Bar owners got their first shot in court to get a stay ordered on the 2008 Iowa Smoking Ban.  Some bar owners say they are losing business, some preparing to shut down for good.  Although one admitted that gasoline prices and other economic issues may be impacting business as well, there should be no doubt [...]

Tonight I attended my first Polk County (Iowa) Republican Central Committee meeting. I have never been at this level of politics (okay, 2008 continues to be a year of firsts for me in local politics), and it was more interesting than I expected.
I won’t get into a lot of details about the meeting, except [...]

The waters have receded in Iowa for now, and although the task is still long and hard ahead of so many Iowans, we’ve moved the links related to the flood off of the sidebar and onto a separate page.  If you select the “Other Resources” page above, one of the choices on that page will [...]

Legislative Leaders in Iowa are continuing to talk about a special session of the General Assembly, which makes sense. The Governor is doing a good job of expressing the need to prioritize working on the current relief effort AND establishing a solid assessment of the costs before holding a session.
The bad news is, the [...]

Already, Democrats (including Governor Culver) are talking about the General Assembly holding a special session in response to the flooding in Iowa.
We better have a good reason to do this.  It will cost money we don’t have.  On the other hand, there may be enough need to justify the expense, but I hope there is [...]

Today is the day we decide who will represent our parties for non-Presidential offices.  Where I live (West Des Moines, Iowa District 3) we have only one race that matters for Republicans today (US Senate seat, to run against Tom Harkin… 3 candidates in the Primary: Steve Rathje, Christopher Reed, and George Eichhorn), and I [...]

Thankfully, the voters of Polk County in Iowa have managed to do better than the legislators in the Iowa General Assembly. While the state is busy raising as many of our taxes as they could get away with, the voters, the people that gave them the power (at least in Polk County) rejected the [...]

This had been a disconcerting election year so far, and certainly we still have a long road ahead, but the state of the Democratic Party, and the latest Gallup Poll, are giving me reason to smile today.
Democrats really don’t know what they want any longer.  They’ve found themselves stuck with either a chronic liar, or [...]

It’s time to say goodbye to unions. Their time has come and gone. The real original value of unions have long since been replaced by state and federal laws that drive a significant amount of basic workers rights, and the labor market itself now drives a majority of the salary and benefits [...]