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Editorial

Iowa Sales Tax Holiday starts Friday

Area families are already beginning to think about the items that will be needed to send young people back to school properly equipped and looking good. According to the National Retail Federation, families with children in school will spend about $43.3 billion nationwide on back-to-school clothing and supplies this year. Surveys by the federation have shown that clothing and shoes account for about half of a family's back-to-school spending. Finding bargains is part of the fun of back-to-school shopping every year. Clothing and shoes are among the necessities that will be on just ...

Choose Iowa promotes high quality food and drink from our state

People across the United States increasingly want to know where their food comes from. It just makes sense to know where something you put in your body comes from. And a problem like the recent wave of stomach trouble caused by a parasite on lettuce only adds urgency to the desire for knowledge. The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship has a program that lets consumers know when they are getting wholesome food from our state. It’s called Choose Iowa. The distinctive Choose Iowa logo on a package, bag or bottle means the food or drink inside came from Iowa. State ...

It’s time for brick pavers to go

In a city with hundreds of miles of roads, it comes as no surprise that elected and appointed officials are pretty much constantly thinking about infrastructure improvement plans. With the City Council and city staff now contemplating a multi-year update of the Central Avenue corridor, we would like to offer one piece of advice: get rid of the brick pavers. The brick pavers that make up crosswalks and parts of the sidewalks at some intersections probably looked great when they were put in. But they were put in decades ago. We think the first of them probably were installed during a ...

Patience needed during busy road work season

Just when local drivers think they have seen enough orange signs, barricades and road cones they are presented with some more of them. Two more road projects have been added to what is already a robust year for construction projects. Iowa Highway 7, the heavily traveled route between Fort Dodge and Manson, is closed while crews replace a railroad crossing that has rattled vehicles and their drivers for years. And next week, the intersection of Second Avenue North and 15th Street will close so that it can be completely rebuilt. It was actually expected to close this week, but the ...

Work of many led to softball tourney’s success

The 2026 Girls State Softball Tournament did not end exactly the way the St. Edmond Gaels and the Fort Dodge Dodgers had hoped it would, but it still showcased our community and its outstanding sports complex. The fact that Fort Dodge has hosted the tournament for more than 50 years is a tribute to the work and the partnerships created by essentially a generation’s worth of local leaders. These are leaders who have seen the value in both having a world-class facility in Harlan and Hazel Rogers Sports Complex, and maintaining a close relationship with the Iowa High School Girls ...

Join the ranks of blood donors

Summer has long been considered the season for fun. The sun is out, and school is out. It’s the season to get outside and play or take the family on the great American road trip. But summer is also a season when there are historically a lot of injuries and accidents. Some in the health care profession even refer to summer as trauma season. When hospitals have to take care of more people who are seriously hurt, they need donated blood. Plus hospitals still have other patients who require blood. The problem is, blood donations often taper off during the summer as people go on ...