Lots of topics get swept under the rug because they’re not comfortable for us to confront. Sometimes we’d rather pretend the problems don’t exist or couldn’t happen in a place like Iowa. But they do, and it can happen anywhere—even in our great state. It is our...
This column, by Johnson County Supervisor Jon Green, is in response to a previous column by leaders from Escucha Mi Voz. On March 3, the Johnson County Board of Supervisors decided to shift funding in support of affordable housing from our American Rescue Plan Act...
The following is an open letter from Escucha Mi Voz leaders to the Johnson County Board of Supervisors. Read a Johnson County supervisor's response here. Escucha Mi Voz Iowa members urge you to immediately restore and restart the $1.5 million ARPA-funded affordable...
Gov. Kim Reynolds continued her war on public schools earlier this month when she narrowly won Iowa Senate confirmation of McKenzie Snow to lead the Iowa Department of Education (DOE). Snow is the wrong choice for the 500,000+ kids who attend our public schools,...
"A very large downward variance from the recommended sentence." Those words—a characterization by Kim Taylor's defense attorney to local media—have been on my mind. So too has the phrase "general deterrence" both from the federal prosecutors and U.S. District Court...
By Zach Spindler-Krage, News Editor, The Scarlet and Black Members of the Union of Grinnell Student Dining Workers (UGSDW) officially ratified, in a 162-1 vote, the first contract in US history to cover all undergraduate student workers. On Friday, Grinnell College...
In today’s hyper-partisan, emotion-fueled political environment, where policy proposals are seemingly presented and defended with facile slogans and tribal appeals, how can any citizen differentiate between the truly good and beneficial ones and those that either...
The Iowa House passed a measure increasing teacher and school staff pay Thursday as the fate of top education policies lawmakers are pursuing this session remain uncertain. House File 2611 passed 92-1 Thursday, with only Rep. Mark Cisneros, R-Muscatine, voting...
As a rural Iowa native, a combat veteran, former advisor at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and a candidate for Congress, I understand the challenges families are facing today. Gas and groceries are too high, wages are too low, and party politics seems...
The Iowa Legislature’s proposed raccoon bounty, which would subsidize raccoon trapping, is not a novel idea. But no matter how you spin it, Rep. Dean Fisher’s House File 2481 is little more than a cruel and expensive government takeover of a dying industry. The...
