I will remember Gene Schneckloth, who died Feb. 25 at age 78, not only as a great community person, but one of the best businessmen this area has seen. more

March 6, 1996: A building at 109 W. Franklin St. in Eldridge was heavily damaged due to an electrical fire. The historical building was once a hotel and housed Ye Olde Eldridge Bike Shop and the Country Peddler Shop, as well as three apartments, all of which received severe water and smoke damage. No one was injured, but Eldridge fire investigator Dave Kopatich expressed doubts the building could be saved. more

A year ago this week, The NSP put the finishing touches on what had been weeks of news coverage, ads, letters to the editor and editorials leading up to the March 3, 2020, YMCA vote. Signs could be found across the North Scott district. more

It was a good week for Lancer Nation, and whether you were watching state wrestling action at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, or basketball games in The Pit, there was plenty to cheer about. more

Four hours focused on Saturday’s legislative forums taught me one thing. more

March 1, 2006: The prospect of senior housing in Eldridge was starting to look more like a reality. Joel Callahan of Dubuque-based Callahan Construction made a presentation to the Eldridge City Council on a proposed 62-unit independent living facility to be built in the Eldridge Commercial Park. more

With each passing year, there are fewer of us left to remember the huge changes in Eldridge of the 1970s and early 1980s, when banker Jim Tank was among the leaders steering our city and school district in a positive direction. Jim's life and those years of stretch and strain are inseparable, in a good way. more

My fifth anniversary at The NSP caught me by surprise this month. more

Feb. 22, 2006: A series of power outages left many Scott County residents in the dark. According to an Alliant Energy spokesman, several outages in Walcott and Maysville were officially caused by “equipment failure,” although winter weather conditions may have exacerbated the issue. Ice-covered power lines were cited as the cause of an outage that affected Long Grove and Park View. more

In March 2019, in a column entitled "Can this really be happening in America?," I introduced "Signs that the Apocalypse is Upon Us," to call out craziness beyond belief. In that case it was a crowd at a rally in Ohio cheering when a woman declared, "Never in my life did I want to see a dictator – but if there is to be one, I want it to be Trump." (On Jan. 6, we saw what can happen when such loyalty is given to one man; but that is not my main point.) more

Feb. 14. 1996: Bawden Printing president Mark Bawden enlisted the North Scott High School marching band to announce to his employees the company’s plan to expand an addition 28,000 square feet to its Eldridge facility. It was the ninth expansion project since Bawden moved to Eldridge in 1982. The company also planned to add a new web press capable of printing one million book pages an hour. more

I called Mollie Strief last Friday. It had been almost 16 years since we last talked. more