When Tim and Terri Burke were honored as 2024 Citizens of the Year by the United Way of the Midlands in Omaha, they didn’t have time to bask afterward in the glow of winning the prestigious award for their volunteer work. They had yet another volunteer commitment to fulfill — and ...
The death of a loved one is the emotional equivalent of getting hit by a train. There’s almost nothing that can create the bewildering range of emotions that the death of a loved one can generate. The range of emotions can include anger, fear, sadness, loneliness and other feelings that defy ordinary description. And those emotions can hit hardest during the holiday season. The staff of Gunderson Funeral Home and Cremation Services is well aware of that. So for 26 years, they have organized an event called A Time for Angels to help soothe the pain of people who have experienced a ...
At the end of July, our national debt peaked at $35 trillion — a figure once considered unthinkable. However, just 118 days later, our country surpassed another sobering milestone — $36 trillion in debt. This rapid accumulation of debt threatens our economic security, weakens the value of the dollar, emboldens our adversaries like China and Iran, and jeopardizes our longstanding status as the world’s reserve currency. As a fiscal conservative, I believe that we must end reckless government spending and balance our federal budget to reduce our debt and get our fiscal house in ...
Tens of millions of Americans will do most, if not all, their holiday season shopping with giant online retail operations this year. They will argue that it is more convenient or safer for them to do so rather than patronize local brick-and-mortar stores. Local retailers, from mom-and-pop specialty shops to the big-box stores, rely on Christmas shoppers for significant chunks of the revenue that keeps them open year-round. If they have a bad holiday shopping season, they suffer terribly. Some may not survive long into the new year. So what? Well, put on your thinking cap for a ...
Thanksgiving is a uniquely American holiday that features family, food, and yes, the occasional football game. In the spirit of the holiday, thousands of people in the Fort Dodge region gathered around tables with relatives and friends for a traditional feast on Thursday. Dining room tables throughout the area were laden with turkeys, stuffing, corn, cranberries, green bean casseroles, pies and all kinds of other delicious things. But some of our neighbors couldn’t afford such a meal. Perhaps some lost a job; perhaps others had been hit with unexpected and high medical bills. The ...
My fellow Iowans sent me to the Senate 10 years ago to make the porkers squeal. It’s been a very lonely fight. Even in this era of political polarization, Democrats and Republicans always come together in agreement over one issue: living high off the hog. When faced with proposals to trim the fat from Washington’s budget, the turkeys in Congress from both parties act like Goldilocks. The portions are always too little or too big, always too hard, and never just right. But the real make-believe of this fairy tale is that it’s impossible to reduce Washington’s budget ...
