📅 It’s Friday and July 17—otherwise known as World Emoji Day.

Time for Only in Iowa, this week’s photo, Positively Iowa, and news you can use.

Tornado Alley has shifted east over the years, and is now squarely in Iowa.
The upper Midwest, including parts of northern Iowa, are breathing pretty bad air right now thanks to Canadian wildfires.
Pesticides, particularly atrazine, are showing up in rivers and streams in harmful quantities across the Midwest.
Iowa has more than 15,000 concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), if you count the ones that aren’t big enough to have to report to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR), according to the Environmental Working Group (EWG).
Cyclosporiasis, a parasite that causes explosive diarrhea for weeks, has been found in thousands of people in 34 states—including in Iowa. A lettuce supplier to Taco Bell is the suspected cause. (If you think you may have it, go to your doctor—there’s a treatment for it.)
Iowa State’s longtime athletic director Jamie Pollard will retire next year.
A “Veep” plotline made true: The US House passed a bill that would make daylight saving time permanent nationwide. (My favorite take so far: “Morning people aren’t f*ckin’ slackers,” says Little Village Mag owner Jordan Sellergren.)

Newsletter Editor, Iowa Starting Line

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Escape the heat at these 7 barcades in Iowa

When it’s too hot for a neighborhood stroll or another afternoon at the pool, head inside for something a little more nostalgic.

Barcades in Iowa are a great spot for anything from a date night to a family outing or weekend road trip.

Here are seven to check out.

Here’s an eighth one: “The Quarter Barrel Arcade & Brewery in Cedar Rapids,” says owner Chris Ellis. “We have eight pinball machines and more than 30 classic video arcade games, all housed in original cabinets—not reproduction cabinets running emulators, as is common at many barcades. We are also a working craft brewery and restaurant serving killer pizza on sourdough crust, and we have been operating in downtown Cedar Rapids since 2015.”

Is your favorite barcade listed? Reply and tell me which ones to add.

🎮 Cool off and play →

🐶 This is “our little guy Wesley,” who belongs to reader Pam R.

I love a little dog carrying around a fluffy bigger than them!

Send me your pet photos!

🫁 First-of-its-kind transplants: Elizabeth Wehrle, 36, of Montezuma, received a quadruple organ transplant earlier this year with a new liver, kidney and retransplanted lungs—the first such transplant in the US. Werhle told IPR she’s ready to return home to her 11-year-old son.

🥘 A meal for older vets: Waterloo military veterans Kris Jones and John Barthel asked the congregation of Our Savior’s Lutheran Church if they’d help deliver one meal a month to homebound and disabled veterans. The first was delivered last month.

💧Nice quilt, fewer nitrates: A nitrate-cleaning quilt, made from discarded plastic materials, was unveiled this month at Wilson’s Orchard in Cumming.