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Local Columns

Conversing with Chicago cab drivers

Forty years ago my job at the Sioux City Journal involved, among a host of other duties, regular travel to call on major advertisers headquartered in other Midwestern cities. Some of those sales calls necessitated air travel. The Sioux City Airport was only a 10 to 15 minute-drive from our ...

Of tea and newspapers

Breakfast has always been my favorite meal. It has several origins: My Scottish and English forebears, for whom a substantial first-meal-of-the-day was an article of faith; my maternal grandmother preparing a bounteous spread for farm hands at 5.30 a.m. in her farm kitchen; and a lifetime of ...

Eb shops for his Valentine

I could spot him halfway across the big box store. The trademark bib overalls and plaid flannel shirt — it had to be Ebeneezer Griper, my irascible old friend. Eb was surveying the candy inventory as I approached and stuck out my hand. “Howdy, Eb!” I said with a smile. “You and that ...

An expression of gratitude

Hi! I am Alex H. Pruismann, your newly-elected Hamilton County sheriff. Thank you for taking a few moments to read a brief message from myself. The month of January for myself was one packed with change, learning, budgets, quick responses, press releases, and so much more. But none of that ...

It all started with kindergarten

Having heard it was about to be demolished, one Sunday afternoon in the late 1950s my father drove by his old one-room country school. While his young sons watched from the car, Dad parked along the gravel road, climbed a fence and walked into the dilapidated structure. He spent several ...