Spencer Daily Reporter: Opinion

Columnists

Brandon Barb

Introverted Ramblings >>

Paula Buenger

Paula Buenger >>

Randy Cauthron

One Man's Perspective >>

Letters Welcome

The Daily Reporter invites readers to submit "Letters to the Editor" with comments, criticisms, praise and/or questions about local and world issues of public interest. The editor reserves the right to edit or condense all letters. All letters are to be signed. Unsigned letters will not be considered for publication. Readers should also include their address and telephone number to verify the identity of the writer. Addresses and phone numbers are not printed.

Bloggers Wanted

The Daily Reporter is seeking a number of bloggers who would be interested in sharing their insight or offering their opinions on any number of areas - from business to education to government to music - The Daily Reporter wants to hear from you. If there is a particular area where you have some particular knowledge, and have always wanted a way to share that information and dialogue with others, consider being a blogger. If interested, contact Managing Editor Randy Cauthron at news@spencerdailyreporter.com. Have photos or video of a special activity, event or situation? Send them to The Daily Reporter and we'll post them on the Web for all of our readers to enjoy. Depending on the event or activity, some might make it in the paper. It's just one more way for our readers to interact with others in the community.

The Clover Corner (05/21/13)
Summer is a busy time for 4-Hers. Most of our youth are not "just 4-Hers," they are involved in sports, the arts and tons of other activities I could spend all day listing. Even though your family's schedule is jam-packed, I want you to consider looking into the three programs we are highlighting for the month of June. Music, food and medicine is just a sampling of the diverse experiences 4-Hers have throughout the year...

Enjoy the golden days (05/21/13)
Nature's first green is gold, Her hardest hue to hold. Her early leafs a flower; But only so an hour. Then leaf subsides to leaf. So Eden sank to grief, So dawn goes down to day. Nothing gold can stay. -Robert Frost "Nothing Gold Can Stay," the classic Frost poem, came to my mind after a couple of days spent surrounded by youth at its finest - a Friday and Saturday at the Iowa State High School Track and Field Championships, and Sunday at high school graduations...

Discriminatory scholarships: simply bad policy (05/18/13)
I've never been a fan of targeted scholarships that take into account one's skin color, sexuality or any other distinguishing attachment. It's no secret. I've written about it before. So when Iowa leaped into national discussion as part of a controversial "white only" scholarship offered by Columbia University, it should be no surprise I was bothered once again...

Ditch the Fitch (05/17/13)
A statement in a 2006 Salon.com article by Abercrombie & Fitch's CEO, Mike Jeffries, ruffled a few feathers recently. "In every school there are the cool and popular kids, and then there are the not-so-cool kids," Jeffries said. "A lot of people don't belong [in our clothes], and they can't belong. ...

Jesus is the bread of life (05/17/13)
What does Jesus mean when He said He was the bread of life? Well, bread was the most common food source of Jesus' time and bread became associated with basic food. Give us this day our daily bread means more than just bread but the food we need. We might say today that Jesus is the meat and potatoes of life...

The CommStock Report (05/17/13)
There are reasons why immigration reform has a fair shot at passage. The GOP already took an electoral hit from offending Hispanics with their hardline immigration policy stance, and the demographics of the young growing Hispanic population contrasts badly projected into the electoral future against most old Republicans, who are beyond their child-bearing years. ...

Lions and tigers and Benghazi, oh my (05/16/13)
Before I begin, President Obama must be the least informed president in history because whenever a scandal breaks, concerning his administration, his response is "I heard that on the news." Shouldn't someone whisper in his ear about these things every once and a while? Politicians should take ownership of events. Probably the last time such ownership occurred involved Richard Clarke back in 2004 at a 9/11 Commission hearing...

Dear graduates: (05/14/13)
Graduates, The big day is upon you. Hard to believe that 13 years of education has come to an end. You've survived the playground, Algebra II, bad lunchroom food, too many half-pints of 2 percent milk to count, and hundreds of games of dodgeball in physical education class...

The Clover Corner (05/14/13)
I loved raising my children in northwest Iowa. However, they did grow up with different safety concerns than some of our friends from the "big city." Drive-by shootings are not common place, but machinery rollovers and grain bin accidents are. And let's be honest, even if you never set foot on a "farm," you have followed a slow moving vehicle pulling a farm implement or have mowed your lawn with a riding lawn mower. ...

Native son remembers home (05/11/13)
Like many who have roots in Spencer, Chuck Swanson has made a name for himself in other parts of the state. Today, Swanson is the executive director of Hancher Auditorium on the campus of the University of Iowa. In his role he encounters a variety of gifted artists, bringing entertainment on the grandest scale to the U of I campus for its students and those who are lucky enough to live within driving distance...

Why are instant reviews so hard? (05/11/13)
There must be something wrong with the TV monitors umpires, referees and officials watch when reviewing a play with instant replay. Maybe it's not in HD, the screen is blurry and the screen is too small. There's got to be something making the play I saw on my TV look so much different than what the refs and umps are finding on their screens. While instant review is making more of an impact on games across all the major sports, somehow, someway calls are still being blown at a disturbing level...

Guns don't kill people, unhealthy lifestyles kill people, and their pocketbooks (05/11/13)
There's been a lot of talk about guns lately. Should we have them? Should we not have them? Is the government trying to take them away? You would think that gun-violence is one of the biggest causes of death in our country. It's not. Gun violence isn't even in the top 15...

Going after 'the one' (05/10/13)
Anyone who is a parent knows what it feels like to lose sight of your child for a few minutes in the grocery store. Terrifying. You'd want to yell, "Lock the doors and everybody comb the building! My child is missing!" Even if you're the shy type, you could become loud and demanding if you couldn't find your kid. ...

The CommStock Report (05/10/13)
They keep saying that we don't think like the North Koreans or their leader, Kim Jong Un thinks. His generals likely run the country and make the decisions, so what do they think? I think they want to stay in power at any cost and that pretty much encompasses their objective. ...

YouTube trying out a new revenue system (05/09/13)
The Internet is a wonderful place - if you are in the proper places - and it is full of free content. From videos, music and movies, it can all be found on the web. When a website that had free content decides to start a small subscription fee, users rise up in arms saying they won't pay to view said content. But in the end those who raised the rebel flag return to the site for the quality content...

Dog Dish (05/09/13)
He's chewing up everything." "She's barking constantly." "He's digging holes in the backyard." Your dog is not being naughty, he's bored. He needs to get rid of some excess energy. Imagine if every day were a snow day. You're cooped up in the house with nothing to do and you can't go anywhere...day after day. ...

A very special birthday (05/07/13)
She may look frail. She may look weak. She may look as though a stiff wind could blow her right into Winnebago County. Looks can be deceiving. My Grandma Read has a core of steel, strengthened by fire. She is the strongest woman I have ever known, and my admiration for her is boundless...

The Clover Corner (05/07/13)
4-H families all throughout the state of Iowa have been receiving emails, postcards and letters reminding them that May 15 is right around the corner and to make sure everything is ready for the upcoming 4-H year. So does that mean for Clay County 4-Hers?...

Guest Commentary: Medicaid expansion assures access to health care (05/04/13)
A recent poll showed 90 percent of Iowans believe every person in the state should have access to preventive health care like year check-ups, screenings and immunizations. But for thousands of low-income Iowans, routine health care with a family physician is financially out of reach because they are uninsured...

Speaking out on speaking out (05/04/13)
Hello. My name is Randy Cauthron. I'm the managing editor of the Spencer Daily Reporter. Oh, and by the way, I'm a heterosexual. Perhaps you're scratching your head, asking yourself, "Why would he include that last sentence?" More than likely you're thinking to yourself, "Who cares?"...

95 and broke (05/04/13)
In searching for a topic to write about this week, I came across an article written by U.S. News last month. "Obama Budget Proposes Cap on Retirement Savings." The article then continues to detail how Obama's latest proposal for digging America out of the debt hole is to cap untaxed retirement savings at $3 million...

Sounding the School Bell (05/04/13)
Clay Central Everly Elementary School will begin to make the transition next year from a traditional report card to a competency-based report card. For the 2013-14 school year, parents and students will continue to receive the report cards to which they are accustomed. They will also receive supplements that show the skills their child has demonstrated in specific curricular areas...

Pastor's Column: Seek the Prosperity of the City (05/03/13)
Last Saturday nearly 400 people from 11 different churches put on white t-shirts and flooded the city of Spencer with random acts of kindness. Between the hours of 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. it was nearly impossible to drive through town without getting a free drink, a free hot dog, a free bag of popcorn, a free car wash, a free cookie, a free dog wash, or seeing crews of people cleaning yards and ditches...

CommStock Report (05/03/13)
The ethanol industry has taken a lot of heat from conservatives over the subsidies that the industry received. The primary subsidy, the blenders credit for corn-based ethanol, has gone away as it was always intended to. The Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) mandates levels of ethanol usage but has only a modest impact on corn-based ethanol consumption today. The RFS and subsidies are mostly about cellulosic ethanol...

Paul Ryan is taking baby steps (05/02/13)
Things are changing when it comes to gay marriage and equality for gay couples. Politicians who were against the idea of gay marriage are coming out in support now, and it seems that something big might be on the horizon for this civil rights issue...

Randy's Review: 'The Great Gatsby' (05/17/13)
The acting is great and the characters - with few exceptions - are despicable human beings in Leonardo DiCaprio's return to the big screen in "The Great Gatsby." I mean it. These people are rancid. With the exception of Tobey Maguire's character, Nick Carraway, everyone else is living a life of desperation while at the same time indulging in the excess of New York's high society during thriving economic times in 1922...

Randy's Review: 'Iron Man 3' (05/10/13)
There's a lot to like about "Iron Man 3." Great action, special effects, quippy dialogue. Robert Downey Jr. - as he has been in all three films - makes a spectacular billionaire playboy Tony Stark. So yes, all the elements are there. And of course I'm geeked up about it because I grew up with Iron Man and The Avengers comics...

Randy's Review: 'Pain & Gain' (05/03/13)
Director Michael Bay brings this crazy story about a bunch of muscle heads who decided the best way to get ahead in the world was to take from those who have, but in their eyes, don't deserve. "Pain & Gain" had me laughing throughout, which would be great if it were a comedy, but unfortunately it's supposed to be a drama based on true criminal behavior from the mid-1990s in the Miami, Fla., area...

Randy's Review: 'Oblivion' (04/26/13)
As appears to be the case in most sci-fi thrillers these days, Earth is a wasteland as the result of a battle of some kind. In "Oblivion," Earth pulled out all stops to fend off an alien invasion in 2017, busting out the nukes. Earth won, but unfortunately, "winning" left the majority of the planet barren and unable to sustain mankind. The remaining population pulled up stakes and headed for Titan, the largest moon of Saturn...

Randy's Review: '42' (04/19/13)
Before there was Rosa Parks or Martin Luther King Jr. standing in the gap to break the race divide, Jackie Robinson stood at home plate and on first base to overturn the color barrier in professional baseball. And it wasn't easily overturned. Robinson faced ridicule from his teammates, umpires, opponents, managers and even his own fans as he took the field as a member of the Brooklyn Dodgers. ...

Randy's Review: 'Jurrasic Park 3D' (04/12/13)
Originally released in 1993, the original adaptation of Michael Crichton's best selling novel about plans for a dinosaur preserve on remote island gone wrong has been re-released, this time with the addition of 3D technology. There's nothing new in "Jurassic Park 3D." No new footage or additions to the story, just the same film with 3D effects added to a movie that was created before the advent of modern movie magic...

Randy's Review: 'GI Joe: Retaliation' (04/05/13)
How can "GI Joe: Retaliation" go wrong? You've got America's hunk Channing Tatum teaming up with The Rock ... er, sorry, Dwayne Johnson, and ultimate action star Bruce Willis teaming up as team GI Joe against a bunch of Cobra baddies looking to steal nukes, take over the world from the White House and wipe the Joes off the earth...

'The Barbed Crown' (05/17/13)
"The Barbed Crown," by William Dietrich. Harper, 348 pp. $26.99 Ethan Gage returns in another historical adventure. A spy for Sir Sidney Smith, Gage embarks on an adventure from London to France, accompanied by the beautiful Comtesse Catherine Marceau. Having recently lost his wife and had his son kidnapped, he wants revenge on Napolean, the man responsible for his loss...

The Woman Before Wallis (05/10/13)
"The Woman Before Wallis," by Andrew Rose. Picador, 335 pp. $28 Everyone loves a good love story. However, when it comes to His Royal Highness Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David, Prince of Wales, the love story most remember involves a witty American divorc�e named Wallis Simpson...

Icelandic fiction with a twist of magic realism (05/03/13)
"The Blue Fox," by Sjon In his expansion into the United States, Icelandic author Sjon released three of his novels through publisher Farrar, Straus & Giroux. Included in these novels is "The Blue Fox," translated by Victoria Cribb. "The Blue Fox" is essentially the story of a hunt, of a man searching in the dead of Icelandic winter for a blue fox, a species "so curiously like stones that it is a matter for wonder."...

Memoirs of an Italian life (04/26/13)
Memoirs of an Italian life "The Other Side of the Tiber," by Wallis Wilde-Menozzi. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 224 pp. $27. I tried thinking of a way to describe "The Other Side of the Tiber," by Wallis Wilde-Menozzi, and the best I could come up with was: An academic "Eat, Pray, Love" without all of the man drama...

The Movement of Stars (04/19/13)
"The Movement of Stars," by Amy Brill. Riverhead, 388 pp. $27.95 The king of Denmark has presented a competition to the world: whoever discovers the next unique comet will receive a gold medal. Across the world, Quaker Friend Hannah Gardener Price looks up at the stars through her telescope, searching for understanding in a universe far bigger than she can even imagine...

The secret lives of sports fans (04/12/13)
"The Secret Lives of Sports Fans: The Science of Sports Obsession," by Eric Simons. Overlook, 320 pp. $26.95 Sports has been defined as a language the entire world speaks. Regardless of which country you're in or which language you speak, there will be a sport available and there will be fans to support it...

The lives and deaths of Ursula Todd (04/05/13)
"Life After Life," by Kate Atkinson. Reagan Arthur, 529 pp. $27.99 Sometimes, when I read a book, I imagine the process the author took in outlining the story, either in thought or on paper. "Life After Life," the latest novel from Kate Atkinson, is genius, even if for no other reason than this...

The woman who made Scott (03/29/13)
"Z," by Therese Anne Fowler. St. Martin's, 384 pp. $25.99. "For every biographer or scholar who believes Zelda derailed Scott's life, there is one who believes Scott ruined Zelda's," Therese Anne Fowler said in the author's note of "Z." In the vein of "The Paris Wife," "Z" expands on the culture of the 1920s and of one of its more notable writers, through the eyes of his wife...

'EP' (05/17/13)
The Host Country. "EP" For a band of only two members, The Host Country provides a big sound. Perhaps this is due to the harmonies. Diana Garles' and Ty Wistrand's voices not only complement each other well, but the notes each sing in their parts are so in tune that to pair the two is to elevate each of them from their own individual musicality. ...

Inc. (05/10/13)
Dick Prall. "Inc." Though Iowa-born Chicago singer Dick Prall has released four full-length albums in his career, his latest work resides in part on "Inc.", a five-song EP. "Inc." showcases Prall as a talented alternative pop singer, a mixture of The Killers and Michigan-based rock group AG Silver, with nods to The Beatles and R.E.M...

So Sang the Crow (05/03/13)
Chad Elliott. "So Sang the Crow." Chad Elliott, in his latest album, "So Sang the Crow," brings to music the simplicity and grit characteristic with the Midwest. In a voice similar to that of a young James Taylor, he uses his experiences to create a storyline in his music...

To be loved (04/26/13)
Michael Bubl�. "To Be Loved." Michael Bubl� had perhaps the smartest start to a career of any popular singers on the radio today. Eight albums ago, he only sang the standards, a genre of music known for its smooth rhythms and sophisticated melodies. It's hard not to smile to a standard...

Right place, right time (04/19/13)
"Right Place, Right Time," by Olly Murs. Epic. I have been waiting so long to write about this album. "Right Place, Right Time," the second album released by Olly Murs and the first released in the United States, was released first in the United Kingdom nearly five months ago. So, for the last five months, I've been listening to it on YouTube, patiently waiting until it was released on this side of the pond...

In his wheelhouse (04/12/13)
Brad Paisley. "Wheelhouse." Arista Nashville When it comes to country music, Brad Paisley is at the top. And, after listening to "Wheelhouse," it's easy to see why. Paisley is about as country as country-rock gets, and he blends pop culture with his southern roots easily through witty lyrics and catchy melodies...

'Pioneer' (04/05/13)
The Band Perry. "Pioneer." Following the success of their first, self-titled album, the brothers-sister trio continued with their rock-bluegrass sound in their second album, "Pioneer." In many cases, a band will get recognized, put out a first album, tour, learn a little more about the inner workings of the music industry, and then put out a second, often more cohesive album...

'Native' (03/29/13)
"Native," by OneRepublic I was reading a review of a different, and relatively new, band a while back and the reviewer described this band's music as being "maximalist pop." Though I hadn't heard the term before, it popped back into my mind as I listened to OneRepublic's newest album, "Native."...

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