I attended high school in the factory town of Camanche, Iowa on the Mississippi River, graduating in 1973. After attending a local junior college for a year, I joined the U.S. Navy in 1974 and spent three years in the Western Pacific, mostly the Philippines, but also Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan. Soon after discharge in 1978, I enrolled at The University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa. I majored in sociology and journalism, receiving my BA in 1981. After two years working at small town newspape...