When we moved onto the farm an older couple lived ½ mile down the road. They were full of advice and somewhat of an anchor for this young and inexperienced couple and their new career. Well, Kenny and Dorothy are gone and their acreage was sold.

All across Iowa, I hear the same thing: the cost of living is just too high. On my annual 100 Town Hall Tour, I’ve heard from young families trying to buy their first home, parents struggling with childcare and grocery bills, seniors worried about the cost of health care, and small business owners trying to keep their doors open.

Can you believe it’s Labor Day weekend?!  What happened to our summer?!  I don’t know about all of you, but I feel like I blinked and it was over.  We have TWO elections coming up, so today’s feature is strictly about sharing important dates & info for both of those elections with you!

Hampton-Dumont School District Special Election

We just returned from Lincoln, Nebraska where we visited our step-mom, Marj. After riding horses for years, she’s now dealing with Parkinson's disease. I’ve ridden horses a few times and I think it’s amazing she’s still alive.

On our family farm in Belle Plaine, we see the cost of living every day. Gas costs more. Groceries cost more. Utilities cost more. For thousands of Iowa families, there simply isn’t much left at the end of the month.

I grew up in Decorah, and as a kid in small-town Iowa, I went hunting, fishing, and even caught chickens as my first ever job. Back then, I never felt like kids in other parts of the state had access to more opportunities than I did.

If you haven’t heard by now, all voters living in the Hampton-Dumont School District have a special election coming up on September 8th.  This election is a public measure question for whether the school can levy a physical plant & equipment levy.  If you’d like the full texture of the question, you can find it on our elections website or by stopping by our office!  If you have questions regarding the details of t

On a cement pad on the porch of a building at a little resort at the top of a mountain in the Mara region of northwestern Tanzania, a serious battle was underway: that being one of handmade spinning tops, of course.

It seems like I’ve seen this movie. The President sneaks into a caterer’s cart and onto a plane (Trump actually did this in Turkey when he realized our officials were incapable of keeping him safe.), leaving the other Air Force One as a decoy. James Bond (or as my son would have said, “Bond, savings bond.”) would have been proud.

After the primary in June, I announced my annual 100 Town Hall Tour, the second time I’ve gone around to every county in the state during this campaign, and the ninth time I’ve done so since running for State Auditor.

Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson and President Trump have recently warned us about the threat of communism. We boomers are familiar with the threat of communism. My Selective Service lotto number during the Vietnam War spared me. Other classmates of mine were not so fortunate. The vast majority of the Vets I knew back then vehemently protested sending more of their brothers off to confront the “threat” of communism.

I find it fitting, and more than a little ironic, that the fullness of my experience thus far in Tanzania can be expressed most clearly through the photos I haven’t taken. I find it impossible, for instance, to truly capture the feeling of duality I’ve come to know here. I’ve seen highrises in Arusha, and tiptoed up the unstable steps to the only second floor in all of Nyamuswa village.

I was fortunate to visit George Washington's home, Mt. Vernon, when I was 15 years old. I was walking around on this huge lawn and ran into a classmate from junior high in Brentwood, California. How about that?

The Primary Election is officially over.  The votes have been cast, the post-election Audit has been held, the Supervisors have canvassed the results and declared them official.  We have sent our results to Des Moines and vote credit for those who voted has been applied to their voting record.  So, now what?!  Now what are we busy doing?!  

“Mzungu, Mzungu!” the children excitedly cry out as I bike by. I smile and wave back, saying “Mambo!”—“How are you?” to which they answer “Poa!”—“Great!” The kids, known here as watoto (meaning “little ones”), run along on their little legs as I stop just down the road from their family’s house, at the office of Project Zawadi.