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Fort Dodge swimming program gets some help

Recent editorials published in Midwest newspapers courtesy of The Associated Press.

Fort Dodge swimming program gets some help

Tight budgets make it difficult for important extracurricular programs to pay for all of the enhancements that would be beneficial to the young folks who participate in them. Consequently, public-spirited folks who back these endeavors sometimes come forward to help address some of the financial issues. A good example is now taking place with respect to the swimming program in Fort Dodge.

There is great momentum surrounding that program from the high school level on down. That helped motivate supporters to act on the growing excitement and upgrade the amenities. At the beginning of the school year and after an enthusiastic fundraising campaign, Fort Dodge Senior High was able to install eight new Dodger starting blocks at the pool.

The project was a collaborative effort spearheaded by Tracy Hartley, Fort Dodge Swim Club board president, Joel Greathouse, Dodger boys head coach, and Mike Peterson, former girls coach. Contributors included the Fort Dodge Swim Club, Friends of Fort Dodge Swimming — a trust administered by Murray Stanley, a former Dodger swimmer — the Fort Dodge Senior High Athletic Booster Club, Drs. Don and Mary Lou Woodhouse, and Tom and Joan Tibbitts. The Fort Dodge Community School District paid for four of the blocks, using PPEL funds.

The Messenger applauds these efforts. It sets an example of community support that we hope others will emulate.

— The Fort Dodge (Iowa) Messenger. Nov. 3

Grassley records remarkable achievement

In our nation’s history, nearly 2,000 men and women have served in the United States Senate. Only 17 of them (and only three of them serving today, Thad Cochran of Mississippi, Orrin Hatch of Utah and Patrick Leahy of Vermont) have cast more votes than Iowa Republican Charles Grassley. No senator serving today has gone as long as Grassley without missing a vote. Our state’s senior senator has cast 7,474 consecutive votes.

It is, indeed, an extraordinary record.

On Tuesday, colleagues from both sides of the political aisle praised Grassley for casting his 12,000th vote as a senator. The milestone vote came on Friday during discussion in the Senate about the federal budget.

“When I cast a vote, I’m bringing the benefit of every comment, question and criticism heard from Iowans to the vote,” Grassley said during brief remarks on the Senate floor. “With 12,000 votes, I think of the many conversations and pieces of correspondence behind those votes. Whether I’m meeting with Iowans in the Hart Building in Washington or at the University of Northern Iowa volleyball matches near my farm in New Hartford, the time people take to visit with me is time well-spent for me and I hope they consider it time well-spent for them.”

This quote speaks volumes about Grassley’s commitment to genuine public service.

Despite having served in Congress for 40 years (six years in the House and nearly 35 years in the Senate), Grassley today is much the same public servant he was when he first arrived in the nation’s capital. He’s an honest man of integrity who reflects the values of his state and stays connected to the needs of constituents and the issues important to them. He visits each of Iowa’s 99 counties every year.

In 2010, The Hill newspaper in Washington, D.C., named Grassley the hardest-working member of Congress based on a survey of lawmakers, aides and others. We sense no diminution of energy in the 82-year-old Grassley, who next year will seek a seventh six-year Senate term.

We offer Grassley (who probably celebrated his 12,000th Senate vote with a three-mile, 5:30 a.m. run the next morning) our congratulations on a remarkable achievement.

— The Sioux City (Iowa) Journal. Nov. 6

Trade deals can give a boost to the US, EU at a critical time

Lower tariffs resulting in higher economic growth are reason enough for nations to sign free-trade agreements. But diplomatic dividends are also worth considering.

The proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (T-TIP) between the United States and the European Union, for instance, would tighten ties at a time when the West is increasingly challenged by geopolitical events. That’s the consensus of many security and diplomatic experts, including Johan Verbeke, Belgium’s ambassador to the United States. Verbeke, on a recent visit coordinated by the Minnesota International Center, told members of the Star Tribune Editorial Board that T-TIP would add “a very strong economic pillar” to what is “essentially a political-defense relationship.”

What’s more, the aggregate transatlantic economic clout would be so sizable that the pact would set standards. “We share the same values,” Verbeke said, listing open and competitive markets, playing by the same rules, and “the classical Western doctrine of what economics are about and how to be a fair and just society.”

Because international institutions designed to foster global order — including the European Union — are increasingly buffeted by crises of legitimacy, it’s in America’s best interest to provide support. In return, the U.S. gains economic and even military security. It’s disappointing that both the Republican and Democratic presidential front-runners have come out against the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a 12-nation trade pact that would boost world economic growth, provide a counterbalance to a rising China and offer allies a tangible result of the Obama administration’s diplomatic “pivot” to Asia.

Failure to enact the TPP might mean T-TIP does not advance, either, which would embolden those in Europe trying to weaken — or leave — the European Union.

Verbeke acknowledged that neither the European Union nor the free-trade agreements are without flaws. But, he added, “in politics generally, you have to live with the suboptimal. It’s only the idealists and very often the extremists who hold out for the optimal.”

— Minneapolis Star Tribune, Oct. 30

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