Letter to the Editor - The Affordable Health Care Act – Is Affordable?

JOHN STIEGELMEYER
July 30, 2013 11:53 am

If ACA is such a good deal, how come private sector unions, government sector unions, Congressional  Staff, large corporations all request or have been granted a “carve out”?  (Many Unions have Cadillac plans that have been gained through years of contract negotiations – they do not want to give in to this government mandate, and give up the gains made over decades of negotiations.

Yes, we are probably related...

VALERIE CLOSE, EDITOR
July 29, 2013 12:07 am

...sorry if that makes you cringe... Our daughter left to be a camp counselor in Tennessee two months ago. She called a few weeks later to tell me that one of the other counselors there said she had only been to one small town in Iowa, a town called Vinton! Of course, our daughter went nuts, she just couldn't believe it.

The aroma and tastes of childhood I will remember at Celebration Park

VINTON TODAY
July 18, 2013 9:34 am

Standing in front of the old white house at the corner of 2nd Street and A Avenue, I could almost smell the aroma of tobacco from Uncle Hugo’s pipe.

The Zimmerman case, and the right to get out of the way

VINTON TODAY
July 15, 2013 3:55 pm

While teaching my kids to drive, I tell them, “You sometimes have the right of way. You always have the right to get out of the way.” This lesson also applies to life -- and the big story in the national news this week.

The rise of the psychopathic machines

VINTON TODAY
July 13, 2013 2:47 pm

Psychiatrists say that people who think machines are out to get them are suffering from some form of mental disorder. But they only say that because some machine is telling them to.

'Our Natal Day,' The world's best July 4 poem

VINTON TODAY
July 3, 2013 11:48 am

Years ago, I bought some old (late 19th century) books at a book sale for an organization in Independence. One of those contained the following poem, written around Centennial of our country.

A mobster, or a teenager? How to tell the difference

VINTON TODAY
June 24, 2013 9:08 am

National Public Radio was rebuked by at least one listener a while ago because they aired a story in which a college student referred to a Florida town as “gay,” with “gay” meaning “not cool,” or whatever word with which the kids of 2009 have replaced “cool.

A Mr. (try to) Fix It's Father's Day to remember

VINTON TODAY
June 19, 2013 9:58 am

Ah, Father’s Day. The day for dads from all over to do special things, go to nice restaurants, and receive phone calls and other messages of appreciation while they celebrate the importance of their role.

Father's Day: Thanks is never enough

VALERIE CLOSE, EDITOR
June 16, 2013 7:33 pm

Today as we celebrate dad's day, I think about my dad, his dad, my other granddad, my husband, my son in law and my son, who is soon to be a dad, my father in law and his dad, both whom have passed away.

Upstream or down, we are all in floods together

LARRY STONE
June 12, 2013 11:00 am

Ann and Jim Kuhlman’s lives changed forever when the Winnebago River flooded their Mason City home in 2008.    Ann, a lay pastor, received a surprise phone call cancelling her church service.