It’s Friday, June 27, 2025.

🗣️ It’s Friday: Time for your takes!

My “hot” take: It’s hot and humid out there. For outdoor workers, that combination can get downright dangerous.

Starting Line intern Victor Robbins explains what the WBGT is, how to spot heat exhaustion before it turns deadly, and how to cool off in this handy guide.

(And yes, Iowa does have areas—both rural and urban—that have “high vulnerability to extreme heat.”)

🐱 “Not really a ‘pet,’ but I feed him daily!” says reader Craig R. of Dubuque.

I’ll count it!

Send me your pet photos here.

🌼 “I was out taking pictures [last month] and saw this lovely bed of bearded iris next to a flag by a farm house in Johnson County,” says reader Marc W.

Send me your flower photos here.

Amie Rivers

Newsletter Editor, Iowa Starting Line

Email me

The only three survivors of a Tanzania school bus crash that killed 35 others eight years ago are thriving in Iowa.

Sadhia Abdallah, Doreen Mshana, and Wilson Tarimo were severely injured in the 2017 crash. Kevin Negaard of Sioux City (pictured above with the three), who was there with Siouxland Tanzania Educational Medical Ministries, passed by the crash just after it happened.

Worried they wouldn’t get the care they needed, Negaard worked to fly the trio of children to Iowa, where they spent months recovering and flew home.

But that’s not the end of the story: After Western Iowa Tech Community College offered them free tuition, they flew back to Iowa years later to get their college degrees.

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Bonus Positively Iowa:

🖼️ Jefferson, population 4,000, won the Great American Main Street Award for its revitalization and investments in public art;

🎢 Lisa Campbell of Tama, who was crowned this year’s Ms. Wheelchair Iowa, is on a mission to make amusement parks more accessible;

🫡 There is now a historical marker at Fort Des Moines commemorating it as the first and only training site for Black military officers in the US and honoring those officers’ contributions.

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.

Share your thoughts here

On widespread worries about food prices:

“May I offer a respectful suggestion? Instead of writing ‘consumers’ when referring to persons impacted by food or drug prices, I strongly suggest that we all return to the more expansive term ‘citizens.’” ~Greg C.
“Here in Metro Detroit, we’ve talked about and experienced for ourselves, for friends in the city itself and surrounding areas, a great deal of food and other insecurity. Contracts are being cancelled. Beginning and end of life commemorations are scaled back. People don’t have the $ to attend rallies outside their locals. There’s so much energy to resist but the ability is hampered. We’re all like you are in Iowa, turning to each other. We’ll see how we go.“ ~Jeff S.

On the Regents trying to ban college courses on diversity:

“Appreciated Amie’s piece on the new reactionary crackdowns by the Regents. Was puzzled/amused by the COGS assertion that ‘The Board of Regents is bending to political pressure from state and federal administrations,’ as if the Board doesn’t support such measures on their own. Does United Faculty have the power to strike or are they not a full union?” ~Dirk F.

On our upcoming series investigating cancer in Iowa:

“My husband had lung cancer; never smoked or around asbestos. His death certificate lists his cause of death as cancer. His cancer was not the cause of his death but congestive heart failure was the cause. I wonder how many others are wrongly reported? He was treated at Mayo Clinic for over two years. His heart problems could possibly have been from cancer treatments but never investigated here in Waterloo.” ~Frank M.
“Mary.” ~JT S., Davenport

Newsletter feedback:

“I love how well you cover everything and allow all different voices. I for one really love PBS, NPR, and Sesame Street plus the smaller radio stations that exist in part because they help to spread the unbiased news and counter the lies that Trump people all seem to be in synchrony with daily.” ~Cassandra A.
“You do such a nice job at Starting Line and you’re the absolute best labor reporter in the state. I also appreciate it when you’re vulnerable and open with your readers as you are in today’s email about your new nephew (congratulations!). So just a note of appreciation and thanks.” ~Mike W.
“Amie—You are such a good writer. Lots of feeling. Many thanks.” Marvin D., Coralville
“Grief and joy are sisters.” ~Patsy M.
“I am glad to see this.” ~Marilyn M.

On Amazon exploiting workers:

“This is great reporting. Have you ever heard that some male workers in Amazon warehouses have to urinate in bottles that they carry with them to make their work quotas? They don’t have time to use a bathroom.” ~Dave G., Moline, Ill. (NOTE: Amazon drivers did too!)

Losing grocery stores:

“This picture says a lot. I took it with the empty Hy-Vee in the background.” ~Thomas H.
(NOTE: For those of you not in the Waterloo area, here’s what this picture says.)