Joey Norris is a small business owner and Democratic volunteer in Red Oak. This is the prepared version of remarks he delivered at the No Kings: Vote Early rally in Windsor Heights on October 17, 2026. Bleeding Heartland covered his prosecution for felony election misconduct, his trial, and his acquittal here.

1. The lesson

There is a lesson being taught in this country right now.

It’s being taught in the White House and in statehouses, in courtrooms and county basements. It is a simple lesson, and it goes like this:

Don’t ask.

Don’t ask where the money went. Don’t ask who wrote the rule. Don’t ask why the rules apply to you and not to them. Sit down. Be grateful. Stay quiet.

But, we were taught a different lesson as kids.

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. This essay first appeared on his Substack newsletter, Stray Thoughts. 

When a city plans something big, it should not check driver’s licenses at the door.

That is what happened earlier this month in Woodward. The City Council cancelled its regular meeting on October 12 and instead held what it called a “community conversation” in the Woodward-Granger High School auditorium.

The notice required attendees to show a photo ID with a Woodward address or a piece of mail with their name and Woodward address before they could enter.

Security officers and police were there to oversee the screening of IDs. I was there as president of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council and was turned away. So was a rural Dallas County resident interested in data centers. A KCCI reporter saw at least two others who were refused entry.

Mike Tupper is the former Marshalltown police chief and the Democratic candidate for Iowa House District 52.

I spent 32 years in law enforcement, including more than thirteen years as Marshalltown’s police chief. I loved my career, and I learned a great deal about public safety, managing budgets, and solving problems with limited resources.

Those are lessons I want to bring to the Iowa legislature.

One thing I learned as police chief is that there’s a difference between talking about supporting law enforcement and actually giving officers the resources they need to do their jobs.

Shawn Olorundami is a teacher and candidate for the Iowa House of Representatives in District 1.

When families make the difficult decision to move a loved one into an assisted-living facility, they place an extraordinary amount of trust in the people responsible for their care.

They trust that their parents and grandparents will be safe. That staff members will be properly trained. That medications will be administered correctly. And that if something goes wrong, someone will respond immediately.

What state inspectors uncovered at Lawton Senior Living in Woodbury County should concern every Iowa family.

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.

Try as one might, I defy you to find a better concise description of what’s at stake in the upcoming election than Trump v. United States—the U.S. Supreme Court ruling decided by a 6-3 majority on July 1, 2024. Think about it: The President vs. the United States of America.

Our short-term future might be in 3-D: Daily Doses of Disaster, or Democracy’s Doses of Despair.

So what’s wrong with Trump v. United States? In a word, everything. However, my focus today is on the hypocrisy inherent in claiming to be both bipartisan and pro-Trump.

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. This essay first appeared on his Substack newsletter, Stray Thoughts. 

The school field trip tragedy last month at Lake Macbride State Park again demonstrated the adage that a rumor can travel halfway around the globe while the truth is still putting on its shoes.

Government silence during a public crisis or mass-casualty event creates an information vacuum that rumor, speculation, and misinformation quickly fill.

As the recent events north of Iowa City show, often that noise is simply wrong.

It need not be that way — if government officials would run toward the truth as fast as first responders head toward danger.

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 

When I think about Amendment 1 on Iowa’s general election ballot, I’m reminded of the classic children’s book, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. Alexander wakes up with gum stuck in his hair, he doesn’t get a toy in his cereal, doesn’t get the window seat in the carpool, gets scolded by his teacher, and there’s no dessert at lunch.

There isn’t a happy ending, because the central theme of the book is that bad days happen to everyone, and it’s just a normal part of life.

But when there’s a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad idea on the ballot, it doesn’t have to become part of our lives.

Ric Zarwell, John A. Lundell, and Kevin W. Techau co-authored this column. Zarwell is a lifelong Allamakee County conservationist, birder, and former president of the Allamakee County Protectors, known for advocating for the land and water of the Driftless Area. 

Lundell is a former mayor of Coralville (2013 – 2021) and ten-year City Council member. He is a member of the Iowa League of Cities Hall of Fameand a recognized water quality advocate.

Techau is a longtime Iowa conservation advocate who served as executive director and board chair of Keep Iowa Beautiful, served on the Iowa Environmental Council board,and enforced the Clean Water Act as U.S. Attorney for Iowa’s Northern District.

Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird is failing her most fundamental job: protecting the health, safety, and lives of the people who elected her. Instead of acting as a vigorous steward of our environment, Bird has abandoned the state’s top environmental enforcement duties, shielding corporate polluters while everyday Iowans pay the price.

This is not a matter of routine political theater; it is a profound case of malfeasance.

Brian McLain is a co-chair of the Iowa Democratic Party’s Platform Committee and former chair of the party’s Progressive Caucus.

Every two years, hundreds of Iowa Democratic Party members come together to determine the direction they want the Party to go. It is a long process requiring hours of meetings, debate, and discussion that eventually culminates in a single document, offering a picture of where the base stands on the issues at the time. It is truly one of the most democratic processes that one can take part in and a testament to what can be achieved in a party whose members don’t always see eye to eye with each other.

Typically this document is available on the Iowa Democratic Party website after the bi-annual convention. However, for some unknown reason the 2026 platform has not been published yet. So in honor of the hard work that the Platform Committee has put into this document, we are taking it upon ourselves to bring the platform to you through this medium.

Phil Montag is a Des Moines area activist and serves on the board of the Iowa Unity Coalition.

Listening to Zach Lahn on the Iowa gubernatorial campaign trail for the past year has been quite a show. To his credit, from the beginning he has put ecology, sustainable agriculture, and water quality front and center in ways that I wish politicians would do more often. 

After watching Randy Feenstra and Adam Steen trying to out-Trump each other and race to the bottom of banal human depravity and white grievance, part of me was happy to see Lahn win the Republican primary. 

Zach Lahn celebrates with supporters on primary election night (photo first published on his campaign’s Facebook page)

A Montgomery County jury prevented a miscarriage of justice on October 8, when jurors acquitted Joey Norris of first-degree election misconduct after deliberating for only a few hours.

Norris never should have faced a felony charge for his actions as a member of the board processing absentee ballots. Montgomery County Auditor Jill Ozuna set the wheels in motion after she and Norris clashed on election day in November 2024. But Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird is responsible for this unjustified prosecution.

State law gives Bird’s office exclusive jurisdiction over election-related offenses. Neither her staff nor local law enforcement conducted a competent investigation before charging a prominent Democrat in a deep-red county.

This episode could deter other Iowans from volunteering as election workers. Although Norris was found not guilty, the felony charge and trial left him with crushing legal bills. Who would want to risk becoming the next poster child for Bird’s “election integrity” crusade?

By John Forbes is a former state representative and candidate for Polk County Board of Supervisors

Polk County belongs to all of us. That’s the idea at the heart of Heather Jones-Brown’s campaign for Supervisor in District 4, and it’s why I’m proud to support her.

As a fellow candidate for the Board of Supervisors, I’ve spent this campaign thinking hard about what it takes to do this job well. The county decides things that touch every family’s life: the water we drink, the roads we drive, the mental health services our neighbors depend on. Those decisions deserve leaders who listen first. Heather is that kind of leader.

Heather is rooted in the community she wants to serve. She grew up on Des Moines’ Eastside and in Pleasant Hill, graduated from East High, and currently lives with her husband on the Southeast side. She comes from a family of firefighters, Marines, PTA volunteers and union members, people who taught her to show up and take responsibility for her neighbors. Volunteers in District 4 will tell you Heather “always shows up,” and her campaign is a continuation of that record, not a false promise.

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. This essay first appeared on his Substack newsletter, Stray Thoughts. 

When dealing with the Iowa Public Information Board, being a mind-reader helps.

That is one takeaway from the board’s dismissal last month of a public-records complaint against Attorney General Brenna Bird’s office.

The request was made on December 4, 2024 by Chad Brewbaker, who asked the attorney general for the fees her office paid to private attorneys. His complaint to the Iowa Public Information Board alleged he never received an acknowledgement of his request or the data showing how taxpayer money was spent.

Beginning in January 2025, and continuing until he filed the IPIB complaint on August 11, Brewbaker said he emailed the attorney general each month to remind her of his request and ask, “Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response.”

His case highlights a fundamental problem with Iowa’s public-records law: it does not say how long a government body may take to respond to a records request. The case also illustrates the problems Iowans can face when seeking help from the Public Information Board.

Edward A. Wasserman is a 53-year resident of Iowa and a professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences at The University of Iowa. The views expressed in his piece are his own and do not in any way reflect those of his employer.

Controversy surrounds the Center for Intellectual Freedom at the University of Iowa. A key justification for the center is to expand civics education beyond the high school curriculum. Given that rationale and the various ongoing threats to established American values, the words of Henry A. Wallace merit serious consideration.

Born on October 7, 1888, in Orient, Iowa, Henry Wallace served as the 33rd Vice President of the United States under President Franklin D. Roosevelt from 1941 to 1945. A year before the U.S. and its Allies defeated the Axis powers in World War II, the New York Times asked Wallace to define and assess the dangers of fascism in America. His commentary from April 9, 1944, still rings true.

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.

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. This essay first appeared on his Substack newsletter, Stray Thoughts. 

Succession planning and public celebration typically accompany executive retirements. They provide for an orderly leadership transition and public acknowledgment of a job well done.

So, two simple questions arise whenever top government employees leave their jobs in hastily announced retirements — and receive more than the customary coffee-and-cookies going-away reception in return for signing customized contracts containing waivers, releases, and promises not to criticize.

What exactly are we paying for? And why?

Larry McBurney is a Democratic member of the Iowa House representing part of Urbandale.

For years, Iowa Republicans have argued that lower taxes will attract people, businesses, and investment to the state. Governor Kim Reynolds made that case in 2022 while promoting her income tax plan, telling people elsewhere, “Come, move to Iowa.”

The results have been less dramatic than the sales pitch. Iowa’s population grew 1.5 percent from 2020 to 2025, compared with 3.1 percent population growth nationally. More notably, Iowa experienced net domestic outmigration during that period: 10,148 more people moved from Iowa to another state than moved here from another state.

At the same time, Iowa is spending more than it takes in through recurring revenue. For fiscal year 2027 (which began on July 1), the nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency projects about $8.4 billion in adjusted revenue and $9.645 billion in appropriations, with the difference covered in part by accumulated balances and a $617.8 million transfer from the Taxpayer Relief Fund.

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 

Growing up, organized sports consisted of little league, or high school baseball in the spring and summer. Fall and winter meant basketball, since our school was too tiny for football. No adult had yet figured out NBA, and MLB dreams were a sure money maker—so there were no sports academies or traveling leagues.

But we did have the town basketball court. It was a kid sanctuary where kid law prevailed. No adult supervision, no minimum or maximum age, and both genders were welcome. 

The rules were simple and strictly enforced. If you cried, you left. We called our own fouls loosely. If you overshot, and the ball went into the crick, you retrieved it. There were arguments, and fights, but there was urgency to end conflict, because finishing the game was more important than the fight.

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. This essay first appeared on his Substack newsletter, Stray Thoughts. 

In recent weeks, people from Cherokee, Des Moines, and Ottumwa have contacted the Iowa Freedom of Information Council with concerns about the refusal of local officials to share documents distributed to city council and school board members before they meet.

Typically, Iowa government boards and councils send their members document packets before each meeting so they have important background facts to help them make informed decisions. The materials often include staff reports on agenda topics, financial statements and analyses, proposed contracts, correspondence and recommended agreements.

The board packets promote informed governance. Members have time to read and digest relevant materials, study the facts, and prepare any questions in the days leading up to the public meeting.

Citizens deserve no less of an opportunity.

Ed Tibbetts, a longtime reporter and editor in the Quad-Cities, is the publisher of the Along the Mississippi newsletter, where this post first appeared. Find more of his work at edtibbetts.substack.com.

Suddenly, Ashley Hinson is trying to convince us she’s OK with Democrats; that she’s working with them to lower costs.

This is quite a change for Iowa’s wannabe senator. A year ago, she accused Democrats of trying to create a “crazy liberal dystopia.”

She said “radical left lunacy” had ruined states run by Democrats.

She accused Democrats of trying to push the U.S. “past the brink,” and she pledged her unending loyalty to Donald Trump, who regularly calls members of the Democratic Party “radical left dumocrats.”

“I will not let you down,” Hinson adoringly promised the president last year.

But now Hinson is trying to tell us she’s not so much MAGA as moderate; that she’s “working with people in both parties” to lower costs.

Tony Thompson, Ken Runde, and Kevin W. Techau jointly wrote this column. Thompson served as Black Hawk County sheriff and is a veteran of the U.S. Army and Iowa Army National Guard.

Runde served as Dubuque County sheriff and U.S. Marshal for the Northern District of Iowa. He is a Marine Corps veteran.

Techau served as Iowa’s Commissioner of Public Safety and U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Iowa. He is a veteran of the U.S. Air Force and Iowa Air National Guard.

Attorney General Brenna Bird recently traveled with the Quad City Back the Blue Flight to Washington, D.C., where participants visited the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial. Bird rightly noted that law enforcement officers put their lives on the line for us every day and deserve our gratitude. U.S. Representatives Mariannette Miller-Meeks (IA-01), Ashley Hinson (IA-02), and Zach Nunn (IA-03) have also declared their unwavering devotion to law enforcement, citing “Back the Blue” as a core pillar of their public service and campaign platforms.

We wholeheartedly agree with the sentiment. Consider the case of Capitol Police Officer Brian D. Sicknick, whose name is inscribed on that very National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial.

Rick Morain is the former publisher and owner of the Jefferson Herald, for which he writes a regular column. This essay first appeared on Substack.

Last week the United States and its people soberly remembered the stunning terrorist attacks that weaponized jetliners to kill thousands of people in the American homeland on September 11, 2001. Their deaths constitute the most tragic effect of the episode, and they continue as open wounds for family and friends of the victims.

The attacks also generated a number of other consequences for U.S. leaders at the time and in the following months and years, as well as for U.S. government agencies and their practices, American attitudes, and our relations with other nations. It’s hard to overestimate the importance of the 9/11 effects, many of which continue to drive our thinking and actions yet today.

Nick Covington is an Iowa parent who taught high school social studies for ten years.

The culture war battles we fight over our public schools are fundamentally disagreements about American values: what does it mean to be an American, and in whose image do we build our public schools?

“When Americans start fighting over their schools, you can be fairly sure of one thing: it probably isn’t really about school.”

— Jennifer Berkshire & Jack Schneider,

The Education Wars: A Citizen’s Guide and Defense Manual

From working as Assistant Secretary of Education in the George H.W. Bush administration to laying the foundation of the modern conservative education reform movement, Diane Ravitch—a one-time champion of No Child Left Behind—spent most of her life as a Republican with conservative values. The story of her life, as told in her 2025 memoir, is the story of the American Century. As today’s culture war on “wokeness” and “leftist indoctrination” targets diversity, equity, and inclusion in schools, Ravitch’s memoir makes a powerful case study for teaching these core American values.

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. This essay first appeared on his Substack newsletter, Stray Thoughts. 

You would think a school district readily knows its A-B-C’s.

Not the Des Moines Public Schools — at least not when informing the public what its 6,600 employees were paid during the academic year that ended June 30.

Yes, grade school teachers still call roll in alphabetical order. And next spring’s high school graduates will walk across the stage as their names are announced, starting with the A’s and moving through to the Z’s.

But when publishing a list of its employees in July and how much taxpayers paid each one, the Des Moines Public Schools’ alphabet started with Tiara S. Ziegler. Next was Pia Marcell Stites, and the list continued in an anything-but-organized manner.

Jay Brown is a retired physician in Ames.

The enemy of authoritarianism is community. Our country needs more community. Now there’s a simple way to resurrect childhood friendships in the battle against President Donald Trump and his efforts to ruin our beloved country.   

Hallways.vote is a free website that uses public voter and public donation data crossed with high school yearbooks. The result allows the user to effortlessly find former classmates who share their convictions.

Dave Miglin serves as treasurer on the Broadlawns Board of Trustees.

Polk County voters have an important choice to make for Broadlawns Medical Center, our county’s public hospital and one of the region’s most essential community institutions. At a time when health care is changing quickly and public hospitals face increasing pressure, Broadlawns needs steady, experienced, community-minded leadership. That is why voters should vote to return Emily Webb and Emily Westergaard to the Broadlawns Board of Trustees (labeled on the ballot as “County Hospital Trustee”).

Hospital trustees do not make headlines every day, and that is exactly why their work matters so much. They are responsible for asking hard questions, protecting the hospital’s mission, supporting safe and high-quality care, and ensuring that decisions are made with the long-term health of the community in mind. The best trustees bring judgment, preparation, independence, and a deep respect for the people who rely on the hospital in moments of vulnerability.

Julia Rendon is a retired minister in the United Church of Christ. As a member of Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, she has shamed businesses into paying their workers back wages, shone a light on predatory lending practices, and pressured the governor to reinstate the summer food program for kids. As a Christian, she believes that every person matters and everybody should have a voice in our life together, which is why she is working for free and fair elections in November. 

As we head into the November election, we can’t take our strong history of free and democratic elections for granted. Not even here in Iowa. 

Take Joey Norris for example. 

Joey volunteered in the 2024 election counting absentee ballots in Montgomery County, a job he took seriously. So, he was surprised to get kicked out of the counting room after voicing concerns over how ballots were being counted. Among other problems, multiple ballots were initially improperly rejected. Joey correctly pointed out they should be counted. He walked away without incident. 

Fast forward to this July. A year and a half after the fact, Joey faces a felony charge for first degree election misconduct. After posting bail, he is awaiting his trial scheduled for October. 

Chip Albright is a lifelong Midwesterner with rural Kansas roots and urban Iowa branches, an independent singer-songwriter, storyteller, and strategist seeking beauty and truth in this wild & wonderful world. Visit chipalbrightmusic.com for music and more.

Since I wrote “If It’s Turek, That’s Terrific!” earlier this year, I have witnessed Josh Turek up close and personal on many occasions. The more I see and hear him in action, the more I believe he is the resilient leader and pragmatic policymaker we so desperately need representing the people of Iowa in Washington, D.C.

My first personal interaction with Josh Turek was when an unknown number with a “712” area code rang my phone back in April. It didn’t say “potential spam,” so I went ahead and answered it. Josh was on the line— he heard the song I wrote about his candidacy and wanted to personally thank me for my efforts and support. He was in the midst of a heated race with Zach Wahls for the Democratic nomination but he made time for me — a single constituent with a simple folk song. We chatted for a spell; the whole experience was quite genuine.

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’s 36 counties covering 21,546 square miles across northern and western Iowa. It’s the state’s largest Congressional district, but often overlooked, neglected, and forgotten by politicians and pundits.

Iowa’s fourth district is treated as fly-over country—except by the 801,546 people who call it home. I’m one of those people, and I vote.

Why is this huge area ignored?

Dan Piller was a business reporter for more than four decades, working for the Des Moines Register and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. He covered the oil and gas industry while in Texas and was the Register’s agriculture reporter before his retirement in 2013. He lives in Ankeny.

A visitor to Iowa’s two largest university campuses might see the expanded football stadiums complete with private luxury suites whose games attract billion-dollar television contracts, gleaming indoor practice facilities and athlete residences, dining halls and training centers that would rival a fine resort. And they might well wonder why anyone would think Congress needs to pass a “Protect College Sports Act.”

It turns out that college sports needs to be saved from itself. The culprit is that old bogey; money.

Why some want Congress involved with college sports

The 69 universities in the so-called “power conferences” that call themselves “big time” apparently don’t have a clue about how to govern themselves, despite their location on campuses that hold what are supposedly our best minds. Where private, for profit professional sports have endured their various crises with strongmen commissioners, college sports long has long been run by parochial, oligarchical interests that have resisted central control.

Former Des Moines Register assistant sports editor Ira Lacher writes about the games and business of sports for various newspapers and magazines.

“Are you not entertained? Are you not entertained? Is this not why you are here?” 

The quote is from the 2000 film Gladiator, which followed a deposed Roman nobleman’s quest to avenge the executions of his wife and children. But it could easily be applied to the modern gladiator sport: American football, which brought in about $14.5 billion in revenue in 2025.

According to recent polling, Americans consider football our most popular sport by almost a 2-to-1 margin over baseball. Regular-season NFL games averaged 18.7 million viewers in 2025. By contrast, the top non-NFL telecast last year, a typical episode of the CBS series Tracker, averaged a mere 11 million.

Those who have examined the sport academically understand that unlike gladiator contests, football is hardly a death dealer: Only one NFL player, Chuck Hughes, of the Detroit Lions, died during a game, in 1971.

But players get hurt. Seriously hurt. 

Charles Bruner is a former Democratic Iowa legislator (1978-1990), was the founding director of Iowa Child and Family Policy Center (1990-2015, now Common Good Iowa), and is national director of the InCK Marks Initiative’s Child Health Equity Leadership Group.

I am pretty certain all of this year’s Iowa Democratic candidates for the U.S. House and Senate would have voted for the Affordable Care Act in 2010, the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, and the Build Back Better Infrastructure Act of 2021. I am pretty certain they all would have voted against the Tax Cut and Jobs Act of 2017 and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025.

I am also sure all Republicans running for Congress in Iowa this year would have done the exact opposite. (Representatives Ashley Hinson, Marianette Miller-Meeks, and Zach Nunn did vote that way on the bills that coincided with their tenure in Congress.)

I am sure of it because all of those votes were on strict party lines. The Tax Cut and Jobs Act and One Big Beautiful Bill Act did not even seek any bipartisan support, as Republicans approved them through the budget reconciliation process.

Rachel Bruns is a maternal health advocate in Iowa.

Earlier this year, I wrote a three-part series for the Des Moines Business Record’s Fearless publication titled “From Personal Experience to Policy Change: Fighting for Improvements in Maternal Health Care in Iowa.” 

With that series, I was excited to highlight, in part 1, promising practices at hospitals across the country that were making positive improvements in maternal health care – improving both patient satisfaction and outcomes. In part 2, I highlighted ongoing policy issues impacting maternal health, and in part 3, I examined the consequences of mistrust in medicine.

While I have had to step back from my engagement on maternal health advocacy, I am still paying attention, and there is a lot to pay attention to.

David Elbert is a former business editor and columnist for the Des Moines Register. He now writes about local history for DSM Magazine. 

The national debt recently passed the $40 trillion mark, which means your share is about $117,000, or roughly half the cost of a typical Iowa home.

The national debt nearly doubled in the past decade, which is more than twice the rate of inflation during those ten years.

The New York Times published an interesting chart recently that tracked the national debt as a percentage of our Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which is a calculation of all goods and services produced annually.

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. This essay first appeared on his Substack newsletter, Stray Thoughts. 

Novelist Charles Dickens poked his quill pen at government bureaucracy 175 years ago with his accounts about a fictionalized department he called the “Circumlocution Office.” 

“Circumlocution” often is used with disdain to describe writing or speaking that is intentionally vague, evasive, or overly wordy.

Sadly, the personnel departments in state and local governments in Iowa these days have become Circumlocution Offices of their own when officials describe why a highly paid public employee was fired.

The recent termination of a Polk County administrator illustrates the problem.

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.

To help get a grip on the turmoil of the day, please repeat after me:

“At long last, sir,” [At long last, sir]
“Have you left no sense of decency?” [Have you left no sense of decency?]

As many readers know, that was the question Joseph Welch asked of Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin at a Senate hearing on June 9, 1954.

His pointed question was overdue. It was Welch—an Iowan born in Primghar, and a graduate of Grinnell College—who finally held a U.S. senator accountable for fomenting fear of Communism into a time of national divisiveness and hatred. McCarthyism fed on the lies and innuendo heaped upon those McCarthy and his supporters deemed un-American.

Jennifer Breon is a Senior Iowa Organizer with Food & Water Action, the political and lobbying sibling organization of the national environmental group Food & Water Watch. She is based in Iowa City.

Matt Hildreth is the Executive Director of Rural Organizing, a national organization working to rebuild a rural America that’s empowered, thriving, and equitable. Originally from eastern South Dakota, Matt is based in rural Washington State.

Industrial agriculture’s public health crisis is on full display in Iowa. 

As residents of the state with the nation’s fastest-rising cancer rates, the most factory farms and highest waterway toxic nitrate concentrations, Iowans are desperate for change. If Iowa Democrats want to regain power this fall, they need to prove to voters that they are serious about solutions.

If they can get it right, new polling from Rural Organizing outlines the opportunity this issue offers Democratic candidates: Iowans are so fed up with high and rising cancer rates that fully 11 percent of Trump’s rural Iowa voters would consider voting for a different party over this issue. Indeed, recent Food & Water Action polling found that few issues are as concerning to Iowa voters as cancer rates and clean water.

Politics is so often a game played in the margins, with opportunities for flipping voters between parties few and far between. Democrats would be wise to seize this rare opening.

When U.S. Representative Ashley Hinson was gearing up to run for Senate last year, her primary objectives appeared to be pleasing the “audience of one” in the White House and clearing the Republican field. Within days of her campaign launch, she had locked down support from President Donald Trump and most of the GOP establishment.

That should have been enough in a state where Democrats haven’t won a U.S. Senate race since 2008, and Republicans enjoy a large voter registration advantage.

Things haven’t gone according to plan.

Whether you consider Iowa’s U.S. Senate race a toss-up (like the Cook Political Report, the Silver Bulletin, and Fox News), tilting Republican (Inside Elections) or still leaning in Hinson’s direction (Sabato’s Crystal Ball), one fact is undeniable: Hinson and her allies are trying to change the dynamic of the campaign.

Their twofold strategy is to tear down the Democratic nominee, State Representative Josh Turek, while shoring up Hinson’s support with conservatives. And they have good reasons to worry.

Deborah Thompson is the Owner of DHT Consulting & Training, LLC and a long-time public health advocate. She is president-elect of the Iowa Public Health Association but is offering her personal opinions here, not speaking on behalf of the association.

Every political season brings a new health priority, slogan, or bill promising to improve the well-being of Iowans. This year, Iowa joined the national “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) movement with the passage of House File 2676. 

U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. joined Governor Kim Reynolds at the May 20 bill signing. The law reflects growing public concern about nutrition, food ingredients, physical activity, and chronic disease. Our candidates for governor and Congress are talking about health, too. Enough to bring RFK back to our humble state this past week to campaign for MAHA candidate Zach Lahn, the GOP nominee for governor.

The attention is welcome, but if Iowa is truly committed to becoming healthier, a more important question remains: What happens after the headlines fade?