Bleeding Heartland
An independent website about Iowa politics
 Bleeding Heartland

Senator Booker echoes our concerns: What’s happened to Grassley?


Warning: Undefined variable $excerpt in /app/public/wp-content/themes/bleedingheartland/views/blog/archive/single.php on line 100

Warning: Undefined variable $show_read_more in /app/public/wp-content/themes/bleedingheartland/views/blog/archive/single.php on line 102

Iowa's teacher shortage is getting worse


Warning: Undefined variable $excerpt in /app/public/wp-content/themes/bleedingheartland/views/blog/archive/single.php on line 100

Warning: Undefined variable $show_read_more in /app/public/wp-content/themes/bleedingheartland/views/blog/archive/single.php on line 102
French President Emmanuel Macron with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House on February 24, 2025 (official photo by Joyce N. Boghosian)

A French gamble


Warning: Undefined variable $excerpt in /app/public/wp-content/themes/bleedingheartland/views/blog/archive/single.php on line 100

Warning: Undefined variable $show_read_more in /app/public/wp-content/themes/bleedingheartland/views/blog/archive/single.php on line 102
Protesters chant for the return of deported Iowan Pascual Pedro Pedro and detained Muscatine resident Noel Lopez outside the doors of the federal courthouse in Cedar Rapids. (Photo by Tom Foley/Iowa Capital Dispatch)

Pascual Pedro Pedro recounts deportation after routine ICE check-in


Warning: Undefined variable $excerpt in /app/public/wp-content/themes/bleedingheartland/views/blog/archive/single.php on line 100

Warning: Undefined variable $show_read_more in /app/public/wp-content/themes/bleedingheartland/views/blog/archive/single.php on line 102
All photos are by Katie Byerly

Iowa wildflower Wednesday: American lotus


Warning: Undefined variable $excerpt in /app/public/wp-content/themes/bleedingheartland/views/blog/archive/single.php on line 100

Warning: Undefined variable $show_read_more in /app/public/wp-content/themes/bleedingheartland/views/blog/archive/single.php on line 102
President Lyndon Johnson hands President Harry S. Truman a pen at the signing of the Medicare and Medicaid Bill at the Harry S. Truman Library, Independence, Missouri on July 30, 1965. Lady Bird Johnson, Vice President Hubert Humphrey, and Bess Truman look on. (official White House photo)

As Medicare and Medicaid turn 60, we should be celebrating—not mourning


Warning: Undefined variable $excerpt in /app/public/wp-content/themes/bleedingheartland/views/blog/archive/single.php on line 100

Warning: Undefined variable $show_read_more in /app/public/wp-content/themes/bleedingheartland/views/blog/archive/single.php on line 102
Amy Adams (second from left) speaks at a Grassroots Iowa Network event in Monticello on June 21 (photo by Laura Belin)

Your voice: Why letters to the editor still matter


Warning: Undefined variable $excerpt in /app/public/wp-content/themes/bleedingheartland/views/blog/archive/single.php on line 100

Warning: Undefined variable $show_read_more in /app/public/wp-content/themes/bleedingheartland/views/blog/archive/single.php on line 102
U.S. Representative Randy Feenstra

CO2 pipeline politics in Iowa's 2026 gubernatorial election


Warning: Undefined variable $excerpt in /app/public/wp-content/themes/bleedingheartland/views/blog/archive/single.php on line 100

Warning: Undefined variable $show_read_more in /app/public/wp-content/themes/bleedingheartland/views/blog/archive/single.php on line 102
National Garden concept proposed by the South Dakota governor's office

When waste-cutters miss what looks like, umm, waste


Warning: Undefined variable $excerpt in /app/public/wp-content/themes/bleedingheartland/views/blog/archive/single.php on line 100

Warning: Undefined variable $show_read_more in /app/public/wp-content/themes/bleedingheartland/views/blog/archive/single.php on line 102
Woody Guthrie, photographed in 1943 with guitar labelled "This Machine Kills Fascists" (Photo by Al Aumuller is part of the New York World-Telegram and Sun collection in the Library of Congress)

"This Land Is Your Land"—Woody Guthrie's story


Warning: Undefined variable $excerpt in /app/public/wp-content/themes/bleedingheartland/views/blog/archive/single.php on line 100

Warning: Undefined variable $show_read_more in /app/public/wp-content/themes/bleedingheartland/views/blog/archive/single.php on line 102

A county sheriff stood up to Brenna Bird—and she backed down


Warning: Undefined variable $excerpt in /app/public/wp-content/themes/bleedingheartland/views/blog/archive/single.php on line 100

Warning: Undefined variable $show_read_more in /app/public/wp-content/themes/bleedingheartland/views/blog/archive/single.php on line 102
President Donald Trump and Secretary of Education Linda McMahon

Trump, GOP legislators create a storm aimed at Iowa's public schools


Warning: Undefined variable $excerpt in /app/public/wp-content/themes/bleedingheartland/views/blog/archive/single.php on line 100

Warning: Undefined variable $show_read_more in /app/public/wp-content/themes/bleedingheartland/views/blog/archive/single.php on line 102
All photos by Bruce Morrison

Iowa wildflower Wednesday: Hairy Four O'Clock


Warning: Undefined variable $excerpt in /app/public/wp-content/themes/bleedingheartland/views/blog/archive/single.php on line 100

Warning: Undefined variable $show_read_more in /app/public/wp-content/themes/bleedingheartland/views/blog/archive/single.php on line 102
Harry Dunn speaks at a Veterans March on March 14, 2025 (photo by Adnan Masri)

"I've been through hell" says January 6 officer slated to keynote Iowa event


Warning: Undefined variable $excerpt in /app/public/wp-content/themes/bleedingheartland/views/blog/archive/single.php on line 100

Warning: Undefined variable $show_read_more in /app/public/wp-content/themes/bleedingheartland/views/blog/archive/single.php on line 102
Johnson County Jail in 2024 drone image

The case for a new Johnson County Jail


Warning: Undefined variable $excerpt in /app/public/wp-content/themes/bleedingheartland/views/blog/archive/single.php on line 100

Warning: Undefined variable $show_read_more in /app/public/wp-content/themes/bleedingheartland/views/blog/archive/single.php on line 102
Former Carroll Times Herald co-owner Douglas Burns is pictured as a child with his predecessors in leadership at the newspaper: his uncle, James B. Wilson, and grandfather, James W. Wilson, both publishers at the newspaper that was in the family for three generations. (photo courtesy of Douglas Burns)

Why the Iowa Senate finally approved enhanced First Amendment protections


Warning: Undefined variable $excerpt in /app/public/wp-content/themes/bleedingheartland/views/blog/archive/single.php on line 100

Warning: Undefined variable $show_read_more in /app/public/wp-content/themes/bleedingheartland/views/blog/archive/single.php on line 102

Who's watching city hall? Nobody—and that should scare you


Warning: Undefined variable $excerpt in /app/public/wp-content/themes/bleedingheartland/views/blog/archive/single.php on line 100

Warning: Undefined variable $show_read_more in /app/public/wp-content/themes/bleedingheartland/views/blog/archive/single.php on line 102
Father Guillermo Treviño (Pascual Pedro Pedro's godfather) at a protest in Davenport on July 10

Names make it tough to ignore human impact of news


Warning: Undefined variable $excerpt in /app/public/wp-content/themes/bleedingheartland/views/blog/archive/single.php on line 100

Warning: Undefined variable $show_read_more in /app/public/wp-content/themes/bleedingheartland/views/blog/archive/single.php on line 102
A street intersection is pictured, grass foreground, a magnified portion of the image is superimposed within a graphic of a brown-handed magnifying glass. A decorative effect is applied to the magnifying glass portion of the image.
A Flock Falcon installation (magnified) from the southwest corner of the intersection of Hickman Ave. and Northwest 111th St. near the city limits between Clive and Urbandale

AI mass surveillance expands, Iowa cities resist transparency


Warning: Undefined variable $excerpt in /app/public/wp-content/themes/bleedingheartland/views/blog/archive/single.php on line 100

Warning: Undefined variable $show_read_more in /app/public/wp-content/themes/bleedingheartland/views/blog/archive/single.php on line 102

Climate solutions—Unexpected results


Warning: Undefined variable $excerpt in /app/public/wp-content/themes/bleedingheartland/views/blog/archive/single.php on line 100

Warning: Undefined variable $show_read_more in /app/public/wp-content/themes/bleedingheartland/views/blog/archive/single.php on line 102