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Progress 2025 sections begin today

Editorial

As the holiday season draws to a close each year, The Messenger’s writing staff embarks on a challenging adventure — producing a comprehensive look at how a wide array of developments in our region are shaping tomorrow. While every issue of this newspaper is filled with articles, features and advertisements that readers find informative and useful, the six special sections we call Progress provide a perspective that goes far beyond simply reporting the latest happenings. Our goal is to look at the big picture, capture trends and explore more fully events that may lead to headlines ...

One man’s work is preserving Fort Dodge history

Editorial

The yellow cardboard boxes of negatives fill multiple shelves in the Webster County Historical Society's room in the Fort Dodge Public Library. Inside those boxes are about 12,000 photographic negatives. There are years written on the boxes. But what’s really inside them - what images are to be found - remain a mystery until someone digs into them. Joe Kudron has become that someone. Over the course of about 10 years, he has been steadily opening up those boxes and scanning the negatives into a hard drive. There is no profit in this undertaking for the Fort Dodge native who lives ...

Private equity’s harmful effect on health care

Local Columns

Q: What prompted your bipartisan investigation into private equity’s stake in hospital ownership? A: In the last Congress, I launched a bipartisan inquiry to dig into the impact that private equity ownership of hospitals has had on patient care and rural health care. Specifically, my concerns were prompted following a tragic incident at Ottumwa Regional Health Center, the general acute care hospital in Iowa under private equity (PE) ownership. A male nurse practitioner assaulted incapacitated female patients in 2021 and 2022, before he died from an overdose in the hospital. ...

What is insurance fraud?

Local Columns

According to the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud (CAIF), insurance fraud costs consumers an estimated $308.6 billion annually in the United States, translating into roughly $900 per consumer due to increased premiums caused by fraudulent claims. Insurance fraud is any act of deception or misrepresentation made to an insurance company with the intent of receiving benefits or payouts that one is not entitled to. This includes individuals and organizations making false claims, as well as those providing false information to avoid paying premiums or reducing their insurance costs, and ...

Fort Dodge area is home to legislative leaders

Editorial

Webster County is represented by three lawmakers who are uniquely positioned to have significant influence on the future course of our state. State Sen. Tim Kraayenbrink, R-Fort Dodge, is chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. That’s the panel that handles spending bills. Every measure that calls for spending a cent of state money will go through Kraayenbrink’s committee. State Rep. Mike Sexton, R-Rockwell City, is the chairman of the House Agriculture Committee. In Iowa, there can hardly be a more influential committee to lead. After all, this is a state that keeps ...

AFES says thank you to community

Local Columns

As we reflect on another year of service to our community, I want to take a moment to express heartfelt gratitude to the City of Fort Dodge and its residents for the incredible support you’ve shown Athletics for Education and Success (AFES) over the past 20 years. Your belief in our mission has allowed us to grow, evolve, and continue making a positive impact on the lives of youth and families in our area. For two decades, AFES has provided programs that serve as pillars of support for our community. These include our after-school programming, summer programming, and a variety of ...