2019
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How Midwest Farmers Can Lead On Climate Change With Carbon Farming
A guest piece from Robert Leonard and Matt Russell. Robert Leonard is an anthropologist and radio host in Knoxville/Pella, Iowa. Matt Russell is executive director of Iowa Interfaith Power and Light and co-owner of Coyote Run Farm in Lacona, Iowa. It’s been a tough year for farmers here in Iowa and across much of America.…
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Tax Breaks For Amazon, Punishments For Struggling Iowans
Last week’s news put furrows in my brow. As I ruminated on the headlines and details in the news accounts, I came away convinced something is out of whack somewhere. One of the reports was that Amazon, the online retailing behemoth, cancelled plans to build a corporate headquarters in New York City. The company had…
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Ep82: Sanders Gets In, Early Caucus Takeaways & Troy Price Interview
The Iowa Starting Line Podcast host Pat Rynard is joined by Des Moines Register chief politics reporter Brianne Pfannenstiel to talk about Bernie Sanders’ run, key takeaways from early caucus campaigning, and the Register’s new poll on virtual caucuses. And we interview Iowa Democratic Party Chair Troy Price about the proposed caucus changes.
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Iowa’s Newest Medicaid Insurer Rents Palatial Office Space
Why is Iowa Total Care, the state’s newest Medicaid insurer, renting the most expensive office space in metro Des Moines? Not only will their new West Des Moines Westfield Campus offices be the most expensive in the metro, they will be paying 37.5% higher rent than the average in greater Des Moines. Their offices in…
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A New Iowa Partnership To Help 2020 Candidates Go Viral
In every presidential campaign cycle, candidates in a crowded primary field are always looking for that “breakout moment.” The clever debate stage quip that gets replayed endlessly on cable news. The powerful speech at a major state party fundraiser that wows the crowd. But one method that may surpass the potential of all those this…
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Iowa Is Ready For Sherrod Brown To Run
Guest post from Nan Whaley, the mayor of Dayton, Ohio and the co-chair of the Committee to Draft Sherrod Brown for President 2020. She visited Iowa last week. When my friend Sherrod Brown was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 2006, he joked that his new chamber was full of “99 people who wanted…
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The New Sights, Players, And Hang-Out Spots Of The 2020 Iowa Caucus
For those who have been involved in multiple caucus cycles, you know that the campaign process in Iowa often takes on its own unique character. Every cycle, there are a new group of key local players, issue groups, favorite hang-out spots, and campaign strategies that all make frequent appearances on the caucus campaign trail. We’re…
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Right-Wing 2020 Smears Already Seeping Into Iowa Media Coverage
Does Cory Booker want to ban the eating of meat? No, of course not. And it’s such a preposterous suggestion, most people would roll their eyes and ignore it. But that didn’t keep a local Iowa TV station from running a story based on the fake controversy that generated from an online right-wing freakout over…
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Amy Petersen Announces Run For Danielson’s Senate Seat
A Cedar Falls Democrat just announced her candidacy for the Senate District 30 special election, and it’s hard to imagine anyone with a better profile for public office. Amy Petersen, a professor of special education and a labor activist, wrote on Facebook this morning that she will seek the party’s nomination to replace Jeff Danielson,…
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For Senate Democrats, A Tumultuous Three Years
Jeff Danielson’s decision to resign from the Iowa Senate yesterday was the latest reminder of how much upheaval the Senate Democrats have experienced in recent years. The Democratic side of that chamber is a very different place than it was a little over two years ago in mid-2016. A slew of departures – both voluntary…
