~by Tori Riley, GreeneCountyNewsOnline Last week was a good week for the Jefferson city council and a bad week for the county board of supervisors. First, the Jefferson city council… The council at its Jan. 12 meeting approved paying a local business, Sebourn Video Services, to record every regular council meeting and post it for public viewing on Jefferson Telecom’s…
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Vibrant mainstream media, the light that nurtures democracy
~by Tori Riley, publisher/editor, GreeneCountyNewsOnline The short-lived takeover of the U.S. capitol Wednesday by supporters of President Donald Trump looked more Yemeni or Costa Rican than American. Shock and sadness were the first reaction of many of us. I cried as I watched the news unfolding. “That just can’t be happening here. We don’t do things like that,” I thought.…
Read MoreHow do I do it?
~a column by Colleen O’Brien After the election of Joe Biden as our 46th president, I relaxed, let go of politics. My four-year low-grade fever subsided. If I reverted and thought about politics, it was while I was catching up on things that didn’t have to do with divisiveness, cruelty, disdain, bullying, lying. I looked forward to peaceful discourse –…
Read MoreReynolds names priorities in Condition of the State Address
Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds delivered her 2021 Condition of the State Address Jan. 12 at the Statehouse. Below are her remarks as prepared for delivery: Mr. President, Mr. Speaker, Lieutenant Governor, legislative leaders and members, justices and judges, my fellow Iowans: Our state constitution says that, every year, the governor must communicate to the general assembly the condition of…
Read MoreB. Banister re: Trump presidency
To the editor, So, this is how the Trump presidency ends, with insurrection, violence and murder. Trump and son Don Jr. incited the MAGA crowd and the violence that followed but Republican politicians, including Iowa’s Grassley, Ernst and Reynolds, enabled him for four years, both vocally and in cowardly silence. You could say that all 74 million people who voted…
Read MoreHabits for a new year in a democracy
~a column by Colleen O’Brien In a college course on American history, I was given the opportunity to memorize and recite before the class the Preamble to the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, or the Gettysburg Address. I chose the shortest, in typically freshman behavior, but I’ve been reading them since, reminders during times of greed or war or civil…
Read MoreReading through a pandemic
~a column by Tori Riley, GCNO publisher/editor While 2020 wasn’t a great year in some ways, it was a great year for reading. With so many activities suspended and with prudent people just staying home, there was more time to read. I surpassed my annual goal to read a dozen books and tallied 16 books. I chose the books intentionally,…
Read MoreLetter to the editor – Lloyd shot in his yard
Letter to Editor Dear Tori, Late in the night of Dec. 19 a cruel and terrible thing happened. Some low life scum of the earth coward hiding behind a rifle with an infrared scope, under the cover of darkness, shot and killed our beloved family dog. Our whole family loved Lloyd, but our Mom was his real owner. He was…
Read MoreB. Banister re: purchase of Midland Power building
To the editor, The county supervisors have decided to buy the Midland Power building out on Old 30. Everyone knows that commercial real estate in Jefferson is cheap and very hard to sell. So it makes me wonder why we, the taxpayers, are paying $600,000 for a building that is probably not worth 100K, assuming that a buyer could even…
Read MoreWhat makes you laugh? Or smile quietly?
~a column by Colleen O’Brien When Canadian author Margaret Atwood (The Handmaids’ Tale) was asked, “Is there anything that gives you hope about your southern neighbor?” she replied that she does not think it’s over for America yet, as many gloomy commentators have been writing the past few weeks. Her answer was surprising…and funny: “I think America is an ornery…
Read MoreGive the gift of life: Take COVID vaccine for yourself and others
~by Bill Tubbs, posted with permission My dear wife, Linda, remembers well her mother’s tears and her father’s joy that cold day in 1955 she and her sister and brothers stood shivering outside Briggs Elementary in Maquoketa waiting their turn to receive the polio vaccine. Nothing could stop them. The availability of a vaccine to rid the people of the…
Read MoreRe-reading an old friend
~a column by Colleen O’Brien No matter how good some books are, I know I’ll never want to read them again. But now and then a book comes along that warrants repeated readings. Three of my favorites I have read three times. They are all journal-entry or correspondence stories centered around a war that altered the entire world. One of…
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