Q: How old is Kaleb, the patient at Shriners?
A: Kaleb was 16 on May 20, 2025, according to an article on the Shriners Hospital website.
Q: We are wondering how much training do the contestants on “The Price is Right” get. As an example, an 82-year-old woman wins a barbell set and a motorcycle and she jumps for joy. Unbelievable.
A: A Good Housekeeping article from 2023 stated a former producer for the show would interview everyone standing in line to look for energetic, sincere and humorous people. The producer said he also looked to see who is still cheering or have big reactions when they are inside.
Q: I’m wondering how often should you replace a battery backup pump in your basement?
A: Plumbing professionals online say you should replace battery back up sump pumps every three to five years. Replacement may be needed earlier if the battery shows any visible signs of wear, multiple power outages have occurred in a year or there are changes in performance or alarm indicators.
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Q: We are wondering how much money has Donald Trump made off his presidency in the last year. We heard $1.5 billion.
A: The New York Times’ editorial board published a report last week that President Trump has made $1.4 billion since his second term. The story, which analyzed multiple news organization reports, states he has made $23 million from licensing the Trump name overseas, $28 million for a documentary about Melania Trump, $90.5 million from settlements from major technology and media companies, a jet worth $400 million from Qatar to use as Air Force One and $867 million through various cryptocurrencies.
Call (319) 291-1550 to leave a voicemail or email newsroom@wcfcourier.com with your question.
We thought it was funny when Chuck Grassley tweeted his complaints about the History channel not showing WWII movies anymore -- but without them he and many of seem to have forgotten: The Nazis were the BAD guys. Wake up Chuck.
Nathan McKeen, Cedar Falls
Iowa U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst will not be on the ballot in November, perhaps due to her poor polling. I was at her famous town hall in Parkersburg where she said, “Well, we are all going to die” in response to the drastic Republican cuts to health care she voted for.
Ernst has endorsed Ashley Hinson, Republican U.S. representative in Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District, who is running for Ernst’s seat. With millions in the bank, Hinson might win despite being a fawning groupie for Donald Trump.
Pardon Jan. 6 insurrectionists who beat Capitol police? Hinson is down with that. Shift money from the middle class to the wealthy and balloon the national debt? Yep. Embrace Putin and insult our allies? Whatever you say, sir. Cancel cancer research funds? Promote disinformation? Wage war for oil? For Greenland? More tariffs and high prices? Hinson is a signed, sealed and delivered true believer in the MAGA cult.
Voting Hinson into the Senate would be a waste; she could just be replaced with a sign on her Senate door that reads “Whatever Trump said.”
I see no point in Hinson being in Washington at all. I won’t support a lackey in a Trump-induced coma.
David Mansheim, Parkersburg
Abortion is the issue that politically active evangelicals keep coming back to repeatedly. Even though they won (the Supreme Court overturned Roe), Christian nationalist groups like The Family Leader are still planning to use this issue politically again in the 2026 legislative session, according to the front-page article in the Courier on Jan. 11.
So, I’ve decided to tell my story of how I went from being deeply embedded in the evangelical Christian anti-abortion subculture to realizing that I was wrong, the why and how of changing my mind on this issue. But my story is too long for a letter to the editor, so please read it on my Substack page, www.substack.com/@dougsmith801323.
I hope my account of how I realized I was wrong and changed my mind will encourage you to think about why you believe as you do. I’m not trying to be argumentative; I’m just recounting my personal journey. All I ask is that, if you describe yourself as pro-life, please take the time to read it. If at the end you still disagree with me, at least you will have heard the reasoning of the other side, and that has value.
Doug Smith, Cedar Falls
The Rev. Lindberg and Donald Trump have one thing in common for sure: unintentionally funny thought detours. The most recent thought Lindberg had was simply gifting Greenland back to Norway since Norway was there before Denmark. Using that logic, don’t we need to gift Iowa back to the Appanoose, Black Hawk, Keokuk and Mahaska tribes that were here long before the Germans, Danes, Irish, etc. While we are at it, gift the entire country back to native American tribes that were here thousands of years before white Europeans. Lindberg wants American to be the “champion for justice” for Greenland. Then next will we become a “champion for justice” for those oppressed and murdered by ICE in Minnesota and other states? How about a “champion for justice” for those that rebelled against the United States on Jan. 6? “Champion for justice” for Juan Orlando Hernandez who was convicted of state-sponsored drug trafficking and pardoned by Trump, for some reason? JD Vance this week blamed "the far left for turmoil.” Interesting and delusional. Turmoil that happened from 2016 to January 2021 and resumed January of 2025. Curious if Vance and MAGA can see the causal relationship. MAGA equals turmoil.
Shawn Frederiksen, Cedar Falls
Five years ago, landowners targeted by Summit’s hazardous CO2 pipeline, when asking the Iowa Legislature for property rights protections from a new hazardous liquid CO2 pipeline, were told that we had to “let the process work.” Well, the process worked extremely well for the wealthy, politically connected Summit Carbon Solutions.
After Summit’s pipeline was approved by the IUC, we were told by legislators that to pass legislation restricting the building of CO2 pipelines would be unfair, that would be “changing the rules in the middle of the game.”
Now, Summit wants to change the conditions of their existing permit by widening their notification corridor which they had already set in their original permit application. Republican Sen. Mike Klimesh’s bill to widen the corridor is a gift to Summit and a smokescreen of a solution looking for a problem.
It’s time for the Legislature to stand with ordinary, hard-working farmers and pass a bill that 78% of Iowans want and the citizens of South Dakota got. A simple "no eminent domain for CO2 pipelines" bill doesn’t ban the pipeline, it just gives us the right to say no to a private enterprise that wants to take our property for their gain.
Julie Glade, Cedar Falls
I am deeply disappointed by what I am learning about the state of Waterloo’s infrastructure. Having been elected recently, I am quickly realizing how our infrastructure has not kept pace with the needs of our community. As a recent transplant and now Ward 5 city councilman, I have been introduced to long-standing challenges, including pump stations over 70 years old, understaffed city inspection teams, and growing strain on our public library due to decisions made at the state level.
These realities raise a critical question: Why has this not been part of the public conversation for the last decade? As President Harry Truman famously said, “the buck stops here.” That responsibility belongs to us now.
This moment demands unity. We must move beyond divisive rhetoric and focus on solutions that strengthen every neighborhood. By modernizing infrastructure, investing in workforce development, supporting business attraction and retention, and expanding welcoming third spaces, we can create opportunity, stability, and pride. Together, with leadership, accountability, and collaboration, Waterloo can move forward, meet its challenges, and reclaim its place as a city that works for everyone. Let’s put Waterloo back on the map, together, with purpose, urgency, and confidence in our future.
Hector Salamanca Arroyo, Waterloo
Google "Are you so safe from fatal large truck crashes in Iowa?"
You will find out something politically unfavorable you're not suppose to know: 16% of fatal crashes in Iowa have large trucks involved, while the national average is 8%. You'll never hear this fact from regular news. When there's a fatal crash involving a large truck and smaller vehicle, the occupant/s of the latter are usually dead and cannot tell their side. It's easier to just blame the dead victims than to investigate and find what was the speed of the big rig 10 seconds before the crash. That should be investigated instead of just believing the trucker's testimony. Modern trucks have a computer/black box. Does law enforcement check into it?
Before law enforcement makes big rigs reduce speed to reasonable and safe in adverse weather and road conditions (especially in fog), I'd have to be stupid to believe we're so safe in our nanny seat belts. Most dead victims of large truck crashes were seat belted. Iowa Republican lawmakers get election funding from big money/big business, but none from the victims that get ran over in such crashes.
Herman Lenz, Sumner
Two roads diverged in the American political landscape and Iowa’s congressional delegation, guided by Sen. Chuck Grassley, chose the darker path. Grassley could have been a profile in courage.
Grassley did not choose wisely. Instead, he took the detour and sacrificed his integrity and legacy at the altar of political expediency.
Instead of setting an example as Iowa’s senior statesman, Grassley jumped on the MAGA bandwagon. He violated his constitutional oath of office by supporting and promoting actions which undermined our democracy. His partisanship overpowered his previously respected political independence. Grassley became a cheerleader for Trump’s abuse of presidential authority while failing to protect the separation of powers and congressional oversight of the executive branch.
Imagine if Iowa’s entire congressional delegation had stood tall and had successfully led the charge to reject Trump’s 2024 nomination for a second term. Our country would be living in a better world. It is past time for Republicans to reclaim their courage and legitimacy by correcting the mistakes that are jeopardizing our nation’s future.
I am telling this with a sigh. Two roads diverged in the American political landscape. Iowa’s congressional delegation chose the darker path, and that has made all the difference.
Dale Goeke, Waverly
Waterloo and Cedar Falls speaks up: Letters to the editor for the week of Jan. 30, 2026
Our weekly round-up of letters published in the Courier.
We thought it was funny when Chuck Grassley tweeted his complaints about the History channel not showing WWII movies anymore -- but without them he and many of seem to have forgotten: The Nazis were the BAD guys. Wake up Chuck.
Nathan McKeen, Cedar Falls
Iowa U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst will not be on the ballot in November, perhaps due to her poor polling. I was at her famous town hall in Parkersburg where she said, “Well, we are all going to die” in response to the drastic Republican cuts to health care she voted for.
Ernst has endorsed Ashley Hinson, Republican U.S. representative in Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District, who is running for Ernst’s seat. With millions in the bank, Hinson might win despite being a fawning groupie for Donald Trump.
Pardon Jan. 6 insurrectionists who beat Capitol police? Hinson is down with that. Shift money from the middle class to the wealthy and balloon the national debt? Yep. Embrace Putin and insult our allies? Whatever you say, sir. Cancel cancer research funds? Promote disinformation? Wage war for oil? For Greenland? More tariffs and high prices? Hinson is a signed, sealed and delivered true believer in the MAGA cult.
Voting Hinson into the Senate would be a waste; she could just be replaced with a sign on her Senate door that reads “Whatever Trump said.”
I see no point in Hinson being in Washington at all. I won’t support a lackey in a Trump-induced coma.
David Mansheim, Parkersburg
Abortion is the issue that politically active evangelicals keep coming back to repeatedly. Even though they won (the Supreme Court overturned Roe), Christian nationalist groups like The Family Leader are still planning to use this issue politically again in the 2026 legislative session, according to the front-page article in the Courier on Jan. 11.
So, I’ve decided to tell my story of how I went from being deeply embedded in the evangelical Christian anti-abortion subculture to realizing that I was wrong, the why and how of changing my mind on this issue. But my story is too long for a letter to the editor, so please read it on my Substack page, www.substack.com/@dougsmith801323.
I hope my account of how I realized I was wrong and changed my mind will encourage you to think about why you believe as you do. I’m not trying to be argumentative; I’m just recounting my personal journey. All I ask is that, if you describe yourself as pro-life, please take the time to read it. If at the end you still disagree with me, at least you will have heard the reasoning of the other side, and that has value.
Doug Smith, Cedar Falls
The Rev. Lindberg and Donald Trump have one thing in common for sure: unintentionally funny thought detours. The most recent thought Lindberg had was simply gifting Greenland back to Norway since Norway was there before Denmark. Using that logic, don’t we need to gift Iowa back to the Appanoose, Black Hawk, Keokuk and Mahaska tribes that were here long before the Germans, Danes, Irish, etc. While we are at it, gift the entire country back to native American tribes that were here thousands of years before white Europeans. Lindberg wants American to be the “champion for justice” for Greenland. Then next will we become a “champion for justice” for those oppressed and murdered by ICE in Minnesota and other states? How about a “champion for justice” for those that rebelled against the United States on Jan. 6? “Champion for justice” for Juan Orlando Hernandez who was convicted of state-sponsored drug trafficking and pardoned by Trump, for some reason? JD Vance this week blamed "the far left for turmoil.” Interesting and delusional. Turmoil that happened from 2016 to January 2021 and resumed January of 2025. Curious if Vance and MAGA can see the causal relationship. MAGA equals turmoil.
Shawn Frederiksen, Cedar Falls
Five years ago, landowners targeted by Summit’s hazardous CO2 pipeline, when asking the Iowa Legislature for property rights protections from a new hazardous liquid CO2 pipeline, were told that we had to “let the process work.” Well, the process worked extremely well for the wealthy, politically connected Summit Carbon Solutions.
After Summit’s pipeline was approved by the IUC, we were told by legislators that to pass legislation restricting the building of CO2 pipelines would be unfair, that would be “changing the rules in the middle of the game.”
Now, Summit wants to change the conditions of their existing permit by widening their notification corridor which they had already set in their original permit application. Republican Sen. Mike Klimesh’s bill to widen the corridor is a gift to Summit and a smokescreen of a solution looking for a problem.
It’s time for the Legislature to stand with ordinary, hard-working farmers and pass a bill that 78% of Iowans want and the citizens of South Dakota got. A simple "no eminent domain for CO2 pipelines" bill doesn’t ban the pipeline, it just gives us the right to say no to a private enterprise that wants to take our property for their gain.
Julie Glade, Cedar Falls
I am deeply disappointed by what I am learning about the state of Waterloo’s infrastructure. Having been elected recently, I am quickly realizing how our infrastructure has not kept pace with the needs of our community. As a recent transplant and now Ward 5 city councilman, I have been introduced to long-standing challenges, including pump stations over 70 years old, understaffed city inspection teams, and growing strain on our public library due to decisions made at the state level.
These realities raise a critical question: Why has this not been part of the public conversation for the last decade? As President Harry Truman famously said, “the buck stops here.” That responsibility belongs to us now.
This moment demands unity. We must move beyond divisive rhetoric and focus on solutions that strengthen every neighborhood. By modernizing infrastructure, investing in workforce development, supporting business attraction and retention, and expanding welcoming third spaces, we can create opportunity, stability, and pride. Together, with leadership, accountability, and collaboration, Waterloo can move forward, meet its challenges, and reclaim its place as a city that works for everyone. Let’s put Waterloo back on the map, together, with purpose, urgency, and confidence in our future.
Hector Salamanca Arroyo, Waterloo
Google "Are you so safe from fatal large truck crashes in Iowa?"
You will find out something politically unfavorable you're not suppose to know: 16% of fatal crashes in Iowa have large trucks involved, while the national average is 8%. You'll never hear this fact from regular news. When there's a fatal crash involving a large truck and smaller vehicle, the occupant/s of the latter are usually dead and cannot tell their side. It's easier to just blame the dead victims than to investigate and find what was the speed of the big rig 10 seconds before the crash. That should be investigated instead of just believing the trucker's testimony. Modern trucks have a computer/black box. Does law enforcement check into it?
Before law enforcement makes big rigs reduce speed to reasonable and safe in adverse weather and road conditions (especially in fog), I'd have to be stupid to believe we're so safe in our nanny seat belts. Most dead victims of large truck crashes were seat belted. Iowa Republican lawmakers get election funding from big money/big business, but none from the victims that get ran over in such crashes.
Herman Lenz, Sumner
Two roads diverged in the American political landscape and Iowa’s congressional delegation, guided by Sen. Chuck Grassley, chose the darker path. Grassley could have been a profile in courage.
Grassley did not choose wisely. Instead, he took the detour and sacrificed his integrity and legacy at the altar of political expediency.
Instead of setting an example as Iowa’s senior statesman, Grassley jumped on the MAGA bandwagon. He violated his constitutional oath of office by supporting and promoting actions which undermined our democracy. His partisanship overpowered his previously respected political independence. Grassley became a cheerleader for Trump’s abuse of presidential authority while failing to protect the separation of powers and congressional oversight of the executive branch.
Imagine if Iowa’s entire congressional delegation had stood tall and had successfully led the charge to reject Trump’s 2024 nomination for a second term. Our country would be living in a better world. It is past time for Republicans to reclaim their courage and legitimacy by correcting the mistakes that are jeopardizing our nation’s future.
I am telling this with a sigh. Two roads diverged in the American political landscape. Iowa’s congressional delegation chose the darker path, and that has made all the difference.
Dale Goeke, Waverly
