Opinion

Now that the ?dust has settled? on our enrollment decrease of 52 students, we are formulating plans to address the reduction of revenue of over $325,000 to our budget. In addition to addressing our budget for next year, it is also a good time to attempt an enrollment prediction for the future.?Rolling? your enrollment is simply promoting our first-grade students to second grade and second grade to third grade ...

Ginnie had to work on Thanksgiving, so I said I would prepare the turkey and have it ready for her when she got home. No big deal. I've fixed turkey before, with stuffing?put the bird in a roaster, throw it in the oven, take it out. How hard is that? I would even fix the trimmings?mashed potatoes, gravy (I'm the gravy king), cranberry sauce, and a vegetable. Ginnie would make a pumpkin dessert the night before, ...

Quasi sci-fi, fiction and a historical novel round out my winter-reading recommendations. They are: ?Fortune Smiles: Stories? by Adam Johnson; ?Go Set a Watchman? by Harper Lee; and ?Dead Wake, The Last Crossing of the Lusitania? by Erik Larson.?Nirvana,? a short story within ?Fortune Smiles? by Adam Johnson, quite literally, might be the most intriguing, well written short story I have ever read. Not to spoil ...

Since his death on Monday, my mind has been consumed thinking about my pal Jack Taylor.I don?t remember not knowing Jack Taylor. I think to grow up in Fairfield meant you knew Jack, or at the very least, knew of him.My Ledger career dates back to 1980 or so when I was a newspaper carrier on my own block. Back in the day, when the Fairfield Ledger was still printing six days a week, we carriers had to come to ...

It?s time to light up the square again.During my career I have been to many towns, which have all had their own takes on a Christmas celebration. In Geneseo, Illinois, they have an annual Victorian Christmas walk with live displays in the windows. In Bishop Hill, Illinois they have Lucia Nights with a traditional Swedish twist to Christmas. Still, in those areas you are never too far from the traditional ...

The Des Moines Register. Nov. 20, 2015 ARL should disclose euthanasia data.The Animal Rescue League of Iowa doesn?t consider itself a ?no-kill shelter.?The organization says that?s because the term is ?unregulated? and is typically used to describe shelters that ?pick and choose who they allow in, and close their doors when full.?That may be the ARL?s definition of a no-kill shelter, but to the public a ...

November 19, 2015West Chester, Iowa To the Editor:I have a number of former co-workers/friends who are currently employed by the State Department and other entities in countries such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Pakistan. The purpose of their employment is to train nationals in their respective countries to fight terrorism. Of course this training is based on the prospective individual?s undergoing a ...

November 23, 2015Washington, Iowa To the Editor:As we move into the holiday season, talk to your family, friends, neighbors, co-workers about joining together as a team for the Washington County Relay For Life event on Saturday, June 18, 2016, in Washington at Central Park. There is no better time than now to make a difference, and support the work of the American Cancer Society. Each day brings a new and fun ...

Have you ever noticed how politicians, or talking heads with the 24-hour news networks, like to use metaphors and analogies? They try (emphasis on ?try?) to paint pictures with words, or create a ?word salad?--which is one of their favorite terms for describing politicians' speaking habits or techniques for not answering questions.My favorite example of their use of metaphors is ?sucks all the oxygen out of the ...

November 19, 2015Washington, Iowa To the Editor:This past summer, my husband and I visited the gravesite of my great-great-great-grandparents in a small town in Wales. Their son, my great-great-grandfather, came to the U.S. at a time with the mining industry was treating miners as slave labor. He felt he had no choice. The Statue of Liberty and the following inscription written by Emma Lazarus would later ...

It was Thanksgiving Day, 1944. Petty Officer Dean Dixon, from Bloomfield was on duty aboard the submarine, USS Hammerhead, in the South China Sea. They were trying to evade depth charges dropped by a Japanese Destroyer after they had sunk a Japanese freighter delivering munitions. It was a deadly, stressful game of cat-and-mouse. As a machinist mate, it was Dean Dixon's job to seal off compartments, put out ...

Nov. 19, 2015Wellman, Iowa Dear Community Members,Every year the Mid-Prairie and Keota School Boards hold a joint school board meeting in late November to conduct the superintendent?s evaluation. Usually these evaluations are held during a closed session.The superintendent?s evaluation this year will be held on Monday, Nov. 30 starting at 7 p.m. in the Mid-Prairie High School Library in Wellman. This year I ...