Commentary

Q: What do you make of the recent closure of central Iowa’s home-grown airline? A: I’m sorry the fledgling airline was forced to call it quits. Despite strong support from civic, business and political leaders, the airline struggled mightily to raise capital, attract passengers and compete with more established carriers. The airline’s failure to cement a...

Although the major broadcast and cable news networks carried the speech live, many Iowans at the end of February may have missed the 43rd president’s first address to a joint session of Congress. That’s when President Bush returned to Capitol Hill to outline his budget blueprint for the new fiscal year that begins Oct. 1, 2001. Some people may shrug their...

The federal government is taking steps to recognize the tremendous contributions and hardships assumed by tens of thousands of family caregivers across the country. Federal dollars were released in February to the 50 states to fund the National Family Care Support Program, a new project being launched under the Older Americans Act. Iowa's share of the...

Q: When is the deadline for farmers to sign-up for crop insurance for 2001? A: As in years past, the USDA has set a March 15 deadline for farmers to insure their corn and soybean acres for the upcoming growing season and remain eligible for many USDA programs and loans. What's more, farmers should take note that congressional changes made last year have...

Q: When is the deadline for farmers to sign-up for crop insurance for 2001? A: As in years past, the USDA has set a March 15 deadline for farmers to insure their corn and soybean acres for the upcoming growing season and remain eligible for many USDA programs and loans. What's more, farmers should take note that congressional changes made last year have...

Q: What is the Farm Storage Facility Loan program? A: After months of delay, the U.S. Department of Agriculture in January finalized rules for a low-interest loan program designed to help farmers meet future grain storage and handling needs. The glut of grain worldwide has made extra grain storage all the more important. And the controversy surrounding a...

Q: What is the Farm Storage Facility Loan program? A: After months of delay, the U.S. Department of Agriculture in January finalized rules for a low-interest loan program designed to help farmers meet future grain storage and handling needs. The glut of grain worldwide has made extra grain storage all the more important. And the controversy surrounding a...

When Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan gave his thumbs up to tax relief in January, he took some of the wind out of the big spenders’ sails in Washington. And when the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office soon thereafter issued a sunny skies forecast, predicting a $5.6 trillion budget surplus over the next 10 years, another argument against...

Earning potential goes hand in hand with education. Dot-com millionaires aside, the surest ticket to prosperity in the either the Old or New Economy starts with a good education. From a high school diploma to technical training and a college degree, a person’s life-time earning power rises exponentially with each layer of higher learning. The U.S. Census...

Q: What is the Alternative Minimum Tax? A: Virtually no one disputes the federal tax code is far too complex. Perhaps one of the biggest headaches in our tax laws is the Alternative Minimum Tax. An obscure provision initially passed three decades ago and updated in 1986, the AMT was written to ensure wealthy Americans wouldn’t get off scot-free come Tax Day...

Thanks in large measure to the sure and steady hand calling the shots at the Federal Reserve, the nation's monetary policy helped spur record economic growth in the last decade. Paired with smart fiscal stewardship – some long overdue belt tightening in Washington – Uncle Sam kissed 30 years of deficit spending good-bye and the American economy soared. Now,...

Q: What is the USDA’s new nutrition resource all about? A: Too bad Americans aren’t able to trim surplus pounds as effortlessly as Washington dips into the surplus dollars taxpayers are sending to the federal Treasury. It’s a well-known fact that obesity is on the rise in the United States. As much as half of the U.S. adult population is overweight and...

Q. What is the U.S. Marshals Service? A. As the nation’s oldest federal law enforcement agency, the U.S. Marshals Service was created by the first Congress in 1789 when it created the judicial system. While marshals and deputies may trigger images of the Wild West for many Americans, the modern day Marshals Service is busy policing a new frontier that...

Two buzzwords commonly circulated among agribusiness, academic, political and opinion leaders in Iowa these days are biotechnology and value-added agriculture. Ever since the fall-out from the 1980s farm crisis, the public and private sectors in the Hawkeye state have launched efforts to diversify the state’s economy and find creative ways to extract a...

Q.When was the first presidential inauguration? A. In 1789, the country's first presidential inauguration took place in New York City when George Washington took the oath of office. The first inauguration held in Washington, D.C. took place 200 years ago for the swearing in of Thomas Jefferson in 1801. The inaugurations began as a simple indoor event but by...