Mt. Pleasant News

By TRISHA PHELPSMt. Pleasant News This probably isn?t going to surprise many of you at this point ? at least not as much as it surprised me ? but I had car problems again.It all started when I decided to take a trip to Johnson county to see Scott, my boyfriend.All of the sudden, a light on my dashboard went on saying ?low tire.? I was halfway between my starting point and my destination, so I decided to pull ...

By STEPH TAHTINENMt. Pleasant NewsThey say that April showers bring May flowers. But who is May, and why does she get flowers? My college roommate said that as a joke once, and I always think of it when the spring rainstorms start.I am not a big fan of rain myself. The humidity wreaks havoc on my curly hair, and I?m such a light sleeper that the drip-drip-drop of little April showers can keep me up all night. ...

By CURT SWARMI?ve written before about the interesting things that happen on sales appointments. Here?s a goodie: As I pulled into this particular rural address, the first thing I noticed was a sprawling country estate, complete with a pond on each side of a tree-lined lane. You can?t help but like a place like that. There was also a small windmill close to one of the ponds. The windmill had the name of the home ...

By STEPH TAHTINENMt. Pleasant News I am not a sports fan. I never have been. Yet, for someone who basically despises sports, it?s amazing how much of my childhood was defined by the Green Bay Packers.It?s not that my parents are huge Packers fans. Rather, it?s a matter of geography. I grew up an hour south of the Frozen Tundra. Lambeau Field, home of the Green Bay Packers. In this part of the state, the ...

By BROOKS TAYLORMt. Pleasant News Okay, I?m taking a risk, a risk by dating myself.I remember when Garrison Keillor began his radio show. For years he has hosted a radio program on National Public Radio (NPR).On his show, ?A Prairie Home Companion,? he featured the news from Lake Woebegon. Lake Woebegon is a fictional town in Keillor?s native Minnesota where ?the women are strong, the men are good-looking ...

Awhile back, one of my coworkers said, ?It must be nice to be Steph. She never has to come up with a column topic. Things just happen to her.?I certainly seem to be a magnet for the bizarre, as well as an attraction to uninvited four-legged houseguests. Thankfully, my most recent unexpected visitor was not a mouse. It was not even a rodent. It was an amphibian. More precisely, it was a frog.In my toilet.On ...

Bi-weekly column by Hy-vee dietitian, Melissa Boncher.

Golden Triangle reporter Gretchen Teske's monthly column

By Jeff McPheron, Trenton United Methodist Church It has been said that we should remember to be patient and kind with each other because everyone has difficulties. Some of the difficulties come one at a time, and some of them come in groups. Some we can work through pretty quickly, but others come to linger. Simply moving through a day, and primarily aware of our own needs, we may not know who is successfully ...

By Andy Krutsinger, Mt. Pleasant News I remember when I was just nine or 10 years old and my parents bought our first family computer.We had a Gateway, one of the more popular computer brands at the time. It had crummy dial-up internet that got disconnected every time you got a phone call, and all we really did for the first few months was take turns playing one of the three or four popular computer games that ...

We have all observed on television and in the movies, a scene on the prairie when animals, as well as people, look to the horizon and see the black clouds of a prairie fire coming toward them. The raging fire could destroy everything in its path with little or no way to stop its advance. Animals run, while humans devise ways of protection.Such is the way Avian Flu is advancing across Iowa, affecting the chicken ...

By State Rep. Dave HeatonLast Friday night I attended the annual banquet of Young House Services in Burlington. Young House Services is a child welfare agency that has a group foster care facility in Mt. Pleasant. They provide many other services for southeast Iowa?s troubled youth. Some of these youth are those who may have problems with the law or youth who could be having family issues. They also provide ...