Henry Jay Karp is the Rabbi Emeritus of Temple Emanuel in Davenport, Iowa, which he served from 1985 to 2017. He is the co-founder and co-convener of One Human Family QCA, a social justice organization. This essay first appeared on his Substack column.

When folks like me call out what we see as a profound danger to our society, as it appears that our government is turning against entire segments of our community, stripping or reducing the rights of select groups of people who are our neighbors, there are those who claim we are alarmists sowing discontent; that we are modern day “Chicken Littles,” going around declaring that the sky is falling.

On December 27, the Quad City Times published its list of “top 10 Iowa stories of 2024.” One look at the list offers more than ample justification for the warnings I and so many others have offered about the current state of our state and the troubling prospects of what lies ahead for Iowa and the nation over the next four years. A whopping seven out of these ten top stories are matters of serious concern for Iowa’s social justice advocates.

A new nonprofit organization, Mid-Iowa Community News, will soon launch the Ames Voice, a digital newsroom “dedicated to being the primary source of news and information for the Ames area.” Douglas Burns, one of the organizers of the effort, announced in a December 30 post on The Iowa Mercury newsletter that Ames Voice has “been in the works for a year.” Its mission: “local, local, local coverage. Just the facts. Full coverage of life in Story County, home to Ames and Iowa State University.”

Ames is Iowa’s ninth-largest city, with more than 65,000 residents, and home to the Iowa Department of Transportation as well as Iowa’s second-largest state university. Story County is the ninth-largest of the 99 counties, with more than 98,000 residents.

Although the area has long had a newspaper, The Ames Tribune (part of the Gannett group) has eliminated most of its newsroom staff in recent years. The paper now publishes far more content from the Des Moines Register than original reporting.

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   

Imagine a basketball team where players are paid a bonus per basket, rebound, or steal. Would the five players work together to win, or would the game be about individual statistics and earning the biggest paycheck? Now imagine only two of the five players can earn a bonus. How would the other three starters and the bench react? 

In November, Governor Kim Reynolds and the Iowa Department of Education announced an $8.5 million competitive grant program to recognize teachers who accelerate student learning beyond one year of learning. Districts would be able to provide $2,500 in supplemental pay to the top 10 percent. Total district awards will vary based on the number of teachers in the district, up to a maximum of $500,000.

Reynolds called this program a “Teachers Accelerating Learning grant.” It’s funded through federal dollars from the Biden administration’s American Rescue Plan.

No matter what she calls the concept, it’s still just merit pay.

Jack Hatch, Joe Enriquez Henry, Peggy Huppert, Anne Kinzel, and Ralph Rosenberg sent the message enclosed below to members of the Iowa Democratic Party’s State Central Committee on December 18.

Hatch is a business owner and builder of low income housing, a former state senator, and was the Iowa Democratic nominee for governor in 2014. Joe Enriquez Henry is a community and Latino activist, and chair of the Southside Democrats in Des Moines. Peggy Huppert has been a Democratic activist for 42 years and has served as Polk County co-chair and a nonprofit executive staffer. Anne Kinzel is a policy specialist, former lawyer, and Democratic activist. Ralph Rosenberg is a former state senator, lawyer, former director of the Youth Law Center, co-founder Iowa Environmental Council and former director of the Iowa Civil Rights Commission.

To Members of the IDP State Central Committee, 

We all know this was a bad year for Democrats. Elections are about winning; winners get to make policy and law. Iowa Democrats — leaders and rank and file alike — have failed in this truism.

For Iowans, the results have been devastating. For activists and everyone associated with our party, the result is demoralizing, with a loss of power and influence. If we believe that our Democratic Party values can improve the lives of Iowans now and for decades to come, we must question what our Party and our Legislative Caucuses are currently doing. We need to first make the necessary structural changes to allow Democrats to challenge the Republicans. Anything less will keep us where we are, politically irrelevant and failing Iowans.  

A years-long effort to expand the federal judiciary faltered this week when President Joe Biden vetoed the Judicial Understaffing Delays Getting Emergencies Solved Act of 2024. The JUDGES Act would have increased the federal district court bench by about 10 percent over the next twelve years, adding 63 new permanent federal judgeships in thirteen states, along with three temporary judgeships in Oklahoma. The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa was slated to receive one of the first eleven positions to be created in 2025.

The veto leaves Iowa’s Northern District with two District Court judges (Chief Judge C.J. Williams and Judge Leonard T. Strand), along with Senior Judge Linda R. Reade and two magistrate judges. That number hasn’t changed since 1990, when the last major expansion of the federal bench allocated a third judgeship to Iowa’s Southern District. The 1990 law also assigned a judge who had previously divided his time between the state’s two districts to the Northern District on a permanent basis.

Biden may not have the last word on this subject, given the Republican Party’s commitment to putting more conservatives on the bench.

UPDATE: Zimmer won the special election. You can read about how he did it here. Original post follows.

Central DeWitt School Board president Mike Zimmer announced on December 23 that he will seek the Democratic nomination in Iowa Senate district 35, where voters will choose a successor to Lieutenant Governor Chris Cournoyer on January 28. In a statement enclosed in full below, Zimmer promised to “champion Eastern Iowa’s public schools, working families, and our middle class” by fighting for “stronger public schools, better wages, and opportunities that foster real financial stability.”

According to a guide from the Iowa Secretary of State’s office, candidates have until 5:00 PM on January 14 to file nominating papers with the secretary of state. Before then, Democrats and Republicans will hold nominating conventions, where delegates from the 36 precincts across the Senate district will choose a nominee. Third-party or independent candidates need to collect at least 100 signatures from eligible voters residing in the district, and submit those petitions with their nominating papers.

While others could compete for the Democratic nomination at the special convention, Zimmer’s proven electoral track record would give him an advantage.

Chris Gloninger is a meteorologist and climate communicator with 18 years of broadcast experience, AMS dual certifications, and a master’s in Emergency Management, specializing in making complex climate topics accessible. He first published this essay on his newsletter, Weathering Climate Change.

As 2024 comes to a close, it’s clear something extraordinary—and unsettling—has been happening in Des Moines. With just five days to go, the city is tied for the second warmest year on record. Highs in the 40s and lows in the 20s ensured the year would cement its place in the top three warmest years since record keeping began in 1879. But this isn’t just a story of numbers; it’s a narrative about change—rapid, undeniable, and deeply concerning.

Weather records in Des Moines stretch back nearly 150 years, offering a rich tapestry of data that helps to understand long-term climate trends. In a stable climate, one might expect the warmest years to be evenly distributed across time—half occurring before 1951 and half after. But that’s not what’s happening. Of the top ten warmest years in Des Moines, seven have occurred since 1951. Even more telling, six of those years have happened since 2010. That’s not just a trend—it’s a flashing red warning light.

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

“We recognize as a board and as a district that the lives of many of our students and their families will be impacted because of immigration policy,” said Des Moines Public Schools board member Maria Alonzo. “We felt making this statement was important.”

That quote comes from Samantha Hernandez’s story for the Des Moines Register on the Des Moines Public Schools’ new policy statement about the immigration concerns of students and their families. It appears to be an effort to resist President-elect Donald Trump’s plan (endorsed by Governor Kim Reynolds) to conduct mass deportations of undocumented migrant children and their families.

I commend the school district for releasing this statement, which recognizes the precariousness of students whose parents (or themselves) are here from another country and possibly lack documentation.

Charles Gaba is a health care policy wonk, advocate, and blogger who mixes data analysis with snark at ACASignups.net, where this article first appeared. You can follow him on Threads, Bluesky, Mastodon, Spoutible, or X/Twitter.

In early 2021, Democrats in Congress passed and President Joe Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), which among other things dramatically expanded and enhanced the original premium subsidy formula of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The changes brought the financial aid sliding income scale up to the level it should have been in the first place more than a decade earlier.

In addition to beefing up the subsidies along the entire 100 percent to 400 percent of Federal Poverty Level income scale, the ARPA also eliminated the much-maligned “Subsidy Cliff” at 400 percent of the Federal Poverty Level. Before 2021, a household earning even $1 more than that amount had all premium subsidies cut off immediately, requiring middle-class families to pay full price for individual market health insurance policies.

COMPARING THE ORIGINAL ACA SUBSIDIES WITH ENHANCED SUBSIDIES

Here’s what the original ACA premium subsidy formula looked like compared to the current, enhanced subsidy formula:

Whether you celebrate Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanzaa, or no holiday, I come bearing gifts on this wintry day: a photo from each of Bleeding Heartland’s 29 posts about wildflowers this year. Readers often tell me this series is their favorite thing about my website.

As in 2022 and 2023, guest authors and photographers carried much of the load for this series. In alphabetical order: Emily Bredthauer, Katie Byerly, Luuk Clark, Lora Conrad, Jeff Ewoldt, Kara Grady, Marla Mertz, Bruce Morrison, Diane Porter, Kenny Slocum, and Patrick Swanson. Special thanks to Emily, Luuk, and Jeff, who contributed to Bleeding Heartland for the first time this year.

This series will return sometime during April or May of 2025. Please reach out if you have photographs to share, especially of native plants I haven’t featured yet. The full archive of more than 300 posts featuring more than 250 species is available here. I have also compiled links to several dozen posts that covered many plants found in one area, rather than focusing on a single kind of wildflower.

For those looking for wildflower pictures year round, or seeking help with plant ID, check out the Facebook groups Flora of Iowa or Iowa wildflower enthusiasts. If you’d like a book to take with you on nature outings, Lora Conrad reviewed some of the best wildflower guides last year. A book featuring plants native to our part of the country is probably more reliable than the plant ID app on your phone.

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. 

When it comes to freedom of religion and the rights enshrined in the 45 words of the First Amendment, the devil is in the details in Iowa.

Governor Kim Reynolds’ administration recently revoked permission for the Satanic Temple of Iowa to place a display in the state capitol and host a holiday celebration around it. The Department of Administrative Services and governor’s office claimed the event would harm minors.

A year ago, the governor took the opposite stance on the Satanic Temple’s holiday display. Although she said it was “absolutely objectionable,” she explained in 2023 why the display was allowed: “In a free society, the best response to objectionable speech is more speech, and I encourage all those of faith to join me in praying over the Capitol and recognizing the nativity scene that will be on display.”

Steve Corbin is emeritus professor of marketing at the University of Northern Iowa and a freelance writer who receives no remuneration, funding, or endorsement from any for-profit business, nonprofit organization, political action committee, or political party. 

Roughly 1,200 positions in the federal government require U.S. Senate confirmation. The first cabinet official was confirmed in 1789 when the Senate unanimously approved President George Washington’s nomination of Alexander Hamilton to be treasury secretary.

The confirmation process involves judgment calls by 100 senators, who decide whether a nominee is professionally qualified, exhibits leadership skills, is ethically fit, morally just, doesn’t carry “baggage” and has the temperament for the job.

They were so close.

After weeks of negotiations, U.S. House and Senate leaders had agreed on a year-end spending bill that would fund the federal government through March 14, extend the 2018 Farm Bill through next September, and provide more than $100 billion in disaster aid. The legislation included numerous other policies, including at least two that had been priorities for Iowa’s members of Congress. The bill would have legalized year-round sales of higher ethanol blends known as E-15 in all states. It also contained new regulations for pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), which could have saved consumers billions while helping small pharmacies.

All of the Iowans in Congress have talked up E-15 as a path to U.S. energy independence. (In reality, only about 3,400 of some 198,000 gas stations across the country dispense higher ethanol blends.) Representative Mariannette Miller-Meeks (IA-01) and Senator Chuck Grassley have been among the most vocal proponents of PBM reform, calling for action on prescription drug middlemen in draft bills, press releases, news conferences, House and Senate hearings, floor speeches, and taxpayer-funded radio ads.

Little did they know that President-elect Donald Trump and his billionaire buddy Elon Musk were about to blow up the deal.

Iowa’s all-Republican delegation voted the same way on almost every bill that came before both chambers during the 118th Congress, which wrapped up its work in the early hours of December 21. But one of the last bills sent to President Joe Biden, the Social Security Fairness Act, revealed an unusual disagreement among the Iowans serving in the U.S. House and Senate.

When the House approved the bill by 327 votes to 75 in November, U.S. Representatives Mariannette Miller-Meeks (IA-01), Ashley Hinson (IA-02), Zach Nunn (IA-03), and Randy Feenstra (IA-04) were part of the bipartisan majority.

When the Senate passed the bill by 76 votes to 20 shortly after midnight on December 21, Senators Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst were among the 20 Republicans who voted no.

The Iowans’ comments on the Social Security Fairness Act illustrate how differently politicians with similar ideologies can view a complex public policy fix.

Iowa is projected to maintain four U.S. House districts after 2030, according to population estimates the U.S. Census Bureau released on December 19. If that pans out, it would be our state’s longest stretch without losing a Congressional district in 100 years.

Michael Li, senior counsel for the Brennan Center’s Democracy Program, posted a map on social media on December 19, showing how reapportionment would affect each state. Iowa is among 36 states that would neither gain nor lose any U.S. House districts after the 2030 census, if population trends from the past two years hold. Three neighboring states—Illinois, Minnesota, and Wisconsin—are each expected to lose one seat, in line with a decades-long trend of relatively slower population growth in the Midwest and Northeast, compared to the South and West.

Lyle Muller is a board member of the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting and Iowa High School Press Association, a trustee of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council, former executive director/editor of the Iowa Center for Public Journalism that became part of the Midwest Center, former editor of The Cedar Rapids Gazette, and a recipient of the Iowa Newspaper Association’s Distinguished Service Award. In retirement, he is the professional adviser for Grinnell College’s Scarlet & Black newspaper. This article first appeared on his Substack newsletter.

So, Donald Trump is suing The Des Moines Register and pollster J. Ann Selzer for consumer fraud, which he claims was willful election interference. Bring it on, I would like to say—but I don’t run The Register and my subscription does not entitle me to make such a challenge. I would be doing Selzer no favors, either. 

It would be like pushing the weakest sucker in your group of eighth-grade buddies to the front of the group after mouthing off to a bully. And, make no mistake, a bully is involved in this lawsuit. The kind you thought you left behind in eighth grade.

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   

Storm clouds thicken as flashes brighten a distant sky. It’s coming. The snare drum cadence of thunder morphs into booming bass drums accompanied by a slashing light show. The wind howls. You check the batteries in the flashlights. You close the windows and secure the garbage cans.

It’s time to gather family, grab flashlights, and head for lower ground.

There are different kinds of storms. On January 13, a legislative storm will begin brewing in Des Moines. It’s time to gather the education family to prepare.

Clark Kauffman is deputy editor at Iowa Capital Dispatch, where this article first appeared. He worked for the Iowa Office of Ombudsman from October 2018 through November 2019. 

The Iowa Department of Corrections has refused to change its administrative rules to help ensure the state’s county jails aren’t illegally seizing inmates’ money, according to the state ombudsman’s office.

In its newly issued annual report, the Iowa Office of Ombudsman says that for several years, it has tracked procedures in Iowa jails that run contrary to Iowa law. Some of the practices are attributed to contradictions between Iowa law and state agencies’ administrative rules.

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. A version of this essay first appeared on his Substack newsletter, The Odd Man Out.

Here we are again.

We saw this last year with them calling for the Satanic Temple of Iowa’s holiday display “objectionable.” We saw this in the last few years with Governor Kim Reynolds signing the “religious freedom restoration act,” which critics correctly claimed would privilege Christianity and religion over other faiths and irreligion.

We saw this with the Republican administration taking public dollars from public schools and sending them to unscrupulous and unaccountable religious institutions. We saw this with the state legislature mandating an oath to a deity in classrooms statewide with the pledge of allegiance in public schools.  We saw this in the last ten years with the Muslim ban from President Donald Trump. We saw this in the last decades when the atheists wanted to run some bus ads or put up billboards.

Time and again we see the Republican Party, particularly the Republican Party of Iowa, finding new and ever more egregious ways to privilege their favored flavor of religion—Christianity—at the public’s expense.

President-elect Donald Trump followed through this week with his threat to sue pollster Ann Selzer and the Des Moines Register over the final pre-election Iowa Poll, which showed Vice President Kamala Harris leading Trump by 47 percent to 44 percent.

Many others have pointed out that Trump’s lawsuit is part of his broader “revenge tour” and “war on journalism.” In Greg Sargent’s words, the case is “putting people in the media and polling on notice that they will face real legal harassment if they anger or criticize Trump.” The president-elect admitted during a December 16 press conference that he will use lawsuits to influence news coverage: “I think you have to do it, because they’re very dishonest. We need a great media, we need a fair media.”

This post will focus on the legal, factual, and logical problems with the court filing.