I write this tonight from a tiny hotel room in Junction City, Kansas. Angie, Sage and I have been planning the trip for a year and a half, and hit the road this morning (Saturday) to take the long way to Denver, by way of our former home state of Kansas.

Paige Hicks of the St.Louis area spent only an hour or two of her 21 years in Benton County. While here, she saw our area from the same perspective from which she saw approximately half of the states in the U.

A few years ago I was talking to a friend of mine about how I absolutely hated deer.  Love to eat them, but not the part about them that includes them running on the roads.

  “Why are we going this way?”  “Where are we going?” “Why can’t we just go the way we always go?” I heard these questions last weekend from my kids.

We've measure our success at Vinton Today, in part, by the number of page views we record in a day.  Our average weekly page views have been gradually increasing, to more than 15,000 per week.

The Murder (Failure? Death? Demise? Decline? Deterioration? Destruction?) of Iowa Braille: From Acclaim to Ruin in Less than Five Decades How did this once great institution for the blind become what it is today, a mere shadow of its former self? In the 1960s, The Iowa Braille and Sight Saving School was nationally recognized as the best institution of its kind, a true shining city on the hill in the area of work with blind children.

Dear Editor, What a great Place to Live! I want to say a big "Thank You" to all the organizers and volunteers of Party in the Park. It was a great weekend.

One of the surprises I have discovered living in the rural areas of northern Benton County are the wild raspberries that grow each June.  I do not have the same green thumb my grandfather and father had.

You won't find many people more critical of virtually all of modern American entertainment than me. I consider most of our movies, TV shows and music to be lame, unoriginal and simply dull, if not outright intelligence insulting.

  There are few things in life, I have learned, as great as grandparenthood.    Hardly a day goes by without offering me another opportunity to experience the inspiring joys a grandchild brings.