Rightfully, most attention now is on the front-line care Iowa hospitals are providing for patients stricken with COVID-19. Yet, it’s the financial repercussions of this pandemic that may be more threatening to the future of Iowa hospitals. Collectively, Iowa hospitals could lose more than ...
This Monday is Memorial Day. In ordinary times, this weekend would bring parades and community events. It would be a time to gather with friends and family, and to remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice to preserve our freedom. After all, what’s now a federal holiday began as ...
When I moved back to Fort Dodge last summer after nearly a decade away, going to college and living halfway across the country, I wanted to find ways to be active in the community here. A lot had changed in the last 10 years and I was seeing my hometown in a whole new light. To be honest, it ...
Our national dialog is consumed with discussion about health, safety, freedoms and liberties. There is no doubt Iowans are concerned about these important matters. It is vital to find a balancing act between protecting the public health and ensuring the continuation of civil society. One of ...
Editor’s note: U.S. senators Joni Ernst and Charles Grassley, Republicans from Iowa, joined a bipartisan group of 74 senators who recently wrote to Russell Vought, acting director of the federal Office of Management and Budget, asking that the agency do what it can to support local newspapers ...
When she was growing up in Fort Dodge and things would go wrong, Joanne Kersten Hudson recalls the simple, direct advice of her father. “He would always say — tough bounce, you just do the best you can at whatever you’re doing,’” she said in recalling the words of Dr. Herb ...
During these uncertain times, many people are experiencing higher levels of mental health challenges. It is important to do what we can to help not only ourselves, but also others around us. One of the most important things one can do at this time is to take care of ourselves and encourage ...
As you well know by now, the governor has ordered all schools, as well as spring activities, to be canceled for the rest of the 2019-20 school year. The health and safety of your child will always be the No. 1 priority for us at Fort Dodge Community Schools. While expected, it didn’t make ...
Many of us have officially hit that moment where we’re ready to “get back to normal.” But even though recent models indicate COVID-19 may be slowing across the Midwest, it’s important to keep doing what works — and that means staying home. I’ve been a physician for more than 20 ...
Did you know that the military post named Fort Dodge was an active post for only for two and a half years? Did you know that the county seat for Webster County might have been decided by a wrestling match that involved John Duncombe, a highly distinguished Fort Dodge attorney and state ...
The Messenger recently interviewed Dr. Megan Srinivas via telephone about the spread of COVID-19. Srinivas is an infectious disease and internal medicine physician at the Community Health Center of Fort Dodge. Here are her responses to our questions: What do you see as the biggest ...
April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month, a chance for us to recognise the role we all play in protecting children and strengthening families in our communties. Nearly 9,000 children from across Iowa were abused and neglected in 2018, according to a child welfare report from the ...
Her career in news and corporate communications took her from Iowa to Missouri to Virginia to Washington, D.C., and San Francisco, but throughout her journey, Evelyn Dalton kept strong ties to her roots of growing up on a farm near Emmetsburg — and she’s applied those roots to those she ...
In light of Webster County’s first COVID-19 case, we want to ensure our community has accurate and factual information. We are extremely proud of the work that has been done to prepare for the COVID-19 pandemic with our community partners through the Emergency Operations Center (EOC). ...
As Iowans continue to fight against the spread of COVID-19 with extraordinary public health measures, it’s important that “National Ag Week” is now. Our farmers and the entire Iowa food and ag community are continuing to step up, providing food and energy security when it matters most. ...
In the United States, colorectal cancer is the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths in men and women. It’s expected to cause about 53,200 deaths during 2020. Yet, nearly one-third of American adults choose to forgo recommended screenings, putting them at even greater risk for ...
The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that, effective July 1, 2019, there are 328.2 million people in the United States. It has been estimated there are around 54 million Americans who have a disability. According to the National Institute on Mental Health, one in five people live with a mental ...
On the Earth’s surface, the community was formed from an abandoned Army fort along the Des Moines River amidst the fertile soil of northwest Iowa. Underneath that soil, deep underneath, workers mined gypsum from one of the purest deposits of the mineral in the world. “Gypsum runs in ...
There’s an old Greek proverb that says, a society grows great when people plant trees in whose shade they know they will never sit. And even though opportunity lives here today, with a strong, growing economy, we have to be planning for tomorrow, not today. That’s what the Invest in Iowa ...
Iowans have a reputation of being hard workers, honest, neighborly, connected to the land and genuinely “Iowa nice”. Unfortunately, this reputation does not hold true when we look at our state’s record of protecting its natural resources and investing in outdoor recreation. It has been ...