Tom Vilsack is back at the helm of the United States Department of Agriculture. The former Iowa governor was confirmed by the Senate on Feb. 23 to begin his second stint as secretary of agriculture, having served in the role for eight years under former President Barack Obama. Having an ...

Corn growers and ethanol producers finally got a bit of good news from the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA has reversed its position on a policy issue in a move that, in the long run, will grow the market for ethanol. Refineries are required by federal law to blend billions of ...

U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley is well known for visiting all 99 counties in Iowa every year. Many of his annual stops are in small, rural towns often overlooked by politicians. But Grassley, a Republican, is a farmer who knows all about life in rural communities because he has lived it. He ...

A new proposal for the Crossroads Mall site would provide an outdoor recreation and entertainment option that currently doesn’t exist in that part of town. As part of the evolving plan for the property announced by new owner Crossroads Plaza Development LLC, this latest proposal calls for a ...

Passenger jet service returned to Fort Dodge Regional Airport Monday morning when a United Express plane came in for a landing. There hasn’t been passenger jet service in Fort Dodge since about 2012, during the last months of Delta Air Lines’ tenure in the community. United Express, ...

The annual Progress edition wraps up with the Agriculture section in today’s edition of The Messenger. It provides a comprehensive look at how a wide array of developments in our region are shaping the agricultural tomorrow. While every issue of this newspaper is filled with articles, ...

FFA was established in 1928 as Future Farmers of America. It was renamed the National FFA Organization in 1988 to reflect the rapid changes and greater employment diversity in agriculture. To most of us, it is known simply as FFA. After more than eight decades, FFA continues to enrich the ...

Hundreds of Manson Northwest Webster Community School District students discovered their love of learning in the kindergarten classroom of Tricia Larson. And hundreds of MNW high schoolers learned mathematics from Jason Englert. But last year, COVID-19 stole those dedicated educators from ...

Today, 500 people will receive the COVID-19 vaccine at a clinic to be conducted at the Crossroads Mall. The clinic is a major undertaking by the Webster County Health Department. But the dedicated staff of the Health Department will have a lot of help, including from some surprising sources. ...

A sign bearing the words Fort Dodge Lane and the familiar logo of the city marks the start of a walking path in a sprawling park. That sign and that walking path are not in Fort Dodge, however. They are not even in the United States. Fort Dodge Lane is the longest of multiple paths that go ...

The Lord’s Cupboard will be open at its new location today. The pantry’s address is still the same. It’s still located at 127 N. 10th St. in the First United Methodist Church office building. But it has moved on up and is now located on the main floor. For the first time in its history. ...

In his inaugural address, President Joe Biden said that “unity is the path forward” to overcoming our nation’s challenges. He said it would “restore the soul” and “secure the future” of our country and insisted that “we have never, ever, ever failed in America when we have acted ...

Iowa is typically not a place people would consider to be a hotbed of solar energy production. That seems like a better description of sunny Arizona, not the currently snowy Iowa. But some experts who work in the solar energy field have calculated that the sunlight that shines down on our ...

Here in the Midwest, we are well aware of the environmental benefits of clean burning ethanol and biodiesel. But not everyone realizes just how good those fuels are for the air we breathe. Unfortunately, some of the people who are not up-to-date on the benefits are at the U.S. Environmental ...

Apart from their own home, perhaps no other building plays such a significant role in a person’s life than their church. The church is the site of so many of life’s milestones – weddings, baptisms, first communions and, yes, funerals. Often these take place in monumental structures that ...

President Biden’s decision to cancel the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline has a touch of the theatrical about it. Signing the cancellation order on the first full day of his administration, the president drew applause from environmentalists and boos from a number of labor unions. Native ...

As anyone with a passing knowledge of civics knows, Iowa has three branches of government, each with different roles. The legislature writes the laws, the governor ensures that the laws are carried out and the courts decide if the laws are legal and constitutional. The executive branch, led ...

When hundreds of bicyclists converge in Fort Dodge on July 26, the community will have a unique opportunity to showcase itself. Those bicyclists will be part of the annual RAGBRAI event, and they’ll be staying in Fort Dodge overnight. They were actually supposed to come to the city last ...

It’s an all too common sight on Iowa roads: a driver with a phone pressed to their ear, chatting away while their vehicle weaves in and out of its lane. Such action could be the beginning of a crash and, in a worst case scenario, a tragedy. Just how bad is the problem? In 2019, the last ...

There has been a Catholic school system in Fort Dodge for almost as long as this town has been in existence. There are other towns in the area The Messenger serves that can make similar claims. Catholic education got underway in Fort Dodge about 158 years ago. The first Catholic school came ...