We’ve never met a state climatologist we didn’t like — or any climatologist for that matter — and we suspect Harry Hillaker would continue the streak. Alas, he’s retiring as Iowa’s climatologist, the Des Moines Register says. There’s something comforting about seeing the state’s climatology records are kept in file cabinets… on paper. So old Read more

Bernie Ockuly took a job as a long-haul trucker when he got swept up in a dying economy years ago, and he’s been driving across the country ever since, stopping every now and again for a bit to eat and a word or two with people along the way about why they do what it is they do. Over the weekend, he learned about what it takes to keep the show going in Fairmont. Read more

The unusual collision of a radio network’s management and a radio network’s newsroom was heard nationwide on Wednesday when NPR CEO Jarl Mohn was grilled by one of his network’s reporters — Mary Louise Kelly — on why NPR fired its head of news only after the Washington Post blew the whistle on Michael Oreskes’ behavior 20 years ago at the New York Times, when he accosted two women in separate incidents.

It was an unusual, and likely uncomfortable, few minutes as Kelly interrogated her boss. It was unusual for the CEO of an organization to be willing to be grilled so publicly. Read more