dinner. Weaver…
Read MoreErnst, all 19 other women senators introduce #FreeThe20 resolution
Bipartisan resolution calls for release of women political prisoners around the world WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) joined all 19 other women Senators led by Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Susan Collins (R-ME), and Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) to introduce the bipartisan #FreeThe20 resolution to support the empowerment of women and urge countries to release women held…
Read MoreTools for life: dictionaries and cookbooks
~a column by Colleen O’Brien When I read that poet Phyllis McGinley liked to read cookbooks in bed at night, I thought her odd. I’m not a cook who loves her work, so I figured it wasn’t a habit I’d get in to. Cookbooks were a necessary reference for me now and then (what does it mean when it says…
Read MoreLetter to the editor – John Thompson
To the editor, I attended the Greene County Elks’ annual “Heroes Dinner” on Sept. 11. It was a good event. It also got me thinking about things that for the last few years I have tried not to think about. The room was full of men and women who served their country from World War II to today.
Read MoreCommentary on agriculture – Patti Edwardson
As I took an early morning walk around the farm, a skunk, with his distinctive black and white fur, scurried across the gravel road. Back at the farmstead, a woodchuck sunning himself outside the old corn crib raised his head as I went by. The monarchs fluttered into the air when my presence disturbed them. Hundreds of the butterflies have…
Read MoreErnst remains committed to rejecting Iran nuclear deal
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) released the following statement Sept. 15 after voting to proceed with Senate consideration of the resolution of disapproval on the President’s nuclear deal with Iran: “I am extremely disappointed that my Democratic colleagues have once again undermined the will of the American people and denied them a vote on the President’s nuclear deal…
Read MoreThe fame in the name
~a column by Colleen O’Brien There are famous and infamous people who leave their mark on language. These people can be inventors, aristocrats, courtesans, crooks. Unlike a Charlemagne or a Joan of Arc, there are many once well-known individuals and their deeds that add richness to our language even as they themselves faded into obscurity; their names live on without…
Read More