As I visited Clear Lake this weekend, I took a stroll through Ventura to my favorite ice cream shop. While seeing the sign for Ventura’s greatest basketball player, Lynne Lorenzen, who resided in Tama County for part of her youth before moving up to the Clear Lake area, the school district ...

Welcome to Dining with Donaldson, the place where I try recipes so you don’t have to! Believe it or not, the school year is just around the corner! Last week, I shared some of my favorite tips and tricks for successful freezer meal prep. Now it’s time to put those tips to work and start ...

Another Winding Stairs Festival is in the books. Like in years previous, it was a good one. I only showed up on Saturday. While rain affected the Friday turnout, it was near perfect weather on Saturday. A little warmer than needed but it is August in Iowa. When the sun went down, the weather ...

Voters of Tama County! On Tuesday, Aug. 4, the Tama County Republican delegates voted against the results of the June primary vote. For 250 years in America, it has been the person with the most votes who wins. Not in Tama County! It is obvious that the delegates only care about their own ...

Welcome to Dining with Donaldson, the place where I try recipes so you don’t have to! Believe it or not, the school year is just around the corner! This week, I will be stocking our freezer to help us prepare. It feels like the first week or two of school is always hectic, no matter how ...

I hope everyone stayed cool with the hot weather we experienced in July. County roads were one of the main topics of discussion during Supervisor meetings in July. E29 still has an embargo on it due to the West Bridge Approach being damaged. We’ve approved a quote for these repairs, but ...

Welcome back to Dining with Donaldson, the place where I try recipes so you don’t have to! As I’m writing this, I recently returned from a small family vacation to the Mall of America. I’m not a big fan of road trips, so I try to find fun things to do along the way to break up the ...

The 2026-27 hunting and trapping seasons will soon be upon us. There are several regulation changes heading into the upcoming seasons that I want to highlight in this article. Deer hunting licenses will now go on sale at 9 a.m. on Aug. 15, 2026. Online deer and turkey licenses sales will stop ...

I believe that I, my neighbors, the residents of Earth, and Earth itself are being affected by a changing climate. According to an article in the journal Bioscience, there are increases in extreme weather events, area burned by wildfires, and the costs associated with weather events including ...

I was not alive during the Vietnam War. My historical context is mostly from what I was taught in school and through culture. My first exposure to this war was through the television show "That '70s Show." It came in the form of a joke where Fez, the foreign exchange student, learns about the ...