Veterans Day has passed but the gratitude for those who served has not expired.
The thanks we can and should offer our veterans has no shelf life. Those words of appreciation, the handshakes and the notes mean just as much today as they did on Monday.

BlizzCon has come and gone.
Having sufficiently humbled themselves after the Blitzchung fiasco, Blizzard was able to get through their semi-annual convention to announce their slot of upcoming games without causing another international incident.

The dwindling fall, darkening skies and cooling temperatures mean flu season is right around the corner.
Flu season, according to the Center for Disease Control, typically hits hardest in the winter months of December, January and February, which means now is an appropriate time to get vaccinated.

Among Iowa’s health care challenges is rural access to maternal care—pregnancy, labor and delivery, and post-partum.
Population shifts mean few-er babies are born in rural communities, so it becomes increasingly difficult to offer the necessary services there. As a result:
• Most rural hospitals have no obstetrician on staff. Iowa ranks 50th among the 50 states for OB/GYNs per capi-ta.

I was reading Daily Kos the other day. For those who don't know, the Daily Kos is a magazine whose readers would not be satisfied until Bill Gates shared cardboard by the Santa Ana River with a forgetful dope addict. They call them-selves progressives. Equality is a worthy goal so I try to read all manner of opinions on how to get there.

Halloween is coming, but that's not the only thing getting people to dress up in costumes.
The fall season of television is well underway and over on The CW its line-up of superhero shows is barreling towards a landmark television event.

It looks like I'm going to let my Road & Track subscription lapse. I've been reading it since 1965 standing in front of a newsstand. I've always been too frugal or lazy to actually own a performance car but the technology fascinates me.

An election carries importance, no matter the race.
Next Tuesday is Election Day throughout the country. This year, area voters can vote for various school board and city council races.
While the ballot shows that several races in the area are uncontested, it’s still important to hit the polls Tuesday. It’s easy to think, “Why vote when there’s only one candidate?”

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is, without question, one of the most generally popular things on the planet.
Of course with everything popular, there's going to be people that reflexively decide to dislike it. Maybe there's a genuine dislike or maybe they're just contrarian.

As you go out shopping in preparation for Trick-or-Treaters, pick up an extra pumpkin, some teal paint and a couple different treats.
The Teal Pumpkin Project is a way to show Trick-or-Treaters with a food allergy that a house has non-food options. This is a simple and affordable way to make sure all children have a safe and fun Halloween.

Democracy requires citizen participation. The more folks get involved, the more gov-ernment represents all of us.
Butler, Cerro Gordo and Franklin counties are home to 47,261 ‬registered voters. How many of them can we get to vote in this fall’s local elec-tions?

What does civil unrest have to do with a virtual card game?
That's the question Blizzard Entertainment tried to find a satisfactory answer to last week, with little luck.

We saw on the news that there was a storm off the Mex-ican coast. That, and a north-east breeze would produce perfect waves at Trestles, a surf spot on private federal land called Camp Pendleton. (Yep, private federal land.)

Age of the Geek Column: OK, here's the column I intended to write last week. After all, you didn't really expect me to spend two weeks in Japan and not come back with tales from my travels.

This space has been used before to commend various organizations throughout the community for working together for a common goal. Today is no different.