An Iowa Original Who Sculpted Her Own Way

All artists have a favorite medium. Only a very few prefer U.S. Grade AA salted butter. Norma “Duffy” Lyon was the most famous sculptor working in dairy and one of the most famous Iowans, period, by vocation if not by name. From 1960 until her retirement in 2006, she sculpted out of butter a life-sized cow for display at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines every year. Her cows were stunning for their precision and lifelike detail. She took great care to get them right, reportedly popping in... Read more

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Promoting Agriculture and Excellence

Learning to Do, Doing to Learn, Earning to Live, Living to Serve. Those 12 words are the motto of the National FFA Organization. Since 1928, when the organization was founded, millions of agricultural students have embraced it. The strong values and work ethic that are part of this tradition still thrive today in rural America and elsewhere. To commemorate the positive difference that the National FFA Organization has made in the lives of young Americans, to the... Read more

 

Create Environment for Economic Growth, Job Creation

C-SPAN’s “Washington Journal” on Thursday focused on negotiations under way to find $2.4 trillion in savings in the federal budget in order to offset about that level of an increase in the federal debt ceiling. At this point, August 2 is the operational deadline for increasing the cap on the amount of debt the federal government can legally borrow. There’s pressure coming from the White House and the Democrat leadership of the Senate to raise taxes to increase revenues to... Read more

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Focusing on the Facts of the ATF's Flawed Gun Strategy

Since January, I’ve been hounding the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and the Department of Justice for answers about a deeply flawed policy that allowed guns to be sold to known straw purchasers and then transported across the border to Mexican drug cartels. Until this week, my efforts to conduct my constitutional responsibility of oversight have been stonewalled by the Justice Department. Finally, the administration agreed to provide me the same access to documents and witnesses that are afforded to the Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Darrell Issa, and the Justice Department Inspector General. In the meantime, in an effort to distract from the investigation... Read more