Newsletters


  • 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…


  • 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…


  • Does your union’s endorsement matter?

    News about and for the working class Share with a friend   Amie here. Labor unions are just starting to endorse candidates for 2026. It’s still very early for this, but here are a few I’ve seen so far: Rob Sand, running for governor, was endorsed by Service Employees International Union Healthcare Minnesota and Iowa…


  • 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…


  • 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…


  • These Iowa workers have a higher risk of cancer

    News about and for the working class Share with a friend   Amie here. If you’re an Iowan, you already have a higher cancer risk than the rest of the US for reasons we’re currently exploring in ISL’s Cancer in Iowa series.   But some workers face extra cancer risks.   This week’s story, in…


  • 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,…


  • 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…


  • Iowa has a dire shortage of nurses. Here’s why

    News about and for the working class Share with a friend   Amie here. You probably already know Iowa has a problem getting qualified health care workers: We’re 44th in the nation for physicians to patients, or 30% worse than the national average; The problem is particularly bad in our nursing homes; Iowa Republicans passed…


  • 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…