Iowa Starting Line
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In Iowa, we love to drink. But no one told us alcohol causes cancer
The Hot Spot: Investigating Cancer in Iowa Share with a friend Amie here. I grew up in Iowa, where we’re steeped in a heavy drinking culture. Kids I grew up with drank by (at least) their early teens. I remember drinking in high school: bottles of Smirnoff Ice and Mike’s Hard Lemonade (what…
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🍁 Haunts, hikes, and corn mazes: The best of autumn in Iowa
Plus: Haunted cemeteries in Iowa—a scary good time Share with a friend Amie here. Kids are back to school, pumpkin spice is on all the menus, signs for mayor are sprouting on lawns in my neighborhood, and it was even down to the 40s a couple of days last week. It’s fall, y’all! So…
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Iowans can’t decide: supreme or meat lovers?
Plus: Your emails and Positively Iowa Share with a friend 🗣️ It’s Friday; time for reader replies! My take: I don’t live in Avoca, so maybe y’all have been inundated with loud cars, and I’m off base here. But if it’s mostly four or five loud cars that are the problem, can’t law enforcement…
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How Iowans can lower their cancer risk
The Hot Spot: Investigating Cancer in Iowa Share with a friend Amie here. This series on the various ways we can get cancer can be depressing, I know. Our water quality is crap! We’re the highest in radon! Our politicians don’t seem to care! But that doesn’t mean we’re all doomed to get…
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Flu is supposed to be bad this year; here’s what to do
Plus: Your emails and Positively Iowa Share with a friend 🗣️ It’s Friday; time for reader replies! Iowa news briefs: It’s September, AKA the start of fall and flu season. And if the southern hemisphere’s flu season was any indication, we’re in for a bad one this year. (Go get your flu shot!) Have…
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The cancer risk hiding in most Iowa homes
The Hot Spot: Investigating Cancer in Iowa Share with a friend Amie here. Our cancer series is personal to all of us. But this week’s cancer story is especially personal for me. Longtime subscribers know I lost my mom to lung cancer in 2017, and doctors suspected (because she didn’t have a history…
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BREAKING: Joni Ernst won’t run, per CBS News
Plus: Your emails and Positively Iowa Share with a friend 🗣️ It’s Friday; time for reader repl—WAIT, BREAKING NEWS: This might not be a huge surprise. Republicans were already souring on her, and prominent Democrats have been lining up to face her in November, with one candidate—state Sen. Zach Wahls—even besting her in…
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Why Iowa has the same skin cancer rate as Arizona
The Hot Spot: Investigating Cancer in Iowa Share with a friend For decades, tanning used to be a regular part of some (mainly white) folks’ beauty routines. In my parents’ era, that meant slathering on tanning oil and lying out in a swimsuit in direct sunlight. In my era, that meant frequenting a tanning salon,…
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Have you seen the mountain lion in Iowa?
Your emails and Positively Iowa Share with a friend 🗣️ It’s Friday; time for reader replies! My take: I will not at all be surprised if Iowa Republicans try to pass this unconstitutional Oklahoma BS here when the legislative session starts back up in January. Here’s hoping I’m wrong. Iowa news briefs: Mountain…
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Iowa cancer survivors share their stories
The Hot Spot: Investigating Cancer in Iowa Share with a friend Gano Whetstone settled into the infusion chair at Des Moines’ Mission Cancer + Blood and asked for her usual: black coffee and a warm blanket. On treatment days, she takes the paratransit bus to the hospital, arriving early to wait in the lobby…
