Newsletters
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Pensions Are Dead? Not For These Iowa Workers
Share with a friend It’s Thursday, May 22, 2025. Meatpacking workers at JBS plants across the country, including two in Iowa, just ratified a first-ever national contract across all plants. And they got their pensions back for the first time in 40 years. Brazil-based JBS, one of the world’s largest meatpacking companies, and…
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🎧 This Week’s Podcast: Iowa’s Book Ban Halted (Again!)
Share with a friend It’s Wednesday, May 21, 2025. On this episode of Cornhole Champions, Iowa Starting Line’s Zachary Oren Smith, Amie Rivers, and Avery Staker discuss a federal judge’s preliminary injunction against key portions of Iowa’s SF 496, the state’s controversial “Don’t Say Gay” law. We also explore Republican Rep. Megan Jones’s accusations that the Iowa Division of Criminal…
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🎧 This Week’s Podcast: A Record-Breaking Campaign Launch
Share with a friend It’s Wednesday, May 14, 2025. “Iowans are great. Honestly, people love this state. They’re so proud to live here. They are so proud of our history,” State Auditor Rob Sand told Cornhole Champions host Zachary Oren Smith. “A lot of them are very frustrated with where we are right now, but they’re…
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How’s the Labor Market Look for Iowa Graduates?
Share with a friend It’s Thursday, May 8, 2025. Amie here. Happy graduation month to Iowa’s newest high school and college grads! Though they’re graduating into a strong labor market—teens and young 20-somethings have had higher wage growth since 2020, and are more employed than other age groups—Trump’s attacks on the federal workforce, apprenticeships,…
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🎧 This Week’s Podcast: Why We’re Still Iowa Journos
Share with a friend It’s Wednesday, May 7, 2025. Amie here, and I wanted to quickly plug Cornhole Champions, a Starting Line podcast featuring Zachary Oren Smith, Avery Staker, and me talking about Iowa politics and other relevant news of the week (and cracking each other up, also). This week: Zachary’s out on PTO,…
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🗣️ In One Word, Describe Trump’s First 100 Days?
Share with a friend It’s Friday, May 2, 2025. 🗣️ It’s Friday: Time for the takes! But first, here’s this week’s Pets and Bloomers: 🐶 This is Geode, “an adventure dog through and through,” according to Kelsea H. That includes “going to take the leaves, branches, yard waste to the local brush spot ……
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Find a May Day Rally in Iowa
Share with a friend It’s Thursday, May 1, 2025. Amie here. Happy International Workers’ Day, celebrated by all the countries around the world except the US and Canada (because we’re mad about its socialist underpinnings). It’s also the basis for today’s May Day National Day of Action, put on by grassroots groups like the…
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🗣️ What’s With Trump and Canada?
Share with a friend It’s Friday, Apr. 25, 2025. 🗣️ It’s Friday: Time for the takes! But first, here’s this week’s Pets and Bloomers: 🐱 This is Shay, a 2-year-old “who is so handsome, but is our new kitten’s #1 hater,” according to Elliot H. of Cedar Rapids. Fact: Pets hate new competition.…
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What Kilmar’s Deportation Means in Iowa
Share with a friend It’s Thursday, Apr. 24, 2025. Amie here. I saw a few “Free Kilmar” signs at the latest protest I covered this weekend, and for good reason: Folks are worried about what it means that the Trump administration is deporting people directly to a foreign torture prison with the flimsiest justification, and…
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🗣️ ‘Nobody Wants to Live in a State That is Unwelcoming’
Share with a friend It’s Friday, Apr. 18, 2025. 🗣️ It’s Friday: Time for all of your hottest takes! But first, here’s the Pet Photo of the Week: This is Saul Alinsky, “our ‘tripod’ (3-legged) rescue,” says reader Lisa F. Looks like he’s shocked you haven’t read his book yet. Send me your…
