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On her last day of classes at Boise State University in 1998, Iowa House District 37 Democratic candidate Andrea Phillips rode her bike all the way up to campus before realizing she forgot her bike lock. “I just turned to the person next to me in front of the business...
Inside Pleasant Hill’s Berean Assembly of God, a nondenominational church next to a McDonald’s twenty minutes east of Des Moines, retired Lt. Colonel Dave Grossman asked a packed amphitheater in March 2018 if they were prepared to protect their neighbors from "the...
Iowa State Senator Julian Garrett wrote in a recent opinion piece that the Black Lives Matter movement doesn't care about black lives because they don't focus on "black-on-black" crime, and offered up his suggestion of which "blacks" in society should be held up as...
Six hundred state employees working Iowa’s COVID-19 response were cut and two Test Iowa Sites closed this week while the state reported escalated coronavirus cases and COVID-related deaths. The Iowa National Guard on Tuesday merged three separate task forces staffed...
The 2020 resurrection of Eric Gjerde’s campaign for Iowa House seat 67 will pick up where it left off in 2018, the candidate said, but a win is in better reach. The Cedar Rapids special education teacher's bid comes as Rep. Ashley Hinson vacated the Linn County seat...
The 2020 resurrection of Eric Gjerde’s campaign for Iowa House seat 67 will pick up where it left off in 2018, the candidate said, but a win is in better reach. The Cedar Rapids special education teacher's bid comes as Rep. Ashley Hinson vacated the Linn County seat...
The 2020 resurrection of Eric Gjerde’s campaign for Iowa House seat 67 will pick up where it left off in 2018, the candidate said, but a win is in better reach. The Cedar Rapids special education teacher's bid comes as Rep. Ashley Hinson vacated the Linn County seat...
In December 2016, Iowa Safe Schools executive director Nate Monson sent an email to Rep. Bobby Kaufmann, R-Wilton, with an invitation to grab a drink. The ask was a bit of an olive branch—the previous year was peppered with public clashes between the two after House...
Christina Bohannan, Iowa House District 85’s likely next representative, pledges to use her slot in the House serving a deep-blue district to speak up for progressive policies and “take back the majority.” The University of Iowa law professor pulled off a rare primary...
Freshman State Rep. Jeff Shipley returned to the Iowa Legislature in early June after its months-long pause due to COVID-19, making his presence known by immediately questioning on the Statehouse steps the virus' death toll while satirizing Iowans who wear masks. “It...
Voting rights advocates say they’re concerned with Republican priorities during ongoing calls for racial and health justice as election legislation that they call “voter suppression” and “poll tax” bills pass in the Statehouse. After a spirited, two hour debate in the...
Ahead of November’s elections and the Iowa Legislature’s potential vote on a ‘Protect Life’ constitutional amendment, Planned Parenthood Advocates last week launched a six-figure campaign to hold state legislators accountable to “bad health care votes.” Iowans should...
As sustained protests have swept Iowa and the nation in the wake of George Floyd's murder, one major idea that activists have pushed is that of defunding the police. The notion has many possible iterations, but the goal is generally to reimagine policing itself and...
Waterloo's first-ever African American police chief had a busy first day on the job. Joel Fitzgerald was sworn in this past Monday, as protests of George Floyd’s death unfurled throughout the state and nation. Shortly after, Fitzgerald attended one of the city's...
George Floyd’s name was mentioned frequently around Iowa’s capitol building Wednesday night, along with cries for racial equity across the state. Hundreds have taken to the streets of Des Moines throughout the past week — sometimes in front of the Statehouse —...
House Republicans on Tuesday pushed forward a bill that would give Iowa’s large employers like Tyson Foods “immunity” from claiming responsibility for their employees sick with coronavirus-- the same day Iowa's COVID-19 cases surpassed 20,000. The removal of liability...
House Republicans on Tuesday pushed forward a bill that would give Iowa’s large employers like Tyson Foods “immunity” from claiming responsibility for their employees sick with coronavirus-- the same day Iowa's COVID-19 cases surpassed 20,000. The removal of liability...
House Republicans on Tuesday pushed forward a bill that would give Iowa’s large employers like Tyson Foods “immunity” from claiming responsibility for their employees sick with coronavirus-- the same day Iowa's COVID-19 cases surpassed 20,000. The removal of liability...
While the Federal races got most of the attention in the June 2 primary, there were also many important down-ballot primaries that will shape the general election in November. The most noteworthy primary on the Iowa Senate side was in Senate District 22, the western...
Waterloo's Rep. Ras Smith got into politics around the time that Trayvon Martin’s killing in 2012 reverberated throughout the nation, igniting cries of racial inequity and police brutality. Smith stayed involved while riots erupted in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014 after...
Waterloo's Rep. Ras Smith got into politics around the time that Trayvon Martin’s killing in 2012 reverberated throughout the nation, igniting cries of racial inequity and police brutality. Smith stayed involved while riots erupted in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014 after...
When the coronavirus pandemic first struck Iowa, the initial local outbreaks had clear causes. The early spread in Johnson County originated from Iowans returning from a cruise in Egypt. Surrounding counties in Eastern Iowa soon had positive case numbers in the...
When the coronavirus pandemic first struck Iowa, the initial local outbreaks had clear causes. The early spread in Johnson County originated from Iowans returning from a cruise in Egypt. Surrounding counties in Eastern Iowa soon had positive case numbers in the...
When the coronavirus pandemic first struck Iowa, the initial local outbreaks had clear causes. The early spread in Johnson County originated from Iowans returning from a cruise in Egypt. Surrounding counties in Eastern Iowa soon had positive case numbers in the...
Postville, Iowa is confirmed to contain the vast majority of Allamakee County’s high number of coronavirus cases, according to new Veteran’s Memorial Hospital data uncovered by a local elected official. Around 90% of the rural hot-spot county’s cases are contained in...
Acknowledged by all Democratic candidates as an existential threat to the nation, the gravity of climate change has hung over the long primary as candidates attempt to find solutions and engage in the issue with advocates, youth, scientists and members of industry,...
The 2020 Democratic race has for the first time in an election cycle identified the issue of affordable housing as a widening national concern, but advocates are calling for greater emphasis on the issue as it remains “the No. 1 problem” in rural communities. Out of...
The 2020 Democratic race has for the first time in an election cycle identified the issue of affordable housing as a widening national concern, but advocates are calling for greater emphasis on the issue as it remains “the No. 1 problem” in rural communities. Out of...
The 2020 Democratic race has for the first time in an election cycle identified the issue of affordable housing as a widening national concern, but advocates are calling for greater emphasis on the issue as it remains “the No. 1 problem” in rural communities. Out of...
With a little time to breathe now that most of the drama around the caucus reporting has slowed down, the Starting Line team is looking back at everything we experienced this past year. There really is nothing else in American politics like living through a caucus...
