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Enjoy a festive holiday season

It is that time of year when holiday parties pile up one after the other over the course of a few days — and many of them are held after dark and feature alcoholic beverages. Everyone wants to get to and from all these gatherings safely. No one wants to be added to the grim table of statistics compiled by the Iowa Department of Transportation which records all of the deaths resulting from traffic accidents. The good news is that 2025 has been a comparatively safe one on Iowa’s roads. For the first time in a century, the state is on track to conclude a year with less than 300 ...

FDCSD moves to reach students who don’t speak fluent English

While debate and even controversy goes on nationwide about immigration, locally there is a fact that must be recognized. The reality is that there are students in the Fort Dodge Community School District, regardless of where they were born, who do not speak English fluently or don’t speak it at all. And it is also a fact that the school district remains responsible for educating those students. Teachers and school administrators have wrestled with the challenge of how to break through the language barrier so that those students can learn what they need to know to become productive ...

Silent night, holy night …

All across the nation, a feeling of anticipation is in the air. It is Christmas Eve, a time when those whose jobs do not demand that they be at work complete preparations for Christmas, the biggest day on most of our calendars. Once the packages are all wrapped, the last decorations are adjusted on Christmas trees, cookies are taken out of the oven and, perhaps, a turkey begins cooking, a time of peace descends upon many of us. Weary from the hustle and bustle of the holidays, we relax for a few moments. Many of us go to evening church services, where “Joy to the World” comes ...

Choose Iowa promotes high quality food, drink from our state

People across the United States increasingly want to know where their food comes from. It just makes sense to know where something you put in your body comes from. And a problem like the recent scare over the possibility of tiny pieces of metal getting into shredded cheese only adds urgency to the desire for knowledge. The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship has a relatively new program that lets consumers know when they are getting wholesome food from our state. It’s called Choose Iowa. The distinctive Choose Iowa logo on a package, bag or bottle means the food ...

National Gypsum supports local community

National Gypsum Co. has been a rock-solid presence in Fort Dodge and Webster County for generations. Although it is a significant contributor to the local economy, company leaders and workers at all levels believe National Gypsum owes something to the community. Company leaders say giving back to the communities where it does business is a core value of National Gypsum. The company proved that locally by recently giving the Fort Dodge Community School District a $40,000 grant. The money will be used to update the industrial technology program at Fort Dodge Middle School. “This ...

Bikes for Tykes brings cheer to kids

These days, cars, pickups and SUVs share the showroom of Fort Dodge Ford Lincoln Toyota with an entirely different kind of wheeled vehicle. That vehicle is the bicycle. And there are a lot of them, maybe hundreds of them, in the showroom. But before long they will be going out the doors to be distributed to kids who would not otherwise get a bicycle of their own. The effort is called Bikes for Tykes. The annual Bikes for Tykes drive has a simple mission: making Christmas merrier for youngsters. Each year hundreds of new bicycles are donated so that children in families facing ...