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Editorial

Officials’ DC trip is worthwhile

Visiting Washington, D.C. is always a fascinating experience. The Capitol, the White House, the Supreme Court building, the towering Washington Monument and even the cherry trees surrounding the Tidal Basin make the city a unique place. And within that place, history is made every day and has been since the original portion of the Capitol opened in about 1800. What happens in Washington affects Fort Dodge and Webster County. That’s why a group of local leaders representing Fort Dodge, Webster County, Iowa Central Community College and the Greater Fort Dodge Growth Alliance went ...

Fur Ball is Saturday at FD Ford Toyota

It would be hard to imagine our society without pets. Dogs and cats contribute wonderfully to the happiness and well-being of people of all ages. In a perfect world, every pet would at all times be a welcome and loved part of someone’s home. Unfortunately, reality falls short of that ideal. That’s why it’s important to our community that the Almost Home Humane Society of North Central Iowa remains strong and grows even stronger. As with so many other worthwhile endeavors, achieving laudable goals depends in part on raising the money necessary to support the cause. For the ...

Iowa Central embraces new workforce training effort

It’s no secret that it is tough to fill all the open job positions in north central Iowa. The only logical way to meet the demand for people in all kinds of skilled positions is to train people, especially local people, to fill those jobs. Community colleges have always had a lead role in doing just that. Now Iowa Central Community College is preparing to take another step to help fill those jobs. It will be the first community college in the state to adopt the Early College Success Program in partnership with Iowa Jobs for America's Graduates, often called iJAG. The iJAG ...

Keep Iowa’s roads safe during planting

We are quickly approaching one of those times of the year when big, slow-moving farm vehicles rumble out onto roadways dominated by faster-paced traffic. That shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who lives in farm country. Even so, all of us should pay special heed to safety considerations as we share the roads with agricultural vehicles heading to the fields. Iowa has been doing a good job of keeping accidents involving farm vehicles to a minimum. According to data from the Iowa Department of Transportation, fatalities and major injuries resulting from such accidents have been on the ...

There is hope for tomorrow, even here on this troubled earth

Having commemorated the sorrow of Good Friday, Christians the world over today are contemplating the joy of another Easter morning with the message of victory over death and despair. The celebration of the resurrection of Christ is a time of renewal and a reaffirming of faith in him who rose to lead mankind in the ways of peace and brotherhood and fulfilled the promise of eternal life. It is a time of subdued joy, the joy of understanding that the certainty of death does not detract from the good life and that good deeds and ideals live on and surmount even the inevitable. Easter is ...

Fort Dodge region needs more truck drivers

Anyone who heads out on the road in Webster County or any of the nearby counties can’t help but notice that there are a lot of trucks traveling in the area. And despite the large number of trucks someone might see, the reality is that our region’s economy needs even more truck transportation. Within the region, transportation and warehousing is the second largest growing industry, behind only manufacturing. The limiting factor is the number of people with commercial drivers licenses who can take the driving jobs. In the Fort Dodge region, there are 6,000 open jobs in the ...