Amie here. Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Who is your favorite Patrick? This is mine (besides, of course, my three coworkers named Patrick, my old editor Patrick, my late grandpa….).
In this issue: Candidate events and protests, this week’s viral post, and reader soundoff.
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Iowa Secretary of State candidate Ryan Peterman:
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Local news is essential for democracy.
Our reporting cuts through false narratives, documents what’s actually happening in our communities, and provides voters with the clear, factual information they need—especially when the stakes are high.
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Featured protests and rallies:
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📅 Tuesday (March 17)
Anti-Trump, pro-democracy sign-holding demonstration: 4:15 p.m., corner of Kimberly Road and Brady Street, Davenport
📅 Friday (March 20)
Trans Visibility Day Dance Party (Ragers for Charity): 8 p.m., Iowa City
📅 Saturday (March 21)
Legal Observer Training (multiple orgs): 10 a.m., Waterloo
Love as Action: Resisting Authoritarianism (AFSC Quaker Engagement): 11 a.m., Des Moines
NO WARS. NO KILLERS. NO KINGS Art Build (Party for Socialism and Liberation): 1 p.m., Des Moines
Spring Equinox HUB Blessing and Land Liberation (Great Plains Action Society): 1 p.m., Iowa City
📅 Monday (Mar. 23)
Quad Cities: Hands Off Healthcare (multiple orgs): noon, Davenport
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Readers are invited to add to the conversation by emailing responses@iowastartingline.com. Please include your first name and last initial. You may also want to include your city, but that’s up to you. I may edit your content for conciseness or to correct typos.
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Local v. state rule:
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“The interview with the Linn County supervisor was superb. Good for him and his colleagues. One more reason why we need good, honest, and hard-working government officials. Now only if the state Republican-controlled government keeps its hands away from interfering.
Such an end run has, since the 19th century, been a way that the wealthy, large businesses, and corporations have gone around good local ordinances in order to get their way by having the state set the governing parameters while at the same time outlawing any ‘interference’ by local governments.” — Greg C.
Selling our medical data?
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“This [“Whistleblower claims ex-DOGE member says he took Social Security data to new job,” Washington Post] should be a major subject in the upcoming Congressional and Senate campaigns. It is an open theft of public assets that affects everybody.
Since DOGE, I’ve been receiving endless mailings based on what should be confidential medical data. Somebody is selling it and knows my specific medical conditions. ” — Douglas N.
On USDA loans:
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“In your recent email you posted a letter from John C. from Iowa City who inherited a farm but couldn’t get a government low-interest loan until he was first refused by three commercial banks.
This situation raises a few questions for me. 1. Wouldn’t inheriting a farm give one an incredible amount of equity in order to secure a loan? 2. Why are taxpayers subsidizing risky loans to people who have been turned down by commercial banks? 3. And why are taxpayers subsidizing loans for private businesses in the first place?
I built my business with zero help or subsidies from the government—in fact, the government hinders me because of complicated licensing requirements, fees, mandatory monthly reports and associated taxes. A few years ago the state raised licensing fees for some of my customers unnecessarily and arbitrarily, which killed off 20% of my business.
Randy Feenstra is always on and on about subsidies for farmers. I grew up and live in farm country and don’t receive a penny in subsidies and don’t drive a $90,000 pickup like my neighbors do either.” — Jim H.
Stacy Besch and Team Iowa ties:
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“I have been loosely following the Facebook pages/political aspirations of Stacy Besch. She is running in the primary for Senate District 5. For awhile she has been giving talks on trafficking as part of some organization called Team Iowa. I cannot find any information about this organization or the parent organization Team America. Along with this, she is heavy into conspiracy theories, posted on her publicly visible Facebook page—including chem trails, vaccine denial, and anti-trans rhetoric. Interestingly enough, she has all her further trafficking speaking engagements listed on her campaign website. This feels HIGHLY inappropriate given the sensitive/non-political subject matter. Here’s an article about some controversy from when she was in Cherokee.” — iowaguy
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Thanks for reading. This newsletter was written by Amie Rivers. It was edited by Brook Bolen.
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