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Congratulations, Class of 2021

To the Graduates of 2021, What a long, strange trip it's been. You may not know where that comes from, but it's never been more true this year. You spent the last year and a half taking classes from home, not being sure how long it would be before you could hang out with your friends and family without the shadow of COVID-19 hanging over you. And yet you got through it. Whatever your plans for the next few years, at worst they had to be adjusted or postponed, but not canceled. Nobody escaped this last year unscarred and unchanged — not you or the adults around you, who were ...

New production facility is positive development for WC

NaturalShrimp Inc. has taken over the assets of Alder Aqua (formerly Vero Blue Farms). This is a positive development for Webster City and will bring many good-paying jobs to the community. It also repurposes existing industrial properties so that they are back on the tax rolls. The facilities will use city utilities and bring other economic benefits to the community. The proprietary technology used in their production process cleans and recirculates wastewater, which means less wear and tear on city infrastructure. The publicly traded Texas-based company expects to produce ...

Low state unemployment figure is positive sign

Iowa continues to get some good news on the jobs front as the state’s economy gradually rebounds from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. In December 2020, the state’s unemployment rate stood at 3.1 percent. That marks a healthy decline from the November 2020 unemployment rate of 3.8 percent. Perhaps most significantly, the Iowa unemployment rate is well below the nationwide figure of 6.7 percent. According to Iowa Workforce Development, 9,700 new non-farm jobs were created between November and December 2020. The retail sector led the way with 5,400 new jobs; manufacturing was ...

Today we honor a dream of justice

Martin Luther King Jr. Day, being observed today, is an appropriate time to recall an exceptional person. But more importantly, it’s a time to recommit the nation to the cause for which King died and the legacy he left for all of us. The famed civil rights leader, assassinated April 4, 1968, was a preacher with a message as important today as it was more than four decades ago. He saw God’s words as fundamentally connected to his call for equality, nonviolence and justice. King’s religious faith was the heart, center and soul of his work. Without God’s word, King believed, there ...

Flu shots provide potentially lifesaving protection

With the whole world seemingly focused on how fast the COVID-19 vaccine can be administered, we must not forget the importance of an older vaccine: the flu shot. Just about everyone has called in sick at some point, saying they had the flu when they were sniffling, sneezing, maybe running a fever and generally feeling lousy. Those symptoms definitely add up to an illness, but the problem is not really the flu. Influenza, as it is properly known, is much, much worse. According to the Iowa Department of Public Health, influenza is caused by viruses that infect the respiratory tract. ...

Centrist coalition helped pass relief bill

For months, Americans’ pleas for Congress to give us more financial help in coping with COVID-19 have fallen on political ears — much worse than merely deaf ones — in Washington. Exactly why lawmakers were unable to agree on a second CARES Act is open to debate. Republican loyalists believe the problem is with Democrat leaders’ chicanery. Democrats contend the problem was just the opposite of that. That tells us much about the matter, of course. It was a classic political standoff, with politicians avoiding blame by faulting their opponents — while the American people ...