It’s Friday, July 25, 2025.

🗣️ It’s Friday!

My take: Iowa Starting Line intern Victor Robbins did a phenomenal job on this story of LGBTQ+ Iowans who have fled the state they grew up in. Folks shared their stories of discrimination, dirty looks, and even violence from other Iowans—all byproducts of what our elected officials are outright encouraging these days.

And yet, here I stay, and maybe you do, too.

Maybe it’s my blue bubble, my community (though I’m losing them slowly), my job that I love, my house that I also love and probably could not afford anywhere else. Maybe it’s inertia, or stubbornness (why should I leave? they’re the ones who suck!). And I can’t leave out my lingering grief, which dampens my ambitions and productivity—some days, I can’t even muster up the energy to take a damn box to Goodwill. Moving out of state? Why don’t I fly to the moon while I’m at it?

Are you a queer Iowan who’s staying, at least for now? Reply and tell me why.

🐶 This is “Chuty,” pronounced CHOO-tee, which “means smart and mischievous in Kannada,” and belongs to Iowa Rep. Megan Srinivas. (Full disclosure: My cousin, Srinivas’ longtime partner, sent me this photo for inclusion, so you should know I’ve pet this dog.)

Looking relaxed going into the weekend, Chuty!

Send me your pet photos here.

🌼 “The blooming reconstructed prairie at the Terry Trueblood Recreation Area south of Iowa City,” says reader Marc W.

Send me your flower photos here.

Catch an outdoor movie at one of Iowa’s drive-in movie theaters this summer. (BAZA Production/Shutterstock)

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.

On Iowans moving to Minnesota and forgetting:

• “This is such a perfect piece. I am often sounding the alarm for my family who is still in Minnesota or went back to Minnesota after coming to Iowa—blue states are entirely too comfortable and need to really buckle up. I get heavily gaslit by people up there—as if we didn’t see Iowa fully tank from Obama to one of the worst of the red states. I fear the privileged white folks are too comfortable and too complacent and don’t realize they are so close to the tipping point. IDK how many alarms we have to sound for people to wake up.” ~Elizabeth E.

• “Good essay, if factually depressing. You are correct! In more ways than I could ever have believed in my more innocent days, this is Trump’s America, and we’re all stuck in it! Stay safe, my friend! BTW, I found this story appearing in today’s Cedar Rapids Gazette hopeful.” ~Greg C.

• “Thank you! This email says everything.” ~Laura S.

   

• “Bravo!” ~Lynn J.

On immigration arrests tripling in Iowa:

• “Thanks for highlighting Pascual Pedro’s case.” ~Sharon L.

• “Thank you for gathering all of this information. I’m sending what I feel is an important YouTube by Rosepark Permaculture that seems to me could be very helpful, about the required annual check-ins for immigrants being now available by Zoom, rather than in person. It is supposed to be a legitimate option all over the country, according to the video. Apparently, many people are snatched when they go for their yearly check-in (which is required to maintain their legal status).

   

  If this is truly available for everyone, it would be good if it could be common knowledge everywhere. The phone # to call to request a check-in by Zoom is given in the info under the video, as well as in the video. It is: AGENTS OF CHANGE HOTLINE: 888-462-5211. Services are available in both English and Spanish. Thank you for everything you are doing.” ~Caroline L.

  (NOTE: According to the Department of Justice, whether you’re allowed to check in remotely, like via Zoom, is up to your judge. Check with your attorney or advocate.)

Should churches, now allowed to endorse political candidates, pay taxes?

• “You betcha, Amie. Since churches are free to ‘jump into’ politics, they should lose their tax exempt status and pay taxes like the rest of us (well, at least the regular folks who DO pay taxes).” ~Clare L.

• “Amie, you are one liberal radical to pick on pastors and property taxes…. Wonder if you attend a Christian church or own any property??? How do you think you can live for free? Oh, I know, from the people that have a real job and are an asset to society… I really feel sorry for your warped take on life.” ~Richard P.

On the bill taking away funding for public media:

• “SHAME on Iowa’s 2 United States Senators for voting to defund NPR and PBS.” ~David G., Moline, Ill.

On our Cancer in Iowa series:

• “Excellent article keep informing Iowans about what they can personally do to make Iowa safer!!!” ~Toni U.

• “I want to make sure you know that the Iowa Environmental Council and the Harkin Institute have been working on this and plan to release their report soon. Along with the Iowa Farmers Union, they’ve also been sponsoring Cancer Listening Tours around the state. I attended one in Albia and thought it was quite effective.” ~Randy D.

• “I am a retired pathologist in Dubuque. I spent 40 years diagnosing cancers. This project you are taking on is really vital, but you’re going to be up against powerful economic forces. The epidemiology of cancer is extremely complicated. There are many forms of cancer with different etiologies and genetics. It has taken decades of work to get to the point where tobacco and asbestos risk in the development of cancer, have been recognized, ‘proven’ and have percolated into the general consciousness.

   

  We are doing a giant experiment on ourselves with modern industrial agriculture. It’s the farmers on the front line, but all of us are going to be affected as our drinking water becomes full of these chemicals and their complicated by products, not to mention the similar things we pour onto our lawns.

   

  You will find a lot of people wanting to deflect and place the blame on individuals and their choices and behavior (sun exposure, alcohol, diet, radon mitigation, etc.) and while these factors definitely are associated with some cancers, agricultural practices really need to be looked at too. Women of childbearing age and children are the biggest experiments. And the poor, of course. … Thank you for taking on this project. It’s really important. Good luck.” ~John B., Dubuque

• “My neighbor was a doctoral candidate in environmental chemistry at the University of Iowa pursuing a research program mapping agricultural chemical infiltration of ground water and the deep aquifer in Iowa. His method was a strategic sampling of wells throughout the state. His project was defunded in January, almost immediately after Trump’s second inauguration, ensuring the data collected is lost. It seemed to be a high priority to shut the project down. He has left the state. A bright guy doing interesting work.” ~Douglas N.

On the Des Moines Starbucks voting to unionize:

• “Please tell Jacob that I am with him and all the Starbucks workers.” ~Clare L.

Newsletter feedback:

• “Thank you so much for your work and writing. It’s very much needed and is important.” ~Dan B., North Liberty

• “A superb letter from Glenn L. in Davenport!!!” ~Greg C.

• “It’s been a long time since I’ve lived in Iowa but, although now in London UK, I’m again a registered Dem voter in Marion County, Pella being my last US address. I’m really a northern California boy, but Iowa has always been part of my life since my father, his parents and sister migrated to Oregon in the 1920’s and then on to California. Lots of Iowa cousins too. After graduate school I joined the Central College faculty, and so our daughter was born in Pella. Then the college sent me to London to administer its overseas program here—and after five years, we stayed.
  
  
  Iowa is still part of me and I’m glad to be an Iowa voter. And Iowa Starting Line has a key role in keeping me up to date with Iowa politics.  Thanks for keeping me informed.” ~Bob O.

Letter of the Week: Is the US becoming a police state?

“Anyone who attended high school probably remembers their world history
teacher talking about countries that militarized their law enforcement to make what is referred to as a police state. Examples taught should have included SS members of Nazi Germany (1925-1945), the secret police—NKVD—of the Soviet Union (1934-1946), the military regime of dictator Augusto Pinochet’s Chile (1973-1990), and the apartheid-era (1948-1994) of South Africa.

On April 28, President Donald Trump issued an 879-page executive order (EO) commanding Pam Bondi and Pete Hegseth to work with Kristi Noem and other agencies and ‘increase the provision of excess military and national security assets in local jurisdictions to assist State and local law enforcement.’
The Legal Defense Fund states Trump’s EO directs federal resources to
‘promote aggressive policing tactics and further militarize local law enforcement agencies, make it more difficult to hold officers accountable for misconduct and wield the power of prosecution as a threat.’ Jim Jordan opines in a June 14 essay that Trump’s EO ‘calls for a militarized police service in the US, one that essentially operates under martial law.’

It should be no surprise that Trump’s EO is rooted in Stephen Miller, the far-
right anti-immigration policy advisor to the Heritage Foundation on its creation of Project 2025 … One of the key components of the 922-page Project 2025 playbook for Donald Trump to follow was mass deportations, increasing border enforcement and changing America’s long revered asylum system.

Most people know ICE, DHS, FBI and DEA conducted coordinated raids
across Los Angeles, targeted workplaces and arrested people suspected of being undocumented immigrants. On June 24, CBS News reported of the 59,000 immigrant detainees, fewer than 30 percent have been convicted of crimes. The Washington Post’s July 3 story confirmed these data.

Ten different independent and reliable sources document how Trump 2.0’s
administration is systematically dismantling democratic safeguards that rely on civil governance. They include:

• 1) police in riot gear dispersing protesters who are using their First Amendment rights to oppose ICE raids,
• 2) National Guard troops being deployed to quell peaceful protests,
• 3) framing citizen protests as an ‘insurrection’ and a ‘national security threat,’
• 4) federal agents arresting citizens whose immigration-related cases have been dismissed by judges,
• 5) expanding and creating detention camps,
• 6) heavily armed and masked men abducting individuals without warrants or identification,
• 7) providing police with military-grade equipment,
• 8) closing down the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor
  and
• 9) eliminating the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration. 

When Trump signed the “Big, Beautiful Bill” into law on July 4 (opposed by
all Democrats and approved by all Republicans except five), it wasn’t a celebration of Independence Day but the ramping up of America’s unchecked executive power and militarized policing. The law provided roughly $170,000,000,000 for immigration enforcement, including hiring 10,000 new ICE officers.

While deporting illegal immigrants—a key tenant of Trump’s 2025
presidential campaign and Project 2025—was supported by a majority of voters, witness July 11 Gallup poll data:

• A) 62 percent of Americans disapprove how the Trump administration is handling the deportation issue,
• B) 78 percent of Americans now favor offering pathways to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, and
• C) 79 percent of Americans say immigration is a good thing; the
  percentage should be considerably higher since 97.1% of people live in America due to immigration by their original settler family. 

Twenty-seven different religious groups – including major Christian and
Jewish denominations – oppose Trump’s police state-like actions.

Citizens now recognize Trump’s militarization strategy mirrors the early stages of a police state development. But, unlike historical regimes (Nazi
Germany, Soviet Union, Chile and South Africa), the U.S. still retains independent courts, freedom of speech, freedom to assemble, a free press and elections.

It’s time to ask your elected delegates to the U.S. Capitol to retake a high
school world history class, reflect on the documented examples of the similarities of Trump’s actions to police state endeavors, and act—legislation wise—before the situation gets any worse.

Citizens must continue to exercise their First Amendment rights, especially
those of free speech, free press and assembly against Trump’s shift toward
unchecked executive power and militarized policing.” ~Steve Corbin, Professor Emeritus of Marketing, University of Northern Iowa

You are receiving this email because you opted in via our website.

Iowa Starting Line

c/o Courier Newsroom
101 Avenue of the Americas
8th and 9th Floors
New York, NY 10013