While the weather wasn’t terribly conducive to the traditional Memorial Day services we typically enjoy at Riverside Cemetery, but credit the American Legion, VFW and Avenue of Flags organizers with the pivot, working with the gracious folks at Spencer High School who opened the auditorium for the annual ceremony. The setting provided a comfortable, and more importantly, dry environment where everyone could come together and honor those who served and have left us.

By the time this is printed, many will have weighed in on how to prevent the tragedy of the shooting rampage in Uvalde, Texas. Calls for stricter gun control policies, "red flag" laws, more in school police, better door locks, etc. There could even be some consensus among legislators that something could be done, including goals, time lines and accountability.

In the early morning of May 25, we concluded the 2022 legislative session. This session will be notable for many reasons — both good and not so good. But one of the good highlights of this legislative session was tax reform.

As the country nears the 50th Anniversary of Title Nine this June, it becomes a good time to reflect on the progress of women’s involvement in sports. Girls were not invited to play sports in the mid-to-late ‘50s and ‘60s in much of Iowa, especially for those living in large towns. So the only ‘ball’ little girls played in my elementary school was tetherball or four square on the playground. Boys enjoyed playing football, basketball and baseball during recess.

When the world is hot and my skin is fried, scratching from the constant dry, let the clouds boil up, boil up high. And then shade the Earth with the darkening sky and bring the secrets and the smell of rain. The coolness and the blessed rain, again.

Fishing season is underway across the Midwest, and it’s been underway for quite a while in other parts of North America. Wherever you might go fishing, there are some differences and some similarities to the fishing in other areas. One of the similarities is the question of lure color.

No matter where you live, the conservation and wise use of water in our gardens and landscapes is important. Sustainable water use helps grow beautiful gardens while conserving water and helping reduce water pollution and stormwater overflows.

Iowa State University Extension and Outreach goes to the schools to bring research-based educational programming to youth in Clay County. Recently, Jenna Keene has been active in schools providing a variety of lessons. Keene just finished the Ricochet program which is a middle school leadership program that reaches approximately 400 seventh and eighth graders each year.

Several years ago Mr. Percy Ross in one of his weekly syndicated columns ran a contest "A Snowball's Chance in Hell." In it he asked for comments regarding his view that society is "going to hell in a handbasket." He offered $1,000 for each entry he would print in his column. The response was overwhelming with over 350,000 letters. Mr. Ross had only read about 10% of the mail when he found the following letter which he felt embodied the very core of what has happened to our society.

Having never watched a second of Downton Abbey, I walked into the theater afraid I was going to be lost when this second film, “Downton Abbey: A New Era” popped on the screen. I wasn’t. It didn’t take long to catch on at all.

“Would you believe in love at first sight?”

That’s the question posed on the cover of Jeff Mitchell’s heartwarming novel, “Stone City,” set in the iconic Grant Wood hill country of eastern Iowa. Mitchell, former dean of industrial technology at Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids and currently an educational consultant, has always lived in the Stone City area, the subject of a Wood painting.

I was surprised at the difference in Creighton's Rural Mainstreet Economy Indexes between Minnesota (49.4) and Missouri (91) last month. Fifty is growth so that means that the Minnesota rural economy is the first to slow to neutral while Missouri is still showing the rest of rural America how growth is done. The 10-state Heartland RMI was 57.7, down from 62 the previous month.

I have a 10-year-old grandson. Today he is celebrating the beginning of summer with his classmates and friends here in Spencer. While they were sitting in the final day of class, looking forward to their “freedom” in a matter of hours, another group of his peers were cowering in their classroom while an 18-year-old man randomly and indiscriminately fired his weapon into their young, defenseless bodies.

Memorial Day is the unofficial start of summer around these parts. Kids are out of school. Trees have canopied. Mosquitos are alive. Spring's winds die. June's stormy nature erupts on waves of humidity. Boats, balls in the gaps and crooked golf shots are launched. Fish and rear ends on patio chairs are landed.

Every election year about this time I start getting calls about people receiving four or five ballots in the mail. I always caution people with that Iowa does not just send ballots out to individuals. With that said, I have received many phone calls and in person requests to tighten up election integrity in Iowa. I would like to let you know that Iowa’s election system is among the best in the nation, if not in the world.