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Editorial

It’s time for spring — and farming

It’s getting to be that time of the year. Although it is early in the season, you just may have seen someone working in the fields already. You may have seen a tractor rolling down a rural road. If you are a farmer, perhaps you have been looking over the fields and getting the machinery ready. All that activity means one thing — the time to start planting is drawing near. Yes, there may be a late season snow storm, but spring is coming and with it comes the annual planting. Spring is the time when the pace quickens on the state’s roughly 90,000 farms. According to the ...

Help celebrate National Ag Day

As another growing season approaches, the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship is encouraging Iowans to join in the recognition of Tuesday as National Ag Day. One goal of National Ag Day is to recognize the contribution agriculture makes in the lives of all of us. The American Council on Agriculture sponsors and encourages programs during National Ag Week that help Americans: • Understand how food and fiber products are produced. • Appreciate the role ag plays in providing safe, abundant and affordable products. • Value the essential role of agriculture in ...

Public notices must remain in newspapers

There are some in the Iowa Legislature who periodically toy with the possibility of eliminating the requirement that local governments print public notices in newspapers. This is the wrong move today, tomorrow and for the future. Government transparency is more important than ever. In truth it is critical. While The Messenger and other Iowa newspapers have an economic interest in seeing that the public notice publishing requirement remains, the issue goes far beyond a few dollars. Maintaining the legal requirement to publish government actions and meetings in local newspapers is ...

Lawmakers shouldn’t change funding for job training program

Tucked inside an economic development bill that probably contains many good things is a provision that would severely inhibit and maybe even end an effective job training program. The measure would make a change in the way an employee training program commonly called 260E is paid for. That number and letter combination refers to the exact section in Iowa law where the program is described and authorized. The 260E program enables community colleges to provide training for companies that are adding 50 or more employees. Locally, Nestle Purina PetCare, Cargill and CJ Bio America ...

Corrections workers are unsung heroes

Anyone who took the time to read the entire Iowa criminal code would come across an offense entitled assault by an inmate with bodily fluids or secretions. Yes, that offense does exist in state law. And yes, the offense is as gross as it sounds. But that kind of an assault is one of the things county jailers and state corrections officers must contend with. Everyone is well aware that law enforcement officers, firefighters and emergency medical personnel risk their lives every day to protect us. But there is another group of people that risk their lives every day to protect the ...

Travelers must take advantage of new Denver flights

For five years, United Express has provided its Fort Dodge passengers with convenient flights to Chicago - O’Hare International Airport, where they can transfer to United Airlines flights to the rest of the country and the world. Someone can board a plane at Fort Dodge Regional Airport, fly to Chicago, walk to their next gate and fly to their final destination. It’s a seamless transfer - there’s no need to retrieve suitcases and check them in again. And Chicago is a logical place to get flights to the eastern and southern United States. But if a passenger’s destination is ...