Prospects for an agreement that could lead to withdrawl of all American troops from Afghanistan are “very promising,” U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said on Saturday. U.S. emissaries have been talking with leaders of the Taliban organization, which once ruled Afghanistan, for ...

For as long as anybody can remember, Iowans have been changing their clocks twice a year for Daylight Savings Time. Each spring, they set the clock ahead one hour and each fall they set it back one hour. A bill introduced by state Rep. Mike Sexton, R-Rockwell City, would eventually put an ...

President Donald Trump has forwarded to Congress his proposed federal budget for the fiscal year that begins on Oct. 1. Deciding what our national government should spend and how those expenditures should be funded was set out in our Constitution as the job of Congress. In recent decades, ...

Within just a few days, four police officers — two in New York City and two in Forrest City, Arkansas — were shot by gunmen. A grim fact of life for law enforcement personnel is that by the time you read this, it may be outdated. Attacks on police officers and sheriff’s deputies have ...

A handful of Fort Dodge youths recently expressed their thoughts on what makes America great and won recognition from Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1856 for doing so. In the Patriots Pen competition for those in sixth through eighth grades, Abby Cook, 14, took first place. Other winners in ...

Every year, municipal governments across the country impose rate hikes on water and sewer bills. To have a local government pass a rate hike and then put it on hold so that customers don’t have to pay the higher price, even for a few months, is pretty unusual. However, that’s exactly ...

Some Fort Dodge residents who get hot lunches through the Meals on Wheels program may have been surprised recently to find their food delivered by some very youthful volunteers. Those young delivery people are Fort Dodge Middle School students who eagerly volunteered for the job. There are ...

These days, it seems as if there is an “app” for everything. But the fiasco last week with the Iowa Democratic Party’s presidential nominating caucuses is a reminder that the appeal of new technology needs to be tempered by concern over reliability. Iowa’s caucus process is the first ...

Much food for thought — and debate — was offered by President Donald Trump during his State of the Union address on Tuesday evening. Among other things, Trump discussed the strong economy, including achievements such as the lowest unemployment rate for African-Americans on record. ...

Health care is expensive. For a great many Americans — even those with good insurance — finding the money to pay for the care and medicines they and family members require is a huge worry. Many people have insurance, but as costs have gone up they are discovering that the copays and ...

The impact that the late Mark Cady, a Fort Dodge man who was the chief justice of the Iowa Supreme Court, had on our state continues to be recognized. He was recently named the recipient of the Friend of the County Award when county supervisors from across the state gathered for a meeting in ...

President Donald Trump is a politician about whom Americans disagree strongly. Some love him and feel he is correcting problems in our government and society that have gone unaddressed for far too long. Others regard him with something close to – if not outright – hatred. They view him as a ...

Concern about overcrowded jails and prisons, combined with a laudable desire to give people who have made mistakes second chances in life, have prompted many Americans to rethink sentences for criminal offenses. That is occurring at the local, state and federal levels. Indeed, we need to ...

Iowans expected to know Monday night who won the 2020 Iowa Democratic Caucus. But when no final results were released that night, it seemed reasonable to expect the winner would be announced Tuesday morning. That didn’t happen, and by the end of the day Tuesday state party leaders ...

The ethanol and biodiesel industries are significant contributors to Iowa’s booming economy. Our state is a leader nationally in the production of these fuels. According to information provided by Gov. Kim Reynolds’ office, Iowa manufacturers produced 4.1 billion gallons of ethanol in ...

We are told frequently that we ought to be worried about the seas rising, because of climate change. But another type of sea — of viruses and bacteria — also is rising. Ought we to be as complacent as we clearly are about it? At this writing, Chinese officials had said the death toll in ...

Iowa’s presidential nominating caucuses get enormous attention from the national news media and respected political pundits because they come at the very start of the presidential campaign. Not very many convention delegates are at stake. Even so, a candidate who does well here gets a big ...

The Associated Press reported this week that U.S. officials are considering reductions in the number of our military personnel in Africa, at a time when extremist violence is increasing on the continent. Such consideration is “a move that worries (U.S.) international partners who are working ...

The Waters of the United States regulation, usually referred to as WOTUS, issued by the Obama administration in 2015 created a worrisome bureaucratic situation for the nation’s farmers. Its goal was to protect navigable waterways. Federal regulation of water that entered those water bodies ...

Corn production has been a key factor in the Iowa economy for more than 150 years. The state’s 21st-century economy is characterized by increasing diversity. Agriculture isn’t as dominant as once was the case. Even so, there can be little doubt that corn remains of critical importance. ...