Iowans will decide this November whether to allow one Iowa Supreme Court justice, four Iowa Court of Appeals judges, and 64 Iowa District Court judges to remain on the bench. Since our state adopted the current judicial selection system in 1962, each judge must periodically go on the ballot—every eight years for Iowa Supreme Court justices, every six years for those serving on other courts.

Iowa voters have retained almost all judges over the past six decades. But any jurist who receives more “no” than “yes” votes in November—as happened with three Iowa Supreme Court justices in 2010—will be out of a job. Governor Kim Reynolds would fill any vacancies in early 2025, after receiving a list of finalists from the State Judicial Nominating Commission or its district-level counterpart.

While some people routinely approve or reject every judge up for retention as a matter of principle, voters who want to make informed choices often find it difficult to learn anything about the judges listed on the back of the ballot.

This post highlights the appeals and district court judges who received the highest and lowest ratings in the 2024 Judicial Performance Review, the main public source of information about Iowa’s judges. I will also explain why I plan to vote against retaining a member of the Iowa Court of Appeals and a district associate judge in Polk County.

A forthcoming Bleeding Heartland article will analyze how Iowa Supreme Court Justice David May has decided high-profile cases since Reynolds appointed him in July 2022.

Jeff Ewoldt grew up in northwest Iowa, currently practices law in Des Moines, and has always had a keen interest in nature and conservation. He thanks Lora Conrad for her dedication and assistance in providing identifications of most of the species shown here.

The Iowa Great Lakes region is known as one of Iowa’s preeminent tourist destinations, where recreational opportunities abound on the glacier-carved chain of lakes that most summertime visitors and year-round residents call “Okoboji.” During the growing season, the area is also a haven for wildflowers. While visiting last month, I observed many native plants in the region’s numerous nature preserves and along undeveloped shorelines.

On that particular weekend, the initial draw to northwest Iowa wasn’t the Lakes, but rather the Clay County Fair in Spencer, my hometown. I managed to find a few wildflower photo opportunities on the fairgrounds, particularly at the Iowa Department of Natural Resources’ display outside of the Sundholm Environmental Cabin.

This was just a prelude to the many additional wildflowers observed when, on Saturday, September 14, I ventured north into Dickinson County, my only plans being (1) to find some tacos for lunch; and (2) enjoy the outdoors.

Herb Strentz was dean of the Drake School of Journalism from 1975 to 1988 and professor there until retirement in 2004. He was executive secretary of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council from its founding in 1976 to 2000.

To illustrate problems with the news coverage of the 2024 presidential campaign, this essay begins with a comparison and ends with a contrast.

First, the comparison:

Much of the news coverage of this year’s presidential race can be likened to stewards on the Titanic arranging the deck chairs in 1912 so passengers could get a better view of icebergs.

Kentin Waits is a writer and small business owner living in Des Moines. His work has appeared in Inc., Christian Science Monitor, U.S. Airways Magazine, and Kiplinger. 

If the thought of a stranger using your loved one’s cemetery plot as a campsite upsets you, proceed with caution.

In late July, I checked Facebook postings from my hometown of Knoxville, Iowa. On Wednesday, July 24, the community of 7,500 hosted an estimated 18,000 RAGBRAI riders overnight. I was curious to see the turnout and marvel at the willpower of those fit enough to participate in this two-wheeled endurance test.

Various threads began to mention that the city had quickly run out of available green space for campsites. The decision was made to open a section of Graceland Cemetery for the night (an empty hayfield and future site of the new Graceland Chapel). The lot abuts the historic cemetery and is separated only by a small lane that’s not open to traffic.

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. 

A family acquaintance was on Vice President Dick Cheney’s Secret Service detail during George W. Bush’s presidency. His Christmas photo one year was a portrait of him, his wife and Cheney together at a White House reception.

Back then, the agent entertained us with stories of people lining the streets as Cheney’s motorcade passed. Many greeted the vice president with their middle fingers extended.

Back then, those spectators most likely were Democrats who disagreed with Bush administration policies. Today, such roadside salutes for Cheney probably would be extended by Republicans.

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

On October 14, the state of Iowa observes Indigenous Peoples’ Day, in recognition of the roles native tribes have played in the state’s history and culture. It’s not a federal holiday, but an increasing number of states and cities now observe it instead of Columbus Day, the traditional name for the mid-October holiday. (Governor Kim Reynolds made the change in Iowa in 2018.)

October 11 was the anniversary of another notable event in Iowa history: on that day in 1842, the Sauk and Fox tribes signed a treaty ceding to the United States a large chunk of central and southern Iowa, including what is now Greene County. (The term “Sac and Fox” is a designation historically employed by the American government. A more accurate term is “Sauk/Meskwaki.”)

Jim Chrisinger is a retired public servant living in Ankeny. He served in both Republican and Democratic administrations, in Iowa and elsewhere. He also holds a law degree from the University of California, Berkeley.

Preserving American democracy and the rule of law motivates me every day. I feel compelled to reach across the divide to those in my world who, wittingly or unwittingly, would undermine or even throw these foundations of our republic overboard. So of course I want to persuade them. But I’ve learned the hard way that my preferred mode of persuasion—facts, reason, and values—very rarely works.

Then what does?

Which led me to read David McRaney’s 2022 book How Minds Change: The Surprising Science of Belief, Opinion, and Persuasion. Here are my takeaways, first what I’ll call “Findings” and then practical “Dos and Don’ts”:

As misinformation about the federal response to natural disasters hampers relief efforts in the southeast U.S., several Iowa Republicans have seized the opportunity to spread lies about the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Echoing “pants on fire” claims from former President Donald Trump, U.S. Representatives Mariannette Miller-Meeks (IA-01) and Ashley Hinson (IA-02) have repeatedly asserted that FEMA lacks the resources needed to help those harmed by Hurricanes Helene and Milton, because it has spent too much supporting undocumented immigrants. Representative Zach Nunn (IA-03) and U.S. Senator Joni Ernst have likewise claimed Americans are being shortchanged due to FEMA’s allegedly excessive spending on migrants.

Those lies are part of a national effort by Trump supporters and the leading pro-Republican cable news network to assist Trump’s campaign. For Iowa Republicans as well, the false talking points direct voters’ attention toward immigration and border security, topics perceived to boost GOP candidates up and down the ballot.

Nunn, Miller-Meeks, and Hinson all invested in election-year messaging about immigration long before the hurricanes made landfall.

Clark Kauffman is deputy editor at Iowa Capital Dispatch, where this article first appeared.

The state of Iowa, where nursing homes have compiled one of the nation’s worst records for staffing-level violations, has joined nineteen other states in suing the Biden administration to block the implementation of new staffing requirements.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa, seeks to overturn the nursing home staffing requirements approved earlier this year by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

In their petition, the 20 states and more than a dozen industry associations argue that the new staffing requirements pose “an existential threat to the nursing home industry as many nursing homes that are already struggling will have no choice but to go out of business. And the main victims will be the patients who will have nowhere else to go.”

Katie Byerly of Cerro Gordo County is also known as Iowa Prairie Girl on YouTube.

Tall and slender, it seemed so out of place. Water parsnip (Sium suave) grows along the edges of lakes and marshes and in wet prairies. In Wilkinson Park the prairie trails are often wet so it makes sense that water parsnip grows there. But mixed in with all the other usual prairie wildflowers at Wilkinson, like blazing stars, cinquefoils, and milkweeds, it does look misplaced.

This is an image of water parsnip in July 2018 at Wilkinson Park in Rock Falls, Iowa. I recall it being the only parsnip growing there at the time. Now at least a dozen water parsnip plants grow at this spot.

The Dallas County Democrats (democratsfordallascounty@gmail.com) submitted this post with the permission and involvement of Gladys Julstrom and her family members.

Calvin Coolidge was president of the United States on February 17, 1924, having succeeded Warren Harding upon his sudden death while in office the summer before. On that day, Gladys Stohlgren was born in Des Moines, one of five children, to a Swedish Lutheran family. This year, she’ll vote for Kamala Harris, who would be the first woman president of the United States.

Now 100 years old, Gladys is one of six centenarians who are registered Democrats in Dallas County. She plans to cast her vote using a mailed in ballot. She is voting because she is “concerned about the worldwide situation,” she said. She votes because “I like to help people who care about the welfare of people.”

Gladys has always voted. She remembers Harry Truman, Lyndon Johnson (“LBJ” is how she referred to him), when John Kennedy was assassinated, and knows Jimmy Carter just turned 100 years old too. She has volunteered on campaigns, knocking on doors and “posting envelopes.” She liked to attend events when presidential candidates visited Iowa.

Jeff Fuhrman is an independent writer and international tax director. He has degrees in Russian and Law, and more than 30 years of experience working with the countries of the former Soviet Union. He lives in Cherokee with his husband and their dog Harambe. He encourages readers to listen to Sergiy Sysuev’s song “With Ukraine in My Heart” while reading this essay.

Twelve years ago, I had the privilege of taking my mother to see where her grandparents lived in Europe in the 1800s. Back then it was an untamed territory on the southern edge of the Russian Empire. After it was conquered, the Russian Emperors invited people later known as “Black Sea Germans” to populate and farm the lands. 

My mom’s family migrated from Prussia to the new lands (now part of Ukraine and Transdnestria, north of Odesa) and brought their religion and way of life with them. They farmed sunflowers, wheat, and grapes—the same crops you see today in the Dakotas, where they emigrated to, bravely, in the 1870s. St. Paul’s (Lutheran) Cathedral in Odesa is still standing.

Jenny Turner is a public school mom and a school speech therapist. She lives in West Des Moines.

“Education is Warfare,” blares the homepage for Canon Press curriculum. The founder, Douglas Wilson, echoed that sentiment in his speech at the 2024 conference of its sister organization, the Association of Classical Christian Schools, saying, “We are a cultural munitions factory.”

Wilson co-founded the Association of Classical Christian Schools in 1993, and although he is no longer on the board or staff, he retains a close relationship with the group, regularly giving the keynote at its conferences, writing forwards and guides to many of its curricular materials, and attending one or two board meetings each year.

The Iowa Department of Education lists the group among its “approved independent accrediting agencies” for nonpublic (private) schools. Families with a child enrolled in an accredited private school are eligible to receive funding through an Educational Savings Account, better known as Iowa’s school voucher program.

State Auditor Rob Sand intends to decide which office he’s running for in 2026 well before the end of next year, he confirmed during a September 30 appearance on Julie Gammack’s Iowa Potluck Zoom podcast. Sand talked mostly about his work as auditor during the interview. When Gammack opened the floor to questions, I asked about his future plans.

The only remaining Democratic statewide official in Iowa, Sand is widely perceived as a potential candidate for governor in 2026. If he runs, he could clear the Democratic field.

I raised the question of timing because Sand also considered running for higher office in 2021. He ruled out a U.S. Senate bid in May of that year but did not announce he would seek a second term as auditor until early December. Does he plan to leave other prospective candidates for governor hanging for most of 2025, or let Iowans know sooner, perhaps in the summer or early fall?

“So, I’m a human being,” Sand began. He hadn’t gone through that “complicated” and “difficult” process before the last election cycle. “And let me tell you, there’s no one who wishes I would have decided faster more than me. Maybe my wife,” he laughed.

“But it’s hard to figure it out,” Sand went on. There are personal factors to consider as well as “really important decisions” for the state and the public. Weighing his options in 2021 “was really difficult. I have now been through this once before. I think it will be easier, and I don’t think it will take as long this time.”

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   

One of the early lessons that parents teach their toddlers is, “If you hurt someone, you say you’re sorry.” As children mature, the lesson also matures to add, “When you make a mistake, admit it, say you’re sorry and learn from it.” We hope kids learn this lesson early.

But one profession must have missed that toddler talk and instead embraced the catch phrase from the movie Love Story: “Love means never having to say you’re sorry.”

In this line of work, the mantra becomes, “love for power means never having to say you’re sorry.”

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.

James Madison, a key figure in adopting our Bill of Rights and our fourth president from 1809 to 1817, seemed to foresee the Donald Trump phenomenon and the farce and looming tragedy of the 2024 election.

In 1822, Madison wrote, “A popular Government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy; or perhaps both. Knowledge will for ever govern ignorance: and a people who mean to be their own Governours, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.”

Journalists cite Madison’s concerns as an argument for access to government meetings and public records so a “watchdog press” can hold government accountable and also serve as “The Fourth Estate” of government.

Amy Adams currently serves as the co-chair of the Fayette County Democrats and has worked with a variety of Iowa-based grassroots organizations for the past eight years. She is a wife and mother of three living in rural northeast Iowa. 

Vice President Kamala Harris closing the gap with former President Donald Trump in Iowa isn’t just about President Joe Biden stepping aside as the Democratic nominee. Harris is a great candidate and brings energy to the race, but the change is also about the dedicated work happening at the grassroots level.

Across the state, county Democratic parties are stepping up to engage voters, and their efforts are starting to pay off.

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. 

Talk about lousy optics — and I am not referring to out-of-style eyeglasses. Public perception is the topic for today.

A couple of recent news nuggets illustrate in different ways an uncomfortable fact of life in Iowa: too many state and local government officials are not comfortable with the public looking over their shoulders as they perform their official duties.

One case overflowing with irony involves the Des Moines County Board of Supervisors. The other involves State Treasurer Roby Smith.

Luuk Clark is a Prairie Steward and Pinnated Grouse advocate. He thanks Laura Walters of the Tallgrass Prairie Center and John Pearson of the Iowa DNR for helping him find a nearby location to photograph Silky prairie clover for this post.

Silky prairie clover (Dalea villosa) is a bit of a nomadic species relying on sandy, sparsely vegetated places. In Iowa it may be mainly associated with ancient post-glaciated delta systems and watersheds surrounding the Cedar River. 

My first time seeing it in Iowa was on a sandy “blowout” further east than the current range indicates. This does not surprise me as the changing of the natural landscape in Iowa has extirpated a plethora of our native species, and thus, our knowledge of where things historically could be found are lost with the upturned soil and disappearance of the prairie that gives Iowa its rich heritage. Its historic presence in Iowa was always considered “infrequent” even in earliest records, such as Wesley Greene’s 1907 book Plants of Iowa: A Preliminary List of the Native and Introduced Plants of the State, Not under Cultivation.

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.

Council Bluffs Mayor Matt Walsh, a Republican, joined others in his party and independents to support Democratic State Representative Josh Turek, a gold medal-winning Paralympian in wheelchair basketball, at a September 26 event in this southwest Iowa city. Former U.S. Senator Tom Harkin, an Iowa icon, headlined the fundraiser for Turek, who captured his state House district by just six votes in 2022 and faces a challenging re-election bid in the November election.

Walsh said he crossed party lines for the event—and a public endorsement of a Democrat—for one reason: Turek is a respected and effective voice at the statehouse.

“While I am a registered Republican, I strongly believe the best candidate should win,” Walsh said in an interview at the Hoff Family Arts and Cultural Center. “Without a doubt in my mind that’s Josh Turek. He cares about Iowa, he cares about people with disabilities, and he cares about Council Bluffs. You can talk to Josh. Josh listens. Josh understands. Josh is responsive. He’s everything you look for in a candidate. Josh is that guy.”