I’m hiking every beautiful place I can think of around my home state, to showcase the beauty Iowa has to offer. Follow along on social media using #AmieTakesAHike to pass along your suggestions and see where I’m headed next. It's been a minute since my last hike....
If you've ever been denied overtime pay or been paid less than minimum wage, it's likely you've been a victim of wage theft, which a new report shows has grown to become a nearly billion-dollar problem in Iowa. According to Common Good Iowa, employers were stealing...
Second in a two-part series on Dollar General coming into rural Iowa towns, and how rural grocers can still compete with them. Read Part 1 here. When Dollar General opened a store in Paullina, a small Northwest Iowa town, in 2018, Prairie Market Owner Laura Palmer...
First in a two-part series on Dollar General coming into rural Iowa towns, and how rural grocers can still compete with them. Read Part 2 here. Scott Vogelaar started working at his parents' grocery store, Sanborn Foods, when he was 12 years old. Around 11 years...
As union workers at Case New Holland plants in Burlington, Iowa and Racine, Wisconsin continue their labor strike, it's worth considering how easily the company could give workers everything they wanted—and more. That's because the company is raking in healthy,...
Striking Ingredion workers in Cedar Rapids say it's more than their livelihoods at stake if the company refuses to negotiate with them: Hazardous and potentially explosive chemicals and starches used to make Ingredion products are now being manufactured by...
Maybe you've noticed a trend of companies giving shareholders and executives even-bigger piles of money while offering their employees a pittance. One recent example from Iowa: Case New Holland International (CNHi), which has a plant in Burlington where 440 United...
In the midst of running her first Iowa Senate campaign, Deb VanderGaast had another big life change to deal with: Closing Tipton Adaptive Daycare, her disability-friendly daycare of 17 years. VanderGaast, a 54-year-old Tipton resident, talked about the ways she'd...
Ingredion officials brought half a dozen armed guards to negotiations with unarmed workers in what union officials called "despicable" and "a clear attempt to silence and intimidate union members." However, it appears it was the hotel revoking conference rooms that...
As the strike of unionized Ingredion workers in Cedar Rapids continues well into its second month, company leaders publicized their side, frustrated workers promptly refuted it, and the Cedar Rapids City Council has opted to take a "work it out yourselves"...
