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Opinion

Balance is needed in everyone’s online lives

Editorials

Teenagers who once spent hours talking to each other on the phone now spend hours communicating on social media. Many adults do much of the same thing, spending hours scrolling through various web sites and social media feeds. Ironically, much of this is done using phones. Devices which were originally created to enable people to speak to each other in some cases now get used to do about everything but speak to another human being. The internet has a lot of tremendous benefits. It enables people to access all kinds of news and information that they could have never received ...

Letters to the editor

Letters to Editor

Letter to the editor Wants unbiased governance To the editor, Voters expect basic honesty, transparency and equal treatment from elected officials. Unfortunately, recent actions by Webster City leadership demonstrate a troubling patter of arbitrary enforcement and selective governance. While the city recently used a “City Beautification” initiative to issue code violations against senior citizens and individuals in nursing care - vulnerable residents who promptly corrected the notices-administration simultaneously looks the other way on glaring, long-term violations. For ...

Yearning for civility: It begins at home

Local Columns

I always thought I had good parents. They didn’t have a lot of money, they didn’t dote on me, tell me I was beautiful or perfect. They taught me how to try, they encouraged me to study and they taught me how to work. They made me want to be a good person. They were good because they cared enough to teach us basic values at home. They were busy people, my father was a very small farmer, barely making enough to pay the bills. We lived on 40 acres. I was told more than once that no one could survive on that. But we did. My dad worked hard. He was a responsible man and I was very ...

Old enough to be friendly… and safe

Local Columns

Our nation’s FIFA World Cup visitors returned home with glowing reports on their visit to the United States. Fans from Great Britain, Europe, Korea and other regions bragged about America’s natural beauty, stadium sizes, portion sizes and free refills on soft drinks. Many were amazed at the friendliness of the American people. I tend to take these things for granted, of course, but I am pleased that our visitors felt they had been treated with warm hospitality. I grew up surrounded by friendliness and warm conversation. Most members of my family knew few strangers and ...

The workings of an idle mind

Local Columns

It was so hot the other day I saw a funeral procession pull through a Dairy Queen. Okay, that’s an exaggeration but it was really hot. When it gets this hot, I stay inside as much as possible and this often results in too little to occupy my mind. This leads to an idle mind and an idle mind is the devil’s workshop. And that’s when I begin thinking weird thoughts. Why, for instance, does time accelerate as time remaining diminishes? When I was a kid and had an entire life ahead of me, birthdays seemed to be 10 years apart. Now that I’m older and acknowledge ...

Different looks for more fish

Local Columns

When it comes to fishing, there’s always a new lure or technique to try. For the past couple of years, I’ve been reading about “urchin” baits. Urchins are multi-tentacled baits that look odd, but a friend told me that he had been using an urchin bait called a Tumbleweed with outstanding success. He says that “if you put that Tumbleweed near a bass, they’re probably going to eat it.” These strange looking urchins reminded me of odd presentations that will at times put fish in the boat better than traditional presentations. Following are some of those “odd” ...