
The Mitchell Report
Russ Mitchell is editor of The Dickinson County News. He has been in Spirit Lake since January 2010 and began in journalism in 1997. The Mitchell Report will be about anything and everything. Comments are invited.
-
Thank you
Posted Tuesday, January 26, 2021, at 5:42 PMAs I type this, the Dickinson County News office is quiet enough to hear a clock tick away its seconds from a spot on the wall. Highlighters and correction tape weigh down a random pile of Post-It notes. Interviews are still trapped in a cassette tape recorder the size of a Buick, and the scattered piles of paper on my desktop are an "opportunity for improvement."... -
Yes, vote
Posted Wednesday, October 21, 2020, at 10:46 PMIf you attended high school in Spencer between the years of 1969 and 1992, you probably didn't get through your freshman year without a little time with Nellie "Nell" Alderman. The fiery pastor's daughter from North Dakota taught civics, and her classroom lessons took students to the 13 Colonies and back... -
Endorsing your candidate in the newspaper
Posted Wednesday, October 14, 2020, at 9:28 AMI've been with the Dickinson County News since the start of 2010. There's never been a week when we've left out the opinion page. Sometimes, when we get a bumper crop of commentary, we'll even add a second page. That's not a wrinkle I brought to the table, by the way. I'm sure the uninterrupted string of opinion pages goes back much farther than my arrival... -
Taking a knee on the anthem debate
Posted Wednesday, June 3, 2020, at 9:29 AMI wish I could still be mad at Colin Kaepernick, the San Francisco 49er who took a knee during national anthems in 2016 and couldn't find a roster spot anywhere in 2017. I wanted the quarterback to find another form of peaceful protest to convey the messages of social injustice and police misconduct... -
The media would have you believe …
Posted Wednesday, May 27, 2020, at 5:03 PMI'm familiar with a regional lawmaker who recently concluded an update to constituents with the following: "The media and many others continue to criticize the governor and the response taken by the state of Iowa," the update said. "The facts tell a story that Iowa is on the way to recovery."... -
We have some good news ... and some bad news
Posted Wednesday, February 26, 2020, at 9:53 AMWe appreciate hearing from readers and, as a human being in a judgement-call industry, I don't expect inbox feedback to come with rose petals and candlelight. Sure enough, on Monday a reader asked us to put less emphasis on arrest or court reporting and focus more on entrepreneurs and neighbors helping neighbors. It's harder to snoop around the community and "find people doing something right," he told me... -
A DECADE IN REVIEW: PART 3
Posted Thursday, January 30, 2020, at 10:09 AMPROJECTS PAVE THE WAY It's impossible to wrap up the events of the last decade without a look into what's ahead in the Iowa Great Lakes. Dickinson County was one of 30 counties in Iowa to show growth over the past decade and residents saw changes along the area's roads and highways... -
A DECADE IN REVIEW: PART 2
Posted Tuesday, January 21, 2020, at 4:49 PMCrime scenes, courtrooms marked the past decade The top story of 2010 centered on "Operation Broken Arrow," a law enforcement effort to break up a massive drug trafficking operation in the Iowa Great Lakes... -
A DECADE IN REVIEW: PART 1
Posted Tuesday, January 14, 2020, at 5:04 PMThe 2010s were stormy and sometimes tragic The well-worn saying among Iowans is: "If you don't like the weather, wait five minutes because it's sure to change."So it's no surprise strong winds, high waters and even an ice storm secure a high place as we look back at the last decade. Mother Nature didn't waste any time... -
10 years: No bull
Posted Wednesday, January 8, 2020, at 9:38 AMLooking back, I can see how unsure I was when first arrived as Managing Editor of the Dickinson County News. This DCN issue happens to mark the 10th anniversary of my arrival. A decade ago, I compared the experience to a bull ride. (I came from Spencer and my last story there was a bull riding event preview for the Spencer Daily Reporter.)... -
The greatest plunder o' them all
Posted Tuesday, September 24, 2019, at 3:44 PMAvast ye mateys! Thursday was "Talk Like a Pirate Day," so pull up a stool, ye landlubbers as I tell ye o' the great go-kart plunder of 2011. I can remember it like the smell o' a shipmate after three weeks at sea... -
The truth is out there
Posted Tuesday, September 17, 2019, at 12:00 AMU.S. Sen. Joni Ernst issued a statement Tuesday encouraging Iowans to "forget Area 51 — waste at the Pentagon is out of this world." The combat veteran's point was to let Iowans know about the need to consolidate unneeded and underused warehouses in the Department of Defense... -
Aldo, Constance and a radar gun
Posted Wednesday, October 10, 2018, at 10:51 AMThe Oct. 31 issue of The Dickinson County News is the final edition before the election, and we do not plan to have political content on that opinion page. No one would have a chance to respond in print before the Nov. 6 votes are cast. We want to avoid that... -
Maybe just use your words
Posted Tuesday, September 25, 2018, at 6:00 PMImagine pulling up for some burgers and fries, when you see guys throwing hands, right in front of your eyes. That seems to have happened at McDonald's in Storm Lake, where a beef about rapping led to one big mistake... -
Endorsing your candidate in the newspaper
Posted Tuesday, September 18, 2018, at 3:22 PMI've been with the Dickinson County News since the start of 2010. There's never been a week when we've left out the opinion page. Sometimes, when we get a bumper crop of commentary, we'll even add a second page. That's not a wrinkle I brought to the table, by the way. I'm sure the uninterrupted string of opinion pages goes back much farther than my arrival... -
A tale of two Republicans
Posted Tuesday, September 4, 2018, at 3:32 PMPresident Trump experienced Sen. John McCain's withering disapproval during their shared time in Washington D.C. but he certainly wasn't alone. Congressman Steve King supported McCain during campaign stops in Iowa, but it's safe to say any alliance faded over time. King and the 2008 GOP presidential nominee from Arizona didn't agree about border and immigration policies. McCain ultimately returned to the Senate... -
You can't have summer without Maye
Posted Tuesday, August 28, 2018, at 4:26 PMMarilyn Maye reminds us that a home isn't just four walls and a roof. And, she found a new one for her performances in Okoboji. "I'm thrilled to be playing the lovely Lakes Art Theatre for two nights," she recently told us, adding that she is glad the Pearson Lakes Art Center is part of the area landscape offering audiences wonderful music and entertainment... -
If unity is what we want, we’re a long way from finding it
Posted Tuesday, September 26, 2017, at 6:13 PMLet’s test out a pair of statements that seem reasonable: • It’s hard to be a credible voice for national unity if you support the presence of Confederate statues in public places. • It’s hard to promote unity if you use our national anthem as a means of protest... -
Let us help, in case you (R) confused
Posted Tuesday, September 5, 2017, at 5:31 PMWe hope you don't mind, but we'd like to reverse trends a bit and bring a little of the social media dialogue we see on Facebook back to the old-fashioned, black-and-white newspaper opinion page. Some comments we’ve seen recently raise a couple of issues that deserve some clarification... -
Apology not accepted
Posted Tuesday, June 6, 2017, at 4:15 PMHank Williams Jr. had a pretty good gig back in 2011. Come up with a few lines to "All My Rowdy Friends Are Here on Monday Night" for ESPN's primetime football game each week. Get paid. Stay relevant. Then the country musician went on "Fox & Friends" to suggest that a Republican speaker playing golf with a Democratic president would be like "Hitler playing golf with (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu." Obama and Biden were "the enemy," he blurted in 2011.. ...
View all blog posts (43)