Douglas Burns is a fourth-generation Iowa journalist. After graduating from Carroll High School in 1987, he studied at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. In the past, he has written for the Palm Beach Post in Florida, Inside Washington Publishers in the D.C. area (he covered energy policy), and the Ames Tribune. From 1995 to 1996, Burns served as the Washington, D.C.-based press secretary for U.S. Rep. Pat Danner of Missouri, a “Blue Dog” Democrat. In 1996, Burns returned to Carroll to write for his family’s newspaper, the Carroll Daily Times Herald, where he is currently a reporter, twice-weekly columnist and part-owner. He is registered to vote as an Independent.