Winning the war on waste at the Pentagon

February 23, 2026

Our armed forces are the most powerful, advanced, courageous, and capable team made up of the finest men and women ever assembled. President Trump’s call for a $1.5 trillion defense budget demonstrates an unwavering commitment to maintaining this might. If we are going to spend nearly as much on defense as the rest of the world combined, however, we must be able to defend to taxpayers how every dollar is spent. As a combat veteran and member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, I know firsthand that billions of dollars meant for the military are missing the target. That’s ...

Hospital team reacted to crash with competence, compassion

February 14, 2026

This week our community was confronted with an emergency that no community wishes to experience - an incident of multiple injuries involving multiple people. Yes, I am speaking of the bus rollover of the Iowa Lakes baseball team. What I experienced and observed is worthy of disclosure to our entire community, coupled with a profound sense of gratitude and awe. When the word came into Trinity Regional Medical Center that multiple casualties with presumed life-threatening injuries would arrive presently at our emergency room, it was all hands on deck with a professionalism and ...

Opposes dropping vaccine requirements for students

February 9, 2026

Thanks to everyone who came out to Eggs and Issues on Jan. 31. We had a good turnout and great conversations. Our first legislative funnel is in two weeks, Feb. 20. This means that any legislation that originated in the House needs to pass a full committee by this date or it dies. This excludes appropriations (spending) bills and ways and means (tax) bills. This process is the same for the Senate. A bill I have received a lot of emails about is HF 2171, a bill that would remove vaccination requirements for K-12 students. This is a bill that went through the Education Committee, not ...

Tom Kozel retires after 54 years of teaching, research at Nevada/Reno Med School

February 7, 2026

His work as a medical researcher has been global and is credited with saving hundreds of thousands of lives. He’s taught nearly 3,000 medical students. And his legacy of service to his fellow man will continue far into the future. So it was a proud moment for Fort Dodge native Thomas ...

Disagreement isn’t the problem

February 4, 2026

Disagreement gets a bad reputation. We tend to treat it as something to avoid or smooth over as quickly as possible. But disagreement itself isn’t the problem. How we handle it is. In community work, disagreement is unavoidable. People come to the table with different experiences, priorities, and pressures. That doesn’t mean everyone is acting in bad faith. More often, it means they’re seeing different parts of the same picture. I saw a good example of this recently during a budget discussion. A department head came forward with a clear and firm position about staff pay, rooted ...

Growth continues for UnityPoint Health — Fort Dodge surgical services

February 2, 2026

Throughout 2025, we saw tremendous growth in our surgical services at UnityPoint Health — Fort Dodge. We are also making strong progress on the surgery renovation and expansion project. Much of the exterior work is now complete, and construction teams are focused on interior work to prepare the space for our teams to move in next spring. The construction team has begun working on basement framing, precast erection and the corridor steel erection in the addition. Within the renovation area, framing is approximately 85 percent completed. The team will next complete mechanical, ...