When President Barack Obama took office, he promised Americans the most transparent administration in history. Just the opposite has occurred.The situation is getting worse, according to a study of the federal government's responses to requests for records. The Associated Press found that "the ...
For many years, many Americans have been able to count on volunteer fire departments to come to our aid in emergencies. Hundreds of men and women provide the service while asking for nothing in return.For generations what they did was a wonderful bargain. In exchange for a few dollars now and ...
After an especially brutal winter, spring has finally arrived.As another growing season approaches, Tuesday has been set as National Ag Day by the Agriculture Council of America.The council designates the week within which it falls as National Ag Week. This important time to celebrate ...
No wonder so many foreign leaders are reluctant to go along with U.S. policy initiatives. From one day to the next, President Barack Obama's inconsistencies have meant flipping a coin is an appropriate method of predicting how the White House will react to the next world crisis.New Ukrainian ...
President Barack Obama does not have to worry about votes from senior citizens this fall. But many members of Congress do - and that may be why they kept him from another massive raid of Medicare benefits.Obama had planned to limit access to three classes of drugs on which many Medicare ...
Democracy functions best when the public has access to detailed information about what government officials do and why they do it.Iowa and most other states have what are called "sunshine" laws. They require most public business to be conducted in meetings open to the public. There are also ...
Apparently neither Attorney General Eric Holder nor his boss, President Barack Obama, are familiar with the concept of sending mixed messages.Recently, Holder termed heroin use "an urgent and growing public health crisis."He is right about that.Between 2007 and 2012, heroin use in the United ...
Islamic terrorists hoping for another opening to massacre Americans must wonder sometimes whether we can even see the "dots," much less connect them.After the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on America, investigators concluded that U.S. intelligence agencies failed "to connect the dots" regarding clues ...
How did Adam Lanza go from being "just a normal little weird kid," in his father's words, to someone who "couldn't get any more evil"?Peter Lanza made the comments in a magazine story about his son, who slaughtered 20 children and six adults in a 2012 rampage at a Connecticut school. The elder ...
March 31 may be a significant - and very expensive - date in your life. Don't know why? That is not unusual. Tens of millions of Americans do not, according to public opinion polls.By the end of this month, many people are required to be signed up for Affordable Care Act health insurance. ...
In our highly mobile society, the ease with which teaching professionals can move from state to state is made more complicated by licensing requirements. The spouses of veterans and active duty military personnel are among those who encounter this problem most often because careers in the armed ...
In all likelihood, an Interior Department report recently was intended by President Barack Obama as another slap at conservatives in Congress. During the government "shutdown" last fall, he blamed them for all sorts of havoc.If the report on national parks during the shutdown was issued with ...
Americans may be paying more for defense while getting less in troop strength, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel hinted recently.During a speech at the Pentagon, Hagel said plans are for the active-duty U.S. Army to be cut from its current 522,000 soldiers to as few as 440,000. The Army has not ...
Investigators with the Government Accountability Office tell us approximately $1.4 billion was spent by the government on autism research between 2008 and 2012.That is the good news.The bad news is as much as 84 percent of that money was spent on redundant research.Duplication of research ...
President Barack Obama and fellow liberals claim to want to lift more Americans out of poverty. But their newest pet project would plunge half a million people deeper into it.Obama and liberals in Congress want to increase the federally mandated minimum wage. They insist it would help millions ...
Amid the shock and horror of what happened on Sept. 11, 2001, a group of ordinary Americans became heroes by sacrificing their own lives to save others.A monument to them, the passengers and crew of Flight 93, exists in south central Pennsylvania. It is at the site of where their airliner ...
In some ways, Americans face more military threats to our security than the nation did in the days leading up to World War II.Russian President Vladimir Putin has made it clear the end of the Soviet Union did not draw the curtain on Moscow's ambitions. He made that abundantly clear in sending ...
Thursday evening an event took place that was a good deal more than just a social occasion.Approximately 300 community leaders gathered at the Best Western Starlite Village Inn & Suites for food and camaraderie at the annual meeting of the Greater Fort Dodge Growth Alliance.A major ...
President Barack Obama apparently is more concerned with rewarding political supporters than good relations between the U.S. and other countries.That ought to concern thoughtful Americans. When a prospective U.S. ambassador to Norway angers people in that country by categorizing one of the ...
Few of the expensive films Hollywood has produced, now in the past, stand the test of time. But remember "National Lampoon's Animal House"? "Stripes"? "Groundhog Day"? "Caddyshack"? "Vacation"?Go ahead. Laugh, or at least smile. Those were funny movies - and years from now, they'll still make ...