Rick Smith

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. Many believed that the defeat of the Nazis in World War ll would consign them to the dustbin of history. However, Trump’s tepid condemnation of the “Unite the Right” Nazi chanting groups this week was taken as a direct endorsement by white nationalist and…

The University of Iowa President Bruce Harreld proposes to raise resident undergraduate tuition by seven percent each year for the next five years. That follows Iowa State’s interim President Ben Allen’s identical recommendation of seven percent each year for the next five years. The plan calls for the base tuition to raise from $7,486 to $10,537,…

Why are Republicans so unwilling to speak up as this President with no military, no diplomatic and no elective office experience is recklessly making threats of imminent war with North Korea? His record shouldn’t give anyone confidence that he has a clue as to the appropriate or traditional diplomatic methods to avoid war. This President…

Iowa farmers’ greatest asset is their soil. It’s the amazing productivity of Iowa’s soil that makes our state the agricultural powerhouse in feeding the world. The fertility and yield potential of Iowa topsoil has earned it the title as Iowa’s “black gold.”  Yet, Iowa Republicans don’t want to discuss the undeniable truth that Iowa’s black…

A new forecast from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicts that the annual dead zone in the northern Gulf of Mexico will reach an area of nearly 8,200 square miles this summer, more than 50 percent larger than its average size. This huge dead zone, the size of New Jersey, is directly linked to…

Republicans ranging from U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos to Iowa Senators like Brad Zaun have targeted public education as enemy number one. The national Republican agenda is to starve public education of funding, weaken public education unions, destroy educators’ credibility and replace public education institutions with private schools, religious schools and homeschooling. This is…

The Senate is moving ahead with the repeal of Obamacare with their vote on Tuesday to begin floor debate. However, hours after the first vote they failed to pass the repeal-and-replace proposal. That failed vote signaled the desperate straits the Republicans find themselves. They voted over and over for seven years to repeal Obamacare, but…

Republicans love to use the term “leading from behind” when criticizing Democrats. Great leaders demonstrate their skills by boldly offering solutions following the revelations of problems.  They don’t stick their finger in the air to test the wind direction. The verdict this week awarding $2.2 million to a former Iowa Senate Republican caucus staffer in…

Last week the Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly said the fate of immigrant children in America is in serious jeopardy. Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, DACA, is a 2012 executive order signed by former President Barack Obama that stopped deportation for nearly 800,000 young undocumented immigrant children. These are the innocent children of immigrants, known…

The Republicans’ latest Senate bill to repeal Obamacare would cut $800 billion dollars from Medicaid, devastating the program that covers 69 million Americans. A great deal of the debate on repealing and replacing Obamacare has focused on people losing coverage on the Obamacare Exchanges. However, the Republican repeal both weakens the protections established under Obamacare…