“Rod Stewart Hair”
“I like your hair!” a woman at the party said.
Opinions
“Adequate Accommodations”
“I can always sleep in my rain jacket,” my husband Peter announced.
Vacationing in rental homes is usually a bit of an adventure. We don’t need luxurious digs, and instead look for apartments offering a hefty discount if we stay for a full month.
We did this three years...
We’ve been in session for just over a month now and it’s been a rough start. We were elected to represent everyone in our districts, not just those who agree with us. In the first six weeks, it seems some of my colleagues have forgotten that.
Instead of using common sense and our Iowa values to...
One of the first things the Iowa Senate does each session is decide on the amount of additional funds for K-12 education in Iowa. We do this early on in the session so schools can set their budgets for the next year. What is also important is ensuring we designate a sustainable, responsible amount...
Week six marks the first deadline of the session. All policy bills must be out of committee in either the House or the Senate in order to be considered this year. Appropriations, tax, and Oversight bills do not have to meet this deadline.
One of the first things we must pass each year is funding...
This week was the first funnel week of the session. This means that all individual bills have to be passed through the proper committee to make it to the floor for debate. If a bill doesn’t make it through a committee before the end of the week it is considered “dead” and has no possibility of...
“Listening to the Bells”
The bells ring more or less all the time here.
My husband, Peter, and I are in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, a city filled with old churches. Every old church has at least a couple of old bells, and all the bells are rung frequently. Since there is so much I do not...
Iowa has a problem
Dear Editor,
Iowa grows so much food, that we can sell to the rest of the world our excess. Also, our excess of food can be used for fuel for our cars and trucks. Our rural area has the ability to grow most garden vegetables in our rich Iowa soil, supposedly our country is...
by State Rep. Henry Stone
Week five was another busy week. We didn’t gavel in on Monday since the Iowa caucuses were being held, but on Tuesday we got right to work. There were more than 85 subcommittee meeting this week in a rush to get bills through committees before the first funnel week.
On...
Q: What are your concerns regarding foreign ownership of U.S. food companies and farmland?
A: Food security is national security. If foreign buyers, especially those backed by government regimes, are buying up prime farmland in America as a strategy to dominate food production, there’s obvious...
“How Things Are Done”
One reason to travel is to discover how things are done all over again. My husband, Peter, and I are in Mexico, and I was thinking this as we stood, confounded, in front of the washing machine.
It would not start. There was a dizzying array of buttons and commands. I was...