Obituaries

By Brooks Taylor, Mt. Pleasant News It?s been a hot, humid July. Not telling you something you don?t already know, right?Through my travels around the area, I?ve heard a lot of complaining about the weather from the same people who will be grousing about the weather in January.Count me out of the summer weather complaint department. In years past, I said I lived for summer and while there remains some truth ...

By Rev. Mark R. Youngquist, Swedesburg Lutheran Church Do you remember hearing about the orphan trains? The Orphan Train movement ran from 1854 until 1929, carrying an estimated 150,000 children from New York City, at a time when poverty, and the city?s swelling immigrant population, resulted in overcrowding, disease, and death. The purpose of the orphan trains was to take orphans to farming families in the ...

By Karyn Spory, Mt. Pleasant News There are three things I was taught not to bring up in polite conversation ? religion, politics and money. But as I venture further into adulthood these topics seem to continually creep into casual conversation, and maybe that?s not such a bad thing.In recent months, several of my friends have begun looking for new career opportunities and with this as a focus in their lives, ...

By Ed Conwell, Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints My wife and I recently made a trip to New York City to attend a memorial service for a friend of ours. On a Friday afternoon, as we were preparing to return home, we went shopping at a large grocery store near our hotel. As we entered the store we were surprised to see the store filled with dozens of Orthodox Jewish families. We thought that unusual, but just ...

By Brooks Taylor, Mt. Pleasant News Before opting to go verbatim with Iowa?s new fireworks law, most governmental bodies said the first year was a trial run.Because the law was passed so late in the session, there was little time to study it before summer hit. And due to the fact that a new ordinance needs three readings for passage (unless a reading or two is waived), there was more than a little urgency in ...

By Andy Krutsinger, Mt. Pleasant News It?s not every day your local sports guy gets to do the weekly column but on this final day of June the stars have officially aligned.Now, I?m not going to talk about sports in this column. If you can read about sports stuff on the inside pages, then what do you need the sports page for?And I?m not going to talk about politics. If there is one thing people hate, it?s when ...

By Rev. Monte Knudsen, Faith Christian Outreach Church Proverbs 14:34: Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any nation (people).The word ?reproach? is rarely used in our vocabulary. It means disgrace or discredit ? to rebuke or censure. Sin does that to a nation, while righteousness will exalt it.In the United States of America, our founding fathers lived by this scripture.John Adams ...

By Rev. Clint Decker, Great Awakening, Inc. Recently, I was troubled as I watched a TV news story on the opioid drug problem. What I learned did not leave me. I thought about all the people I have reached out to in the 24 years I have been a Minister. Faces crossed my mind of many who were drug users. My eyes began to see how wide spread the drug issue is.What I have learned is a major drug problem around the ...

By Brooks Taylor, Mt. Pleasant News I started noticing the signs in mid-April and during the time that has followed, the signs intensified rather than dissipated.Yes, 2016 was great if you are a Cubs? fan, and regardless of your baseball allegiance, the Cubs? World Series win was good for baseball if for nothing else, not having to be constantly reminded that it had been 108 years since the team?s last ...

On the way to Sid?s farm near Leon, Ginnie and I saw lots of turkeys, deer, and one coyote. Sid calls?m ?yotes.? South Central Iowa is mostly rolling hills and timber, ideal for pasture and cattle, hay and hunting. Which is why Sid bought this pristine little farm. He calls it ?Hen Field Farm? because of the abundance of hen turkeys.Sid Vander Ploeg (pronounced ?Vander Plew?) is an old high school buddy from ...