Best of Bleeding Heartland
Best of Bleeding Heartland’s original reporting in 2023
Best of Bleeding Heartland’s original reporting in 2022
Best of Bleeding Heartland’s original reporting in 2020
(more links to individual posts from earlier years are below)
State legislative coverage
Who’s who in the Iowa House for 2024
Who’s who in the Iowa Senate for 2024
Posts about the Iowa legislature’s 2024 session
Posts about the Iowa legislature’s 2023 session
Posts about the Iowa legislature’s 2022 session
Posts about the Iowa legislature’s 2021 session
Posts about the Iowa legislature’s 2020 session
Posts about the Iowa legislature’s 2019 session
Posts about the Iowa legislature’s 2018 session
Posts about the Iowa legislature’s 2017 session
Posts about the Iowa legislature’s 2016 session
Posts about the Iowa legislature’s 2015 session
Posts about the Iowa legislature’s 2014 session
Posts about the Iowa legislature’s 2013 session
Posts about the Iowa legislature’s 2012 session
Posts about the Iowa legislature’s 2011 session
Posts about the Iowa legislature’s 2010 session
Posts about the Iowa legislature’s 2009 session
Election coverage
All posts tagged 2022 elections
Absentee ballot numbers 2022 (updated daily)
“Lessons of 2022” (series analyzing the 2022 election results in Iowa)
All posts tagged 2020 elections
“Lessons of 2020” (series analyzing the 2020 election results in Iowa)
“Lessons of 2018” (series analyzing the 2018 election results in Iowa)
28 Iowa House races to watch in 2020, with ratings
All posts tagged 2018 elections
Absentee ballot numbers 2018 (updated daily)
Absentee ballot numbers 2016 (updated daily)
Absentee ballot numbers 2014 (daily tables for comparison)
Absentee ballot numbers 2012 (daily tables for comparison)
“How the Iowa caucuses work” series (2016 version)
“How the Iowa caucuses work” series from 2007 and 2008
Iowa wildflowers
Full Iowa wildflower Wednesday archive
The Iowa wildflower Wednesday origin story
Links to individual posts
From 2022:
Series of exclusive reports about the Public Employment Relations Board
Governor was comped state building for SOTU response
Federal auditors reviewing CARES Act funds for governor’s staff salaries
Iowa trooper crash investigation details remain secret (by John Morrissey)
Governor’s action cost Iowans $141 million in food assistance
Iowa governor not even close to keeping one campaign promise
Iowa’s new garbage search law looks unconstitutional
New Iowa absentee rules disenfranchised hundreds in 2022 primary
How Iowa Supreme Court’s McDermott, Oxley have decided big cases
How Iowa Democrats could have saved the caucuses
Iowa Supreme Court’s abortion reversal may cast long shadow
Miller-Meeks used taxpayer funds for large radio ad buy
Gannett prints fake newspapers at Des Moines Register plant
From 2021:
Redistricting:
The Iowa court ruling that could stop a Republican gerrymander
First look at finalized Iowa maps, with incumbent match-ups
First look at Iowa’s new House, Senate seats in larger metro areas
Exclusive investigative reporting:
Governor fast-tracked COVID tests for firm linked to major donor
Test Iowa vendor gave officials talking points for PR video
Iowa approved CARES Act funds for governor’s office software switch
Governor taps American Rescue Plan for IT project predating pandemic
Other agencies covered $900K in governor’s office costs
From 2020:
COVID-19 related:
Iowa governor used CARES Act funds to pay staff salaries
Iowa’s state medical director received 45 percent pay raise
Iowa’s COVID-19 website has backdated some cases for months
Iowa’s COVID-19 website rewrites history every day
Iowa governor’s COVID-19 strategy more faith-based than data-driven
The Iowa COVID-19 peak that wasn’t
Iowa legislature:
Why did these House Republicans reject an easy win for Iowa taxpayers?
Ashley Hinson dodged Iowa House debates on high-profile bills
Iowa’s Ag Gag 3.0 may get past courts
Republicans found shortcut around Iowa Supreme Court on abortion
Iowa caucuses:
Iowa Democrats need new state chair–and new attorney
Deep dive on Iowa Democratic Party’s vote to certify 2020 caucus results
From 2019:
Reynolds, GOP killed way to reduce racial, economic disparities in Iowa courts
How one Democrat’s work will let Iowa Republicans pack the courts
Leader quits Iowa civil rights enforcement agency
Why was Jerry Foxhoven worried?
Reynolds/Miller deal could encourage future Republican power grabs
When politicians become assignment editors
Mueller’s findings on Sam Clovis and a top Chuck Grassley staffer
MidAmerican’s bid to crush small solar creates strange lobbying bedfellows
From 2018:
How Kim Reynolds got away with violating Iowa’s constitution (topped the list of eighteen posts I worked hardest on in in 2018)
Lessons of 2018: Mid-sized cities bigger problem for Democrats than rural areas (part of a series of posts analyzing results from the 2018 elections)
Rod Blum’s internet business, other firms tout identical “success stories”
A close look at Waterloo’s new, improved use-of-force policy
From 2017:
Kim Reynolds misled public about Iowa attorney general’s view of her powers (topped the list of seventeen posts I worked hardest on in 2017)
Early clues about the Kim Reynolds leadership style are not encouraging
How Iowa could have lost three Supreme Court justices in 2016
One White House reporter’s stunning inside view of access journalism
From 2016:
Posts about Iowa State University President Steven Leath’s airplane scandal
(part of a series of posts about felon voting rights during the Branstad administration)
“The View from Nowhere” in Iowa legislative news coverage (topped the list of
sixteen posts I worked hardest on in 2016)
Cedar Rapids Gazette lets reporters grab other people’s scoops without attribution
Memo to journalists: Craig Robinson’s firm makes money off the Iowa caucus campaign
From 2015:
One reader’s feedback for new Des Moines Register publisher David Chivers (topped the list of fifteen posts I worked hardest on in 2015)
Posts about the hiring of Bruce Harreld as University of Iowa president
Insurance company insiders knew about Iowa’s Medicaid privatization plans long before public
Excessive demands for personal attention hurt the Iowa caucuses (where I first used the phrase “prairie prima donnas”)
Overreacting to criticism is not good for the Iowa caucuses
Steve King doesn’t understand American Jews. The feeling is mutual
From 2014:
Q: When do Iowa Democrats talk like Steve King?
Chutzpah alert: Branstad as defender of the separation of powers
“No Labels”? More like, “No point”
From 2013:
IA-Gov: Branstad/Reynolds switcheroo easier said than done
Iowa House: Birthplace and graveyard for marriage and abortion bills
From 2012:
Iowa Democrats becoming the party of local control?
Adventures in liberal excuse-making
Iowa Senate ad watch: Water bottles (really)
From 2011:
Adventures in cynical finger-pointing
From 2010:
“Heated sidewalks”: A lie coming to a statehouse race near you
Flowerpots, trolleys and kayaks, oh my!
No, Virginia, there’s no billion-dollar budget gap
Exploring Paul McKinley’s fantasy world
From 2009:
Could Clinton or Edwards have beaten Obama in Iowa?
Why don’t Iowa leaders do more to protect the environment?
I dodged a teachable moment last week
My case against Hanna Rosin’s case against breastfeeding
Iowa atheists have amazing powers
From 2008: