Category: Opinion

~a column by Colleen O’Brien Have you noticed that the administration is not wearing face masks at the podium? And the wooden-faced in the background are standing too close to one another? We are told by the CDC to stay home; if we have to go out, keep a six-foot distance from others; wear masks because we’re dealing with what…

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~a column by Colleen O’Brien Someday this will be over, and I will have succumbed or survived. If it’s the latter, I hope I have something to show for the hours I was forced to spend alone. This command to “quarantine” should be a walk in the park for me. It is no different from how I live all the…

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To the editor, We spend $35 million on a new school but are reluctant to give teachers what they deserve. Why should the superintendent earn well over $100000, and the principals? The county supervisors just gave raises to many, including themselves.

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~by Colleen O’Brien Five things listed in the Republican’s bill to help the American people during the covid-19 crisis, as reported in Roll Call by Niels Leiniewski 3-23-20, 1 pm: 1. “promoting charitable deductions.” A bipartisan group of senators, Lesniewski reports, is “reviving a proposal to create an ‘above the line’ deduction for contributions to charity. The expanded standard deductions…

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~a column by Colleen O’Brien Since we now have a “war” president, he’s been press conferencing from the White House press room daily. This is unfortunate. When he eschewed the normal press conference routine that former presidents held in the Press Briefing Room of the White House and became the Tweeter in Chief, I wanted him to be a real…

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After reading the article on GreeneCountyNewsOnline about negotiations between the teachers and the school board, it became apparent that members of the community need to speak up about the importance of having and keeping high quality educators in the Greene County Schools.

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~a column by Colleen O’Brien Like so many of us, I’m consumed by the news and then so tired of it or confused by it I don’t pay any attention for a while. Then out of the very back of my brain, my trained-to-be-informed childhood aims its pointy finger, and I feel I’m not being a good citizen. I whine…

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March 12, 2020 ~by Sen Joni Ernst  In the past few days, cases of coronavirus have started to arise here in Iowa, just like we’ve seen in many other states across the country. At this point, there are over 1,000 cases in the United States, and that number is almost certain to grow. In Congress, we are working to do…

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~a column by Colleen O’Brien The CDC is the leading national health institute. It is a federal agency (think Deep State˟), where in 2018, the top national security officials handling pandemics left abruptly, did not say why and have not been replaced by this administration.

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March 5, 2020 ~by Senator Jerry Behn On Tuesday the House and Senate announced an agreement on a K-12 education funding package for the next school year. Investing almost $100 million in new funding for schools, this money will include $7.65 million for transportation equity and $5.8 million for per pupil equity. The bill passed out of the Senate on…

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~a column by Colleen O’Brien 1. Who’s the whiniest person you know? It could be siblings, once-friends, parents, your child, your grandchild, a great aunt, a boss, your roommate, your president? It’s such a weenie way to live, complaining. Especially when it’s about everything, like a differing point of view. Or a questioning of point of view. Or a mere…

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~a column by Colleen O’Brie Italians I met while visiting in Italy told me about “workers’ housing” built in the middle of Rome “after the War” (WWII). A fellow I met owns one of these tiny apartments, about 400 square feet. He said it is mostly old grandmothers (from whom he inherited) still living there, and their children and grandchildren…great-great-grands…

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