By Betty Thorsvig   AM I THE ONLY ONE THAT DID NOT KNOW THIS?     We have lived here for 6 years.     Our daughter is handicapped, in a wheel chair.

A Progressive Scorecard:   (1) Almost 50M on food stamps (2) A major portion of those receiving unemployment benefits out of work for more than six months  (3) a majority of black youth unemployed, many college grads unable to get that first job - but with a mountain of debt they cannot pay back (4) Foreign Affairs – successes?? , or failures?  Egypt, Libya, Syria, Benghazi, Ukraine, Fast and Furious.

“Cops nab pair, mum on probe.” “Bush taps crony for State.” Believe it or not, copy editors — the people who are considered the best at using the English language — are the ones who create phrases like these.

Here are two things you might not know about me. When I was young we lived next to a busy highway in Springville Iowa and I was a huge professional wrestling fan.

The most important story in the news today — which will totally unreported — is that today is the anniversary of one of the major tragic milestones of modern journalism.

Get out a map of Iowa. See Vinton? Draw a line that runs straight south, from Minnesota to Missouri through Vinton. Look at everything to the right.

The most fascinating thing about living in the country, at least to me, is the way you are so closely linked to the seasons. In fall, as you drive through the country, if you are fortunate like we are, you are surrounded by trees and the leaves changing.

Winter was getting the best of me. I had plunged into despair, watching Olympic ice dancing, writing grumpy columns about the unchanging climate and paying way too much attention to celebrity stalkers.

For 18 years, from March of 1992 until March of 2010, I worked for newspapers. You probably remember newspapers: Those collections of pages of news, ads and pictures folded together and delivered to your door (or sitting on the shelf at the grocery store).

This last week we lost my very first music teacher, Mrs. Wright. The name on her obituary didn’t stir any memory until I heard my husband ask me if I knew “Mrs.