Hold on to your bonnets and circle the wagons, because  it’s official. The Ingalls family is going back to the prairie.
And by that, I mean Little House on the Prairie is getting the remake treatment from Netflix. 
I imagine somewhere in the heavens, Michael Landon is looking down, squinting across the prairie grass, and wondering how many episodes it will take before someone invents Wi-Fi in Walnut Grove.

Each March, the calendar turns and prompts us to pause for Women’s History Month. While it might seem like just another observance in an already packed calendar, that view misses its true purpose. 

Spring rarely arrives all at once. It begins in small, almost unnoticed ways with the softening of the ground, a bit of green pushing through the dirt, a little more light at the end of the day. After months of cold and stillness, the world slowly stirs back to life, offering a quiet but persistent reminder that renewal always comes. What once seemed dormant or dead returns with a steady, undeniable hope.

My grandson likes to find the moon in the daytime sky. He’ll point with the certainty only a child possesses and say, “I found the moon. It’s always there.”
He’s right, of course. It is always there, steady, patient, almost waiting for us to look up and notice it again.
Lately, it feels like a lot of us have stopped looking up.

When I first ran for office back in 2014, I remember an admonition I was given on the front porch of a voter who pledged to support me but issued this warning: “Don’t become one of them.“ I processed that statement for days and came to the conclusion that becoming “one of them” meant compromising my principles for political expediency; rationalizing the violation of my principles because a certain vote might mean favor with the politically pow

This week marks a victorious step forward for Northwest Iowa and our national security.

At one time, the first day of May carried a certain kind of magic, one made of a small, thoughtful gesture. May Day baskets, usually handmade and filled with popcorn, candy, and flowers, would appear on doorknobs and front steps, left anonymously by children who then darted away before being seen. 

Graduation is treated as a defining milestone, a clear transition from preparation to purpose. Yet for many graduates, including myself at one time, it feels less like arriving at a destination and more like standing at the edge of an unfamiliar road without a map. One day you are attending classes, meeting deadlines, and following a fairly structured routine.

Earlier this year, I wrote that I didn’t have high hopes for this Iowa legislative session. In that regard, they didn’t disappoint when they gaveled out on May 3rd!

This race comes down to one simple question: why are working Americans falling further behind while Washington insiders and special interests keep getting richer and more powerful?

This race comes down to one simple question: why are working Americans falling further behind while Washington insiders and special interests keep getting richer and more powerful?

“If you are able, save for them a place inside of you … and save one backward glance when you are leaving for the places they can no longer go … Take one moment to embrace those gentle heroes you left behind.” Those words were written in a letter home by Maj. Michael Davis O’Donnell before he was killed in action on March 24, 1970.