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Internships available in Senate offices

Q: What opportunities does your office have for college-age students? A: No matter the job, nothing compares to real life work experience. Whether waiting tables, starting an IV in a patient or working in an office or on an assembly line, getting work experience under one’s belt burnishes skills, informs career goals, adds job experience to one’s resume and builds networking connections in the workplace. Employers often use internship programs as a recruiting tool to find the best and the brightest in the labor pool. Throughout my years in public office in the U.S. Senate, I’ve ...

Leaving a legacy can be a great honor for a loved one

One of the best ways to honor a loved one or even a family is to establish a legacy fund in their memory and honor. The definition of legacy fund is a fund used to convey one’s values through a foresighted action to provide longterm financial support to a charitable organization or cause. In simple terms, it means giving back by helping charitable causes through a gift from one’s estate. The charitable cause could be advancing community betterment/quality of life, supporting education, helping the poor, improving parks or the environment, advancing recreation or a myriad of other ...

Fort Dodge’s YWCA – A haven for women for over a century

For more than a century, the three-story YWCA building in downtown Fort Dodge has been a haven for women of the community – a place to live, a place to grow, a place to get a good meal and today, a place to cope with drug and alcohol addiction. Few brick-and-mortar structures mean more to ...

Equipping Iowa farmers with the tools they need to succeed

Agriculture is a capital-intensive industry. From buying fertilizer, seed, feed, and pesticides to purchasing new machinery, Iowa farmers and producers must maintain a tight budget to turn a profit and feed our country and the world. For new and beginning farmers, the task of budgeting is even more difficult as some look to buy farmland, which has increased in value by over 300 percent in the last 20 years. Regrettably, thanks to poor policymaking in Washington, D.C., these input costs have only increased as inflation makes everything more expensive and supply-chain bottlenecks limit ...

Farmers Markets expanding in Iowa

More and more entrepreneurs are embracing the roots of Iowa’s agrarian heritage by producing and selling farm-fresh, wholesome products to their local community. For generations, Iowans have participated in the seasonal tradition of pulling over to the side of the road to buy freshly picked sweet corn from the back of a local grower’s truck or check out homegrown, homemade goods at roadside food stands. Just as county fairs across the state celebrate the fruits of Iowans’ labor from their gardens and barns with blue ribbon-worthy entries, farmers markets showcase locally grown ...

Housing is key to community growth

The greater Fort Dodge region has made great strides in providing quality-of-life amenities, but one of the biggest obstacles for potential residents is finding housing. According to the National Association of Realtors, the median home price is $388,800, and in Webster County the median home price is $134,239. Home prices in Webster County are 34 percent lower than the national home price. Compared to the rest of the country, Fort Dodge’s cost of living is 29.9 percent lower than the U.S. average. The greater Fort Dodge area provides prospective buyers affordable homes and ...