What’s on your mind this weekend, Bleeding Heartland readers? If you use bike trails in Iowa, you’ve probably noticed the multitude of people apparently training for the Register’s Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa (RAGBRAI), which starts one week from today. I hope the intense heat breaks before then. Stay safe and hydrated, cyclists, and remember to call out “rider up” or “passing on your left” when appropriate. I’ve seen some near-collisions with walkers or runners on the trails.

I still haven’t taken my bike out to ride the High Trestle Trail, but those who do should be aware that local police are reportedly issuing lots of tickets to bicyclists who don’t come to a full stop at every stop sign. One officer even ticketed a woman who did stop at a crossing, because he has a chip on his shoulder got the impression she wasn’t going to stop. The Iowa Bicycle Coalition reacted to that incident here.

Central Iowans, if you have an old bike that never gets used, consider donating it to the Des Moines Bike Collective. They will fix it up and either give it away or sell it at a reasonable price to someone in need. The Des Moines Bike Collective’s free valet bike parking at the downtown Des Moines farmers market is a great service as well, conveniently located near good Indian food, “Tacopacolypse” and herbal lemonade from Blue Gate Farm’s stand.

This is an open thread; All topics welcome.

Friday the 13th sure was unlucky for Iowa Republicans, who must go back to the drawing board in the new Senate district 34. GOP nominee Randi Shannon dropped out of the race against Democratic State Senator Liz Mathis with a statement more bizarre than anything I can remember in major-party Iowa politics.  

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency informed the Iowa Department of Natural Resources yesterday that a preliminary report finds the state of Iowa does not adequately enforce the Clean Water Act with respect to confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs).

The five members of the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission unanimously elected a new chairman yesterday: Jeff Lamberti, a former State Senator and Congressional candidate who is president of the Iowa Barnstormers arena football team.  

The National Republican Congressional Committee just announced the third set of GOP challengers to achieve “young guns” status, “the top tier of the Committee’s four-level ‘Young Guns’ recruitment program.” Two of the seven candidates to make the cut are Ben Lange, who is running against three-term Democrat Bruce Braley in Iowa’s first Congressional district, and John Archer, who is running against three-term Democrat Dave Loebsack in Iowa’s second Congressional district. The NRCC elevated Lange and Archer to “contender” status in May, along with Archer’s primary opponent Dan Dolan.

I’ve spent part of this morning reading former FBI Director Louis Freeh’s “Report of the Special Investigative Counsel Regarding the Actions of The Pennsylvania State University Related to the Child Sexual Abuse Committed by Gerald A. Sandusky.” It’s a depressing commentary on the “football is king” culture that seems to have held sway at Penn State.

It’s hard to imagine the American diet without members of the nightshade family, such as tomatoes and white potatoes. The tobacco plant, from the same family, played an important part in U.S. history too.

Growing up in Iowa, I was familiar with the term “black nightshade” from sinister-sounding voice-overs in herbicide commercials. Millions of people have heard of the poisonous nightshade berries, thanks to this summer’s animated feature Brave. But have you ever seen this wildflower in bloom? I hadn’t until recently. Follow me after the jump for a few close-up views.

This is an open thread.

The U.S. House voted today to repeal the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, better known as health care reform.  

AFSCME Iowa Council 61 filed a prohibited practice complaint yesterday with the Iowa Public Employment Relations Board, charging that Governor Terry Branstad disregarded Iowa’s collective bargaining law when he signed an executive order allowing state employees to contribute to their health insurance premiums.

President Barack Obama is visiting Iowa yet again today. Tax policy will be the focus of his speech at Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids. Some links related to his tax proposals and other campaign themes are after the jump. I’ll update later with highlights from and reaction to the event.

Any comments about the presidential election are welcome in this thread. A forthcoming post will focus on the latest television ads for or against Obama and Republican candidate Mitt Romney in Iowa.

The U.S. House is back in session this week, and it’s time for Bleeding Heartland to catch up on Congressional news from before the July 4 recess. After the jump I’ve posted details about how the Iowans voted on various bills and motions related to energy policy.

As a bonus, I’ve included some textbook sleight of hand by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. DCCC press releases hammered Republicans Tom Latham and Steve King for backing “Big Oil” interests during House debate on the Strategic Energy Production Act. But the DCCC glossed over the fact that Latham’s opponent in Iowa’s third district, Representative Leonard Boswell, was one of 19 House Democrats to vote with Republicans for final passage of that very bad bill.  

Backers of restoring the dam at Lake Delhi in northeast Iowa received good news last week on potential federal funding, as well as a stern reminder about the strings attached to state support for the project.

For the fourth month in a row, registered Republicans in Iowa outnumber registered Democrats. The latest figures from the Iowa Secretary of State’s office (pdf) show 655,457 active no-party voters statewide, 619,452 active Republicans, and 598,074 active Democrats. The number of registered Democrats rose slightly during the past month, but Republican ranks grew by much more, probably because of the many competitive GOP primaries on June 5.

After the jump I’ve posted the latest active voter registration numbers in all 99 Iowa counties, grouped by Congressional district. The most evenly-split county is still Decatur in south-central Iowa, with 1,741 registered Democrats, 1,799 Republicans, and 1,753 no-party voters as of July 2.

Any comments about the 2012 elections in Iowa are welcome in this thread.  

What’s on your mind this weekend, Bleeding Heartland readers? My favorite story of the past week is the possible discovery of the Higgs particle, which would be a huge advance for physics.

Also on my radar: the embarrassing end of Representative Thad McCotter’s political career. The onetime presidential candidate (noticed by few Iowans besides former House Speaker Chris Rants) resigned from Congress. His days as a legislator were numbered anyway, because of his failure to accomplish one of the most basic campaign tasks: collecting enough signatures to qualify for the primary ballot.

Clips are after the jump. This is an open thread.

The U.S. Department of Education has approved “one-year freeze of the target increases that schools are held to under the federal No Child Left Behind Act,” Iowa Department of Education Director Jason Glass announced on July 2. Iowa had requested the one-year freeze last week, shortly after federal education officials denied Iowa’s application for a waiver from No Child Left Behind requirements.

After the jump I’ve posted statements from Glass with more details and comments on the latest development, along with reaction from Iowa Senate Education Committee Chair Herman Quirmbach. I also added the statement announcing members of the new Instructional Time Task Force, created under Senate File 2284, the education reform bill approved at the end of the legislative session.

Governor Terry Branstad confirmed earlier this week that employee contributions to health insurance premiums will be a major battleground during the next round of contract negotiations with unions representing state workers.  

Happy 4th of July to the Bleeding Heartland community! I am celebrating the occasion with photos of red, white, and blue Iowa wildflowers. Click “there’s more” to view oswego tea, white snakeroot, and blue vervain.

The heat has been oppressive across Iowa lately. This afternoon I felt sorry for everyone in the Windsor Heights July 4 parade, including Representative Tom Latham, Representative Leonard Boswell, State Representative Chris Hagenow, his Democratic challenger Susan Judkins, and Democratic Iowa Senate candidate Desmund Adams.

I hope everyone stays safe and hydrated, and I am thinking of the veterans for whom today is a difficult holiday.

This is an open thread.

Roughly 150,000 people, or about 5 percent of Iowa’s population, will not receive Medicaid coverage under the 2010 federal health insurance law if Governor Terry Branstad gets his way. The governor repeated yesterday that he does not intend to go along with the Medicaid expansion, because he doesn’t believe the federal government should or will provide the promised funding to cover the cost.

Congressional Republicans including Representative Steve King are urging governors to reject other aspects of the Affordable Care Act, such as the state-based health insurance exchanges. Branstad has not yet decided whether to take that route. More details on these stories and other fallout from last Thursday’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling are after the jump.  

Child abuse has long been linked to a greater risk of various mental health problems, including depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, eating disorders, and suicidal behavior. A new study indicates that even in the absence of severe neglect and abuse, harsh physical punishment such as spanking increases a child’s risk of developing long-lasting mental health problems.

The Iowa Department of Public Safety announced last week that it is halting electrical inspections of farm buildings. The move is consistent with Governor Terry Branstad’s opinion that the inspections are an unlawful bureaucratic overreach. One way or another, a court will probably decide whether the Electrical Examining Board or the Branstad administration violated state law.