Newsletters
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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…
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Iowan Fired in DOGE Purge Breaks Silence
Share with a friend It’s Worker Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025. It turns out that DOGE is less of a waste-reduction project and more of a wrecking ball that is cutting vital services. Like USDA folks working on bird flu, whoops! And it’s also cutting workers, like Iowans, who will likely move out of our…
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This Could Be Iowa’s 3rd Unionized Starbucks
Share with a friend It’s Worker Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2025. As Starbucks Workers United (SBWU) members representing more than 500 Starbucks stores nationwide prepare for mediation with their company—a huge step in their quest to begin bargaining a first contract—I spoke with workers at a Starbucks in Bettendorf who are getting ready for an election…
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All the Dumb Things Elon Musk Is Doing Now
Share with a friend It’s Worker Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025. Unelected billionaire Elon Musk continues his unconstitutional steamrolling through the federal government under the guise of “efficiency” (with President Donald Trump’s blessing). That includes: Cuts at nonprofits everywhere after the loss of federal grants, Thousands of Americans out of a job after USAID cut,…
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Des Moines Company Drops Lawsuits Against Workers
Share with a friend It’s Worker Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025. Remember the 14+ Seneca workers in Des Moines who left their jobs after their company switched the equipment they knew how to service, and then got sued by Seneca over their noncompete agreements? The company has now dropped lawsuits against at least two of…
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How Trump’s Immigration Raids Could Hurt Iowa
Share with a friend It’s Worker Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025. President Donald Trump’s promised large-scale immigration raids in major cities across the US could begin as early as this week (and have already begun in other places). And that’s likely to mean the worker shortage is about to get a lot worse. Immigration rights…
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Bereavement Leave is Nowhere Near Enough
Share with a friend It’s Worker Wednesday, Dec. 15, 2024. As many of you know, I was off work for the past month dealing with the loss of my wife. As far as my bosses being accommodating to my needs during all of this, I could not be luckier. They’ve given me carte blanche…
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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…
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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…
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🚜 Waterloo Took Brunt of 2024 Deere Layoffs
Share with a friend It’s Worker Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024. Another round of layoffs at John Deere is coming to Iowa. This time, 112 workers will be laid off from the East Donald Street plant in Waterloo by Jan. 6, while another 80 will be laid off at the plant in Davenport by Jan.…
