It's Saturday night, the snow is falling, and inquiring minds want to know: “Are you going to cancel church?” My pastoral policy is this: “If I can be there, we’ll have church. I trust people to decide if it’s safe for them.” After the most recent Big Snow at the beginning of ...
The legislature is quickly approaching the “funnel” date of February 16 where individually filed bills need to be through the committee process in order to be eligible for floor debate. This week I floor managed through a subcommittee meeting and the full committee meeting HSB 636, that ...
The Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is hosting a series of town hall-style meetings where local staff provide updates on recently completed hunting seasons, discuss possible changes to hunting rules and regulations, and address other topics as requested. Locally, the Iowa DNR will ...
Significant snow, wind, and brutally cold temperatures impacted Nebraska and much of the Midwest in January. Given the frequency of extreme weather events experienced across the U.S. during the past several years, preparing for emergencies is an important consideration for utilities and ...
To be a beginning farmer today if one does not have access to land and machinery from family or an older farmer is not wise. This is not good for rural Iowa. Rural Iowa succeeded when more farmers were on the land. As Iowa heads down this current path, there is not an effective way out. Schools ...
Fifty years ago, AEAs were created with the help of Senator Chuck Grassley to create equal opportunities for all students, so that regardless of where you lived, all children and educators had equal access and support to ensure Iowa students could achieve to the fullest. Through the AEA, I was ...
We are finishing up the fourth week of this year’s session, and we remained as busy as ever as we worked on many major priorities in the legislature. It was a pleasure to meet with students from all across the district during FFA Day on the Hill on Tuesday. High school students came and ...
As week four of the session comes to a close, the discussion on the governor’s bill to restructure the Area Education Agencies (AEA) appears to be coming to a resolution, at least for now. This week, Iowa House Republicans held a subcommittee on the Governor’s amended AEA proposal. In ...
Crop insurance provides a safety net for farmers, protecting their operations from loss due to natural perils such as drought, frost, excess moisture, pest infestations, or disease. While essential for many farmers, the rules regulating crop insurance have often been at odds with conservation ...
In Governor Kim Reynolds 2022 campaign ad, it ends with the words “Here in Iowa…America Still Works.” Does it? What version of American is Kim Reynolds envisioning? Her vision appears increasingly to be one where people at the bottom of the economic totem pole are stiffed while the top ...