It’s Friday, May 30, 2025.

🗣️ It’s Friday: Time to hear from ISL readers!

🐶 This is Crosby. “We have a music icons naming convention for our pets— we’ve had Dylan and (Mama) Cass, and Crosby’s feline sister is Cher,” says Crosby’s human Matt U. “The two things he values most are comfort and playing ball.”

 

Sometimes it’s hard to choose!

 

Send me your pet photos here.

🌼 “My peonies looked exceptionally pretty this year, for about two days lol,” said Judy D. of Sumner.

 

Send me your flower photos here.

 

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A bonus for you today:

 

I went to US Sen. Joni Ernst’s town hall at Aplington-Parkersburg High School bright and early this morning.

 

As she defended Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” and its accompanying Medicaid cuts, someone in the audience shouted out, “People will die.”

 

In response, Ernst said, “Well, we are all going to die.”

 

Watch the clip for yourself on Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, BlueSky, or Twitter (X), then hit reply and tell me what you think of her comments.

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.

This week, we asked:

 

Memorial Day is the traditional beginning of summer. What’s your favorite way to spend a summer day in Iowa?

• “Whatever my decrepit old geriatric body will allow me to do! Bare knuckles boxing and watering my sidewalk. (humor) What else? Reading the Iowa Starting Line!” ~Kevin S.

Next week’s question: Our congressional representatives and senators are now back doing in-person town halls. Have you attended one? Why or why not?

 

Reply or click the button below and email me.

Should Reynolds sign the bill allowing private school students to take a public student’s spot on their own sports team?

• “Regarding private school athletes playing sports in public schools: no. Simply, clearly NO.  You’ve made your bed now sleep in it.  Or put another way: Can’t have your cake and eat it too!” ~Bonny H.

• “I am against vouchers for private school students, & a private school student should NOT be allowed to bump a public school student on a sports team.” ~Nancy T., Windsor Heights
• “There is even more to the story about HF 189. The bill could result in public schools going up in classification (1A to 2A, 2A to 3A, 3A to 4A) because of the forced addition of even one private school student. The bill provides that for classification purposes, the enrollment of the host school will be increased by 25% of the enrollment of the private school.” ~Ron/Marcy F.

• “I am against vouchers period. Now letting students who want to play a sport their school doesn’t have at a public school is a step too far. What if they just stick to what their private school has? If the public school can say ‘no, we have a full roster,’ it might be more equitable. However, I doubt that will be an option.

  My taxes shouldn’t be supporting private schools. More and more public schools are going to close and then those that ‘have not’ will be bussed miles and miles, spending hours on busses to and from school.” ~Mary T., “public school teacher, retired”

• “Letting private school students take public school students’ places on public school sports teams is ALL wrong. It’s bad enough that the voucher program is taking away public school funding for programs, but this is the third strike against COVID Kim. We need to separate public schools from private schools in every area from funding to programs, locations and other areas.” ~Clare L.

• “I find House File 189 another ridiculous example of the golden dome’s overreach. If private schools want to have students participate in sports, I’d suggest they cobble together their own private school joint sports teams. I’m sure the distance between all of them won’t be an issue, just like those impacted by the 16+ public schools that closed as of December 2024, forcing students to travel ever longer distances. At this point, I’m sure the public schools would happily accept the tuition voucher at full face value for this privilege!” ~Matthew R.

• “Initially I was against the thought of private school students playing public school sports. Mainly due, I guess, to my political stance on vouchers. But after giving it some thought, I considered… what is best for the kids? Why penalize them through something that is no fault of their own? Let ’em play.” ~Kevin S.

• “I’m going to touch the third rail with my response to your question with regards to the proposal to allow private and home schooled kids to play sports on a public school team; why not? The parents who pay for private school or those who homeschool pay property taxes too. Fully half of the property taxes I pay goes to the local schools and I don’t have children in school.

  What gets me is that all parents pay privately for their kids to take dance, tumbling, karate, etc. so why is it that the property taxpayer is forced to pay for public school sports and the associated fields, stadiums, upkeep, equipment, uniforms, coaches, and bussing? If school is about education why is so much emphasis and taxpayer money spent on sports? Sure, physical exercise is important but that can be achieved during P.E. without the costs associated with organized sports. One in a million kids go on to actually make a career in sports and many pay a lifetime physical penalty from injuries sustained in high school.

  Most parents must pay for their kid’s musical instruments out of their own pocket to be in band while learning music theory and how to play an instrument can lead to gainful employment or at least a lifetime of enjoyment. When was the last time that you saw the football team go to a music contest to cheer on their band? It’s my contention that our priorities are backwards.” ~Jim H.

Social media feedback:

• “Most progressive people left X for Bluesky. We don’t want to support him.

   

  I grew up in Conrad and still care. West Coast now. My dad ran the weekly newspaper there for decades. Kudos for your work.” ~Lynn J.

  (NOTE: We’ve now added a Bluesky button at the bottom of our newsletters, thanks to your feedback!)

On JBS workers winning pensions back:

• “My first husband was a union steward back in the 1960’s and he stood up for pensions back then and would stand up for them now if he was still here. I could not live in a decent retirement without pension income I have received over my career. I am thrilled that JBS has agreed to this, especially with my friends [former Tyson workers] who work there.” ~Clare L.

Building bridges correctly?

• “Here’s something a little different. I suppose pounding those supports into the ground speeds the job up. Not as slow (or safe) as the ‘shimmy, shimmy, grind, grind’ method. Wonder if any of this was due to deregulation or just greed? As the host stated, railroad companies always go with the shimmy shimmy method.” ~Lee H.

HIV conspiracist could make getting meds harder:

• “Steven Hotze, a Trump supporter, wants to reverse healthcare coverage for the HIV prevention medication. The case is before the US Supreme Court, which will rule soon. A decision in his favor could disrupt healthcare access for LGBTQ+ individuals. Hotze has endorsed conspiracy theories, including QAnon, and has claimed COVID-19 vaccines inject nanobots, and supported a mayoral candidate who advocated shooting gays to combat HIV.” ~John C.

Rep. Hinson town hall video:

• “I was able to ask Ashley Hinson at her Elkader town hall a question about work requirements not applying to students in college. I shared my story of how I will be student teaching next year, putting me in a hard place to meet the 20 hours a week. I posted a Tiktok of me asking her my question: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8MA6oWP/” ~Adam K.

Letter of the Week:

Union workers win gains for all workers:

• “Per the article about the meatpackers, I am a retired union member (IUE-CWA 88643) from a company (Piad Precision Casting) in Pennsylvania. All of the new benefits package mentioned has been in our contract for decades, I was a member of the negotiating team that helped get those benefits.

  We went on strike in 1992 to keep these and other parts of our package in force, and it was always a close vote for every contract afterwards. It seems a company will always hire workers that don’t seem to like unions, but after a few months of busting their ass in a foundry in summer heat they quickly change their minds when a new contract goes into negotiating phases.

  Good fair pay, sick days, paid vacation, insurance, pensions, bereavement pay, working conditions are rights we fought for over many years and with every 3-year contract.

  As a journeyman toolmaker, I tried with every contract to get skilled labor provisions included, and the company owner refused every time, saying he had skilled workers just waiting at the door to take our place.  But once he retired, his son who took over the business admitted that there were not that many skilled people able to do the job, and finally agreed to start a 4-year apprentice program, taking our own union members for training to run the tooling machines we used to make the permanent gravity feed molds used in our operation…. 

  I only hope that the gains the meatpackers won are points that can be built on in future contracts for better working conditions for other unions and American workers.

  It’s a shame that Republicans are bought by the business class to eliminate the unions and actively move against union membership and the forming of new unions, making them a union in itself aimed directly at killing the union movement.”

  ~Jim Zastawniak, “retired toolmaker from Pennsylvania now enjoying the Iowa (mostly empty) road system for riding my motorcycles.”

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