Amie here. I vote we update our stereotypical “It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity” to add: “or the pesticide drift or the wildfire smoke.”

In this issue: Justice for Lorenzo and Johan and more protests, this week’s viral post on the SAVE Act, and readers sound off on what Hinson and Grassley have been up to, among other things.

• Several readers commented that they wanted to financially help Shad Swanson, the Iowa pesticide-free farmer dealing with his neighbor’s pesticide drift. Swanson told me he wasn’t expecting that, but folks are welcome to Venmo him at his Garden of Paradise farm account, @ShadSwanson.

• A viral video of a Cedar Rapids immigration activist being slammed to the ground contradicts CRPD’s account of what happened. Yet, with citizen review boards outlawed by the state, we’ll just have to trust a police review of force report “that the public will probably never see.”
  
  
  
• The DSA candidates are winning enough primaries that they’re scaring Mike Johnson, he told the Family Leader crowd in Des Moines on Friday. (Are the Democratic Socialists and Christian Nationalists the new Democrats and Republicans? Reply and tell me.)

• Speaking of replies: A reminder that this inbox is monitored by me, a real human who can do nothing about “UNSUBSCRIBE” requests. Please use the button at the bottom of your email; that’s what it’s there for. (One thing the bots can do better than me.) THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER!

Featured protests and events:

In case you didn’t watch President Donald Trump’s speech last week, you didn’t miss much—basically, it was a rehashing of how he totally didn’t lose the election in 2020 and releasing documents that supposedly proved it (that did not).

Oh, and he also wants to pass the SAVE Act, the one that would nearly eliminate mail-in voting and also disenfranchise those with different last names than on their birth certificate. (You know who has a lot of those? Women.)

What you should know: Iowa has secure and fair elections, with minuscule fraud that isn’t actually coming from the terrorist left.

Read more from Zachary Oren Smith here…

and join the discussion on ⬇️ Facebook or ⬆️ Instagram.

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.

Should ICE be going after workers, or those who employ them?

“ICE should NOT” — Pamela A.

“Always go for the owners first and then the bosses second. They love bragging that their success is by their efforts only.” — Bill R., Iowa City

“Those who hire ‘undocumented’ workers should help them get the documentation they need to continue working.” — Clare L.

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