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  • 🗣️ ‘More People Will Be Living Hand to Mouth’

    Share with a friend It’s Friday, Mar. 14, 2025. 🗣️ It’s Friday: Time for the Reader Sound-Off, where we share some of the feedback you all have sent me directly. Keep it coming! Share your thoughts here   💗 But first, some Positively Iowa news: 💗    🐶 Iowa has a dog in the fight:…


  • What’s the Iowa Legislature Up To Now?

    Share with a friend It’s Mar. 11, 2025. Amie here, and we’re bringing you the highlights from this week in the Iowa Republican-dominated statehouse!   Q: How is our politics update different from all the other politics updates?   A: We’re not afraid to call a dumb bill a dumb bill.    Maybe that doesn’t…


  • 🗣️ ‘This is truly a dark time’

    Share with a friend It’s Friday, Mar. 7, 2025. Amie here. We here at Iowa Starting Line do a lot of spouting off.   Now, it’s your turn: It’s the Friday Reader Sound-off! 🗣️   💗 But first, some Positively Iowa news: 💗    🎨 Painting it forward: For cash-strapped families and nonprofit organizations, a…


  • How to Stand Up to Trans Discrimination in Iowa

    Share with a friend It’s Mar. 3, 2025. Amie here. It’s gotten pretty bleak for our transgender friends here in Iowa. In this newsletter, Starting Line’s Avery Staker and I are gonna talk about: what just happened, fighting for civil rights when they’re your own, and what we can do about it. 1. Here’s what…


  • Why I’ve Been Away

    Share with a friend Amie here, and I am attempting to return to writing Starting Line’s newsletters after a month’s hiatus.   That’s because, in December, we lost my wife, Shenae.   It is deeply painful, the hardest thing I’ve gone through. Her family, friends and I are still going through it all. My guess…


  • Thanks for Another Year, Iowa❤️

    Share with a friend It’s the Friday news roundup: Dec. 20, 2024. Hey, Iowa Starting Line readers!   If you’re a Positively Iowa fan, you might recognize my name. For those of you who aren’t (which… why not?), I’m Starting Line’s social media manager, Avery! I’m helping out with newsletters this week so Amie can…


  • 🐈‍⬛ A Childless Cat Lady Wrote This

    Share with a friend It’s the Friday news roundup: Aug. 2, 2024. 🐈 I genuinely don’t get why folks like vice presidential nominee JD Vance think childless cat ladies don’t care about our country’s future. As if people need to birth a child to want a better world for future generations? To me, it sounds…


  • 🥇 Iowans in the Paris Olympics

    Your weekly Iowa news roundup Share with a friend It’s the Friday news roundup: July 26, 2024. 🔥 What a week, huh?   After a news-filled last couple of weeks, we can all come together as a country and root for Team USA in the Paris Olympics, which kick off today! 🏃 Read up on…


  • 👨‍🏫 Ty Is Leaving Us And We Are Not OK

    Your weekly Iowa news roundup Share with a friend It’s the Friday news roundup: July 19, 2024. 😢 Today, Starting Line is without its chief political correspondent, newsroom leader, and all-around great guy to work with.   Ty Rushing’s last day with Iowa Starting Line was yesterday. He’ll join the University of Iowa faculty in…


  • 🌞 Baseball, the Best Ice Cream, and Your Guide to the State Fair

    Your weekly Iowa news roundup Share with a friend It’s the Friday news roundup: July 12, 2024. Inside baseball: Iowa Rep. JD Scholten was back on the mound this past weekend, as a last-choice fill-in pitcher for the Sioux City Explorers, and the 44-year-old was so good in nearly 7 innings of work that he…