A new imagining of the popular comic book-turned-motion picture draw, “The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem,” as told by the minds of Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, Dan Hernandez, Benji Samit and directed by Jeff Rowe, offers some interesting artistic design, great voice talent, multi-generational humor and enough pop-culture residents to entertain children and adults alike.

Matthew 6:22 says “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light.”

So how do we make our “eye” good and our whole body “full of light?” Those sound like ethereal concepts that are hard to grasp. Well, the Bible tells us how to make our eye, or our perception and attitude guided by the Holy Spirit.

Extreme heat, drought, torrential rains, and hungry critters may be wreaking havoc on your garden. After weeding, watering and waiting you may be finding less, diseased or misshapen tomatoes. Don’t give up. Make a few adjustments in garden maintenance to boost the current and future tomato harvests.

The other night it was hot. Hot during the day, hot at night. Heat seems to define this time of year for us, in many ways.

But in spite of that, after a day in the outdoors, we built a fire. A small fire. A "hat" fire, which mountain people define as one you can put in your hat. Why so small? Because it was hot and we didn't need the heat. Why the fire? Because we need the fire.

Last Monday evening, a solid turn out greeted my dear, longtime friend Kim Smith, volunteer ambassador and internet safety specialist with IA/NE Shared Hope International, at Occasions, when she showed the Iowa-based documentary focused on the child sex-trafficking industry within the Hawkeye State.

I read a statistic the other day that both scared and angered me. In the United States, 50,000 people take their own lives yearly. I guess we lead the world in that department. What a tragedy. What to do about it? There are plenty of possible causes: untreated depression, low self-esteem, feelings of helplessness and hopelessness, being a victim of sex trafficking, losing a job/career, undergoing a divorce, the death of a loved one, and the list goes on and on.

The appointment of David Weiss, U.S. attorney for the District of Delaware as Special Council by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland is, without question, contrary to the rule of law (https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/28/600.3). This usurpation of our laws must not be tolerated and the ongoing corruption by the DOJ must end! The Republican majority in the House must immediately file Articles of Impeachment against U.S.

Recently, Bankrate rated Iowa the No. 1 state for retirement after consideration of affordability, overall well-being, cost of quality health care, weather and crime.

Bankrate stated that affordability was weighted most heavily and given the massive tax cuts the Legislature has passed recently — it is no surprise that Iowa scored well.

On metric after metric, President Joe Biden’s economic agenda — which he has coined “Bidenomics” — has failed our families, farmers, small businesses and rural communities. His tax-and-spend policies have pushed the American dream out of reach for too many families by eroding their paychecks and crushing their budgets under the insurmountable weight of record inflation, higher taxes and crippling debt.

Bill Crouser (farmer, rancher, biofuel investor) wrote a great guest column for the Register that I fully concur with. "Is there a leader with a clear vision for American energy policy? A vision where America is energy secure, free of dependence from foreign oil and Chinese batteries? A vision of clean energy and clear skies? A vision where American energy simultaneously creates good paying jobs while reducing the pressure on our pocketbooks? In short, a biofuels vision for America."

By now a good many of you have heard of the predicament at the Spirit Lake and Cherokee school districts regarding their insurance. This has been a big topic of late in both local and national news. My take on this is that a small number of vocal people have made it known their feelings on this and that those feelings in turn have stalled out a positive decision with multiple insurance carriers for both districts.

President Joe Biden has overseen the worst border crisis in recent memory. Since the beginning of his administration, more than 5.5 million immigrants have crossed our border, and in July alone, illegal border crossings increased by 30%. This has not happened by accident. The Biden administration’s policies have intentionally exacerbated this crisis by failing to enforce our laws, hold drug traffickers accountable for their crimes and protect our families from the fentanyl crisis.

If you thought one meg was bad you ain’t seen nothing yet.

Action-adventure star Jason Statham returns and Jonas Taylor to take an ocean full of enormous, and angry and hungry megs — that’s right I said megs, as in plural.

Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the substance of things hope for, the evidence of things not seen.”

“Hot? You boys think this here weather is hot? You jest don’t know, do you?”

“What do you mean, Windy?” Doc said.

“Wellsir, back in the old days, you know, when we was younger, there came upon us here in the valley a hot-em-up wave that tried to kill us. Your folks ever tell you ‘bout the wreck at the river with me and Old Man Jenkins?”

Didn’t look like anyone had.