David R. Russell is a retired teacher in Ames. He can be reached at russellisu@gmail.com. This essay first appeared on his Substack newsletter, The Front Burner and the Back.

Iowa is the largest egg producer in the country. And one of the biggest alleged egg price fixers. While the egg producers and the press were blaming inflation and bird flu for huge price hikes, the three big producers were allegedly stealing from consumers big time. Jacking up the price of eggs.

Because the egg industry is highly consolidated, it was easy for the executives of the biggest three companies to allegedly collude on prices. And they did, from 2022 to 2025. Big time. The price tripled in a little over a year, from $2 to $6 a dozen.

Versova of Sioux Center was one the three large egg producers who settled a price fixing lawsuit from the U.S. Department of Justice and state attorneys general in an Iowa court in July, without having to admit guilt (thus the repetitive “allegedly” in this essay). The three also had to pay penalties amounting to one dollar for every thousand dollars they allegedly stole. You read that right.

David Russell is a retired teacher. He can be reached at russellisu@gmail.com. This essay first appeared in his Substack newsletter, The Front Burner and the Back.

We’ve been living with the Big Lie for the last five and a half years. And now we are living with the Big Cheat as well. Iowa MAGAs are going all in for rigging the midterms and 2026.

Because Iowa, for the first time in a decade, has a good chance to flip the governorship, a Senate seat, and at least two U.S. House districts, among others, this is the worst possible time to let down on defense or hesitate to go all out on offense to stop the steal.

Yes, I know Stop the Steal is a MAGA phrase. But the midterms will be another “projection election,” where Republicans scream that others are cheating to hide their own cheating. And it’s still an Orwellian world where their hypocritical calls for election integrity really mean election rigging.