Mandi Remington is the founding director of Corridor Community Action Network and a Johnson County supervisor. 

There is a line between hard bargaining and cruelty. When a government begins to weaponize basic means of survival, it crosses into dangerous territory. The decision to withhold Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits—paired with Congressional plans to slash Medicaid and SNAP funding—isn’t just another partisan fight. It’s a turning point.  

For the first time in SNAP’s 60-year history, families aren’t receiving the benefits they depend on. For many, that means empty refrigerators, skipped meals, and trying to explain to their kids why they can’t buy more food. This is a conscious choice by the Trump administration, as Congress has already appropriated billions of dollars in a contingency fund to cover SNAP during government shutdowns. 

My own family has relied on SNAP. When my oldest child was diagnosed with celiac disease at three years old, we stopped going to free meal programs because there was no way for me to know which foods were safe for her to eat. I couldn’t bring myself to ask volunteers to sort through ingredients or make special accommodations when we were there for help that was supposed to be simple. 

Connie Ryan is Executive Director of the Interfaith Alliance of Iowa and Action Fund.

Halloween is supposed to be light and fun. Whether kids are trick or treating or adults are hanging out together in costume. Ghosts and ghouls; villains and heroes; and everything in-between. Sometimes the costumes—usually worn by adults—are a little questionable. Sometimes there is no question at all.

On this year’s Halloween night in the very pleasant and ordinary suburb of Clive, Iowa, a man walked into a bar dressed as a Nazi.

At long last, U.S. Representative Randy Feenstra confirmed on October 28 that he’s running for governor.

For all of his talk about “taking Iowa to new heights”—and boy, was there a lot of it—the Republican front-runner’s rollout won’t get high marks.

Dr. Emily Boevers is a Readlyn farm kid, now an OB-GYN practicing in Iowa and living in Waverly with her family.

On October 1, the federal government “shut down” when the prior funding resolution, which Congress approved in March with bipartisan support in the Senate, expired. This time around, the same Congress was unable to work together for a bipartisan majority to authorize ongoing funding. A central sticking point is what to do about over tax credits for health insurance, which are set to expire at the end of 2025.

A month into the shutdown, a widening chasm exists between our political leaders in Congress, with little to no progress reported. While many Americans have gone about their lives, and the government has diverted funds to cover wages for some federal employees, the stakes are getting higher as we speak.

There is nothing positive about the shutdown, and yet, as a physician, I am glad to see our representatives fighting to maintain health care coverage options for patients through the Affordable Care Act tax credits. It presents an opportunity to share insights from the history of the health care reform law and discuss the challenges of taking care of patients in our current system. Perhaps most urgently, it presents an opportunity to leverage the ongoing chaos of both our political and health care systems into what could be meaningful policy reform.

Lexi Farber is chair of Next Century Forum. Laura Snider is vice chair of Next Century Forum and was the 2024 Democratic nominee in Iowa House district 28.

In 2024, young Iowans showed us both the promise and the peril of democracy. On one hand, students, recent graduates, and young families voiced frustrations about housing costs, student debt, and the future of our state. On the other, too many stayed home on election day. Their absence wasn’t apathy—it was disconnection.

Nationally, voters under 30 have shifted about 10 points toward Republicans since 2020. That swing didn’t happen by chance. Conservative groups poured resources into organizing young people. Turning Point USA, for example, now has chapters at nearly every major college in the country—and is pouring millions into launching Turning Point chapters in high schools. Their influence is expanding fast, and it’s reshaping the civic landscape our generation inherits.

If they can do it, so can we—and more.

Jessica Vanden Berg has worked in government, politics and advocacy for more than 25 years on all levels. She is from Pella, and lives in Des Moines with her 8-year-old daughter.

I have to admit, I was torn on how to vote on the school bond issue.

We left the Des Moines Public Schools and went to Horizon Science Academy (a new public charter school) because in our first grade year we had nothing short of a really bad experience for so many reasons. (Kindergarten was amazing, thus the shock.) I saw leadership problems, lack of knowledge/skills gap on neurodivergent issues, no real help for kids who were falling behind, lack of resources, failure to include family and community to change outcomes, and a huge problem with real communication and solution-oriented ideas.

I tried to address mid-level management, school board members, and even the superintendent. I got nothing. And I’m a parent with time, connections, and resources! That’s a big deal. The system is impossible to navigate. I paid someone to help me do it.

I realize this isn’t every family’s experience, but it is ours. We had to make difficult choices.

I had a hard time seeing how this $265 million bond issue would address those things, and an even harder time seeing where the leadership failed to address these issues time and time again. The bond issue does not address them. However, I understand the school district still could.

I will admit many are backed in a corner due to major multi-year funding issues, but I could not for the life of me understand why the district didn’t embrace more community involvement and parent support to help.

But I did vote yes, and here’s why.

Former State Senator Joe Bolkcom served on the Senate Ways and Means Committee for 24 years, including ten years as chair. This piece first appeared in the Prairie Progressive.

For nearly a century, Social Security has provided life-sustaining economic security to millions of Iowa families. But that guarantee is now under serious threat. In just eight short years, the Social Security Administration projects a 23 percent cut in monthly benefits unless Congress and the president act to fix the system—a problem experts have warned about for decades.

The good news? There are pragmatic, responsible solutions to keep Social Security solvent for generations to come. The bad news? Social Security is barreling toward insolvency. Congress—currently controlled by Republicans—is mired in chaos and dysfunction, unable or unwilling to make life more affordable for everyday Americans, let alone fix Social Security.

Rick Morain is the former publisher and owner of the Jefferson Herald, for which he writes a regular column. This essay first appeared on Substack.

When ideology takes top priority, America’s world leadership is in jeopardy.

The Trump administration’s threats to academic freedom at leading U.S. universities could slow the pace of scientific research and commercial development of research findings. For instance, federal devotion to right-wing “purity” could undermine our race to stay ahead of China—which should disturb Americans of every political stripe.

President Donald Trump has threatened to cut grant funding (and in some cases followed through on those threats) in his effort to wipe out diversity, equality, and inclusion (DEI) practices, as well as supposed “woke” ideology (whatever that is), at a number of leading institutions of higher education.

One example, out of many dozens: the administration has frozen $175 million in grant money at the University of Pennsylvania—Trump’s alma mater—because the university allowed a transgender female on its women’s swimming team three years ago.

Steve Corbin is emeritus professor of marketing at the University of Northern Iowa and a contributing columnist to 246 newspapers and 48 social media platforms in 45 states, who receives no remuneration, funding, or endorsement from any for-profit business, nonprofit organization, political action committee, or political party. 

Since the 1960s, think tanks and advocacy groups have been key influencers of presidential policymaking. For decades, Democratic and Republican presidents have relied on think tanks for research and policy ideas. Most recently think tank roles have shifted from advisory to actual policy formulation and implementation, whereby the president can be seen as a marionette controlled by the think tank puppeteers.

Research shows that in the first 285 days of Donald Trump’s second presidency, seven conservative organizations have had hundreds of their recommendations implemented. If your mind has been spinning over the drastic changes to the federal government and how Trump has abandoned many norms of domestic policy and international diplomacy, you may wonder who is pulling the president’s strings.

Let’s examine the seven think tank puppeteers that have influenced Trump’s administration since January 20 and will likely continue to play that role until January 2029.

Carl Olsen is the founder of Iowans for Medical Marijuana.

“The medicinal properties of the cannabis plant have been known for millennia.” Lambert Initiative for Cannabinoid Therapeutics, History of cannabis, The University of Sydney.

Iowa classified cannabis as a habit-forming drug with accepted medical use in 1921. 1921 Acts ch. 282.

In 1967, the United States entered into an international agreement classifying cannabis as having no medical use. Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, May 25, 1967, 18 U.S.T. 1407, 520 U.N.T.S. 151.  The Single Convention allows exceptions. From Article 36(2): “Subject to the constitutional limitations of a Party, its legal system and domestic law, …”

Steve Dunn is a retired journalist who has self-published two books, about former State Senator Pat Deluhery’s political career and the history of professional baseball in Des Moines.

Retired anesthesiologist Dr. Dick Wheeler of Des Moines put people to sleep for a living. Now he wants to wake people up to what he believes is the No. 1 threat to humanity: overpopulation. At 103 years old, Wheeler is more concerned about the future of his four children, eleven grandchildren, and fifteen great-grandchildren than his own.

He has been concerned about overpopulation for a couple of decades. “I read one article about it, which had a bunch of statistics that really alarmed me,” he explained. “Someone had asked a group of experts of various persuasions how many people could Earth support. After due consideration and research, they decided all the way from 11 billion to 17 billion.”

Ed Tibbetts, a longtime reporter and editor in the Quad-Cities, is the publisher of the Along the Mississippi newsletter, where this article first appeared. Find more of his work at edtibbetts.substack.com.

If I were in charge of the state budget and had just watched $825 million unexpectedly disappear, I suppose I’d try to bluff my way out of this mess, too.

Which is what the Reynolds administration looked like it was doing earlier this month, when the state’s Revenue Estimating Conference (REC) said the 2025 fiscal year ended with $300 million less than they’d expected a year ago.

For the current fiscal year, 2026, they’re now anticipating a whopping $525 million less than predicted last October.

I touched on this trend in my last post about Iowa’s long-suffering economy, but after I published, the news from the REC got so much worse.

No wonder the ruling party was putting on a brave face and trying to convince Iowans this was all part of the plan. But they’re not very good poker players. Their tells were all over the place.

Bruce Lear lives in Sioux City and has been connected to Iowa’s public schools for 38 years. He taught for eleven years and represented educators as an Iowa State Education Association regional director for 27 years until retiring. He can be reached at BruceLear2419@gmail.com 

 “Wait an hour before swimming, or you’ll drown.” “Never shower in a thunderstorm.” “Sitting too close to the TV will ruin your eyes.” “If you get close to a train it will suck you in.”

Those were some of the mom myths I heard growing up. They might not have been true, but even now, I don’t shower in a storm or wander too close to a train.

There are also comfortable myths we remember from elementary school that humanized historical figures. George Washington had wooden teeth, Ben Franklin discovered electricity, and Paul Revere rode through the country shouting, “The British are coming.” We’ve all heard them. We probably all believed them. They were harmless exaggerations.

But some myths aren’t harmless.

It’s time to bust some of those harmful myths surrounding the Iowa DOGE task force recommendation for the Iowa Public Employee Retirement System (IPERS). More than 400,000 Iowans are covered by IPERS. Eliminating or weakening this retirement system would not only hurt those covered but would devastate Iowa’s economy.

Jazlin Coley is a Drake University graduate, educator, and community activator who now serves as Director of the Crew Scholars Program at her alma mater. She is committed to redefining what belonging looks like in higher education and embedding identity, equity, and care into its core. Currently pursuing her PhD in Education, Jazlin’s research and practice focus on harm in belonging practices, institutional accountability, and the cultivation of spaces where students—particularly those from marginalized backgrounds, can lead and thrive.

I met Jennifer Konfrst my first year at Drake University, long before she became House Democratic Leader or a candidate for Congress. Back then, I was a first-generation college student, new to Iowa, unsure of my footing, and truthfully—unsure if I belonged. Jennifer was assigned as my faculty mentor through the Crew Scholars Program, a leadership initiative for students of color. She didn’t have to take on that role; she volunteered for it. And she showed up. Every Thursday.

Some of our meetings ran long because I was navigating personal and academic challenges and needed a space to vent. Jennifer listened without judgment, asked hard questions, and reminded me that my presence on campus mattered. She balanced humor and humility with a kind of grounded honesty that’s rare in higher education, or in politics. She saw me as a person before she saw me as a student.

Gary Berkland is the Belmond-Klemme School Board president.

I’m a lifelong Iowan, a Vietnam veteran, a small-town lawyer, and yes—a registered Republican. I’ve voted for plenty of Republicans over the years, but this election, I’m proud to be supporting Democrat Zach Wahls for the United States Senate.

That might surprise some folks, but it really shouldn’t. Zach represents the kind of leadership both parties used to value: honest, practical, and grounded in Iowa common sense. He’s part of a new generation that’s more interested in solving problems than scoring partisan points, and that’s exactly what our country needs.

Abbey Paxton is the owner of Storyhouse Bookpub in Des Moines.

In 2021, I opened an independent bookstore in downtown Des Moines. My husband, also a small business owner, and I have had two children since moving back to Iowa in 2020, and we work full time running our businesses. 

Like many other small business owners and self-employed Iowans, our family resides in the gap between barely affordable, mediocre, private individual health insurance and Medicaid—a gap that will only widen after the most painful provisions of the Republican budget reconciliation bill (the so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill Act”) are fully implemented.

Every Iowa member of Congress voted in favor of the bill, which makes historic cuts to Medicaid while providing big tax breaks for the wealthy and new tax loopholes for big corporations like health insurance and prescription drug companies. 

I can’t remember when I met Claire Celsi. It was years before she decided to run for the state legislature. Our paths crossed often at Democratic events, and we knew many of the same people in progressive circles. I valued her take on the latest news and her thoughts about blogging, since she had kept an online journal during the 2000s.

Claire was generous with her time as a volunteer for many Democratic candidates, starting with Tom Harkin’s first U.S. Senate race in 1984. She was one of the early organizers of the West Des Moines Democrats, back when that suburb leaned strongly to Republicans. She managed Mike Huston’s Congressional campaign in 2000 and worked hard in 2017 to help Renee Hardman defeat an incumbent to win a West Des Moines city council seat. (Hardman is now the Democratic nominee to succeed Claire in Iowa Senate district 16.)

Josh Hughes described how Claire was the first “grown up” to take him seriously as a Democratic activist. She enjoyed spending time with people of all ages. Josh took this picture near the Surf Ballroom in August 2018, when he and Olivia Habinck were leaders of the College and Young Democrats of Iowa, and Claire and I carpooled with them to the Iowa Democratic Wing Ding.

John and Terri Hale own the The Hale Group, an Ankeny-based advocacy firm focused on older Iowans terriandjohnhale@gmail.com. Dean Lerner is an attorney and former Director of the Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals dean@kelinsonlaw.com.

With the passing of State Senator Claire Celsi, Iowa has lost the elected official who cared the most and worked the hardest to improve quality of care for residents of Iowa’s nursing facilities.

We collaborated extensively with Claire on aging and nursing home issues. She was as her friends and colleagues described her: tenacious, passionate, a truth-teller and a fighter.

Kurt Meyer writes a weekly column for the Nora Springs – Rockford Register and the Substack newsletter Showing Up, where this essay first appeared. He served as chair of the executive committee (the equivalent of board chair) of Americans for Democratic Action, America’s most experienced liberal organization.

Lines written by Samuel Coleridge 200 years ago, in 1825:

All Nature seems at work. Slugs leave their lair—
The bees are stirring—birds are on the wing— […]
Work without Hope draws nectar in a sieve,
And Hope without an object cannot live.

It’s an early reference to “the birds and the bees,” (although Coleridge inverts the order), a familiar euphemism for a conversation parents should have with their children. But the poet also mentions work and hope, relevant to this ramble since major doses of both are needed for society to address a serious birds’ and bees’ situation—literally the birds and the bees—and their rapidly diminishing populations. 

Rick Morain is the former publisher and owner of the Jefferson Herald, for which he writes a regular column. This essay first appeared on Substack.

As I write this column, the United States government is still shut down. Federal employees are not getting paid.

No, wait, that’s not quite true. Most federal employees are not getting paid.

Who’s still receiving a paycheck?

That would be President Donald Trump, Vice President J.D. Vance, members of Congress, and federal judges. The Constitution requires that they be paid no matter what. Their staffs—and those amount to many thousands of people—are continuing to work, but without receiving their salaries. They’ll be entitled to their back pay once the government reopens.

Randy Evans is executive director of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that promotes openness and transparency in Iowa’s state and local governments. He can be reached at DMRevans2810@gmail.com. This essay first appeared on his Substack newsletter, Stray Thoughts. 

The nation’s founders got right to the point when they laid out how to treat the First Amendment freedoms of religion, speech, the press and the rights of people to assemble and to petition the government. They used only 45 words, without asterisks.

Their simple words should lead to simple conclusions. Yet, recent Iowa cases illustrate why people in general, and educators specifically, are perplexed about what is protected and what is not.

Some legal background:

Dan Piller was a business reporter for more than four decades, working for the Des Moines Register and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. He covered the oil and gas industry while in Texas and was the Register’s agriculture reporter before his retirement in 2013. He lives in Ankeny.

As my wife and I, both spry seventy-somethings, walked the state capitol complex sidewalks to the No Kings rally on October 18, I couldn’t help but notice the gathering crowd and remarking, “I’d feel better about this if the majority of people here didn’t have grey hair.”

photo by Dan Piller from the No Kings rally outside the Iowa state capitol

I put down the seeming preponderance of the Medicare set at the Des Moines rally to Iowa’s elder-leaning demographics. But the next day, Fox News and the right-wing echo chamber used the apparent senior citizen majority of the No Kings crowds elsewhere as their prime talking point. The rallies were impressive in their numbers, but nonetheless may be remembered as the Last Hurrah of a generation with enough wit to make clever signs.

Bill Bumgarner is a retired former health care executive from northwest Iowa who worked
in hospital management for 41 years, mostly in the state of Iowa.

In my reading over the last couple of weeks, I came upon the following dialogue that someone referenced from Ernest Hemingway’s novel The Sun Also Rises.

“How did you go bankrupt?” Bill asked.

“Two ways,” Mike said. “Gradually and then suddenly.”

That exchange came back to me as I participated in a No Kings gathering in Spirit Lake, Iowa on October 18.

This is an image of a reimagined Iowa state flag with rainbow Pride stripes.

Pam Mackey Taylor is the Director of the Iowa Chapter of the Sierra Club.

Every three years, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) conducts a Triennial Review of its water quality standards. Part of the review is a determination of what changes need to be made to Iowa’s existing water quality standards.

The agenda for the Triennial Review was simple. The DNR intends to focus on the following topic areas related to water quality standards:

• Tribal reserved rights
• Antidegradation
• Human health criteria
• Chapter 61/Surface Water Classification document cleanup
• Use attainability analysis
• PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, sometimes called “forever chemicals”)
• Lake nutrients

After digging into these topics during the review meeting, what jumped out was the lack of investment the State of Iowa and the DNR have made in water quality and improved water quality standards over the last two decades. 

Al Charlson is a North Central Iowa farm kid, lifelong Iowan, and retired bank trust officer.

As Congressional Republicans and their very high income core supporters entered 2025, their highest priority was the extension and expansion of the 2017 income tax cuts. They told us so.

Back in January 2024, Senator Chuck Grassley told Semafor reporter Joseph Zeballos-Roig why Senate Republicans would not support an expanded child tax credit, which the House had approved by a bipartisan vote of 357 to 70. Grassley explained, “I think passing a tax bill that makes the president look good mailing out checks before the election means he could be reelected and then we won’t extend the 2017 tax cuts.” (There was nothing in the 2024 bill about mailing out checks.)

In any event, the heart of this summer’s budget reconciliation measure, which Republicans called the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” was extending and expanding the 2017 income tax cuts.

Gerald Ott of Ankeny was a high school English teacher and for 30 years a school improvement consultant for the Iowa State Education Association.

When I look at the picture of the Des Moines Public Schools board of directors, I think of the Kingston Trio’s song “It Takes a Worried Man.” In the midst of a crisis, we’re all worried. it’s the last line of the refrain that buoys me: but I won’t be worried long.

It takes a worried man to sing a worried song, oh yes
It takes a worried man to sing a worried song
It takes a worried man to sing a worried song
I’m worried now, but I won’t be worried long

One last word about Dr. Roberts

I recommend Jason Benell’s recent Bleeding Heartland essay, previously published on his Substack newsletter, The Odd Man Out. He gives us a different, eye-opening perspective on the case of the Des Moines Public Schools’ former superintendent, Ian Roberts.

The columnist Chris Espersen shared her perspective in the Cedar Rapids Gazette on October 12. Espersen is a Des Moines parent, a close observer of Roberts, and has had many opportunities to see his student-whispering magic up close. Espersen saw the same potential that then-Des Moines School Board president Teree Caldwell-Johnson must have seen when she recommended that Roberts be hired.

Bruce Lear lives in Sioux City and has been connected to Iowa’s public schools for 38 years. He taught for eleven years and represented educators as an Iowa State Education Association regional director for 27 years until retiring. He can be reached at BruceLear2419@gmail.com 

The federal government is shuttered. Are there round-the-clock intense negotiations to find a way to reopen? Are leaders proposing new innovative ways to turn the lights back on?  Is there a sense of urgency? Is the president tirelessly practicing “his art of the deal”? 

No, none of that’s happening.

The Senate convenes to vote on both Republican and Democratic funding proposals, knowing neither will pass. There’s no urgency and little concern. After the gavel, they flee to sympathetic shout-shows to point fingers, hoping Americans will blame the other side. 

Tara Guion is a mother of three from Iowa and an advocate for families affected by Medicaid policy, sharing her story to highlight the real impact of proposed cuts on Iowa children and families. 

As I stood in line at the Iowa State Fair, waiting to meet Senator Joni Ernst, I couldn’t help but think about my child, Luca, and the struggles we’ve faced as a family. My experience is a testament to the importance of Medicaid, a lifeline for many families like mine.

As a pregnant mother of two (soon to be three) boys, I’ve had my fair share of challenges, but it’s the memory of Luca’s four-and-a-half-month stay in the NICU that drives my advocacy. Born at just 25 weeks in March 2021, Luca’s prematurity and subsequent medical complications led to $1.7 million in medical costs, a burden that would have been insurmountable without Medicaid.

The care he has received, including occupational and physical therapy, as well as nutritional services, was crucial to his development. Today, at four and a half, he’s a thriving child, defying the odds, and he started school this fall. 

Herb Strentz was dean of the Drake School of Journalism from 1975 to 1988 and professor there until retirement in 2004. He was executive secretary of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council from its founding in 1976 to 2000.

Former Des Moines Register columnist Rekha Basu offered an open letter to U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley in the Sunday Des Moines Register on September 28: “Congress must stand up to Trump’s lawlessness. That means you, Chuck Grassley.” Her letter was a 1,000-word indictment of President Trump’s second term, ending with this question:

“What is your tipping point, Senator Grassley? Surely you, too, have apprehensions about how this presidency is playing out.”

She did not have to wait long for a response from Grassley, nor did readers. Alongside Basu’s column, the Register published a “Your turn” 950-word commentary, in which Grassley acknowledged our worrisome times. Excerpt:

Matt Russell is a farmer, political writer, and progressive ag and rural leader. He has published work in the New York Times, TIME, AgInsider, Civil Eats, and many state or local publications. He co-owns Coyote Run Farm with his husband Patrick Standley in rural Lacona, Iowa. A version of this essay first appeared on his Substack newsletter, Growing New Leaders: Perspectives from Coyote Run Farm.

The media is covering the federal government shutdown as a battle between Democrats and Republicans. I disagree that this is a fair assessment. The battle is about more than partisan politics. For President Donald Trump, the MAGA movement, and Republicans, this is a battle about redefining the federal government, the Constitution, our democracy, and our nation as it has developed over 250 years.

I don’t think the federal government has ever been used for this kind of obviously partisan communication, other than what Trump has previously said and done. As a reminder, the president is not covered by the Hatch Act, the law that prevents federal employees from engaging in partisan politics while performing their duties as well as other aspects of their lives.

Without doing further research, I don’t want to claim something like this has never happened, but unless someone can show evidence that it has, I’m willing to suggest it likely hasn’t.

Marian Wilson Kimber is Professor of Musicology at the University of Iowa and the editor of the Journal of the Society for American Music.

On October 6, prison laborers began the process of dismantling the 168-year-old State Historical Society of Iowa in Iowa City. State administrators claim it is too expensive to run. You wouldn’t think a music historian like me would have much to look at in the Society’s collection. Spillville was famously visited by Czech composer Antonín Dvořák in 1893. Iowa was the birthplace of Meredith Willson, Bix Beiderbecke, and Simon Estes and the site of the Surf Ballroom, but otherwise, it doesn’t have much of a musical reputation.

I first visited the modest brick building in 2011, searching for the women who posed like the “Grecian urn” ladies satirized in Willson’s The Music Man—yes, they were real. The collection had photographs. But it was something else I encountered there that transformed my research. Archivist Mary Bennett brought me a cardboard box of little program booklets from women’s clubs all over Iowa.

Sondra Feldstein is a farmer and business owner in Polk County and a plaintiff in the litigation discussed here.

Do you care about preserving farmland in Polk County?

Would you prefer that Bob Vander Plaats and his FAMiLY Leader organization not build a national conference center in rural Polk County?

Would you like for your elected representatives to follow the law and not give preferential treatment to powerful organizations?

Do you feel utterly helpless and need to make a difference?

A lawsuit making its way through the courts right now addresses all these issues.

Randy Evans is executive director of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that promotes openness and transparency in Iowa’s state and local governments. He can be reached at DMRevans2810@gmail.com. This essay first appeared on his Substack newsletter, Stray Thoughts. 

The lesson of the hot stove emerged again last week.

That is the lesson toddlers learn early and smart ones retain for a lifetime. Touch something hot and you know not to touch it again.

Educator Ian Roberts delivered a new rendition of the lesson over the past fortnight. Time will tell whether government officials take to heart the learning moment offered by the Roberts train wreck.

This post was a group effort by Johnston Public Schools Supporters, a bipartisan political action committee.

The future of the Johnston Community School District (JCSD) is not merely decided in classrooms or on playing fields; it is shaped in the ballot box. On November 4, 2025, Johnston voters face a critical choice, one that determines whether our tax dollars will continue to build world-class public education or be diverted to systems with zero accountability. The decision is clear: we must elect the unified, experienced, and dedicated team of Justin Smith, Kaycee Schippers, and Rexford Davidson to the Johnston School Board.

This slate of candidates—a veteran educator, an engaged parent and paralegal, and a JCSD alumnus—represents the very best of our community. They will bring a formidable mix of classroom experience, legal knowledge, fiscal prudence, common sense leadership and deep, personal commitment to the Johnston School Board. More importantly, they are united on the singular, defining issue of this election: the unwavering protection and robust enhancement of our public schools as the foundational cornerstone of the Johnston community.

Jason Benell lives in Des Moines with his wife and two children. He is a combat veteran, former city council candidate, and president of Iowa Atheists and Freethinkers. This essay first appeared on his Substack newsletter, The Odd Man Out.

If you care about due process, and if you care about the rule of law, and if you care about justice, then everything surrounding the arrest of Dr. Ian Roberts, former superintendent of Des Moines Public Schools (DMPS), should infuriate you.

This whole event has been awful for everyone involved, from students who looked up to him, parents who trusted him, and administrators who appointed him. But something is being missed in this discussion: the presence of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The agency should be abolished—but if it’s going to be around, it absolutely shouldn’t ever operate this way. Its actions make us less safe, not safer.

Instead of only focusing on Roberts’ purported misdeeds, we should be asking the larger question about what is being taken from our communities. Guess what? It’s more than a trusted school administrator.

John Gilbert farms with a brother, a son, and their wives along South Fork, a tributary of the Iowa River. In addition to non-GMO row crops, they raise small grains, forages, cattle, and antibiotic free pigs they sell to Niman Ranch. John is a volunteer with the Southfork Watershed Alliance, and is active in Practical Farmers of Iowa and the Iowa Farmers Union. Their farm has been recognized for its work toward sustainability. 

EDITOR’S NOTE: John Gilbert wrote the following essay, which was first published by the Des Moines Register, before the two-year anniversary of the 2018 Farm Bill’s expiration (September 30). Four members of Iowa’s Congressional delegation (Senators Chuck Grasssley and Joni Ernst, and Representatives Randy Feenstra and Zach Nunn) serve on the Senate or House Agriculture Committees, which are responsible for writing the Farm Bill.

It’s also important to note that this week, the Trump administration is expected to announce bailout payments for soybean farmers—reportedly of about $100 an acre—to offset damages caused by this administration’s erratic tariffs, and trade disruptions. The need for such a payment underscores the weakness of a farm policy based on unrestricted production.

It’s officially time Iowa has one of those warnings, like what you see on cigarette packages: “Caution: Living in Iowa is Hazardous to Your Health!”

The problem isn’t just that Iowa’s water carries way too many farm field pollutants (we’re all tired of hearing about nitrates), although that’s part of it. It’s not just that Iowa has way too many people dealing with cancer; or just that jobs in agriculture, meat packing, construction and manufacturing can be dangerous; or just the dangers of health care deserts in many areas of Iowa. And it’s not just that climate change is making Iowa’s weather more dangerous. The problem is all of those things, and more. 

For years, Governor Kim Reynolds resisted COVID-19 vaccine mandates, saying she believed “in Iowans’ right to make health care decisions based on what’s best for themselves and their families.”

But as this year’s cold and flu season begins, many Iowans who want to protect themselves and their families from COVID-19 are unable to get a booster shot, because the U.S. Food and Drug Administration restricted access to updated vaccines.

Public health authorities in about two dozen states have issued guidance or standing orders designed to help adults choose to vaccinate themselves or their children against COVID-19. The Reynolds administration has not acted.

Staff for the governor’s office and Iowa Department of Health and Human Services did not respond to several requests for comment over the past ten days.

Channing Dutton is a lawyer in Urbandale. His duty is climate action for all children.

Meredith Willson gave us a timeless Iowa tale in “The Music Man”: a fast-talking charmer named Professor Harold Hill sweeps into River City, peddling a dream of shiny instruments, crisp uniforms, and the vision of a boys’ band that will keep young people out of trouble.

Not everyone was swayed by his pitch. Do you remember the bumbling school board members assigned to track down his credentials? Every time they got close, Hill got the barber shop quartet to start singing instead of digging up the truth.  

Randy Evans is executive director of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that promotes openness and transparency in Iowa’s state and local governments. He can be reached at DMRevans2810@gmail.com. 

I spoke to two groups in recent weeks, and at both gatherings, people wanted to know about the work of the organization I lead, the Iowa Freedom of Information Council.

If I had known then what I know now, I could have been more effective. I could have advised them to wait a week or two and watch the news surrounding the arrest of Ian Roberts, superintendent of the Des Moines Public Schools since 2023, for an illustration of how secrecy breeds distrust.