Opinion
Over 14,000 FREE Stories, best deal around!
March 11, 2010 began like any other day for some, but for us, it was a day of excitement.
That morning, we sent out our very FIRST email announcing that we were back.
We had loaded stories on this website and held our breath just HOPING someone would be out there to read it.
How to Get Breaking (Bad or Good) News Quickly
When there is important news in Vinton, we keep you in touch with the neighbors and the officials in town.
The first time we realized how important Vinton Today was, was when we were just starting our second year.
Remember the windstorm that leveled most of the trees in town?
We really thought that no one would be reading the website, and boy, were we ever wrong! We set our record for the number of hits to the site in a day, week, month.
19th Century words of wit and wisdom for Valentine's Day
Well, it’s about that time of the year again – that time when men who can normally talk incessantly about just about anything without pausing to find the right words to say, suddenly find themselves speechless.
So to help those men like me begin to think of some inspiring words for your woman at Valentine’s Day, I want to share today my favorite Valentine’s Day poem.
Nope, still not the newspaper, still not the 'newspaper guy'
After 5 years, almost, we have had another influx of people that think we are "the newspaper".
A couple things have happened this week that had me thinking maybe we need to say something, again.
So, after existing for a mere 5 years, and after a mere 13 MILLION hits, it's time to break this news to you.
We are not, no more, not, not at all, not either, in no way, not even in the slightest little bit associated with any newspapers.
A historic, and personal 12th anniversary...
Friday was an unusual and special 12th anniversary for me, although nothing actually happened on that day a dozen years ago.
Confused? Let me explain.
On the Friday before Super Bowl XXXVII in January of 2003, I had been living in Washington, Iowa for just under three years, working at the newspaper.
The nearly 50-year-old stolen 'Super Bowl' joke
Perhaps you saw an ad on TV, or a flier in a newspaper, or some other form of advertising that refers to Sunday’s NFL Championship Game between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks as “the big game.”
Why, you may wonder, don’t they just say “Super Bowl?”
Because, they can’t – at least not without having the NFL and its trademark lawyers suing them.
An inspiring manual for modern communication
I just finished reading an inspiring publication that gives me hope for the future when it comes to how we, as a society communicate – something so unusually and surprisingly terrific I am compelled to share it.
I wrote last week about the downward trend in the complexity of communication which extends even to the content of our news (networks followed an evening news report on terrorism on Friday with an update about a “feud” between two female singers) and our annual Presidential State of the Union Addresses.
Why Iowa Legislature should continue funding Natural Resources Trust Fund
In 2010 a constitutional amendment was passed by Iowans to support a 3/8 cent tax increase for additional conservation funds across the state. This has not been administratively acted upon to date. Iowans have the right to expect more from their elected representatives across the state after constituent support is established through an election.
My granddaughters, the Presidential speech writers
Everyone who knows me knows how ridiculously seriously I take my role as grandfather. We have four granddaughters, three of whom live in Vinton and I have seen every week at least (and often most every day) since the first one entered our lives five years ago. It's no secret how much those precocious girls teach me and how they showed me a new way to look at the world, much like their mama did a quarter-century ago.
Thoughts on Martin Luther King Day, from the whitest part of America
Throughout my 22 or so years in this job, I have written about almost every holiday: Christmas. New Year’s Day. Memorial Day. Veterans Day. Mother’s Day. Father’s Day. Thanksgiving.
Even holidays we as a nation have forgotten, like the original Patriot’s Day (April 19, 1775) and holidays most of us have never heard of have appeared in my columns.