~a column by Colleen O’Brien We who live in the English language are lucky — our choices are plentiful. As of January 21, 2014, the Global Language Monitor says we have a lexicon of 1,025,109.8 words. I’m not sure what eight-tenths of a word is . . . a contraction like “don’t” or “ain’t”? Or maybe abbreviations like Mr. and…
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Sometimes what looks like a win is really a loss
Greene County school board loses as P-C board walks away from a stare down We’ve all heard quotes about the disappointment of lost opportunities. Use your favorite here….. for the opportunities lost when the Greene County Schools board of education voted 6-1 last month not to ink an operational sharing agreement with the Paton-Churdan Schools for a transportation director. Superintendent…
Read MoreWho was that girl?
~a column by Colleen O’Brien In the process of cleaning out a house, I find myself spending way too much time reading through old diaries. They are irresistible in their revelations. Even though I was only 21 in the first diary I peruse, as I read today I am surprised at my naiveté. I forget how really uninformed, innocent and…
Read MoreDrainage Association director talks about DMWW lawsuit
Impact will be to make attorneys a lot of money, he says John Torbert, executive director of the Iowa Drainage District Association, has updated the boards of supervisors in the member counties for 14 years. This year, his update has more interest due to the lawsuit filed by the Des Moines Water Works (DMWW) against Buena Vista, Sac, and Calhoun…
Read MoreThis Place Matters even more now
~a column by Colleen O’Brien A brilliant idea has come to fruition. After three years of due diligence, committee work, discussion and grant writing, we have roof art in Jefferson for the enjoyment of Mahanay Memorial Carillon Tower patrons; this was the original idea, to cover up the black tar roofs one can see from 14 stories up, high above…
Read MoreBranstad issues statement at end of long legislative session
The Iowa legislature concluded the 2015 session at 3:50 Friday afternoon after passing a $7.3 billion spending plan for the fiscal year beginning July 1. The plan includes $7.17 billion in ongoing spending and $135 million in one-time payments from cash surpluses expected at the end of the current fiscal year June 30. School funding has been a point of…
Read MoreTo look or not to look; this is the question
~a column by Colleen O’Brien At least half the boxes in the basement have traveled with me for 35 years. They were born in Jefferson, added to in San Diego, carried to Nevada, now they live in Jefferson again. In those other places I never had to look at them because they were inaccessible; here, they live in an area…
Read MoreTree Tracings
Greene County Genealogical Society ~by Valerie Ogren Meeting notice: The next meeting of the Greene County Genealogical Society will be Saturday, June 6, at 10 am in the basement meeting room of the Jefferson public library. Elaine Deluhery will present a program on “Using DNA in your Research.” If you have done this testing, you are welcome to join in the discussion. The room is…
Read MoreConsumer alert: Calls to businesses, threaten to cut power
From Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller DES MOINES – Businesses across Iowa are reporting that criminals claiming to represent their local power company are calling and threatening to shut off their electricity unless they make immediate payment through a prepaid debit card.
Read MoreSanders speaks to enthusiastic crowd in Ames
~by Colleen O’Brien “We need a political revolution in this country!” said Senator Bernie Sanders. 2016 Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, Democrat senator from Vermont, spoke for 45 minutes Saturday to a crowd of 600 in Ames about the moral, political and financial issues facing the country.
Read MorePassing: I pass, she passes, we shall all pass
~a column by Colleen O’Brien I have returned to Greene County many times in the spring to the tidy repetition of planted rows of corn barely discernible in the sloping, rolling, wet black earth; to the lowing skies full of rain; to the barely leafed but fully blossoming flowers of crab trees; to the possibility of snow when one thinks…
Read MoreNaylor: Institutions like ISU are not working for ‘We, the People’
Highland Township farmer George Naylor, past president of the National Family Farm Coalition, addressed the Greene County board of supervisors May 18 about the board’s financial support of the defense of Buena Vista, Sac and Calhoun Counties in a lawsuit filed by Des Moines Water Works. The lawsuit alleges that agricultural drainage tiles are point source polluters and should function…
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