Amie Rivers

Amie Rivers

Amie Rivers

Amie Rivers is Iowa Starting Line’s newsletter editor. She writes the weekly Worker’s Almanac edition of Iowa Starting Line, featuring a roundup of the worker news you need to know. Previously, she was an award-winning journalist at the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier; now, she very much enjoys making TikToks and memes and getting pet photos in her inbox.

Have a story tip? Reach Amie at amie@iowastartingline.com. For local reporting in Iowa that connects the dots, from policy to people, sign up for Amie’s newsletter.

Latest from Amie Rivers

  • Local

    Celebrate with these 14 free Juneteenth events in Iowa in 2024

    Juneteenth is officially a Monday this year, but events have already started in some places, with many this weekend, and others throughout the month. Check out the list below to find an event near you:

  • Local

    22 LGBTQ+ Pride events in Iowa (3 brand new!) in 2024

    June is LGBTQ+ Pride Month. If you’re looking for Pride events in Iowa in 2024, here are 22 of them. The first Pride was in 1970, on the one-year commemoration of the Stonewall Uprising, which happened outside of the Stonewall Inn—a bar in New York City—on June 28, 1969. To be sure, LGBTQ+ activists had…

  • Local

    12 Iowa towns that are constantly mispronounced

    How many of these town names do you really know? If you’re wondering how European immigrants came up with some of these Iowa town names in the 19th century, and then proceeded to pronounce them the craziest ways you can imagine, read on. Read: Iowa Weird: The History Behind These Iowa Towns’ Color-Themed Names Buena…

  • Local

    Her kid needs CBD to control his seizures. A new Iowa law makes it a crime

    In trying to prevent Iowans from accessing THC in consumable hemp, Republicans now made it illegal for parents to give their children CBD—for some, the only seizure medication that works. Dallas Center mom Erin Farquhar remembers lobbying Iowa legislators years ago to legalize the CBD medication she needs to keep her son’s seizures and behavioral…

  • Local

    Basic income pilot UpLift actually helped Iowans. Here’s how

    The UpLift program not only helped with bills, it helped start businesses, participants in the basic income pilot said—rebuking an Iowa law that banned such programs in the state. People who received $500 per month with no strings attached told their stories Wednesday evening in a Windsor Heights event put on by UpLift, which has…

  • Local

    He tried to scam her. He didn’t know her husband was a journalist

    A Central Iowa woman almost fell for a believable scam about missing jury duty. If you get the same phone call, here’s how to tell it’s a scam. When she went to check her voicemail, Adriana Torres Martínez freaked out. It was “in regards to some legal documentation that I would need to go over…

  • Local

    Hy-Vee will close stores in Cedar Rapids, Waterloo, Davenport, creating food deserts

    Midwest grocery chain Hy-Vee is closing three stores in low-income neighborhoods, which will have the effect of creating three new food deserts in Iowa. Hy-Vee announced this week it would be permanently closing three stores— a northeast Cedar Rapids store on First Avenue NE, a north Waterloo store on Logan Avenue, and a west Davenport…

  • Local

    Elder fraud on rise: Older Iowans lost more than $16.4 million in 2023

    A new report shows the number of Americans getting scammed is on the rise, and elder fraud is the most common. Iowa ranked 33rd in the nation for elder fraud, or the number of residents over 60 years of age reporting fraud, and 34th in the nation for the amount of money taken, according to…