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. 

It’s funny how a government body can learn and teach an important civics lesson in the time it takes a student to go from kindergarten through 12th grade.

In 2012, the Atlantic Community School District won a lawsuit to keep information secret about disciplinary measures taken against two employees who conducted a strip-search of five girls to try to find $100 another student reported missing.

Iowa Supreme Court Chief Justice Mark Cady wrote a dissent in the case, noting that “transparency in government surely will be thwarted” by those who can “quell public discourse and end controversies over employee misconduct with no public scrutiny by simply announcing discipline has been imposed.”

For the past nine years, Iowa’s Republican-controlled legislature has given Governor Kim Reynolds a free hand. GOP lawmakers allowed Reynolds to spend billions of federal dollars provided through the CARES Act and American Rescue Plan with no legislative input.

They approved most of the governor’s signature proposals, expanded her power to hire and fire officials, and allowed her to set agency directors’ salaries with no constraints.

Neither chamber’s Government Oversight Committee has investigated any alleged malfeasance or mismanagement in the Reynolds administration, such as the governor’s questionable spending of pandemic relief funds on her staff’s salaries, or the tens of millions of dollars wasted on a no-bid contract for Workday.

Now, in the tenth year of Iowa’s GOP trifecta, the ruling party has suddenly decided the legislature should be a check on the executive. Several bills that are eligible for floor debate could prevent Reynolds’ successor from making big changes in state government.

Insulting all of our collective intelligence, Republican lawmakers claim these bills aren’t fueled by concern that State Auditor Rob Sand may win the governor’s race in November.

Here’s a rundown of pending bills that could hamstring the next Democratic governor.

State Representative Josh Turek is a four-time Paralympian and two-time gold medalist for Team USA, a former professional wheelchair basketball player and a candidate for U.S. Senate. 

As the Olympics come to a close and the Paralympics begin in early March, I’m sure a lot of us are thinking about what it means to cheer for Team USA. 

Representing the United States at four Paralympic games was the highlight of my wheelchair basketball career, and one of the greatest honors of my life. Watching them raise the American flag with USA across my chest, a gold medal around my neck, and the stars and stripes over my shoulders, I was proud to be an American. 

This Olympics, I know many Americans are troubled by the direction of our country.

Wally Taylor is the Legal Chair of the Sierra Club Iowa chapter.

A recent study issued by Decision Innovation Solutions, a pro-Big Ag consulting firm in Des Moines, claims that Iowa’s farm economy is in dire straits because Iowa farmers are growing too much corn. Too much corn, according to the report, is creating a “demand gap.” In other words, corn growers are harvesting more corn that can be sold.

The report’s solution to this situation is year-round sale of E-15 (gasoline with 15 percent ethanol content), corn-based marine fuel, and corn-based aviation fuel. It should come as no surprise that the Iowa Corn Growers Association and the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association commissioned this study.

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 

Protecting children is a shared value of most adults. A newborn can’t leave the hospital unless they’re buckled into an approved car seat. We childproof our houses. We gasp the first time they swing too high and move closer to catch them if they fly out. When they’re tweens and teens, we stay up sweating until they’re home. We insist on seat belts, driver’s training, and helmets for bicycle riding.

At school, there are tornado, fire, and lockdown drills. There are lists of people approved to pick up students at the end of the day. Schools warn parents not to send a sick child to school.

We’re protective and cautious.

That’s why a bill now pending in the Iowa House is so troubling.

Dave Leshtz is the editor of The Prairie Progressive.

“Tell them you’re a realist with high ideals.”

That’s what Jesse Jackson said to me in 1987 when I asked him how to respond to my Iowa friends and acquaintances who, somewhat mockingly, called me an idealist for supporting him for president. Only unrealistic, naïve, hopelessly optimistic idealists—so the thinking went—would work for Jackson in an overwhelmingly white state like Iowa.

The sad news of Reverend Jackson’s death brought back memories of his presidential campaign of 1987-88, the most exhilarating, inspiring, and illuminating of all the campaigns I’ve worked on. 

Bill Bumgarner is a retired former health care executive from northwest Iowa who worked
in hospital management for 41 years, mostly in the state of Iowa.

Periodically historians and scholars assess and rank the performance of U.S. presidents. It’s an exercise with no sure answer – a matter of opinion informed by study, observation and perspective, also influenced by a measure of one’s political worldview.  

While interesting on their face, presidential greatness studies can also serve to remind us of the leadership values that brought out the best in America – and warn us that presidential judgement can be terribly misguided, even corrupt. 

Projects evaluating presidential achievement have occurred for decades. The Schlesinger surveys are well known to presidential historians. The first was conducted in 1948 by Arthur Schlesinger Sr., a Harvard University historian, with a follow-up project in 1962. Others came after, to include a survey by his son in 1996. Like his father, Arthur Schlesinger Jr. was a historian at Harvard.

John and Terri Hale own The Hale Group, an Ankeny-based firm advocating for older Iowans and Iowans with disabilities.

It was disturbing, frustrating and sickening. But it was not surprising. And it’s happened six years in a row. 

Behind closed doors, secretively and quietly, Iowa Senate Republicans once again killed a bill that would improve, and possibly save, the lives of nursing home residents.  

The bill would protect the right of loved ones of nursing home residents to install video cameras in their rooms. The camera would allow families near and far to check in on their moms, dads, grandparents or others to make sure they are well, safe, and receiving good care. 

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 Substack newsletter, Weathering Climate Change.

The Winter Olympics have always sold us a very specific idea of winter.

Snow that falls on cue. Cold that is sharp but reliable. Mountains that hold their shape and seasons that behave the way we expect them to. For decades, the Games have depended on that stability. Not just for aesthetics, but for safety, fairness, and the simple ability to hold winter sports at all.

That assumption is quietly breaking.

Linda Schreiber writes commentary on selected legislative issues.

While Iowa’s public universities support one in every ten jobs and generate billions of dollars in economic impact statewide, Republicans are pushing for yet another layer of oversight on the Regent institutions.

House File 2243, introduced by Iowa House Higher Education Committee chair Taylor Collins and eligible for floor debate, would require the Iowa Board of Regents to report to the state legislature and governor on how the board “could establish a performance-based funding model” for the three state universities. That funding model “must include” the following factors: graduation rates, degrees awarded in high-demand fields, postgraduate employment and income, and the number of graduates who stay in Iowa after graduation.

Those metrics already tell a compelling story: the state’s public universities are essential to meeting Iowa’s workforce needs, retaining talent, and strengthening communities across the state.

According to the Iowa Board of Regents, Graduates of the University of Iowa (UI), Iowa State University (ISU), and the University of Northern Iowa (UNI) fuel Iowa’s economy, filling high-demand roles in health care, education, and STEM fields.

Yet legislators frequently criticize the Regent universities while placing increasing constraints on their operations. What Iowans need are clear, accessible facts about the value and success of their public universities—and what those institutions need in return is stable, realistic financial support, not micromanagement, to continue delivering results for Iowa.

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.

Politicians who seek to ban diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practices at public institutions, and even try to extend the ban to the private sector, argue that DEI potentially discriminates against individuals who are not of a race, religion, ethnicity, gender orientation, or other group that DEI seeks to protect.

Individuals from the dominant groups in the nation or a state, they reason, deserve to be treated fairly, as individuals, in competition for college admission, employment, housing, and other sectors. No one should be favored because he or she belongs to a group that is supposedly discriminated against in our society and culture.

Rodney Drenkow is an attorney, a local business owner, and a former member of the Waverly City Council. This column first appeared in the Waverly Democrat.

This is the most difficult piece that I have ever written. Emotions are inflamed. Positions have been set in concrete. There does not seem to be room for any middle ground. The last thing that I want to do is add to the chaos. But I am also very concerned.

It seems that we have fallen far from what makes America great. There are many, many examples: from treating our allies with disdain, the insane way that trade partnerships for our corn and soybeans that have been built up over decades are so cavalierly discarded, the use of federal agencies as vehicles to control, intimidate, and exact retribution against American citizens, the disturbing treatment of those who exercise their Constitutional right to protest. 

Being a bully does not make us respected. Think Biff Tannen in the “Back to the Future” movies. Rather than “Make America Great Again” we are witnessing the tearing down of the very things that make us great. 

I truthfully don’t understand why some people are so afraid of immigrants. Immigrants are, by and large, hard working people, doing the jobs that Americans often don’t want. 

Dan Hunter is an award-winning playwright, songwriter, teacher and founding partner of Hunter Higgs, LLC, an advocacy and communications firm. A Des Moines native, he has written several books and performed a solo show of topical humor in song in Iowa for seventeen years. He has a weekly Substack column called Learning and Teaching Creativity, a weekly examination of ordinary people who exhibit unexpected creativity. This essay was first published by the Arrowsmith Press.

People outside of Iowa believe that Des Moines is a desert of homogeneity. But the Des Moines Public Schools is a district of 30,000 students speaking 100 different languages from 90 separate countries. About 21 percent of the district’s students are Black and almost 33 percent are Hispanic.

During the 2022-23 school year, the school board conducted a closed, nationwide search for a new superintendent. They sought a leader who could increase reading and math skills, particularly among Black boys.

Ian Roberts was introduced as the new superintendent of Des Moines Public Schools on May 16, 2023. He was an animating spirit for growth and inspiration in Des Moines. Roberts wore bright pastel suits, flowered shirts, and track shoes. He took off running.

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 

Some mysteries are difficult to solve. For example, in this classic story problem: “Train A leaves from Chicago for Toledo at 70 miles an hour. Simultaneously Train B leaves Toledo for Chicago at 60 miles per hour. The distance between the cities is 260 miles when do they meet?”

Sure, there’s a mathematical formula to figure it out, but as a distracted 7^th grader I never conquered it.  There were just too many other important questions needing answers. Why is the Chicago train faster? Is there a headwind between Toledo and Chicago or are trains just built slower in Ohio? Who are the people traveling? Why do we want those trains to meet? Are they on the same track? If so, isn’t that the real story and the real problem?

After reading about the recent Iowa Republican gubernatorial primary debate, there’s no mystery about why Iowa’s public schools are at risk. Four of the five contenders are sticking to an old formula that’s put Iowa public schools in jeopardy and caused teachers and future teachers to look for an exit.

Al Charlson is a North Central Iowa farm kid, lifelong Iowan, and retired bank trust officer. This commentary was first published in the Waverly Democrat.

Soybeans and I go back a long way. In the late 1950s, my dad began experimenting with soybeans as an alternative cash crop. He planted a small field in the corner of the farm, as far from the road as possible. That was a good idea—weed control in soybeans involved a learning curve. From the beginning it involved “walking beans” (hand weeding), so I literally got to know soybeans “from the ground up.”

At that time the landscape of North Central Iowa was very different from the dominant corn-soybean rotation we see today. Our 160 acres grew a rotation of corn, oats, and an alfalfa-grass mix. The mix was used for both hay and pasture for the dairy herd which was Dad’s primary livestock enterprise. He also raised hogs and maintained a flock of laying hens.

State Representatives Heather Matson, Tracy Ehlert, Eric Gjerde, Monica Kurth, Elinor A. Levin, and Mary Madison co-authored this column.

Two months. Twelve stops. All four corners of Iowa on a statewide education listening tour. 

That’s how we, as members of the House Education Committee, spent the fall as we focused our attention on how to make Iowa number 1 in education again. 

We set out to Mason City, Waterloo, Ankeny, Ottumwa, Indianola, Creston, Council Bluffs, Storm Lake, Emmetsburg, Bettendorf, Mount Vernon, and Dubuque. At each stop we heard from current and retired teachers, paraeducators, principals, superintendents, school board members, community college and higher education professors and leaders, AEA educators, school librarians, nurses, counselors, and mental health professionals, parents, and community advocates. 

We flipped the script of traditional town halls—this wasn’t about us talking—it was about listening before legislating. What did we hear? A lot! Here are some of the highlights. 

“Coordination between Grassley and the F.B.I.’s office of congressional affairs was unusually close throughout the year,” Emily Bazelon and Rachel Poser reported for the New York Times Magazine on January 22.

U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley was not the main focus of “A Year Inside Kash Patel’s F.B.I.,” a must-read investigation of changes that are “undermining the agency and making America less safe,” according to knowledgeable insiders. But as Bazelon and Poser interviewed dozens of current and former FBI employees, Iowa’s senior senator came up repeatedly.

Grassley’s oversight work as chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee led to career agents or supervisors being forced out, in some cases with no investigation supporting their alleged wrongdoing.

The New York Times Magazine article has so far received little attention from the Iowa media. Local journalists with access to Grassley’s weekly conference calls and recorded interviews with hand-picked reporters should ask the senator about some of the troubling details Bazelon and Poser uncovered. (His staff rarely reply to my emails and do not allow me to participate in any of his media availabilities.)

Linda Schreiber writes commentary on selected legislative issues.

Bob Dylan’s 1964 lyric, “The times they are a-changin’,” captured a moment of upheaval. The same could be said today—especially when it comes to how Iowa funds its communities.

A decade ago, when lawmakers reduced state funding for schools and local governments, cities and counties could adjust their budgets and, if needed, raise property taxes to maintain services residents wanted. Today, that flexibility is disappearing. And therein lies the paradox.

Throughout the first year of the 91st Iowa General Assembly, lawmakers debated cutting property taxes. With Republicans holding a trifecta, this is the year those cuts may pass. Two GOP proposals emphasize a strict 2 percent cap on local property tax revenue growth, promoted as relief for taxpayers. If state-level cuts reduce local revenue, will the result be fewer services Iowans rely on?

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 2025 college football season is in the history books.

The season ended with a national championship victory by Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza and his Indiana University Hoosiers over the University of Miami.

The season began back on August 23 in Dublin, Ireland, matching Iowa State University against Kansas State University in the Aer Lingus College Football Classic.

A lot has happened since the Cyclones’ 24-21 victory.

Iowa State President Wendy Wintersteen retired. The Iowa Board of Regents screened a bunch of candidates and hired North Dakota State University President David Cook to replace her.

Cyclone coach Matt Campbell resigned after Penn State University lured him away to take over its football program. That same day, Iowa State announced he would be replaced by Jimmy Rogers from Washington State University.

Yet, in the five months since the football season started, Iowa State still has not provided me with financial records I requested on September 4 concerning the Ireland trip and the Aer Lingus game.

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.

A recent email from the Iowa Attorney General’s (AG’s) office to Greene County Assistant Attorney Laura Snider is of great concern to Greene County Attorney Thomas Laehn. That’s because it displays a quandary created by the state’s 2023 government reorganization act.

Much of Snider’s work in the county attorney’s office deals with Child in Need of Assistance (CINA) cases. Iowa law puts county attorneys in charge of such cases, particularly when it comes to deciding whether to recommend that a court remove a child from a parent’s custody.

The Iowa Department of Health and Human Services also plays a role in those decisions. The email from the attorney general’s office included a proposed agreement for Snider to sign, which would establish new procedures for how a CINA case would be handled if the Greene County attorney’s office and HHS disagree in a particular case.

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 

Governor Kim Reynolds laid out her last legislative agenda in her Condition of the State address on January 13. It took a while for me to remember that much avoidance in a speech. I remember now.

After the teachers in a building were fed up with lack of leadership, and aggravation reached critical mass, there were often explosions. I always knew the “Enough is enough” stage had been reached when the phone calls began from teachers I’d never met. They were the silent majority, but now they were ready to shout.

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

“Dad, two of the greatest football players in the country hang out in a speakeasy downtown.”

“Are you suggesting that I, the president of Huxley College, go into a speakeasy without even giving me the address?”

“It’s at forty-two Elm Street, but you can’t go there. It’s unethical. It isn’t right for a college to buy football players.”

“It isn’t, eh? Well, I’ll nip that in the bud. How about coming along and having a nip yourself? Or better still, you wait here.”

— Groucho and Zeppo Marx, “Horsefeathers,” 1932

Did everyone in sports-land toast January 16? That was the day when the season’s transfer portal officially closed, which means you can be pretty sure who’ll be on your favorite college basketball and football teams for the 2026–27 season. 

Unless a court agrees that the University of Washington is restraining Demond Williams Jr.’s right to make a living by denying him access to the transfer portal and holding him to the name, image, and likeness (NIL) contract he signed with the school. Or if another court says Darian Mensah’s access to the portal supersedes the binding NIL contract he signed with Duke University. 

This isn’t the Wild West, as some critics characterize big-time football and basketball. It’s Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome.

Julie Stauch is a fifth-generation Iowan and lifelong problem-solver running to be Iowa’s next governor. Learn more about her campaign at www.juliestauchforalliowans.com.

Gubernatorial candidate Julie Stauch issues a letter to all Iowans:

This is not a typical press release. But this is not a typical time. On Saturday evening I stood outside on my front porch at exactly 7 o’clock. Around the entire nation, and perhaps the entire world, thousands stood outside on their porches, with candles and flashlights, to acknowledge the inhumane horror that took place on the streets of Minneapolis that morning. My Minnesota neighbor was murdered by our own federal government.

I have rarely felt such anger as I have this past week, nor as much shame and sadness. To my fellow Iowans and our neighbors across the country who are also sitting with the memories of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, I am here for you. And to my neighbors who were not aware of the atrocity committed by ICE agents or are choosing to look away, I am here for you, too.

I invite you to join me at this moment. This is the last straw. Alex Pretti was a nurse with the Department of Veterans Affairs. He was a federal worker exercising his First Amendment right to freedom of speech.

A poll in the field this week previews attack lines Republicans may use against State Senator Sarah Trone Garriott, if she becomes the Democratic nominee in Iowa’s third Congressional district. The same poll tests positive messages about the incumbent, U.S. Representative Zach Nunn.

It’s not clear who commissioned the survey, but the question wording points to either Nunn’s campaign or some GOP-aligned group that plans to support Nunn’s re-election through independent expenditures.

The questions enclosed below are taken verbatim from a text version of the poll. I don’t know whether some voters in the third district are being surveyed by phone; some political polls are conducted entirely by text, while others use multiple methods to reach respondents. UPDATE: A source confirms there is a telephone version of this poll.

I fact-checked the claims about each candidate. According to the respondent who provided copies of the questions to me, this poll did not test any messages about two other Democrats seeking the nomination in IA-03: State Representative Jennifer Konfrst and Xavier Carrigan. That suggests whoever commissioned the poll expects Trone Garriott, who has led the Democratic field in fundraising, to win the June primary. UPDATE: Konfrst ended her campaign and endorsed Trone Garriott on January 26.

A quick reminder: although you may feel angry when you see or hear inaccurate or biased claims about Democratic candidates, it’s better not to click away or hang up. Take screenshots or detailed notes, or record the phone call, and share the questionnaire with me. (I won’t publish your name.)

Justin Clark is an entrepreneur and husband in Dallas County. Chris Farber is a businessman, husband, and father in Waukee.

For most of our adult lives, we’ve tried to vote for the person, not the party. Neither of us has ever been interested in politics as a sport. We care about who seems steady, who understands everyday life, and who we trust to make decent decisions for Iowa.

Justin voted for U.S. Representative Zach Nunn—even recently—because at the time, he thought Nunn understood families like his and the realities most Iowans deal with.

Chris was a Republican for his entire adult life until 2016. That wasn’t casual. It was rooted in how he was raised and what he believed about responsibility, work, and keeping government practical.

This isn’t a story about flipping sides overnight. It’s about paying attention.

Wally Taylor is the Legal Chair of the Sierra Club Iowa chapter.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources has drafted the 2025 update of Iowa’s Wildlife Action Plan. The plan shapes how we protect wildlife, restore habitat, and ensure healthy ecosystems for the next decade in Iowa. This post explains why that’s important, and how to encourage the state to follow its plan.

What’s a Wildlife Action Plan?

In order to receive federal funding for wildlife programs, each state is required to prepare a wildlife action plan, outlining the steps needed to conserve wildlife and habitat before they become too rare and costly to restore.

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.

Our system of government has long been recognized and valued for what makes it worthwhile and workable—the checks and balances the U.S. Constitution provides among and between the executive, judicial, and legislative branches of federal and state governments,

End of civics lesson.

That’s because the system is being abandoned, essentially junked, at democracy’s peril. Thanks to Donald Trump’s endless provocations and abuse of power, a politicized version of Whack-A-Mole is replacing our checks and balances. 

Adam Shriver is Director of Wellness and Nutrition at the Harkin Institute for Public Policy and Citizen Engagement. This essay was first published on his Substack newsletter, Canary in a Cornfield.

Republican State Senator Ken Rozenboom spoke at the Iowa Senate Agriculture Committee’s first meeting of the year on January 13. I appreciate that he raised the topic of nitrates in drinking water. He also made some comments that deserve a response.

I clipped a video from Rozenboom’s opening remarks, which I’ll focus on here:

Steve Dunn is a retired journalist who has self-published two books, about former State Senator Pat Deluhery’s political career and the history of professional baseball in Des Moines. This essay first appeared on his Substack newsletter, Blasts and Bunts.

To say we’re living in troubled times is an understatement. Since 2026 began, the U.S. has captured the leader of Venezuela and his wife, bombed Syria and threatened to take over Greenland by force if necessary. Not only that, but we’ve also witnessed the shooting of a Minnesota woman by an ICE agent.

After a church service on January 11, I told the associate pastor the toxic climate in the U.S. today is ten times worse than mood of the country in the 1960s, when I came of age. Oh sure, the 1960s included the highly unpopular Vietnam War, race riots, civil rights protests, and assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy.

But today an “us versus them” mentality has a stranglehold on America. It’s almost as if we’re two different countries with two different mindsets. We haven’t had this much division since the Civil War and the fight over preserving the union and abolishing slavery. Unfortunately, the divide is fueled by many talking heads on talk radio, social media, and television.

Noah Gratias is a Navy Intelligence Officer and Iowa State University alum. The views expressed are his own and do not reflect the official policy or position of the U.S. Navy or the U.S. Government. He can be reached at noahgratias@gmail.com.

The past few months have demonstrated once again that many soybean producers cannot survive without access to firms owned and operated by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). U.S. leaders should treat this vulnerability as a national security challenge, not a minor trade war glitch. There is danger in treating every economic dispute as a security issue, but this situation demands urgent attention. In practical terms, Beijing can bludgeon the Midwest any time Washington crosses the CCP.

Beijing understands this leverage and has built policy around it. “Grain security” is a CCP priority, and Chinese leaders have made it clear they are working to slash U.S. food imports. Investments in South America, combined with state-managed soybean reserves, have further enhanced Beijing’s advantage.

Al Charlson is a North Central Iowa farm kid, lifelong Iowan, and retired bank trust officer. This commentary was first published in the Waverly Democrat.

With reluctance and apprehension I am beginning 2026 by venturing back into the property tax jungle. In my September column, which focused on farmland taxes, I indicated I would return to address the property tax concerns of my in-town friends and neighbors.

In-town residential property taxes are more complicated for a couple of reasons. Of course, city residents pay city taxes—city finances could easily be the topic for an entire column. I had the opportunity to be a guest Waverly City Council member in January 2025, which included attending annual budget hearings. My overall impression was that our city operating departments are seriously committed to providing the services they deliver as efficiently as possible.

The other complicating factor is that houses are taxed on their estimated market value. That gets interesting. In 2024 the assessed value of our home was increased 15.3 percent. The Assessor only bumped up the value of the house by 6 percent, but increased the value of our lot by 56 percent.

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.

Greenland, again? Really?

Apparently yes. Donald John Trump, president of the United States, on January 9 vowed to take control of Greenland, an autonomous part of America’s NATO ally Denmark. In these words: “We’re are going do something on Greenland whether they like it or not.”

Two days earlier, when a New York Times reporter asked whether there were “any limits on his global powers,” the president responded, “Yeah. There is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.”

How about international law, Mr. President? “I don’t need international law.” And “it depends on what your definition of international law is.”

For most of the time Kim Reynolds has served as governor, her staff have tried to limit my access to information and news conferences available to other statehouse reporters. This week, the governor’s press secretary blocked me from attending a briefing a few hours before Reynolds delivered her Condition of the State address.

The video of my encounter with Mason Mauro on January 13 was shared widely and generated hundreds of comments across my social media feeds. Many readers, followers, and well-wishers (plus a few trolls) have asked about the incident—far too many for me to answer individually.

I’m addressing the most frequently asked questions below.

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 

A new year is a time for making resolutions, starting new, and dreaming big. But quite often the treadmill becomes a clothes rack for things we’ve outgrown, and our resolve to eat healthier evaporates as soon as the drive-up for Raising Cane’s clears up. Keeping resolutions requires willpower and work, and they must be backed by determination and strategies for change. If not, resolutions morph into wishes.

Wishes might be fun when blowing out candles or sitting on Santa’s lap. But wishes are even weaker than resolutions. 

Resolutions are usually individual commitments, but I’m proposing a few collective resolutions around honestly preserving our U.S. and Iowa history.

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. 

It was Christmas Eve. The gifts were laid beneath the Christmas tree at the home of Merlin and Nelda Powers in Urbandale.

But the family’s holiday celebration ended abruptly that day in 1968 when the Powers’ 10-year-old daughter Pamela disappeared from the YMCA in downtown Des Moines while the family attended her brother’s wrestling meet.

Two days passed before the family received the horrible answer to their “where is Pamela” question. Police located the girl’s body in a roadside ditch just off Interstate Highway 80 near Mitchellville.

John and Terri Hale own the The Hale Group, an Ankeny-based advocacy firm focused on older Iowans. Reach them at terriandjohnhale@gmail.com

Frustrated. Angry. Scared.

That’s how many older Iowans and Iowans with disabilities feel about the economic realities of their lives.

They are struggling to pay the bills. They’re frustrated about the rising cost of living. And they’re worried about the future.

We’ve heard from them at recent forums in the Quad Cities, Des Moines, and Ankeny, in conversations with friends and acquaintances, and in social media messages.

They’ve given us an earful. The key takeaways:

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.

A few days ago a team effort by U.S. military, intelligence, and law enforcement personnel seized Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, and took them into American custody. The move has overwhelmed the news cycle across America, and much of the world as well.

The couple, now arraigned and in federal detention in Brooklyn, New York, will be tried in federal court on charges involving narcoterrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation, high-powered weapons possession, bribery, and fomenting kidnappings and murders.

There’s way too much involved here to unpack fully in a column like this one. The challenge is to drill down to the incident’s essential significance: Why did it happen? What important events led up to it? And what is it likely to mean for the people of Venezuela and their resources?

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. 

Maria Farmer reported her sexual assault by Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell to the New York Police Department and the FBI on August 29, 1996. Ms. Farmer contacted the FBI as advised by the police. On September 3, 1996, the FBI identified the case as “child pornography,” since naked or semi-naked hard copy pictures existed.

Files including Farmer’s 1996 complaint were not required to be made public until late 2025. President Donald Trump signed the Epstein Files Transparency Act into law on November 19. The law required that all files be released by December 19. But under the leadership of U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, the Department of Justice (DOJ) failed to release 100 percent of the files.

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 

The digital clock silently clicks 3:01 a.m. Her eyes flash open. She’s a teacher and she knows 3:01 isn’t awake time especially when 27 pairs of third grade eyes will be staring at her in a few hours. Her mind reviews every lesson rewriting in her mind. Then she begins to worry about her career choice. Will it get easier? How do I balance family with school?

She hopes her school can hire more teachers, reduce paperwork, meetings, and maybe agree to a raise above insurance increase. But money is tight. She needs more time to prepare so her teaching bag isn’t filled to the brim at home. She prays she’ll be allowed to be creative because that’s the joy of teaching. She’s exhausted by interference. 

Her last thought before drifting off to a dreamy sun-soaked beach is a hope Iowa legislators will stop punching down on her profession.

Editor’s note from Laura Belin: This post has been updated with additional information and clarifications.

Linda Schreiber writes commentary on selected legislative issues.

For more than four decades, Iowa’s Bottle Bill stood as a national model: simple, effective, and popular. It reduced litter, boosted recycling, and put responsibility where it belonged—on producers and consumers. The 2022 update weakened those goals while reducing public accountability.

In 2019, Iowa State University professor Dr. Dermot Hayes recommended adjusting the five-cent deposit enacted in 1979 for inflation, roughly 17 cents at the time. A survey showed 88 percent of Iowans supported the Bottle Bill. Advocates, including the League of Women Voters and the Sierra Club, urged lawmakers to strengthen the program, improve redemption access, and preserve public benefits.

Iowa lawmakers chose a different path.