WEST DES MOINES-—Today U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins announced that the U.S. Department of Agriculture is releasing obligated funding of $537 million under the Higher Blends Infrastructure Incentive Program (HBIIP) for 543 projects in 29 states, upholding President Trump’s vision of unleashing American energy. Sec. Rollins made the announcement while visiting Iowa Renewable Fuels Association (IRFA) member Elite Octane in Atlantic, Iowa today.

Any gardening is good gardening

By Elizabeth Adams, Kossuth County Extension

Are you gardening? Did you used to garden? Do you garden, or plan to, for healthy eating, saving money on your grocery bill, or want to tame the outdoors? She can’t be tamed! All jests set aside, just like the title reads, any gardening is good gardening.

How many people own TV trays today?

Every once in a while, I think about foods that were a regular on the dinner table when I was growing up but seem to have mostly disappeared since. See if any of these bring back some culinary memories for you.

Bologna sandwiches. I have not had one of these in decades, and I don’t plan to either. I had enough sliced bologna as a child to last a lifetime. No offense, Oscar Mayer, but enough is enough.

Plowing contest to be broadcast on television

175 Years Ago

The City of Los Angeles has been incorporated.

150 Years Ago

October 2, 1943 - March 30, 2025

Trudith Lyn Pierce went home peacefully on Sunday, March 30, surrounded lovingly by her family.

She was born to Arthur and Rose Olsen on Oct. 2, 1943, in Algona and was raised in nearby Sexton. She attended the local one-room schoolhouse in her elementary years but graduated from Algona High school in 1961.

Please wait to be seated

By Paul Avery, Pastor at Hillside Baptist Church in Algona

If you think snowmobiles are a modern invention, think again. There was· one roaring down ice-covered Algona streets back in 1915. The late Homer (“Doc”) Kelley is shown below with his creation.

Of my life and times with Christopher Robin

Christopher Robin has disappeared. For those who don’t remember, Christopher Robin is the stray cat I’ve been feeding for seven years. His mother, Saint Francis, was the first to sit on my open side porch and meow prettily for food. One day, St. Francis brought her three kittens to be fed. That was the first clue I had that St. Francis was a girl.

To the Editor:

The Department of Purposeful Inefficiency

“We want the bureaucrats to be traumatically affected. When they wake up in the morning, we want them to not want to go to work because they are increasingly viewed as the villains. We want their funding to be shut down...We want to put them in trauma.”

--quote from Russell Vought, creator of Project 2025 and current head of the OMB: Office of Management and Budget.

Funds for new trees and treatments for EAB

By Barb Smith, City of Algona

This is the time of year many people start thinking about ways to improve their yard, gardens and landscaping around the home. When it comes to taking care of these spring tasks, the City of Algona has programs and services that can help.

Horse sale next Saturday

175 Years Ago

Be it remembered that Iowa voted Franklin K. Pierce for president.

150 Years Ago

Town and County. <+> Hundreds of acres of wheat are already sown, and if the weather continues favorable, the sowing of wheat, oats, and barley will be generally through with by the tenth of April.

125 Years Ago

Hearing God’s message for our lives today, Scripture Luke 4: 16-30

By Robert EnTin, Co-Pastor at First Presbyterian Church in Algona

Brian Buscher [driver] of Algona built this 1923 T-Roadster by himself, only to see it damaged, along with another one of his cars, in the tornado here June 28. With a little help from his friends, however, he was able to take part in the Fourth of July parade. They pushed it along the entire parade route as one of the cars entered by the North Iowa Street Rod Association.

A memoir of a mother’s decline from Alzheimer’s disease

By Michael Tidemann

Child of Earth and Starry Heaven

L. Annette Binder

Wandering Aengus Press

ISBN 9798218516765

$14.99

To the Editor:

Manufactured and purposeful trauma

Russ Vought, author of Project 2025 and now the head of the OMB, said this recently:

"We want the bureaucrats to be traumatically affected. When they wake up in the morning, we want them to NOT want to go to work because they are increasingly viewed as the villains. We want their funding to be shut down … We want to put them in trauma.”