When your home state is repeatedly rated as one of the worst in the country for property tax burdens, something has to change. When you are consistently hearing from Iowans worried about property …

Property tax reform has been a pressing issue for years.  Iowans are facing higher costs on nearly every front and are desperate for relief. Property values have skyrocketed, and property …

(SBA) - There was a time when politicians could stand behind a podium, announce a privatization plan, utter the magic words “it will save taxpayers money,” and expect everyone to nod in …

(SBA) - I've never actually played 3-card Monte, but I've seen enough movies and television shows to know how it works. A guy stands behind a cardboard box or folding table, flips over three cards, …

(SBA) - There was a time in Northwest Iowa when a person bought something once and used it until it either wore out, rusted through, or got fixed so many times it was being held together by duct …

(SBA) - There is a saying that a community without a memory is a community without an identity. In small towns across Iowa, those memories are often tucked away in places people pass every day …

(SBA) - Every election season, voters are lectured about civic duty. We are told our vote matters, that democracy only works if people show up and participate. Candidates beg for trust. They knock on …

(SB) – The Tower of Babel is alive. No matter where I happen to be I run into people speaking in Spanish, Vietnamese, Somalian, Afghani, dialects of India, and four or five other languages I …

(SBA) - There’s a moment that sneaks up on you. No warning, no announcement, no polite little heads-up from the universe. It doesn’t come with a letter in the mail or a headline across the front …

(SBA) - There’s a reason it’s called the United States of America and not the Federal States of America. That difference isn’t just about wording. It’s about how the country was built and how …

(SBA) - Remember when you could buy something once and be done with it? Not “done with it” as in throwing it away, but done with the act of buying it. Done thinking about it. Done worrying …

(SBA) - There is a quiet contradiction at the heart of American democracy. The United States was founded on the idea of stability through law, a system rooted in a written Constitution meant to …

(SB) – “If all men count with you, but none too much.” That’s a line from Rudyard Kipling’s poem, “IF.” Do yourself a favor, read it. In my lifetime, it’s the most prophetic, honest, …

(SBA) - When Americans hear the word draft, they do not hear it as some distant legal term from a civics textbook. They hear it personally. They hear fear in it. They hear uncertainty. They hear …

(SBA) - There was a time in Northwest Iowa when showing identification meant handing over a plastic card across a counter at the courthouse or presenting a driver’s license at a local bank. A …

(SBA) — Spend enough time in a coffee shop in Northwest Iowa — or just about anywhere in America — and eventually the conversation turns to taxes, government spending, and social programs. It …

(SB) – Mmmmm, mmmm, mmmm. Looks like the Dems aren’t interested in the Epstein files anymore. Nothing found in the latest released (3-million pages) files that Dems hoped and wished would …

(SBA) – Lon Zimmerman’s Letter to the Editor in this week’s Advocate raises concerns that deserve a serious response, not because they are new, but because they reflect a familiar way Americans …

A recent editorial rant in the Advocate trumpeted the failures of "Imperialism" throughout world history. The article warned of the impending (possibly) doom of the U.S. if we attempt to intervene in …

 Iowans should be a little concerned about some troubling developments that seem to be showing up in a couple of candidates running for a couple of very important offices in our state. Randy …