Friday morning I woke early to a text from a close friend. Two women had been murdered Thursday night at Cornerstone Church in Ames, in the mega-church’s parking lot. My youngest daughter was involved in youth group at Cornerstone, years ago. Since then, she has been through more than one ...

Proverbs — little statements of wisdom — fascinate me. Proverbs are cultural truth handed down from one generation to another over hundreds, even thousands, of years. There’s actually a body of study involving proverbs and it’s called paremiology. I’m not a paremiologist; I just ...

There was a time when cigarettes were everywhere. Remember? They were in vending machines, in newspaper and magazine ads. Movie stars portrayed them as sexy. Remember the photo of Hayley Mills' dad in the original The Parent Trap? The one where Brian Keith is posed in a moody black and white, ...

After reading some of the recent round of stories about the final passage of Senate File 581, I’m pretty embarrassed. As a reporter, you’re supposed to tell the reader what happened, who it happened to, how it happened, where it happened and, if known, why it happened. I’m anold school ...

While many area state legislative races are uncontested, there are two statewide primary races for Democrats, and one for Republicans. Three Democrats and one Republican are running in the primary to determine who will challenge long-term U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley, of New Hartford, in the ...

Another Memorial Day had come and gone. John attended the community Memorial Day service at the local cemetery Monday morning but melancholy gnawed at his soul in the days which followed. On his way into town for a tractor part on Thursday morning, John felt an inexplicable urge to stop by ...