2019
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Trump Knows He “Really Messed Up With The Farmers,” Say Branstad/Ernst
Iowa Senator Joni Ernst said President Donald Trump understands he “really messed up with the farmers” when he approved 31 waivers allowing refiners to forgo ethanol blending requirements outlined in the Renewable Fuel Standards. However, Ernst said the President, after several conversations with top staff and herself, didn’t agree to change that decision. Ernst told…
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The World Is Ablaze With Climate Warnings
Worldwide climate reporting is literally heating up with frightening news. Global temperatures continue to spike as July was the hottest month ever recorded since records began in 1880. The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported that the sizzling July record follows the hottest June ever recorded in the last 140 years. Anchorage, Alaska hit 90…
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STD Rates In Southeast Iowa Continue To Rise
As family planning clinics across the country face a mounting number of obstacles to providing health care, the conversation often is focused on abortion services and birth control. But family planning services also include Sexually Transmitted Disease [STD] testing and treatment, and data show the absence of family planning services often results in increased STD…
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Eighth Circuit Court Gives LGBTQ Discrimination Case New Life
Today the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals released a decision that adds another opportunity for a case in the Supreme Court concerning the crossroads between anti-discrimination laws and religious freedom. In a 2-1 decision, the panel of judges decided that a couple who won’t shoot wedding videos for same-sex weddings can pursue a claim in…
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What Didn’t Work: Jay Inslee, Seth Moulton Withdraw
The great winnowing has begun. With the August 28 qualification deadline for the September debate fast approaching, we’re starting to see several candidates deal with the stark reality that they simply have no hope of winning this primary. Even if you can find a way to break out in the race outside the debate, missing…
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Bernie Sanders: Political Revolution Will Sway Senators
For Bernie Sanders, the campaign he’s built won’t end if he makes it into the Oval Office. There’s a lot he’ll still be asking of the movement he’s mobilized, though a President Sanders would be turning his supporters’ focus away from $27 donations and toward lobbying their members of Congress. “We’re trying to do things…
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Iowan To Joni Ernst: The ACA Helped My Rural Hospital
Sen. Joni Ernst told a crowd of constituents at a recent town hall meeting her “commitment to rural America is very strong” because she lives in rural Iowa. Josh Dahle challenged that statement, explaining to Ernst how the Affordable Care Act benefited a rural hospital where he used to work, and how her votes to…
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Cedar Rapids Judge Eyed Again As Possible SCOTUS Nominee For Democrats
Soon, a progressive judicial group advocating for court reform will release a list of potential nominees for the Supreme Court that they hope the Democratic presidential candidates will consider. It appears that Jane Kelly, a judge from Cedar Rapids who currently serves on the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals and was once on Barack Obama’s…
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After Judiciary Appointment, Joni Ernst Backs All Trump Judges In 2019
President Donald Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have taken it upon themselves to stack the federal courts with conservative judges, an effort Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst has aided in lockstep. Ernst, Iowa’s junior U.S. senator, was appointed to the influential Judiciary Committee in January, tasked in part with vetting judicial nominees. “As a…
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Ernst Plans Visit With Trump On SREs, Hopes For USMCA Resolution
Iowa Senator Joni Ernst said she and Senator Chuck Grassley were able to slip messages about the Environmental Protection Agency’s proliferation of the Small Refinery Exemptions to Ambassador to China Terry Branstad before he met with President Donald Trump on Monday. Ernst said at a town hall meeting in Rockwell City Thursday morning that Branstad…
