Wed May 16, 2012 at 21:21:38 PM CDT
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Here's your mid-week open thread: all topics welcome. After the jump I've posted some photos of Sweet William, also known as blue phlox. Bleeding Heartland readers caught a glimpse of this flower in one of the May apple pictures a few weeks back, but the species is pretty enough for a separate diary.
As a bonus, I added two photos of an unusual Jack-in-the-pulpit I saw recently while pulling up garlic mustard (an invasive plant).
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Wed May 16, 2012 at 16:51:35 PM CDT
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Farmers have withdrawn an application to build a 5,000-head hog facility in northern Dallas County, amid strong local opposition to the project.
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Wed May 16, 2012 at 12:02:41 PM CDT
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State Representative Brian Quirk announced today that he is no longer a member of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), which lobbies for a wide range of conservative and corporate-friendly policies in state legislatures. Up to now, Quirk had been the only ALEC member among the 40 Democrats in the Iowa House.
Follow me after the jump for background and details on Quirk's decision, as well as recent comments about ALEC by former Iowa House Democrat Dolores Mertz.
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Wed May 16, 2012 at 07:58:23 AM CDT
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Longer days, warmer weather and the approaching end of the school year mean more time outdoors for many Iowans, especially children. Last week Kamyar Enshayan, a Cedar Falls City Council member and director of the University of Northern Iowa's Center for Energy and Environmental Education, raised an important question: "Is having weed-free lawn worth it?"
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Tue May 15, 2012 at 16:35:57 PM CDT
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Speaking in Des Moines this afternoon, Mitt Romney promised to lead the country "out of this debt and spending inferno" by reducing federal government spending from 24.3 percent of the country's gross domestic product to 20 percent of GDP within four years. Romney would address what he called a "prairie fire of debt" by moving some federal programs to the state level or the private sector, repealing "Obamacare," reforming Medicare and Social Security, and reducing "redundancy and waste" in government programs.
I've posted the full prepared text of Romney's remarks after the jump, along with a few comments.
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Tue May 15, 2012 at 08:00:26 AM CDT
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Governor Terry Branstad's education reform blueprint called for higher academic standards and better methods to assess student skills. I just hope my kids don't learn to count the way the governor counts jobs created in Iowa.
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Mon May 14, 2012 at 21:29:52 PM CDT
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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration was poised to implement new rules on sunscreen labels and marketing this summer, more than 30 years after the first sunscreen labeling rules were introduced in 1978. However, sunscreen manufacturers may keep using misleading language when packaging and advertising their products for at least another six months.
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Mon May 14, 2012 at 06:36:00 AM CDT
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In the final days of the 2011 Iowa legislative session, funding for passenger rail was one of the last disputes House Republican and Senate Democratic negotiators resolved. The final deal called for no passenger rail money in the state budget for fiscal year 2012, but left "intent" language describing future state funding to match federal grants for a train route between Iowa City and Chicago. At that time, news reports indicated that legislators would need to allocate $6.5 million toward passenger rail in fiscal year 2013 to keep this project alive, plus $10 million total in subsequent years.
Before the Iowa House and Senate adjourned last week, I saw no mention of passenger rail funding in any reports about the infrastructure budget for fiscal year 2013, which begins on July 1. Wondering whether no news was bad news, I started asking around. What I learned is after the jump, along with new links on the potential for passenger rail across Iowa.
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Sun May 13, 2012 at 11:57:14 AM CDT
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What's on your mind this weekend? In the spirit of past Mother's Day diaries at this site, I've posted some mother-related links after the jump. I also added my thoughts on the latest TIME magazine cover, a sexualized depiction of a three-year-old breastfeeding next to a provocative "Are You Mom Enough?" tag line.
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Fri May 11, 2012 at 16:20:45 PM CDT
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Governor Terry Branstad signed an executive order today to nullify an administrative rule banning the use of lead ammunition for hunting mourning doves in Iowa. He advanced two contradictory positions: that the Iowa legislature (not the state Natural Resources Commission) should decide whether dove hunters must use alternative ammunition, and that he was compelled to act because the Iowa Senate failed to assert its authority on this important issue.
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Fri May 11, 2012 at 07:30:37 AM CDT
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President Barack Obama talks about intervening to save the U.S. auto industry in his re-election campaign's latest television commercial, now on the air in Ohio and Iowa. I've posted the video and transcript of the 30-second spot below.
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Thu May 10, 2012 at 17:32:17 PM CDT
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So what if the next Iowa caucuses are nearly four years away? I'm on Public Policy Polling's wavelength: 2016 Iowa caucus polling is interesting, even if it doesn't mean much now.
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Thu May 10, 2012 at 11:12:10 AM CDT
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Iowa lawmakers always cram so much action into the last few days of the legislative session. Instead of writing one long news roundup on the final decisions by the Iowa House and Senate, I'm covering specific issues in separate Bleeding Heartland posts this year.
Rod Boshart posted a good, comprehensive list here on what bills did and didn't pass during the 2012 legislative session. Follow me after the jump for details on a good renewable energy bill, which made it through at the eleventh hour, and some thoughts on the nuclear power bill, which for the second year in a row didn't make it to the Iowa Senate floor.
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Thu May 10, 2012 at 06:55:00 AM CDT
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The U.S. Postal Service announced yesterday that it will save money by reducing hours of operation at thousands of small post offices, rather than shuttering them. The changes will affect 178 Iowa post offices, listed on pages 35 through 46 of this pdf document. After the jump I've posted reaction from several representatives in Congress: Republican Steve King (IA-05) and Democrats Bruce Braley (IA-01), Dave Loebsack (IA-02), and Leonard Boswell (IA-03).
The Postal Service will proceed with plans to close more than 200 mail sorting facilities nationwide. Those cutbacks affected facilities in Sioux City, Carroll, and Creston, but the Postal Service decided to keep sorting operations running in Waterloo and Cedar Rapids.
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Wed May 09, 2012 at 21:55:03 PM CDT
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The Iowa House and Senate adjourned for the year today. Tomorrow Bleeding Heartland will sort through the state budget compromises and other news about the survivors (mental health reform, solar tax incentives) and casualties (property tax reform, nuclear power bill) of the session's busy final days.
For now, enjoy a couple of wild geranium photos after the jump. One of them includes other native plants I can't identify, so I hope readers with expertise in this area will share their wisdom. Wild geranium is found in woodland areas throughout Iowa and the eastern U.S. The more familiar geranium houseplant is native to South Africa.
This is an open thread: all topics welcome.
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Wed May 09, 2012 at 15:37:44 PM CDT
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In an interview with ABC News today, President Barack Obama confirmed that he thinks same-sex couples "should be able to get married."
UPDATE: Added more Iowa political reaction below.
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Wed May 09, 2012 at 11:31:51 AM CDT
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Iowa is second only to Vermont in the number of farmers markets and community-supported agriculture farms per capita, according to data compiled by the Vermont-based non-profit Strolling of the Heifers.
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Wed May 09, 2012 at 08:29:45 AM CDT
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The Iowa Senate and House approved a conference committee agreement on education reform yesterday with bipartisan support in both chambers.
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Wed May 09, 2012 at 07:15:00 AM CDT
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Republican Congressional candidate Ben Lange launched his campaign's first radio commercial yesterday. In the 60-second ad, Lange makes a broad statement about "restoring the generational compact."
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