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When Main Street thrives, so does America

For 250 years, our nation has been built on innovation coming from Main Street storefronts, rows of rolling corn fields, and mechanic shop workbenches. These unassuming yet extraordinary spots in every corner of America have been essential to helping our nation thrive and to setting so many of our citizens up to live the American Dream. I’ve witnessed the American spirit of innovation up close while crisscrossing Iowa from the Mississippi River to the Missouri River over the last decade. From small town grocers like the folks at Dutchman’s Store in Cantril who built a thriving ...

Honoring the heart of health care: Our nurses

As we celebrate National Nurses Week, I want to take a moment to recognize our incredible nurses who are dedicated to delivering exceptional care to our patients, each other and the communities we serve. I’ve been a nurse for 33 years and am honored to serve as the chief nursing officer for UnityPoint Health — Fort Dodge. I’m so proud of the more than 450 nurses who provide care in our clinics, hospital and home care services every day across our community. Our nurses show up when fear and uncertainty are present, advocate for patients in need and offer comfort even when healing ...

How Iowa’s Corn Belt came to feed and fuel the world

Iowa farmers have kept our top notch status in the Corn Belt for generations. Our state’s rise to top corn crop producer can be traced back 100 years – thanks in large part to the scientific curiosity of an Iowan from Adair County named Henry A. Wallace. A century ago, he founded the iconic seed company Pioneer Hi-Bred Corn Co. that today serves farmers in more than 90 countries. In 2019, Pioneer became the flagship seed brand owned by Corteva Agriscience. Later this year, Corteva will spin off its seed business under the name Vylor. I’m rooting to bring its seed headquarters ...

Walter Howey: Bursting onto national newspaper scene from Fort Dodge

In the early days of newspapering in Fort Dodge, long before broadcast and computers and the Internet and AI and many other technological advancements, a young Walter Howey delighted in a feat still important to newspaper editors of today: Being first with the story. Fort Dodge was a ...

Fraudsters are treating the Treasury like a personal piggy bank

Tax Day has come and gone ... along with the money the IRS took from your paycheck. Even if you paid your taxes on time and in full, you are still subject to the threat of an IRS audit. Meanwhile, fraudsters are treating the national treasury like a personal piggy bank, stealing more than $1 billion from the government every day. The IRS wants a cut of that loot, requiring that criminals report bribes and stolen goods as taxable income. But does anyone really think the crooks stealing tax dollars are going to share their spoils with the IRS? Fat chance. In fact, too many of ...

Fort Dodge without TIF is a weaker Fort Dodge

Fort Dodge’s conversation about tax increment financing should begin with a simple question: What would our community look like without it? TIF is an Iowa urban renewal tool that allows communities to reinvest new tax value created in a designated area back into that area. For Fort Dodge, it has been one of the most important tools available to encourage job creation, expand our tax base, and move redevelopment projects from ideas to reality. That is why the “without TIF” question matters so much. In Fort Dodge, we do not have to imagine what TIF has made possible. We see it ...