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 eight years.

On January 13, 1982, a Boeing 737 took off from Washington National Airport. About one minute later, it struck the 14^th Street bridge and plunged into the Potomac River. The flight crew and more than 70 passengers perished. One of the passengers, Priscilla Tirado, could be seen flailing around in the icy waters. A bystander on the shoreline, Lenny Skutnik, a Congressional Budget Office employee, responded to her desperate screams for help, pulled off his coat and shoes, jumped into the river, and saved her life. Two weeks later, President Ronald Reagan hailed Skutnik as a hero in his State of the Union address.

A less publicized story is that of Senator Cory Booker, who, while serving as mayor of Newark, New Jersey in 2012, risked his life by running into a burning, smoke-infested building and saving the life of a neighbor.

Why do individuals like Skutnik and Booker engage in such extraordinary acts of altruism?

Jill Norton is a former forest fire fighter, high school teacher, and library director.

My family attends Iowa Irish Fest downtown in Waterloo, Iowa, on Sunday. We arrive early and gain entrance in exchange for cans of food for the Northeast Iowa Food Bank. We listen to mass from the mainstage and scoot off to Jameson’s for what I imagine is the most authentic Full Irish breakfast around. That is, until last year when the establishment changed owners and mass-produced mush was served on Styrofoam plates, and this year when the meal was deemed unprofitable and discontinued altogether.

The Full Irish is an Irish mainstay: soda bread, baked beans, grilled tomato, mushrooms, rashers (linked sausages), thick bacon, eggs, and white and black pudding—which is lard, grain, spices, and blood for the black version, in a sausage-like patty. Inasmuch as food speaks to the heart, this plate of real Ireland will be missed.

No, we’re not Irish, as far as we know. We just enjoy Irish Fest. And we’ve traveled to Ireland. Before and after my travels I endeavored to learn all I could about Ireland and was fascinated, starting with the mythology. Why do we learn about Hercules but not Cúchulainn?

Ralph Rosenberg served in the Iowa legislature from 1981 through 1994 and was director of the Iowa Civil Rights Commission from 2003 through 2010. A version of this essay first appeared on Substack.

The political landscape is full of what many Democrats view as signs of hope: a Democrat won Miami’s mayoral race, Indiana’s state Senate rejected mid-cycle gerrymandering, and in Tennessee’s seventh District, a Trump +22 cushion collapsed into single digits—what observers called a “stress fracture on a main beam.”

Add to that viral clips of an exhausted-looking president, negative polling numbers, and systemic problems at agencies like the FBI, and you can see why people opposed to Donald Trump and his policies are feeling optimistic.

But don’t get too confident about long-term impact. Beneath these celebratory headlines lies a dangerous form of “strategic negligence.”

Kurt Meyer writes a weekly column for the Nora Springs – Rockford Register and the Substack newsletter Showing Up, where this essay first appeared. He served as chair of the executive committee (the equivalent of board chair) of Americans for Democratic Action, America’s most experienced liberal organization.

Last month, my sister and I stood looking at a low-lying, long-neglected wire fence we knew well as children. It’s the “creek fence,” (pronounced “crick”) and often we were tasked with catapulting organic detritus, like chicken bones, over the fence, into nature.

The two of us recalled six decades ago, when a younger brother, maybe age four, remained in the car while Mom reentered the house to fetch a forgotten item. Evidently, the car wasn’t in “park” and began rolling slowly down a slight decline toward the creek fence, after which the descent becomes quite abrupt. Gaining momentum, the car hit the fence; magically, miraculously, rusty wires held… God with us.

My transition: This fence is a bit like our country’s jurisprudence system, prompting me to write about the federal employee who threw a sandwich at a Customs and Border Protection agent.

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. 

What makes freedom of speech so difficult to understand and accept?

That question came up during a recent discussion at the Des Moines Valley Friends Meeting. The Friends invited me to speak at the gathering that coincided with the 50th anniversary of the December 15, 1975 bombing of the Friends meeting house and the adjacent American Friends Service Committee building at 42nd Street and Grand Avenue in Des Moines.

Police never located the bomber, so no criminal charges were filed. Consensus remains that someone planted the explosives who disliked the Quakers’ and AFSC’s opposition to the Vietnam war, their support of non-violence, and their humanitarian relief efforts in Vietnam after the war.

I reminded the audience of what Mary Autenrieth of Paullina, the chair of the AFSC’s regional policy board 50 years ago, told The Des Moines Register then: “I expect in a nation where open disagreement is encouraged, there are some who disagree with us. But I would expect that they would not use violence in answer.”

Since Donald Trump returned to the White House, I’ve sometimes wondered: is there anything this president could do that Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird would find objectionable?

We got the answer this week, when Bird and counterparts from seven other Republican-controlled states quietly expressed “concerns” about one of Trump’s actions.

You’ll never guess why.

Wendy Larson will be the newest Republican in the Iowa House, after winning the December 9 special election in House district 7 by a margin of 2,817 votes to 1,201 for Democratic candidate Rachel Burns (70.0 percent to 29.9 percent). Larson’s victory brings the GOP majority in the chamber back to 67-33. Her predecessor, State Representative Mike Sexton, stepped down in September to take a senior position with the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The special election outcome was almost a foregone conclusion in one of the state’s reddest legislative districts. House district 7, covering Sac, Pocahontas, and Calhoun counties, plus some rural areas of Webster County, contains more registered Republicans than Democrats and no-party voters combined. Donald Trump received nearly 75 percent of the vote here in 2024, well above the 55.7 percent he received statewide in Iowa.

Still, I was closely watching the race to see what the results might tell us about voter enthusiasm and changing preferences going into the 2026 midterms.

It’s hard to draw any broad conclusions from this election, but I have a few takeaways.

Sue Dinsdale is the Executive Director of Iowa Citizen Action Network and the State Lead for Health Care for America NOW.

Millions of Americans are struggling with the high cost of services and goods this holiday season, as politicians in Congress seem stuck in the past rather than looking out for our future. The Affordable Care Act was passed fifteen years ago and has been fully in effect for more than a decade. Despite its proven track record and majority support for the law, here we are again.

There’s no better example than the current health care affordability crisis. It’s not new, but the fight is coming to a head as Republicans in Congress continue to refuse to extend the premium tax credits that millions of people depend on for Affordable Care Act marketplace coverage. Failure to extend the credits could cause 4 million people to drop their health insurance, while millions more would pay double, triple, or more to keep their coverage. 

“Good job you did! Great job,” President Donald Trump says to U.S. Representative Mariannette Miller-Meeks in a 30-second commercial that has reached thousands of Iowans on the radio or social media platforms over the past month.

The three-term Republican did not place the ads through her campaign committee, which had accumulated more than $2.6 million cash on hand as of September 30.

Instead, Miller-Meeks—considered one of the country’s most vulnerable House Republicans—has used taxpayer funds to share Trump’s praise with Iowans.

Bleeding Heartland’s review of data from Facebook’s ad library and Federal Communications Commission files suggest that Miller-Meeks’ Congressional office has spent at least $10,000 to run this spot. (Several other taxpayer-funded radio ads have also been in rotation this fall.)

If the 2024 campaign is any indication, Miller-Meeks may spend much more from her Congressional office budget in the coming months, as she seeks to shore up her appeal with conservatives before another competitive primary election in Iowa’s first district.

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. 

There seems to be a lack of consistency—if not outright contradictions—in President Donald Trump’s approach to drug trafficking into the United States.

Recent news headlines bear out the disconnect between what the president says and what he does.

One thing is certain: Donald Trump’s mixed messaging illustrates our nation’s lack of a coherent federal strategy for dealing with the scourge of illicit drugs.

See what you think about these questions of death and liberty.

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. 

Several university leaders have expressed shock when actions by President Donald Trump and administration officials directly counter to what he and his appointees supposedly learned during their business-related college education. But, what do professors know?

I’ve been privileged to teach and serve as a Marketing department head at an Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business-accredited institution. (Only 6 percent of business schools worldwide achieve AACSB recognition.) In that role, I became familiar with the multi-year process that third-party evaluators—including corporate executives—use to rigorously examine the curriculum offerings of accounting, economics, finance, management and marketing. That process considers what principles well-trained business students should exemplify.

Our 47th president has cultivated an image as a successful businessman. So it’s telling that leaders of Fortune 500 companies have been alarmed by how Trump and his administration ignore basic business principles.

Even for President Donald Trump, who lobs public insults on a daily basis, this one stood out. During a November 14 gaggle with journalists on Air Force One, Trump tried to silence a reporter asking about the Epstein files: “Quiet. Quiet, Piggy.”

The target of his childish name-calling was Bloomberg News correspondent Catherine Lucey, and she has an Iowa connection.

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. 

Recent events in Chicago, Washington, D.C., and at Sacred Heart Cathedral in Davenport provide stark reminders that our nation’s leaders have seemingly forgotten a biblical command around for the ages.

It is one Robert Ray followed during his tenure as Iowa governor, which ended some 42 years ago.

Ray was front of mind as I digested the news last week. His service contrasted with the haunting picture the three easily missed events presented of who we are as Americans and who we are becoming.

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.

President Donald Trump compares himself—always favorably—to previous U.S. presidents, particularly George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.

Trump has faulted Lincoln for not avoiding a Civil War. Our current president is a self-styled peacemaker, claiming to have ended eight wars in eight months—which would be more wars solved than bankruptcies he presided over as a businessman. (That would be four or six bankruptcies, depending on whether you count three of the bankruptcies as one, as Trump does.) The BBC examined the supposed peace agreements—which may or may not have staying power—and how much credit the president deserves for each one.

Some observers of Trump’s governing style see more alarming historical analogies. They may liken the United States in the 2020s to the rise of Nazi Germany in the 1930s.

If you’re not satisfied with these comparisons and contrasts, consider another: Trump and Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (37-68 AD). He’s better known in the Western World as Nero, the Roman emperor (54-68) who supposedly fiddled while Rome burned in the year 64.

Mandi Remington is the founding director of Corridor Community Action Network and a Johnson County supervisor. 

There is a line between hard bargaining and cruelty. When a government begins to weaponize basic means of survival, it crosses into dangerous territory. The decision to withhold Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits—paired with Congressional plans to slash Medicaid and SNAP funding—isn’t just another partisan fight. It’s a turning point.  

For the first time in SNAP’s 60-year history, families aren’t receiving the benefits they depend on. For many, that means empty refrigerators, skipped meals, and trying to explain to their kids why they can’t buy more food. This is a conscious choice by the Trump administration, as Congress has already appropriated billions of dollars in a contingency fund to cover SNAP during government shutdowns. 

My own family has relied on SNAP. When my oldest child was diagnosed with celiac disease at three years old, we stopped going to free meal programs because there was no way for me to know which foods were safe for her to eat. I couldn’t bring myself to ask volunteers to sort through ingredients or make special accommodations when we were there for help that was supposed to be simple. 

Dan Guild is a lawyer and project manager who lives in New Hampshire. In addition to writing for Bleeding Heartland, he has written for CNN and Sabato’s Crystal Ball, most recently here. He also contributed to the Washington Post’s 2020 primary simulations. Follow him on Twitter @dcg1114.

This is a quick post about two things to watch for in today’s elections for governor in New Jersey and Virginia.

At long last, U.S. Representative Randy Feenstra confirmed on October 28 that he’s running for governor.

For all of his talk about “taking Iowa to new heights”—and boy, was there a lot of it—the Republican front-runner’s rollout won’t get high marks.

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.

When ideology takes top priority, America’s world leadership is in jeopardy.

The Trump administration’s threats to academic freedom at leading U.S. universities could slow the pace of scientific research and commercial development of research findings. For instance, federal devotion to right-wing “purity” could undermine our race to stay ahead of China—which should disturb Americans of every political stripe.

President Donald Trump has threatened to cut grant funding (and in some cases followed through on those threats) in his effort to wipe out diversity, equality, and inclusion (DEI) practices, as well as supposed “woke” ideology (whatever that is), at a number of leading institutions of higher education.

One example, out of many dozens: the administration has frozen $175 million in grant money at the University of Pennsylvania—Trump’s alma mater—because the university allowed a transgender female on its women’s swimming team three years ago.

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. 

Since the 1960s, think tanks and advocacy groups have been key influencers of presidential policymaking. For decades, Democratic and Republican presidents have relied on think tanks for research and policy ideas. Most recently think tank roles have shifted from advisory to actual policy formulation and implementation, whereby the president can be seen as a marionette controlled by the think tank puppeteers.

Research shows that in the first 285 days of Donald Trump’s second presidency, seven conservative organizations have had hundreds of their recommendations implemented. If your mind has been spinning over the drastic changes to the federal government and how Trump has abandoned many norms of domestic policy and international diplomacy, you may wonder who is pulling the president’s strings.

Let’s examine the seven think tank puppeteers that have influenced Trump’s administration since January 20 and will likely continue to play that role until January 2029.

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.

As I write this column, the United States government is still shut down. Federal employees are not getting paid.

No, wait, that’s not quite true. Most federal employees are not getting paid.

Who’s still receiving a paycheck?

That would be President Donald Trump, Vice President J.D. Vance, members of Congress, and federal judges. The Constitution requires that they be paid no matter what. Their staffs—and those amount to many thousands of people—are continuing to work, but without receiving their salaries. They’ll be entitled to their back pay once the government reopens.

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.

As my wife and I, both spry seventy-somethings, walked the state capitol complex sidewalks to the No Kings rally on October 18, I couldn’t help but notice the gathering crowd and remarking, “I’d feel better about this if the majority of people here didn’t have grey hair.”

photo by Dan Piller from the No Kings rally outside the Iowa state capitol

I put down the seeming preponderance of the Medicare set at the Des Moines rally to Iowa’s elder-leaning demographics. But the next day, Fox News and the right-wing echo chamber used the apparent senior citizen majority of the No Kings crowds elsewhere as their prime talking point. The rallies were impressive in their numbers, but nonetheless may be remembered as the Last Hurrah of a generation with enough wit to make clever signs.

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.

In my reading over the last couple of weeks, I came upon the following dialogue that someone referenced from Ernest Hemingway’s novel The Sun Also Rises.

“How did you go bankrupt?” Bill asked.

“Two ways,” Mike said. “Gradually and then suddenly.”

That exchange came back to me as I participated in a No Kings gathering in Spirit Lake, Iowa on October 18.

Some 25,000 to 30,000 Iowans were among the millions of Americans who protested President Donald Trump’s abuses of power on October 18. Despite the grave threats that brought people to the rallies, the prevailing mood was upbeat at the two “No Kings” events I attended. That’s consistent with news reports and anecdotal accounts of a “festival atmosphere” in cities and towns across the country.

I took most of the photos enclosed below in Indianola, where more than 300 people lined a busy street in the late morning, or at the early afternoon rally outside the state capitol in Des Moines. Hand-made signs vastly outnumbered professionally printed signs, capturing the protesters’ passion, creativity, and humor.

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

As Congressional Republicans and their very high income core supporters entered 2025, their highest priority was the extension and expansion of the 2017 income tax cuts. They told us so.

Back in January 2024, Senator Chuck Grassley told Semafor reporter Joseph Zeballos-Roig why Senate Republicans would not support an expanded child tax credit, which the House had approved by a bipartisan vote of 357 to 70. Grassley explained, “I think passing a tax bill that makes the president look good mailing out checks before the election means he could be reelected and then we won’t extend the 2017 tax cuts.” (There was nothing in the 2024 bill about mailing out checks.)

In any event, the heart of this summer’s budget reconciliation measure, which Republicans called the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” was extending and expanding the 2017 income tax cuts.

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 federal government is shuttered. Are there round-the-clock intense negotiations to find a way to reopen? Are leaders proposing new innovative ways to turn the lights back on?  Is there a sense of urgency? Is the president tirelessly practicing “his art of the deal”? 

No, none of that’s happening.

The Senate convenes to vote on both Republican and Democratic funding proposals, knowing neither will pass. There’s no urgency and little concern. After the gavel, they flee to sympathetic shout-shows to point fingers, hoping Americans will blame the other side. 

A new Iowa poll is testing messages about a $4,000 tax credit to help families cover “approved education expenses,” and suggests that approach may save taxpayer money currently spent on children enrolled in public schools.

It’s not clear who commissioned the text survey, which has been in the field in recent days. The questionnaire points to Randy Feenstra’s campaign for governor, which is technically still in the “exploratory” phase, or some entity planning to support Feenstra for governor. Many of the questions use preferred Republican frames (“education freedom,” parental choice, “limiting government overreach”). The poll asks how important it is for Iowa’s next governor to “work to improve K-12 education,” and tests only one potential match-up: Randy Feenstra vs. Rob Sand. (Last month, Bleeding Heartland covered a different poll testing messages about Feenstra and Sand.)

Homeschoolers are an important Republican constituency, especially among social conservatives. Families who send their kids to private schools—almost all of which are Christian or Catholic—would also welcome an education tax credit, in addition to the taxpayer assistance they already receive through Iowa’s school voucher program (“education savings accounts”).

Feenstra has good reason to search for ways to shore up his support with the “education freedom” crowd. His underwhelming victory over a little-known 2024 primary challenger highlighted troubles on his right flank. He is unpopular among property rights activists who oppose the use of eminent domain to build Summit Carbon Solutions’ proposed CO2 pipeline. He has skipped forums involving other Republican candidates for governor, including an Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition event in July. Feenstra’s exploratory committee has the resources to pay for opinion research.

A recent poll of “likely Republican voters,” conducted by American Viewpoint, found Feenstra “in a commanding position,” with 41 percent support in the governor’s race and no other GOP candidate above 5 percent. A cautionary note: American Viewpoint’s polls for Feenstra’s U.S. House campaign found the incumbent with a roughly 50-point lead over challenger Kevin Virgil before the 2024 GOP primary. Feenstra ended up winning the nomination in Iowa’s fourth Congressional district by a margin of 60.1 percent to 39.4 percent.

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.

Former Des Moines Register columnist Rekha Basu offered an open letter to U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley in the Sunday Des Moines Register on September 28: “Congress must stand up to Trump’s lawlessness. That means you, Chuck Grassley.” Her letter was a 1,000-word indictment of President Trump’s second term, ending with this question:

“What is your tipping point, Senator Grassley? Surely you, too, have apprehensions about how this presidency is playing out.”

She did not have to wait long for a response from Grassley, nor did readers. Alongside Basu’s column, the Register published a “Your turn” 950-word commentary, in which Grassley acknowledged our worrisome times. Excerpt:

“The system is broken,” declared Libertarian Thomas Laehn as he kicked off his U.S. Senate campaign on October 11.

The Greene County attorney, who became the first Libertarian elected to a partisan office in Iowa in 2018, styled his case against two-party governance as a two-count “indictment” of the 535 members of Congress.

One of his central arguments could appeal to many disaffected Republicans.

Matt Russell is a farmer, political writer, and progressive ag and rural leader. He has published work in the New York Times, TIME, AgInsider, Civil Eats, and many state or local publications. He co-owns Coyote Run Farm with his husband Patrick Standley in rural Lacona, Iowa. A version of this essay first appeared on his Substack newsletter, Growing New Leaders: Perspectives from Coyote Run Farm.

The media is covering the federal government shutdown as a battle between Democrats and Republicans. I disagree that this is a fair assessment. The battle is about more than partisan politics. For President Donald Trump, the MAGA movement, and Republicans, this is a battle about redefining the federal government, the Constitution, our democracy, and our nation as it has developed over 250 years.

I don’t think the federal government has ever been used for this kind of obviously partisan communication, other than what Trump has previously said and done. As a reminder, the president is not covered by the Hatch Act, the law that prevents federal employees from engaging in partisan politics while performing their duties as well as other aspects of their lives.

Without doing further research, I don’t want to claim something like this has never happened, but unless someone can show evidence that it has, I’m willing to suggest it likely hasn’t.

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.

Through what political scientists might call a deep canvass into her own culturally polarized family in rural, de-industrialized Ohio author Beth Macy gives us a riveting, devastating and call-to-action mirror into our nation with her extraordinary new book, Paper Girl: A Memoir Of Home And Family In a Fractured America.

The powerhouse work of non-fiction connects three threads—Macy’s memoir of life in rural Ohio, both as a kid and returning adult, exhaustive and exhilarating reporting on a changing America, and a fierce case for the role of local news in preserving or stitching back democracy.

You can get a first-hand preview of Paper Girl in Des Moines, Iowa this weekend with the author of the just-released book.

Sue Dinsdale is the Executive Director of Iowa Citizen Action Network and the State Lead for Health Care for America NOW.

Politicians in Washington, D.C. are getting ready to shut down the federal government once again, despite single-party Republican control of the House, Senate, and the presidency. 

This time, disagreements in Congress over health care costs and access are preventing an agreement that would keep critical services going without interruption. 

Earlier this year, Republicans in Congress passed and President Donald Trump signed a massive budget reconciliation bill, the so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which extended trillions of dollars in tax breaks that would otherwise have expired this year. The lion’s share of those tax breaks will go to wealthy households making over $400,000 a year and to large corporations through extra loopholes that were reinstated in the law. 

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.

Congress averted an impending federal government shutdown in March by reaching a bipartisan compromise, which kept the government funded through the end of the current fiscal year. Time passes, and we’re approaching the new deadline.

By now a functional Congress would have performed its due diligence and approved the twelve required federal spending bills for the fiscal year. Has that happened? Of course not. So the House, the Senate, and President Donald Trump are dancing through the same old drill. They have until midnight on Tuesday, September 30, to get it done.

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.

More than 90 years ago, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt delivered a warning that appears prescient in light of today’s woes. Consider these 53 words from FDR’s inaugural address on March 4, 1933:

(T)he only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory.”

Roosevelt’s reference to “dark hours of our national life” calls to mind other rhetoric and survival in dark hours. The reference hints at the lack of frankness and needed vigor in our nation today. And the reference does far more than merely hint about the fear than Trump strikes in the hearts of so many — from the struggling non-profit organizations trying to aid the vulnerable and needy to the well-off members of Congress, apparently confident in their unending terms in office.

John and Terri own The Hale Group, an Ankeny-based advocacy firm focused on older Iowans. John had a 25-year career with the Social Security Administration, working in Iowa field offices, the Kansas City regional office, and its Baltimore headquarters. terriandjohnhale@gmail.com

No tax on Social Security benefits!

President Donald Trump has said it. U.S. Representative Zach Nunn has said it.

The problem is: It’s just not true.

“You understand what too many of our fellow Americans have forgotten: that democracy is not on automatic pilot,” U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen told hundreds of Democrats in Des Moines on September 13. “Its survival, its very survival, depends on us.”

In his keynote address at the Polk County Democrats’ annual Steak Fry fundraiser, the senior senator from Maryland repeatedly urged Democrats to fight back against President Donald Trump’s lawless regime. He also faulted members of his own party, who don’t always stand up for core principles.

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 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.