~by Denise O’ Brien Van Republican Steve King, Iowa’s Fourth District Congressman, drew about 30 people, including several leading Greene County Democrats, two police officers and a handful of local news reporters, to an April 25 town hall meeting at the Jefferson Community Golf Course.
Read MoreCategory: Opinion
One smart poet: Mary Oliver questions and comforts
~a column by Colleen O’Brien April is National Poetry Month in the U.S. and Canada. Some think poetry is dumb; or even worse, pointless. Some think it necessary for survival. It is said to be the first kind of story-telling, a way of talking that humans came upon to tell another person important life lessons in rhyme and rhythm so…
Read MoreThe Behn Report
~by Sen Jerry Behn We are fourteen weeks into the legislative session, leaving us with only two weeks until the scheduled end of session. This deadline prompted discussion on a number of substantive topics this week and many hours debating on the Senate floor. On Tuesday, the Senate passed a bill creating a children’s behavioral health system in Iowa. After…
Read MoreLetter to the editor – Patti Naylor
To the editor, The closing of the Landus Cooperative facility in Scranton will be a difficult and costly change for the area farmers and for the community. I commend Dawn Rudolph for writing her heart-felt op-ed in the April 10 edition of the Scranton Journal about this sad news. Although I lost my race for county supervisor against Dawn, I…
Read MoreSome people work to save the world, not make it worse
~a column by Colleen O’Brien If you, like me, have a tendency to worry about climate change, overpopulation, floods, fires, loss of farmland to urbanization, mass migration because of all these things and most governments ignoring it all for power grabs and other political idiocy that does not advance and protect humankind and its planet…it’s comforting to come upon news…
Read MoreThe Behn Report
~by Sen Jerry Behn April 12, 2019 This week was a whirlwind of activity, both figuratively, and literally. Wind advisories across the state kept drivers on their toes. After last’s week legislative deadline for bills, Week 13 included mostly floor debate. We remain focused on our budget work while we continue to pass bills out of the Senate.
Read MoreThe family that escapes together laughs a lot
~a column by Colleen O’Brien I participated in an Escape Room game last week. When my family first proposed it, I thought it was something brand new, avant-garde; I thought I’d be in on something so hip and with-it that for once I’d be on the leading edge of life in the 21st century.
Read MoreIn the legislature
~by Senator Jerry Behn April 5, 2019 This was the 12th week of the 2019 legislative session and budget bills have started moving in both chambers. The first budget bill passed off the floor of the Senate this week. Senate Republicans have proposed a budget for the next fiscal year that is sustainable, responsible, and conservative. It is a budget…
Read MoreHealthcare for all except in America
~a column by Colleen O’Brien A propeller airplane just flew over my house. What a great memory-jogger. It’s right out of my growing-up-in-Iowa-1950s sound box, and it sets the scene: backyard, 607 South Oak, a mid-morning in June, harvesting strawberries from the backyard patch and wishing it were one o’clock so I could go swimming.
Read MoreCurtailing anger
~a column by Colleen O’Brien In a discussion about anger in children and how to stop them from raging, striking out, hitting back and growing up angry, ticked off, ready to hurt themselves or others, I learned how the Inuit* do it. Over millennia they have taught their toddlers, through playacting, to deal with the inborn frustration of being human.…
Read MoreLetter to the editor – Dick Finch
Letter to the editor, Congratulations to the Greene County attorney and sheriff’s offices for a new approach to help low level criminals help themselves back into society to become useful and respected citizens and get their pride back. I believe almost every business and farm operator in Greene County is looking for employees with little or no experience and willing…
Read MoreCandidate John Delaney follows 15-minute stump speech with hour-long conversation
Congressman John Delaney showed himself to be a presidential candidate worth a second or third look when he spent the evening with Greene County Democrats March 15 in Churdan. About 50 persons attended the Irish Soup Supper in the new Churdan Community Room. The St Patrick’s Day-themed event was coordinated with the Delaney campaign as a fundraiser for the local…
Read More