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.

Why does Congress even bother to debate an annual budget?

Every year members of the federal legislative body spend innumerable hours in committees and on the House and Senate floor debating discretionary appropriations decisions. Intense negotiations sometimes produce some or all of the 12 regular mandatory appropriations bills that designate how various departments will spend funds in the coming fiscal year. (The federal fiscal year runs from October 1 to September 30.)

The operative word there is “sometimes.” That’s because Congress usually can’t make its required appropriations decisions before the end of the current fiscal year. In those instances—which happen depressingly often—Congress may pass a continuing resolution that extends current levels of spending in those departments. When that happens, the legislators will then provide supplemental appropriations in the new fiscal year for needs or emergencies that arise. (Editor’s note: The last year Congress approved all twelve budget bills on time was 1996, for fiscal year 1997.)

It’s been a wildly successful week for U.S. Representative Ashley Hinson.

Three days after U.S. Senator Joni Ernst confirmed she won’t seek re-election, the three-term member of Congress all but wrapped up the Republican nomination for Iowa’s Senate seat. President Donald Trump’s “Complete and Total Endorsement” shut the door on any realistic chance Hinson could lose the June 2026 primary.

But Hinson’s embrace of the Washington establishment could alienate a segment of Republicans she will need after the primary. And her slavish allegiance to Trump could become a liability for the likely nominee in the general election campaign.

Wayne Ford is the executive director of Wayne Ford Equity Impact Institute and co-Director of the Emmy Award winning Brown and Black Forums of America. He is a former member of the Iowa legislature and the founder and former executive director of Urban Dreams.

Washington, D.C. has always been more than just another city. It is the nation’s capital, a symbol of democracy, and a unique jurisdiction caught between local self-governance and federal control. Today, it has also become the latest flashpoint in America’s ongoing debate about crime, politics, and presidential power.

Mayor Muriel Bowser recently acknowledged that the federal surge of law enforcement—including the deployment of the National Guard ordered by President Donald Trump—has coincided with a sharp drop in crime. Carjackings fell by 87 percent. Overall violent crime was cut nearly in half. And, in a milestone for the city, Washington went twelve consecutive days without a single homicide.

The numbers are dramatic. Headlines on cable news have trumpeted them as proof that federal power works. Bowser herself admitted that the crackdown “brought results,” even though she expressed concerns about the heavy presence of federal officers in local neighborhoods.

But here is the crucial point: these statistics represent only a few weeks of data. They are not proof of a long-term trend. Just as crime patterns fluctuate with seasons, neighborhoods, and economic cycles, a short-term dip can reflect immediate deterrence without changing the deeper conditions that drive violence. That distinction matters if we are to think seriously about Washington, D.C. and its future.

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 year ago this month, U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York, introduced the No Kings Act with 36 co-sponsors. With the Senate under Republican control, the bill did not receive a vote and therefore died.

It deserves resurrection.

The No Kings Act was inspired by the U.S. Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision on July 1 of last year that the president is immune from prosecution for all official acts he or she commits while in office, even if they break the law. The court handed down that decision in Donald J. Trump v. United States, in which Trump was indicted for attempting to overturn the results of his loss to Joe Biden in the 2020 election four years earlier.

To complicate matters, the court did not define what constitutes an “official act.”

Sandy Peterson is a Democrat from Grimes.

I am writing as a concerned citizen to respectfully urge the U.S. Supreme Court to exercise its critical role in upholding the constitutional checks and balances that safeguard our democracy. Recent actions by President Donald Trump during his second term raise serious concerns about the overreach of executive power and its impact on the American people, our economy, our allies, and the fundamental principles of our government.

The president’s policies, including the imposition of sweeping tariffs, have disrupted global trade, triggered retaliatory measures from allies like Canada and the European Union, and increased costs for American consumers, particularly the middle and lower classes. These economic measures, enacted under emergency powers, risk destabilizing our economy and discouraging tourism, as international confidence in the United States as a stable destination wanes.

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. 

I commend columnists who publish research-based and value-added (versus “my opinion”) op-eds on a daily or frequent basis. Submitting an occasional essay gives me time to ponder contemporary issues and research the latest hot topic.

Since August 6, Perplexity and Google have guided me to examine more than 30 documents to determine the best and worst U.S. presidential cabinets. Based upon expert analysis, here are the results.

Dean Lerner served Iowa as an Assistant Attorney General for sixteen years, Chief Deputy Secretary of State for four years, and about ten years as Deputy Director, then Director of the Department of Inspections & Appeals. He then worked for the CMS Director of the Division of Nursing Homes, and the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Iowa. He is a graduate of Grinnell College and Drake University Law School.

The U.S. must convey a new message to the world: “We’re so very sorry!”

Not a single second passes where unrelenting human suffering shouldn’t evoke Americans’ heartfelt sympathies, accompanied by committed, truthful, responsive action. That, however, appears to no longer be the case in President Donald Trump’s America. Truth, humility, and humanity are in short supply in a dictator’s world.

Whether we’re witnessing Trump’s incoherent blaming of Ukraine for war criminal Putin’s terrorizing murderous assaults and kidnappings, or Trump’s racially based warrantless detentions and deportations, or the deadly devastating consequence of his cuts to USAID, or his endorsement of Gaza starvations, or any of the voluminous other grotesque Trump administration practices and policies, the intentional abandonment of America’s principles is the root cause of our decline. 

For this, and much more, most of the world deserves an apology. Allies have been abandoned, while enemies are being embraced.

Anna Ryon is an attorney from Iowa who currently lives in Washington, D.C.

I live in Washington, D.C., and I don’t feel safe. Every time I leave home, I wonder if I’ll make it back. Before leaving, I turn off Face ID on my phone so no one can open it if they take it from me, write phone numbers in ink somewhere on my body, and make sure to turn on live location tracking so someone knows where I am at all times. Saturday afternoon before my husband and I went out, he texted his parents to tell them where we were going in case anything happened.

I got my first job in D.C. in 2007 and have lived and worked in D.C. on and off since then, so I feel pretty familiar with life in D.C. This level of fear is new. For most of my time in D.C., my safety concerns were the same basic safety concerns I’d have in any city, including Des Moines. I felt comfortable wearing earbuds while walking alone and openly carrying my iPhone. The extra fear I now feel for my safety has a specific starting date: Monday, August 11, 2025. 

“A lot of you all know who I am because I experienced the worst day of my life on national TV,” former Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn told around 350 Democrats in Clear Lake on August 14.

The keynote speaker typically rallies the crowd at the Iowa Democratic Wing Ding, an annual fundraiser for county party organizations across northern Iowa. Dunn held the room’s attention for more than 30 minutes, drawing plenty of applause—as well as laughs with zingers about President Donald Trump, U.S. Senators Joni Ernst and Chuck Grassley, and Republicans in general.

But Dunn warned his audience early on, “I’m not here to give some rah rah speech.” He delivered some of his most powerful lines in a subdued voice.

By speaking candidly about his own struggles and doubts, Dunn offered a path forward—not only for Democrats who are ready to fight back, but for those still trying to pick themselves up off the floor.

Shawn Gallagher is President at Adcraft Printing Company, Inc. and Main Street Alliance member.

Politicians including U.S. Senator Joni Ernst and Representative Ashley Hinson (IA-02) joined a few business owners in Cedar Rapids for an August 12 round table to celebrate President Donald Trump’s “One Big, Beautiful Bill” as a win for small business. It should be noted that organizers choose the participants for this kind of press event, which ensures that the media in attendance hear only the desired opinions.

I wish I could share their optimism. But as someone who runs a small business here in Cedar Rapids, I see this law for what it really is: a bad deal dressed up in campaign-season talking points.

Myron Gookin was appointed as an Iowa District Court judge by Governor Terry Branstad in August 2011. He served as Chief Judge of the Eighth Judicial District, covering fourteen counties in southeast Iowa, from January 2022 until his retirement, effective July 2025. He posted the thoughts enclosed below on Facebook on August 9. Facebook users had shared the post more than 8,000 times as of August 15.

Thank you for taking a few moments to read this. I’ve hesitated to post this. I don’t intend to offend anyone, but understand I may. I will not respond to comments but I believe in free speech and will not deny anyone the right to respond. It’s hard to believe we’ve reached this point. It saddens me. Yet, I believe there is hope.

I grew up an Iowa Republican. I worked to get Republicans elected. I hosted fundraisers in our home for Republican candidates. I gave money to Republican candidates. I voted for Republicans. I was appointed an Honorary Colonel in the Iowa Militia by a Republican Governor for my service to the State of Iowa, largely due to my Republican efforts. I considered running for public office someday as a Republican. I was part of the Republican team.

Then, things started to change. The party moved farther and farther right. It became radicalized by people who had lost sight of truth, justice, equality and (ironically) doing what is “right”. It lost sight of our country’s history and the necessary, continuing struggle to “form a more perfect union”. Most important to me, it lost sight of the essence of Christianity—it more and more loudly claimed to be Christian, yet more and more ignored Christ’s core teachings and example of pulling together for good and loving our neighbors as ourselves.

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. 

One of the frustrations of being a former newspaper editor is no longer having a few dozen reporters to pursue answers to questions going unasked and unanswered each day.

Two of my go-to questions were “why?” and “why not?” And my favorite open-ended query to a newsmaker was “explain this to me.”

I never believed newsmakers owed me answers to the questions I or my reporters asked. I was curious by nature. But the most important purpose, I sometimes reminded reluctant newsmakers, was the thirst for information John Q. Public and Jane A. Citizen had about the topics at hand.

All of this is a preamble to help you understand why I am a frustrated consumer of news and information now that I no longer lead a team of information gatherers.

Here are some examples of this frustration in real life:

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.

Sometime back in the 1990s I watched an interview with George Wallace, the four-term former governor of Alabama and a four-time presidential candidate.

He was in his mid-seventies at the time. In physical decline, Wallace was wracked with Parkinsons and the ongoing effects of an assassination attempt in 1972 that forced him to use a wheel chair for the last 26 years of his life.

Yet the pain that was most pronounced in that interview was his sincere regret related to his prominent role as a leading segregationist of the 1960s. Wallace was the man who stood in the “schoolhouse door” in 1963 to unsuccessfully try to prevent the admission of two Black students to the University of Alabama.

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.

Many concerned citizens are asking themselves this pressing question: How have we come to this point in U.S. history where we are reversing prior progress in civil rights, dismantling vital federal agencies, attacking esteemed universities and their faculty, and embracing an imperial presidency? In fact, these events haven’t suddenly and inexplicably arisen. There are many times across several decades—and vivid personal proclamations—that help explain the origin and evolution of these unsettling trends.

Tom Walton is an attorney in Dallas County.

Your American citizenship would turn on the subjective judgment of some Citizenship Czar as to whether you have been sufficiently supportive of a MAGA administration, if Vice President JD Vance and the Trump administration have their way.

On July 5, Vance spoke at a meeting of the Claremont Institute, a MAGA think tank. He delivered a shocking and exceedingly poorly reasoned argument for redefining what it means be an American citizen. The speech was backward, bewildering, and without basis in law or logic.

In his speech, Vance urged that we must “redefine American citizenship.” He suggested that “identifying America just with agreeing with its principles” is “not enough by itself.” Think of the oath that thousands of new American citizens take all the time:

When I saw former State Representative Joe Mitchell’s guest column in the Des Moines Register in late June, my first thought was, “What federal government job is he angling for?” His op-ed was an embarrassing piece of hagiography about Donald Trump—or as Mitchell put it, “the most consequential president ever.”

I got my answer on July 23, when the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced that Mitchell will serve as the agency’s regional administrator for the Great Plains, covering Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska.

Mitchell is a rising star again at the age of 28, when many ambitious politicos haven’t begun climbing the ladder. At every stage, he’s had help from the GOP establishment.

His comeback story shows how over-the-top public praise for Trump has become normal and expected behavior for even the most well-connected Republicans.

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.

U.S. Senator Cory Booker, a Democrat from New Jersey, was at a meeting of the Senate Judiciary Committee—and not in an echo chamber—when he asked Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley, “You are a decent man. Why are you doing this?”

And so began still another exhausting chapter in Grassley’s support of President Donald Trump, the nature of Grassley’s role as chair of the Judiciary Committee, and Trump’s efforts to stack the judicial branch with loyalists.

Rick Morain is the former publisher and owner of the Jefferson Herald, for which he writes a regular column.

French President Emmanuel Macron shook up world diplomatic circles on July 24 with his announcement that come September, France will recognize Palestine as an independent nation. How much that decision will affect the Israel-Hamas war is debatable, but it certainly ratchets up the pressure on Israel to ease its brutal treatment of millions of defenseless Palestinians in Gaza. Israel may already be getting the message.

On July 27, three days after Macron’s announcement, Israel announced it would begin 10-hour “humanitarian pauses” in certain areas of Gaza to permit some aid convoys into the besieged enclave, and its intention to create a few permanent “humanitarian corridors” via which convoys would travel.

Kay Pence is vice president of the Iowa Alliance for Retired Americans.

I’m a retired union representative for the Communications Workers of America living in rural Eldridge with my husband of 50 years. As a union rep I bargained contracts, and health care was always the biggest issue, especially before the Affordable Care Act became law in 2010.

I’m currently the executive vice president for the Iowa Alliance for Retired Americans, which has 4.4 million members nationwide. I’m extremely concerned about how Donald Trump’s so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” (the budget reconciliation package) will force people off their insurance and cause problems for providers. I’m especially concerned about insurance rates for everyone who thinks these cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act premium subsidies won’t impact them, since their coverage comes through their employer or private insurance plan.

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. 

Andy McKean is a charming country lawyer from Anamosa. He grew up in New York and was drawn to Iowa by his family roots.

He has owned a bed-and-breakfast, called square dances and played in a dance band named the Scotch Grove Pioneers. His tenure in the Iowa Legislature stretched for nearly 30 years, with an additional eight years shoehorned in as a Jones County supervisor.

A few weeks ago, McKean spoke to a group of grassroots community organizers from eastern Iowa who gathered in Monticello to brainstorm. He provided pointers gleaned from his years in public service, politics, campaigning, promising and compromising.

One choice nugget was his go-to strategy in those roles—listening more than talking.

William R. Staplin is a former scientist specializing in utilizing molecular biology techniques to investigate RNA plant and animal viruses, research and development of vaccines to protect against infectious viruses; husband to Ruth A. Staplin; father to two independently minded young college students; cancer and spinal cord disability survivor; supporter of girls and women’s equal rights, reproductive rights, bodily autonomy and healthcare; supporter of reclaiming LGTBQIA+ civil rights and liberties; supporter of Black and Brown Lives Matter; full-time greyhound owner and walking companion to Tailgater. 

When you listen to Woody Guthrie’s song “This Land Is Your Land,” what do you think of?  

Does its message advocate for the private ownership of public land, private “walls,” or does it elicit thoughts of the grand picturesque publicly owned landscapes of the American Parks, National Forests and Mountains that make up the United States? 

I would imagine it would be the latter. Woody Guthrie wrote “This Land Is Your Land” in February 1940, reusing the melody roughly carved out from the folk standard “When The World’s on Fire” popularized by the infamous folk family musicians, The Carters, as a rebuke to Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America,” sung by Kate Smith.

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 90 degrees before 9:00 AM. Not a whiff stirs Old Glory. Bicycle tires stick to steaming asphalt, and shirts gain water weight on short walks. But two towns north, thunder begins its base drum rumble. Old men look skyward, rub weather forecasting knees and announce, “storm’s coming.”

It’s a pop-up storm full of sound and a little fury, not lasting long. 

But the political storm now threatening Iowa’s public schools could be long-lasting and destructive. And worse, it’s man-made. Schools may be able to survive by spotting this perfect storm and mitigating the damage. 

Three storm fronts are advancing.

Douglas Burns is a fourth-generation Iowa journalist. He is the co-founder of the Western Iowa Journalism Foundation and a member of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative, where this article first appeared on The Iowa Mercury newsletter. His family operated the Carroll Times Herald for 93 years in Carroll, Iowa where Burns resides.

A Capitol Police officer who stood the ground between hundreds of members of Congress and insurrectionists during the January 6 attack is scheduled to be the keynote speaker at a Council Bluffs, Iowa political event Sunday, July 27.

Harry Dunn, a now-departed United States Capitol Police officer who testified before Congress about the attack on the capitol, became a high-profile representative of the experience for other peace officers — many who were injured, some who died.

Dunn said the prospect of a full-scale slaughter of elected officials, some of the nation’s top leaders in both parties, was within literal feet, an instant here or there, in the run of events, from happening.

“Members of Congress were being told to take their pins off because they didn’t know if people would recognize that,” Dunn said in a phone interview with The Iowa Mercury. “We were a couple of right turns, and wrong turns by the insurrectionists, away from it being a bloodbath.”

When the Iowa House and Senate approve a bill unanimously, you might assume it was easy to get the measure to the governor’s desk. But appearances can be deceiving. Sometimes, a unanimous vote for final passage obscures years of hard work to pull a bill over the finish line.

So it was with House File 472, which took effect on July 1. The law will make it easier for Iowans to defend themselves when facing meritless lawsuits filed in order to chill speech. Such cases are often called “strategic lawsuits against public participation,” because the plaintiffs have no realistic chance to win in court. Rather, they are suing as a means to silence or retaliate against critics.

Iowa was the 38th state to adopt an “anti-SLAPP” law, according to the Washington, DC-based Institute for Free Speech, which advocates for such legal protections across the country.

If not for one state senator’s determined opposition, Iowa might have joined that club years earlier.

The long-running effort to pass Iowa’s anti-SLAPP bill illustrates how one lawmaker can block a measure that has overwhelming bipartisan support and no meaningful opposition from lobby groups.

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. 

One longtime truism of journalism is “Names make news.” 

That shorthand stems from the fact people better understand the significance and context of news when they learn about events and issues through the eyes and experiences of people they know or with whom they can identify.

The late Iowa Supreme Court Justice Mark McCormick described the importance of this news tenet by noting how disclosing even sensitive private facts and names offers “a personalized frame of reference to which the reader could relate, fostering perception and understanding” and lends “specificity and credibility.”

Here are two heartbreaking examples from recent events: 

Politico set off another round of speculation about U.S. Senator Joni Ernst’s future this week. Jordain Carney and Rachael Bade reported on July 10 that Ernst “is the next GOP senator on retirement watch,” with U.S. Representative Ashley Hinson (IA-02) “waiting in the wings” if the incumbent opts not to seek a third term.

Hinson brushed off the rumors, telling WHO Radio host Simon Conway she’s “100 percent on Team Joni” and hopes Ernst will run again. She added, “The DC media loves to obsess over things.” Notably, Hinson didn’t clarify whether she would run for Senate next year if the seat were open—nor did Conway ask her.

I’ve long believed Hinson is laying the groundwork to run for Senate as soon as Iowa has an open seat—presumably in 2028, when Senator Chuck Grassley’s eighth term will end.

So while I still expect Ernst to seek re-election, the latest coverage got me thinking: who would be the tougher opponent for the Democratic nominee in 2026? It’s usually harder to defeat an incumbent than to flip an open seat. But this race might be the exception that proves the rule.

Dean Lerner served Iowa as an Assistant Attorney General for sixteen years, Chief Deputy Secretary of State for four years, and about ten years as Deputy Director, then Director of the Department of Inspections & Appeals. He then worked for the CMS Director of the Division of Nursing Homes, and the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Iowa. He is a graduate of Grinnell College and Drake University Law School.

The unimaginable has now become commonplace:

Stripping health care from 56,000 Iowans.

Taking food assistance and safety nets away from Iowa’s children, seniors, and veterans.

Adding $3.3 trillion to the national deficit. And on and on….

Rick Morain is the former publisher and owner of the Jefferson Herald, for which he writes a regular column.

The United States system of government is one of the most complicated such mechanisms in the world. It’s a blessing and a curse.

A blessing, because it disperses power. That’s what the Founders intended with the Constitution in 1787, and it’s what has guided America since then. Federalism (dividing power between the national government and the state governments) and a tripartite national government (dividing power among the legislative, executive, and judicial branches) give everyone a piece of the power pie. Theoretically, at least.

A curse, for the same reasons. Dispersed power creates inevitable disputes over which entity holds the upper hand in innumerable cases every day. To borrow a term from former President George W. Bush, just who is The Decider?

When President Donald Trump gave Senator Chuck Grassley his “complete and total endorsement” during an October 2021 rally at the Iowa State Fairgrounds, he said one undeniably truthful thing about Iowa’s senior senator: “When I’ve needed him for help he was always there. […] He was with us all the way, every time I needed something.”

At the latest Trump rally in Des Moines, Grassley showed once again that the president’s assessment was on the money.

Douglas Burns is a fourth-generation Iowa journalist. He is the co-founder of the Western Iowa Journalism Foundation and a member of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative, where this article first appeared on The Iowa Mercury newsletter. His family operated the Carroll Times Herald for 93 years in Carroll, Iowa where Burns resides.

It hit me in the heat of the evening.

President Donald Trump models his stage style after none other than Frank Sinatra.

The swagger, the rhythm of the humor, the observations about women. (I heard Trump thank a female voter once at another event. He called her “doll.”)

A Trump speech like the one in Des Moines on July 3 takes cues from the famous Sinatra album/CD “Sinatra At the Sands,” in which the crooner ad libs in a swinging way, baby, between songs.

The Sinatra influence on Trump is uncanny — similar to what you see with Bill Maher’s opening monologues on “Real Time,” clearly inspired by Johnny Carson.

Trump came to Iowa to kick off the America 250 celebration: a slate of events scheduled for nation’s 250th anniversary in 2026.

The president addressed thousands at the sun-swept, scorched Iowa State Fairgrounds.

Here are ten takeaways from the event, which Iowa Mercury covered in person.

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. 

Peggy Noonan has been a conservative voice for The Wall Street Journal since leaving the Ronald Reagan administration as his primary speechwriter. Five of Noonan’s books have been New York Times bestsellers. Consuming every word of her weekly column keeps me politically balanced.

In Noonan’s June 14-15 column titled “America is losing sight of its political culture,” she characterized our 47^th president as America’s Mr. Tinpot Dictator. This term refers to a leader who acts like a dictator, often with delusions of grandeur and authoritarian tendencies. I decided to investigate how much Trump resembles a dictator.

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.

Given the turmoil of today’s politics and environmental concerns, it’s time to revisit Okefenokee Swamp and attend to the wisdom of Pogo Possum. He sagely advised more than 50 years ago, “We have met the enemy and he is us.”

Cartoonist Walt Kelly wrote that line for the Pogo comic strip in 1971, as Pogo Possum and one of his cartoon companions, Porky Pine, surveyed the human despoliation of their wetlands home. The swamp covers almost half a million acres straddling the Georgia-Florida border; the cartoon depicted it as awash in discarded furniture, a bath tub, a car half sunk in the swamp and other tons of trash.

Al Charlson is a North Central Iowa farm kid, lifelong Iowan, and retired bank trust officer.

I had to send Senator Chuck Grassley a quick email to thank him for starting my day with a chuckle. In the latest edition of his email newsletter “The Scoop,” he commended the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling that federal district courts do not have the authority to issue universal injunctions blocking the Administration’s Executive Order. Grassley declared the decision “a victory for checks and balances.”

Checks and balances? Since Grassley and his Senate Republican colleagues voluntarily abdicated their Constitutional authority, responsibilities, and prerogatives, we no longer have a functioning constitutional representative democracy. We essentially have a king.

Of course, the biggest show in Washington, D.C. has been the around-the-clock push to pass a budget reconciliation bill. Republicans want to get the One Big, Beautiful Bill (also known as a Big Ugly Mess) to President Donald Trump’s desk for a reality TV style triumphant bill signing on the Fourth of July. The days-long Senate debate ended on July 1 with a dramatic tie-breaking vote by Vice President J.D. Vance. Grassley and Iowa’s junior Senator Joni Ernst voted for the bill, along with all but three of their GOP colleagues.

Congressional Republican leadership have characterized the bill as Trump’s domestic policy agenda. That’s misleading at best. At its core, this legislation is the Senate Republican leadership’s tax cut agenda with enough of Trump’s ideas and MAGA bumper stickers attached to keep his support base on board.

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 was a hot mid-August day in 1979. School hadn’t started, but football had. Sweat trickled down my back as I struggled to make a no window, tiny, drab space come alive. The room remained dead, and I was dead tired.

Just as I was going out, I almost collided with the superintendent coming in. I’d met him once, and I had no desire in a sweat soaked shirt to meet him again.

“I’m glad I caught you. I was wondering if you’d run the scoreboard for the game on Friday.”

John Kearney is a retired philosophy professor who taught at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He has lived in Waterloo, Iowa for the past six years.

After twenty-eight years of distinguished service, ABC national correspondent Terry Moran is out of a job. He was recently informed that his contract with ABC will not be renewed. The network determined that Moran’s late-night post on X about White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller violated journalistic standards.

Moran’s June 8 post described Miller as “a man who is richly endowed with the capacity for hatred. He’s a world-class hater. You can see this just by looking at him because you can see that his hatreds are his spiritual nourishment. He eats his hate.”

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 my three-year-old granddaughter and I took walks, she’d suddenly stop and stare at a long narrow stick, an uncoiled hose, or a piece of rope. Her hand would tighten in mine, as she crouched for a better look. After a minute or so she’d solemnly pronounce, “not a snake.”

She wasn’t sure what she was looking at, but after careful study, she knew what it wasn’t. We can learn a lesson from a tiny granddaughter looking at life on a walk. She didn’t try to make the new object fit into her understanding, but she needed assurance about what it wasn’t.

It’s difficult making sense of the political chaos engulfing America. It’s hard to name it. It’s easier to look and say, “not normal.”

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.

On June 1, 1950, U.S. Senator Margaret Chase Smith (a Republican from Maine) delivered a speech that she called her “Declaration of Conscience.” She targeted fellow Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin and the fear, hate mongering, and divisiveness that was tearing the nation apart in McCarthy’s anti-Communist crusade to make America great again.

Seventy-five years after Smith showed courage and patriotism, Republican Senator Joni Ernst took the opposite path. She mocked an Iowan who cried out against GOP legislation and MAGA efforts that divide the nation today.

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.

World War II is still The Good War.

The celebration last month of the 80^th anniversary of the Allied victory over Nazi Germany in May, 1945 was the latest rush of World War II nostalgia, joining a similar timed anniversary last year of the D-Day landings in Normandy in June, 1944, and the 85^th anniversary of the British evacuation from the disaster at Dunkirk in early June, 1940.

World War II still draws audiences. On American television, “Band of Brothers” remains a streaming sensation with a companion “Masters of the Air” released this year. Subscribers with enough channel power regularly call up Steven Spielberg’s “Saving Private Ryan” (1998) and Christopher Nolan’s “Dunkirk” (2017), both of which had enjoyed strong theater runs.

It’s not hard to see why Americans have maintained a nostalgic obsession with the Allied victory in Europe in 1945. The European theater included the ancestral homelands of most Americans. The vanquished Nazis could be loathed without reservation and their end came without an unexpected shock that the atomic bomb provided for the defeat of Japan in the Pacific. Unlike the glorified truce of 1918, the victory over Germany in 1945 was decisive and total, not subjected to the “stab in the back” ruminations that fed later Hitlerian resentment.

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.

If an opinionated old guy from southern Iowa delivered the recent commencement address at the United States Military Academy, my message would have contrasted with the one given by another opinionated old guy, one from Queens, New York, by way of the White House.

When I was a newspaper editor, I sometimes told the staff they needed to run a belt sander across an article to remove rough spots before publication. So it was with President Donald Trump’s speech to 1,000 new Army second lieutenants at West Point in May. His staff needed to take the Oval Office belt sander to his message.

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 

Over time, essential items seem to vanish and are quickly replaced by new technology. Home phones gave way to cell phones now found in most 5^th grader pockets.

Video tapes and CDs died and were resurrected as movie streaming and digital music. Once a badly folded map gave directions. Now, we talk to GPS, and it orders us, “Make a U-turn as soon as possible.”

Politics isn’t immune either. Principled conservatives disappeared and have been replaced by enablers.