Jesus “Chuy” Renteria, an author and artist from West Liberty, Iowa, released their memoir, We Heard it When We Were Young, in 2021 with The University of Iowa Press. The book was recommended by Xochitl Gonzalez on The Today Show and featured in The Chicago Review of Books and NPR. Chuy received the 2023 Poets & Writers Maureen Egan Writers Exchange Award for Fiction. Currently, Chuy is the arts & culture editor for Little Village Magazine, is working on their second book, and writes the Substack newsletter “Of Spanglish and Maximalism,” where this essay first appeared.

I’ve said it before and will say it many more times, but my hometown of West Liberty, Iowa has this way of getting people talking. It has to do with a myriad of things. It being designated the “first majority Hispanic town” in Iowa, it being a microcosm of the country at large, it being used as the backdrop of so much political theater. The latest headlines have to do with the deportation of a 20-year old former West Liberty High School student and soccer star, Pascual Pedro Pedro.

Taylor Kohn is an Iowan advocate and publicist currently residing in Minnesota.

On the first day of Rob Sand’s campaign for governor, he gave an interview to WHO Radio. When the host Simon Conway asked whether trans girls should be allowed to play sports, Sand replied with a flat “no.”

The comment was poorly received by many, prompting the Des Moines Register to reach out to Sand for an interview on the subject. Sand declined, instead providing a statement doubling down on his exclusionary stance: “I’ve been clear that I support common sense policies like the law protecting fairness in women’s sports, and that this year’s law legalizing discrimination in all places of life is wrong.”

It is, of course, dishonest to say in the same breath that one opposes discrimination and that a certain type of discrimination is “common sense.”

Tom Walton is an attorney in Dallas County.

In March 2024, Dr. Peter S. Thorne, Department of Occupational and Environmental Health at the University of Iowa, with his colleague Dr. Angelico Mendy, an epidemiologist at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, published an important scientific paper on the association between drinking water nitrate levels with the risk of death from cancer. Thorne is the former Chairman of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Scientific Advisory Board.

The report has received little, if any, coverage by others, including in Iowa. It deserves more.

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.

Imagine you’re caught breaking out a window with a baseball bat at the local grocery store.  You’ve done this before, both by accident and on purpose, depending on the day and your mood, and yet again, you’ve been caught. Bat in hand, you look up sheepishly as, rounding the corner you catch the gaze of your neighbor and their kids, the local grocer and proprietor, and worst of all, the local magistrate.

You’ve been busted. Again.

The group demands you explain yourself, astonished that you’d take a bat to a store window for as far as they can tell, no good reason. The property damage, the disturbance of the peace, and the threatening behavior have the now gathering townsfolk on edge and looking at you with suspicious. Now, you’ve been in this jam before, and you have an idea. It’s bold, but it is crazy enough that it just might work.

Politico set off another round of speculation about U.S. Senator Joni Ernst’s future this week. Jordain Carney and Rachael Bade reported on July 10 that Ernst “is the next GOP senator on retirement watch,” with U.S. Representative Ashley Hinson (IA-02) “waiting in the wings” if the incumbent opts not to seek a third term.

Hinson brushed off the rumors, telling WHO Radio host Simon Conway she’s “100 percent on Team Joni” and hopes Ernst will run again. She added, “The DC media loves to obsess over things.” Notably, Hinson didn’t clarify whether she would run for Senate next year if the seat were open—nor did Conway ask her.

I’ve long believed Hinson is laying the groundwork to run for Senate as soon as Iowa has an open seat—presumably in 2028, when Senator Chuck Grassley’s eighth term will end.

So while I still expect Ernst to seek re-election, the latest coverage got me thinking: who would be the tougher opponent for the Democratic nominee in 2026? It’s usually harder to defeat an incumbent than to flip an open seat. But this race might be the exception that proves the rule.

James Larew is an attorney in Iowa City who served as general counsel and chief of staff for former Governor Chet Culver. This post is a revised version of a letter he sent to Polk County supervisors as a public comment before their July 1 meeting.

We are on the cusp of a civil rights movement—a movement to protect citizens’ fundamental right to access clean water.

In the mid-1840s, our ancestors marveled at the “well-watered” rivers and creeks and the readily-available water supply.

But for the confluence of the abundant and clean waters of the Raccoon and Des Moines Rivers, the City of Des Moines and the nearby communities would likely never have amounted to anything. Instead, that resource allowed for the founding of a capital city and a robust economy.

Dean Lerner served Iowa as an Assistant Attorney General for sixteen years, Chief Deputy Secretary of State for four years, and about ten years as Deputy Director, then Director of the Department of Inspections & Appeals. He then worked for the CMS Director of the Division of Nursing Homes, and the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Iowa. He is a graduate of Grinnell College and Drake University Law School.

The unimaginable has now become commonplace:

Stripping health care from 56,000 Iowans.

Taking food assistance and safety nets away from Iowa’s children, seniors, and veterans.

Adding $3.3 trillion to the national deficit. And on and on….

Katie Byerly of Cerro Gordo County is also known as Iowa Prairie Girl on YouTube.

There are two ways a person could start an article about Mountain Death Camas (Zigadenus elegans). One introduction could include words like dangerous, poisonous, and fatal! And the other would involve words like striking, stunning, and uniquely beautiful. Let’s start with the beautiful part first.

THE BEAUTY

The flowers of Death camas have six papery white petals (or in the case of Death camas – tepals). The striking star-shaped flowers are about a 1/2-inch across. Each petal has an olive green, heart-shaped gland near its base. When the flower opens, these glands present as a lovely circle on the flower, often with an inner yellow fringe.

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 

Lately, I’ve been thinking about some of the great times I had teaching high school. I remember those rare times when classroom discussion took on a life of its own. A spark ignited, and the conversation became spontaneous, insightful, and real. When it happened, it was a joyful rush like discovering a $10 bill in a seldom worn pair of pants. 

It was classroom lightning.

My guess is most teachers have experienced a flash of it, and it’s part of what keeps them teaching instead of bailing for a job with less stress and better pay.

John Deeth has volunteered for the Johnson County Democrats and been involved in caucus planning since 2004. He was the lead organizer for the Johnson County caucuses in 2016 and 2020 and is doing the same work for 2024. Deeth has also worked in the Johnson County Auditor’s Office since 1997.

It’s been two and a half years now since the Democratic National Committee upended the traditional presidential nomination calendar and removed Iowa from its long time place as the first contest. As an advocate for an Iowa presidential primary, I was overjoyed when the sitting Democratic president of the United States wrote, “Our party should no longer allow caucuses as part of our nominating process.”

I had hoped that October 2023 would mark the acceptance stage of the grieving process. That month the Iowa Democratic Party announced a two-stage plan for 2024: an early caucus for party business only, to meet the letter of state law (which does not require a presidential vote at the caucus), and a later, mail-in party run primary to comply with the DNC’s delegate selection calendar. I may or may not have been the first to come up with that plan, but no matter. It was the only way to legally check both of those boxes.

Unfortunately, some of Iowa’s Democratic leaders just don’t know how to say goodbye.

Rick Morain is the former publisher and owner of the Jefferson Herald, for which he writes a regular column.

The United States system of government is one of the most complicated such mechanisms in the world. It’s a blessing and a curse.

A blessing, because it disperses power. That’s what the Founders intended with the Constitution in 1787, and it’s what has guided America since then. Federalism (dividing power between the national government and the state governments) and a tripartite national government (dividing power among the legislative, executive, and judicial branches) give everyone a piece of the power pie. Theoretically, at least.

A curse, for the same reasons. Dispersed power creates inevitable disputes over which entity holds the upper hand in innumerable cases every day. To borrow a term from former President George W. Bush, just who is The Decider?

When President Donald Trump gave Senator Chuck Grassley his “complete and total endorsement” during an October 2021 rally at the Iowa State Fairgrounds, he said one undeniably truthful thing about Iowa’s senior senator: “When I’ve needed him for help he was always there. […] He was with us all the way, every time I needed something.”

At the latest Trump rally in Des Moines, Grassley showed once again that the president’s assessment was on the money.

Douglas Burns is a fourth-generation Iowa journalist. He is the co-founder of the Western Iowa Journalism Foundation and a member of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative, where this article first appeared on The Iowa Mercury newsletter. His family operated the Carroll Times Herald for 93 years in Carroll, Iowa where Burns resides.

It hit me in the heat of the evening.

President Donald Trump models his stage style after none other than Frank Sinatra.

The swagger, the rhythm of the humor, the observations about women. (I heard Trump thank a female voter once at another event. He called her “doll.”)

A Trump speech like the one in Des Moines on July 3 takes cues from the famous Sinatra album/CD “Sinatra At the Sands,” in which the crooner ad libs in a swinging way, baby, between songs.

The Sinatra influence on Trump is uncanny — similar to what you see with Bill Maher’s opening monologues on “Real Time,” clearly inspired by Johnny Carson.

Trump came to Iowa to kick off the America 250 celebration: a slate of events scheduled for nation’s 250th anniversary in 2026.

The president addressed thousands at the sun-swept, scorched Iowa State Fairgrounds.

Here are ten takeaways from the event, which Iowa Mercury covered in person.

Jack Hatch is a former state senator who chaired the Iowa Senate Health and Human Services Committee and was the 2014 Democratic nominee for governor.

I was one of the legislative authors of expanding health care through the expansion of Medicaid in 2013. At least two members of Iowa’s current U.S. House delegation should know that the expansion was designed to help children and adults who previously did not qualify for Medicaid. Randy Feenstra, who now represents Iowa’s fourth Congressional district, was a state senator at the time. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, who represents the first Congressional district, was then the director of the Iowa Department of Public Health.

Iowa became the only state with a Republican governor that enacted Medicaid expansion in 2013. The Iowa Health and Wellness Plan would eventually extend health insurance coverage to nearly 200,000 residents of our state.

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. 

Peggy Noonan has been a conservative voice for The Wall Street Journal since leaving the Ronald Reagan administration as his primary speechwriter. Five of Noonan’s books have been New York Times bestsellers. Consuming every word of her weekly column keeps me politically balanced.

In Noonan’s June 14-15 column titled “America is losing sight of its political culture,” she characterized our 47^th president as America’s Mr. Tinpot Dictator. This term refers to a leader who acts like a dictator, often with delusions of grandeur and authoritarian tendencies. I decided to investigate how much Trump resembles a dictator.

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.

Given the turmoil of today’s politics and environmental concerns, it’s time to revisit Okefenokee Swamp and attend to the wisdom of Pogo Possum. He sagely advised more than 50 years ago, “We have met the enemy and he is us.”

Cartoonist Walt Kelly wrote that line for the Pogo comic strip in 1971, as Pogo Possum and one of his cartoon companions, Porky Pine, surveyed the human despoliation of their wetlands home. The swamp covers almost half a million acres straddling the Georgia-Florida border; the cartoon depicted it as awash in discarded furniture, a bath tub, a car half sunk in the swamp and other tons of trash.

Bleeding Heartland is republishing this post from July 2024 to celebrate America’s Semiquincentennial, the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Happy Fourth of July!

A previous Iowa wildflower Wednesday post showcased a different collection of red, white, and blue wildflowers. Click on any link for more pictures and information about that plant.

Most of the photos enclosed below came from the Iowa wildflower enthusiasts Facebook group, which now has nearly 11,900 members. Join us to share pictures, ask ID questions, learn about gardening with native plants, or just enjoy a break from negativity on social media. It’s a politics-free zone. I also republished some pictures by Bleeding Heartland guest authors. You can find the full wildflower archive here.

Voters in Iowa Senate district 1 will elect a successor to Republican State Senator Rocky De Witt on Tuesday, August 26. Governor Kim Reynolds scheduled the special election after De Witt died of cancer last week.

Although Donald Trump comfortably carried Senate district 1 in the 2024 presidential election, this seat should be highly competitive in a low-turnout special election environment.

Following De Witt’s passing, Republicans hold 33 Iowa Senate seats, and Democrats hold 16 seats. The difference between a 34-16 majority and a 33-17 majority may seem inconsequential, but it would matter a great deal when the Senate considers the governor’s nominees during the 2026 legislative session. Flipping the seat would enable Democrats to block some of Reynolds’ most controversial appointments, who need a two-thirds majority vote to be confirmed.

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

I had to send Senator Chuck Grassley a quick email to thank him for starting my day with a chuckle. In the latest edition of his email newsletter “The Scoop,” he commended the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling that federal district courts do not have the authority to issue universal injunctions blocking the Administration’s Executive Order. Grassley declared the decision “a victory for checks and balances.”

Checks and balances? Since Grassley and his Senate Republican colleagues voluntarily abdicated their Constitutional authority, responsibilities, and prerogatives, we no longer have a functioning constitutional representative democracy. We essentially have a king.

Of course, the biggest show in Washington, D.C. has been the around-the-clock push to pass a budget reconciliation bill. Republicans want to get the One Big, Beautiful Bill (also known as a Big Ugly Mess) to President Donald Trump’s desk for a reality TV style triumphant bill signing on the Fourth of July. The days-long Senate debate ended on July 1 with a dramatic tie-breaking vote by Vice President J.D. Vance. Grassley and Iowa’s junior Senator Joni Ernst voted for the bill, along with all but three of their GOP colleagues.

Congressional Republican leadership have characterized the bill as Trump’s domestic policy agenda. That’s misleading at best. At its core, this legislation is the Senate Republican leadership’s tax cut agenda with enough of Trump’s ideas and MAGA bumper stickers attached to keep his support base on board.

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 

It was a hot mid-August day in 1979. School hadn’t started, but football had. Sweat trickled down my back as I struggled to make a no window, tiny, drab space come alive. The room remained dead, and I was dead tired.

Just as I was going out, I almost collided with the superintendent coming in. I’d met him once, and I had no desire in a sweat soaked shirt to meet him again.

“I’m glad I caught you. I was wondering if you’d run the scoreboard for the game on Friday.”