Opinion

Provoking your New Year's agitations with force and persuasion

       Every year at this time, we hear people talking again about "resolutions."      Lose weight.      Stop smok...

Old Long Gone Song: An ode to resolutions soon forgotten

       It only takes, according to people who like to count this stuff, about 17 days for the average American to say, "Oh, never mind" to his or her New Year'...

The sights and sounds of a prison in progress

Jerry Petermeier and Kelly Yeager look over part of the plans for the new LEC.        In a few months, perhaps, the unwilling occupants of the new Benton County Law Enforcement Center will hear the sound most-often associated with prisons: The echo of...

Why many in law enforcement are concerned about Iowa\'s new \'Shall Issue\' gun law

       If – under the new law that went into effect Jan. 1 – Mark Becker had walked into the Butler County Sheriff’s Office on the morning of June 23, 2009...

A friendly visit from the Ghost of Christmas past

       For Ebenezer Scrooge, the Ghost of Christmas Past was sort of creepy and scary. And sad.      But for us, this year, it was kind of cool....

'The View' for men offers evidence there is no constitutional right to be heard

       We were playing one of those “tell your secrets” board games.      The question I had to answer: Which of your five senses would ...

The little engine that could, and did...

A couple years ago, we had a discussion in our house about careers and how it seems that in the newspaper business nothing was a sure bet.  Businesses were constantly being sold, bosses ge...

Winter driving safety: Don\'t be that guy.... or that one..or that one...

Sights like these are too common, and often unnecessary.     I once had the enlightening experience of working with a teenage girl who had already wrecked her car two or three times.      She did not seem to make th...

Christmas classics: Let them renew your faith

     Saturday was a great lesson for me. It answered a question for me that many married people at times have in their mind but dread to voice outloud:     "W...

11:45 and most is well....

Last week, I wrote about what it's like on a day when there is no news. See that story, if you have not already seen it, HERE. Today seems to be a day very much like that one. Other th...