Politics
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Hannah Krause Sponsoring Reproductive Rights Event In Des Moines
Hannah Krause remembers how she felt on June 24. That was the day the US Supreme Court overturned a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion and allowed individual states—or possibly Congress—to make those decisions for them. Krause, a Des Moines business owner and a member of Iowa’s Krause family—owners of the Kum & Go gas…
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MacKenzie Bills Hopes To Bring New Ideas, Lessons From Firestone Plant Father To Statehouse
One of MacKenzie Bills’ core childhood memories is of her family surviving on canned beans for about a year. Her father, Kenny, was a tire layer at the Firestone plant in Des Moines and a United Steelworkers Local 310 member. That local was part of a nationwide strike that lasted from June 1994 until May…
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13 Bills Jake Chapman Wrote Or Endorsed That Show What He Really Cares About
While you can’t read about any issues Jake Chapman supports or opposes on his campaign website—votejackchapman.com—his actions in the Iowa Senate paint a clear picture about what he cares about: Controlling women’s bodies, guns, and defunding/defaming public schools. The Republican from Adel was first elected in 2012 and has served in the Iowa Senate since…
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Chuck Grassley’s Political Career Is Older Than Barbie, The Grammys, And More
Chuck Grassley turned 89 on Sept. 17 and, if re-elected, Iowa’s senior US senator would be 95 at the end of his next term and become the second-oldest person in history to hold that position. Grassley was first elected to the Iowa House in 1958—Grassley’s son, Robin, was 2 years old at this time, and…
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Paralympics Basketball Star Josh Turek Takes A Shot At Representing Council Bluffs
Josh Turek represented America on the international stage and now he’s ready to represent his hometown in the Iowa Legislature. The 43-year-old, two-time gold medal-winning Paralympian was born and raised in Council Bluffs and is the Democratic candidate for Iowa House District 20, covering northwest Council Bluffs and all of Carter Lake. Iowa House District…
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How The Right’s Hatred Of Electric Vehicles Is Growing In Iowa
Over the last few months, the Starting Line team has noticed an interesting trend in Iowa social media: Stories about electric vehicles drive huge engagement and draw intense debate among supporters and detractors, mostly on Facebook. And while wild comment threads on Facebook stories is nothing new, the sheer ferocity on EV-related stories, even if…
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Despite Outcry, Zearing Won’t Fire Clerk Who Cost Town Almost $200,000
Zearing City Clerk Karen Davis, who filed the city’s budget almost four months late and blamed it on Juneteenth, will not lose her job despite pressure from residents on city officials to dismiss her. This decision was announced Wednesday during a special Zearing City Council meeting; this was the third special Zearing City Council meeting…
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Explainer: The Iowa Law That Requires Pieper Lewis To Pay Her Abuser’s Family
After finding out that Pieper Lewis, a 17-year-old sexual assault survivor from Des Moines who killed her rapist, would have to pay $150,000 in restitution to his family, thousands of people across the internet raised close to $400,000 to free her of a burden they felt was unjust. Pieper’s attorney argued during Tuesday’s sentencing that…
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Zearing, Iowa, Failed To Submit Budget, Residents Will Pay No Property Taxes
Residents of Zearing, Iowa, won’t pay property taxes this fiscal year, but they aren’t exactly happy about it. “I hope the taxpayers in this town understand that, ‘yes,’ your taxes were reduced, ‘yay, we got some more money in our pockets,’’” said one Zearing woman sarcastically at Monday’s city council meeting. “…In the meantime, what’s…
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Where Chuck Grassley And Mike Franken Stand On Legal Weed
Polls show that Iowans’ support of legalizing recreational marijuana has reached new highs, but where do Iowa’s two US Senate candidates stand on the issue?
