Cami Koons covers agriculture and the environment for Iowa Capital Dispatch, where this article first appeared.

A federal judge heard oral arguments on March 31 in a case that could overturn a decades-old statute tying wetland conservation to federal farm benefit eligibility. 

The plaintiff CTM Holdings, which owns and rents land to Iowa farmers, sued over the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s “swampbuster” law, alleging its implementation is unconstitutional, and that it takes land without any compensation to landowners.

The government defendants and intervening environmental groups argued against CTM and alleged the company had no standing as it had not suffered any injury from the statute.

Chief Judge C.J. Williams, for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa, questioned whether the whole issue was a “failure to communicate” between the landowner and Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), which carries out the swampbuster rule. 

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

It takes courage to stand for the right course of action. It takes more courage to do something about it.

John F. Kennedy’s 1956 book Profiles in Courage details the actions of eight U.S. Senators throughout history who did the right thing in specific instances, knowing nevertheless the bitter criticism and retaliation they would undergo. Among the eight was U.S. Senator James W. Grimes of Iowa, who was among seven Republican senators who voted against convicting President Andrew Johnson in 1868 on his questionable impeachment charge approved by the Republican-controlled U.S. House.

Johnson avoided ejection from the presidency by just one vote. Had any one of the seven brave senators voted the other way, he would have been gone.

Sometimes such courage takes place hidden from the public. Other times, as in the episodes Kennedy describes, it’s very public, even sensational.

If ever a time cried out for such courage, it’s now.

Dani Replogle is a staff attorney with the national advocacy group Food & Water Watch.

For nearly a century, the U.S. government has encouraged farmers to adopt practices that conserve wetlands, protect clean water, and keep farms sustainable. But this common-sense federal commitment to farmers and wetland conservation is now under threat.

Swampbuster, a federal program that rewards farmers who conserve wetlands with eligibility for millions of dollars in U.S. Department of Agriculture benefits, is a policy that embodies the longstanding governmental commitment to supporting good farmland stewardship practices. Thanks to the Trump administration and a suite of lawsuits that have cropped up in federal courts, Swampbuster and similar incentive programs now face an uncertain future.

For years, family farm groups have been advocating for this long-term farm sustainability program. This month, attorneys representing sustainable agriculture groups will defend the critical Swampbuster program in federal court in Cedar Rapids.

John Hale and Terri Hale own The Hale Group, advocating for older Iowans and people with disabilities. John worked for the Social Security Administration for 25 years in its Baltimore headquarters, Kansas City regional office, and in multiple Iowa field offices. Contact: terriandjohnhale@gmail.com

The Social Security program is 89 years old. Seventy-two million Americans currently receive a monthly benefit. Some 185 million Americans pay into the system and plan to receive benefits someday.

According to the Social Security Administration, some 687,630 Iowans receive monthly Social Security benefits, which total more than $1.2 billion ($1,235,464,000 to be precise) every month—in Iowa alone.

Americans depend on Social Security to be there for them. Recent events raise serious questions about whether it will be.

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.

Lutheran Services in Iowa is struggling after the federal government reneged on a $1.5 million commitment to fund the nonprofit’s work in welcoming and aiding legal immigrants and refugees to Iowa. The controversy screams for more detail and better coverage than it has received from the news media so far.

Hundreds of newcomers to Iowa, and millions across the country aided by other charities, have been cut off from support authorized by Congress. The Trump administration’s decision to freeze the funding is grounded in misleading statements if not outright lies.

The way we are treating the world’s most vulnerable today stands in stark contrast to our country’s history. Consider a 19^th century sonnet by poet Emma Lazarus, which expressed America’s aspirations as a nation of immigrants, and a vulgarity President Donald Trump expressed in the 21^st century.

Sue Dinsdale is the executive director of the Iowa Citizen Action Network, a grassroots public interest organization committed to creating social change in Iowa and across the nation. She is also the state lead for Health Care for America NOW. Brian Keyser is a health policy research associate at Center for American Progress, an independent, nonpartisan policy institute that is dedicated to improving the lives of all Americans through bold, progressive ideas, strong leadership, and concerted action.

Last year, 60-year-old Iowan Susan McKinney started a new job working from home for a travel agency. Susan suffers from diabetes, arthritis, and atrial fibrillation (AFib), and her insurance coverage hadn’t kicked in before her health deteriorated to the point where she couldn’t walk up or down her apartment steps. She couldn’t get to a doctor—which she had no way to pay for anyway—so her conditions went untreated. In November, her concerned siblings moved her back to her hometown of Cedar Rapids, where the local free clinic told her that she qualified for Medicaid. Susan’s sister says, “Medicaid saved her life.”

Medicaid provides comprehensive medical coverage and long-term care for approximately 21 percent of Iowans like Susan. In 2023, the federal government covered around 72 percent of Iowa’s $7 billion in Medicaid spending.

But on February 25, all four members of Iowa’s House delegation voted in lock step with the Republican majority to advance a budget that would necessitate slashing federal contributions to state Medicaid programs to fund tax cuts for the wealthy. If implemented, this legislation could mean a loss of more than $8 billion for Iowa’s economy over the next decade.

The Center for American Progress estimated how the $880 billion in proposed Medicaid cuts nationwide would cost each Congressional district in federal funding. Here are the Iowa numbers:

The only Iowa Republican legislator to lose his 2024 re-election bid has landed a job in the Trump administration—and he won’t need to move to Washington, DC.

Former State Senator Brad Zaun will be the administrator of the Small Business Administration’s Region 7, he announced to LinkedIn followers on March 6. In a statement published by the Des Moines Register, Zaun said he was “dedicated to boosting small businesses in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska by cutting red tape, expanding our reach, and providing essential resources.” He added, “My goal is a streamlined, ‘America First’ SBA that fuels free enterprise and regional prosperity.”

Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” continues to slash the federal workforce, but there will always be room for political appointees—especially those on good terms with President Donald Trump.

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

President Donald Trump and DOGE top gun Elon Musk have been in power for a month. How have they changed life in Greene County?

Probably not much—yet.

Musk has ordered the firing of hundreds of thousands of federal employees, particularly those on “probationary” status who were hired in recent months. Greene County has precious few federal workers. Probably most of them here are concentrated in the USDA and related agencies. I’m not aware that anyone here in that category has been let go, but I may be wrong.

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 

Imagine being appointed to be the president of a huge tech company. You have no experience or knowledge of tech. Your 11-year-old grandson taught you once how to turn on a computer, but that’s the limit of your tech knowledge. You’re a modern-day Luddite.

Most of your experience is in showbiz. The chairman of the board loved your show and even made guest appearances. The other board members are afraid of the chairman, so when he shouts, “jump!” They whimper, “How high?”

You’ve received your orders from the chairman. His goal is to dismantle the company regardless of harm. You’re hired to destroy, not reform.

Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird enjoyed suing the Biden administration. She filed or joined more than a dozen multi-state lawsuits against the federal government during her first year in office alone. At least a dozen more lawsuits followed in 2024.

Bird has often welcomed media coverage of her legal battles against Biden administration policies. Her office issued many press releases to announce new litigation or joint letters challenging the federal government.

But Bird’s office kept quiet about one case, which Iowa and sixteen other Republican-controlled states filed in the Northern District of Texas last September. Texas v. Becerra could prove catastrophic for Americans with disabilities. Not only are the plaintiffs seeking to vacate a federal rule prohibiting discrimination against disabled people in health care settings, they are also asking the court to declare a 1973 law known as Section 504 unconstitutional and unenforceable.

After reporters began asking questions about that lawsuit last week, Bird and her staff lied repeatedly about the scope of the case and the plaintiffs’ goals.

State Senator Liz Bennett and State Representative Aime Wichtendahl co-authored this commentary, which first appeared in the Cedar Rapids Gazette. Bennett represents Senate district 39 and is District 39 and is the ranking member of the Senate Technology Committee. Wichtendahl represents House district 80 and serves on the House Economic Growth and Technology Committee.

On January 31, 2025, the largest data breach in U.S. history occurred when Elon Musk accessed the United States Treasury systems. The data accessed is, in effect, the nation’s checkbook. Financial transactions detailing the who, what, where, and when of every payment the United States makes, as well as the Social Security numbers of millions of Americans were compromised.

According to reports, then-unnamed affiliates of Musk were also granted access and external hard drives were brought in to capture the data for offsite storage. While these affiliates are now being called employees of the “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE), none of them have gone through the rigorous background checks used to vet other federal employees at this level.

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.

These days, Iowans may wonder how our elected officials, who should prioritize protecting and caring for the most vulnerable, can live with themselves or even look at themselves in the mirror. More than 50,000 Iowans live in the state’s more than 400 nursing homes. Most of those facilities are for-profit enterprises, funded by tens of billions of taxpayer dollars. These residents, their families, those of us approaching our own long-term care needs—and frankly, all Iowans—should be able to count on responsible individuals of both political parties to fulfill their oaths. 

Not in Iowa.

Republicans have had full control of state government (the Iowa House, Senate, and governor’s office) since 2017. In her recent Condition of the State address, Governor Kim Reynolds made it sound as if we were now living in the State of Nirvana, thanks to her and her party.

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

For the first time, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has overruled the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) on the state’s impaired waters list.

Pam Mackey Taylor, director of the Iowa Chapter of Sierra Club, explained in a Bleeding Heartland post from November that last year, the EPA objected to the impaired waters list the DNR submitted. The EPA added seven segments in the Cedar, Des Moines, Iowa, Raccoon, and South Skunk Rivers to the list, because DNR staff had not used all existing and readily available water quality data. The DNR had refused to add these seven segments during the preparation of the list, even after the EPA told them the omission of those segments would not be approved.

Before Sierra Club and two other ad hoc groups filed a lawsuit in 2000, Iowa had never prepared an impaired waters list, even though the federal Clean Water Act required the state to do so. As a result of that lawsuit, EPA created Iowa’s first impaired waters list. But the federal agency had not overruled the DNR’s submission of the state’s impaired waters list until last year.

Henry Jay Karp is the Rabbi Emeritus of Temple Emanuel in Davenport, Iowa, which he served from 1985 to 2017. He is the co-founder and co-convener of One Human Family QCA, a social justice organization. This essay first appeared on his Substack column.

Shortly after the recent election, Democratic State Representative Ken Croken, one of the members of the Quad Cities delegation to the Iowa legislature, hosted a meeting at a local library. The theme was, “Where Do We Go From Here?”

The room was packed. It was booked for an hour, but for the first half hour those in attendance were obsessed with the question of “Where did the Democrats go so wrong?” Every speaker had his or her view on why Democratic candidates failed so miserably, both nationally and in Iowa.

It was interesting, to a point. It allowed people to grieve and vent their anger, but it wasn’t very useful and it definitely was off topic. Finally, I raised my hand in frustration and said, “We’re talking about the wrong thing! It will be two years before we can effect change through the voting booth! But it will only be two months before January 20 and day one of the Trump presidency! Right now we have bigger fish to fry and not a lot of time to get cooking!”

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.

In an era when sex and religion are politicized, it was inevitable that food would follow.

Two bookend events in 2025 may catapult our eating habits off the Food Network and onto mainstream cable and broadcast news. First will be the confirmation hearing for Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for Secretary of Health and Human Services. Then an ad hoc committee of experts must release the legally-required rewriting of the federal government’s food and nutrition dietary guidelines, which are due by the end of 2025.

Pam Mackey Taylor is the Director of the Iowa Chapter of the Sierra Club.

The U.S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently notified the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) that several Iowa rivers which are used for drinking water need to be put on the impaired waters list—also called the 303(d) list—because they are polluted with nitrate and nitrite. Nitrate and nitrite are toxic to humans. 

The affected rivers are the Cedar River, Des Moines River, Iowa River, Raccoon River, and South Skunk River. There were numerous water samples exceeding the federal water quality standard for surface waters used for drinking water. 

This development is significant, because it means DNR will have to take actions to reduce the nitrates and nitrates in these rivers in order to protect drinking water. With these rivers on the impaired waters list, the DNR can no longer ignore the continuing pollution of these waterways with nitrate and nitrite. 

Dani Replogle is a staff attorney with the national advocacy group Food & Water Watch.

The Midwest’s iconic prairie potholes and other wetlands across the nation are under attack. A politically motivated lawsuit targeting the popular “Swampbuster” provision of the 1985 Farm Bill aims to erode a policy that has protected wetlands and supported farmers for nearly four decades. The case–CTM Holdings, LLC v. U.S. Department of Agriculture–is now pending before the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa.

From cleaning water and providing wildlife habitat to mitigating droughts and flooding, wetlands perform a panoply of ecosystem services that benefit human health and safety. As the impacts of climate change intensify over the coming years, farmers and rural communities stand to benefit immensely from wetlands protected by Swampbuster. That’s why a group of sustainable agriculture groups including Food & Water Watch, Iowa Farmers Union, Iowa Environmental Council, and Dakota Rural Action have moved to intervene in the lawsuit that will decide the program’s fate. 

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.

Greene County Attorney Thomas Laehn, who was the first Libertarian elected to partisan office in Iowa, is considering a bid for U.S. Senate in 2026.

The Thomas Laehn Exploratory Committee filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission in December, but the committee’s campaign website, Laehn4Iowa.org, was just launched in late July.

Laehn spoke to Bleeding Heartland by phone last month about why he may run for Senate and what factors will influence his decision.

Ed Tibbetts, a longtime reporter and editor in the Quad-Cities, is the publisher of the Along the Mississippi newsletter, where this article first appeared. Find more of his work at edtibbetts.substack.com.

Senator Joni Ernst calls herself the U.S. Senate’s “fiercest advocate” for government accountability.

Too bad she doesn’t appear to care about the country’s biggest tax cheats.

Over the past couple years, the Iowa senator has been fixated on the Internal Revenue Service. But rather than help the IRS try to recover the hundreds of billions of dollars in unpaid taxes each year, Ernst and her fellow Republicans are doing the opposite. They want to choke off the funding that is helping the IRS to rein in these abuses and give you better service.

Three weeks ago, the IRS announced that, with the additional funding provided by the White House and Democrats in Congress, it had collected more than $1 billion in unpaid taxes from millionaires over the past year.

Iowa Restaurant Association President Jessica Dunker is not happy that the U.S. Department of Labor is fining Iowa restaurants for youth employment violations.

The association has warned its members that federal officials “are taking massive punitive action” against restaurants that follow Iowa’s child labor law. Dunker told the Des Moines Register’s Kevin Baskins that the enforcement actions “are literally going to put people out of business” and accused the federal agency of targeting her association’s board members and award winners. Baskins profiled one Subway franchise owner who is “a nervous wreck” potentially facing “huge fines.”

Iowa Restaurant Association leaders should have expected this scenario when they successfully lobbied the legislature to relax youth employment rules in 2023. U.S. labor officials made clear last year that Iowa’s new law (known as Senate File 542) was “inconsistent with federal child labor law in several respects.” They promised the federal agency would “vigorously enforce child labor protections across the nation,” and said employers violating federal law could face “various penalties, including civil money penalties.”

Dunker’s group and the Iowa Department of Inspections, Appeals, and Licensing downplayed such risks when educating restaurant owners about the new state rules.

Iowa was among just five states that did not receive statewide funding through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s $7 billion Solar for All Program, designed to deliver residential solar power to some 900,000 households across the country. The 60 federal grants announced on April 22 will focus on “long-lasting solar programs” targeting “low-income and disadvantaged communities.”

The Iowa Economic Development Authority did not comment on why the EPA declined to fund the state’s application for $75 million through the competitive grant program. Critics noted the state’s “utility-driven approach,” which did not include labor unions or registered apprenticeship programs.

The authors of this post are Dani Replogle, a staff attorney with the national advocacy group Food & Water Watch, and Michael Schmidt, a staff attorney with the Iowa Environmental Council.

Safe, clean drinking water is a basic human right. In Iowa, that right is under serious threat as nitrate-laden pollution piles up, and state cancer levels rise unchecked. It’s time for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to step in. We filed a petition last week demanding just that.

Iowans have industrial agriculture to blame for worsening water quality. Over the past twenty years, concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) have steadily replaced family-scale operations statewide. Today, Iowa is home to far more of these enormous polluting operations than any other state. As Big Ag moved in, they consolidated control in Des Moines, permeating state government to tilt the scales in favor of industry.

David Tilly is a former deputy director of the Iowa Department of Education. He emailed this message to all 150 Iowa legislators on March 20. His previous messages to lawmakers about proposed changes to Area Education Agencies are available here, here, and here.

Open letter to Iowa Legislators:

I am David Tilly. I was Deputy Director at the Iowa Department of Education between 2012 and 2020. I oversaw the Division of PK-12, which encompasses special education responsibility and oversight in Iowa. I am writing today to address a rumor that appears to be circulating about the AEA bills. Specifically that the Iowa Department of Education must be given both more authority and more compliance resources over special education or the “feds” might come in and “take us over.” This statement is patently false. That is not how Federal Special Education Monitoring of states works. The Iowa Department of Education currently has all of the monetary resources and authority necessary to effectively monitor special education in Iowa.

Please excuse the long-detailed email, but it’s important to set the record straight.

Scott Syroka is a former Johnston city council member.

The U.S. Surface Transportation Board announced on February 29 it accepted Canadian National’s request to classify its proposed acquisition of Iowa Northern Railway as a “Minor” transaction. The federal regulator also established a procedural schedule going forward for interested parties to weigh in as the proposed acquisition undergoes review.

Canadian National had been facing opposition to its classification request from entities like Canadian Pacific Kansas City and the National Grain and Feed Association. Both had called for the Surface Transportation Board to classify the deal as a “Significant” transaction when being reviewed for consideration.

While on its face the classification decision may appear as a setback for those who oppose the deal due to increased consolidation of the rail industry and its potential for further abuses of monopoly power, the 9-page decision by the Surface Transportation Board makes clear that no final determination has been made.

Quaker Oats plant in Cedar Rapids, photographed by David Harmantas (Shutterstock).

Scott Syroka is a former Johnston city council member.

Attorneys for Canadian Pacific Kansas City submitted a 59-page filing to the U.S. Surface Transportation Board on February 26 regarding the proposed acquisition of Iowa Northern Railway by Canadian National.

The Canadian Pacific Kansas City filing highlights the proposed deal’s “national importance” and cites “competitive concerns of significant magnitude” in calling for the Surface Transportation Board to classify Canadian National’s takeover attempt of Iowa Northern as a “Significant” transaction rather than the “Minor” transaction status that Canadian National has sought.

The distinction matters because “Minor” transactions aren’t subject to the same regulatory requirements as “Significant” transactions—meaning the public would have less access to information and less time to review the deal.

Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird receives an award from the Iowa State Sheriffs’ and Deputies’ Association in December 2023. Photo first published on the Attorney General’s official Facebook page.

Randy Evans is executive director of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council and can be reached at DMRevans2810@gmail.com. 

Voters have busy lives—families to care for, jobs demanding their attention, bills to worry about. 

So, they can be forgiven if they do not closely track their government leaders’ statements and actions. Sometimes voters may find discrepancies between what politicians say and what they do.

Here is one example:

Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird was in the news last week asking Congress to replenish a federal program, the Victims of Crime Act, which assists crime victims in a variety of ways.

State Auditor Rob Sand has asked federal regulators to block Koch Industries’ planned acquisition of OCI Global’s Nitrogen Iowa fertilizer plant in Lee County.

In a January 30 letter to Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan and Assistant U.S. Attorney General Jonathan Kanter, who leads the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division, Sand noted tax incentives totaling some $550 million had supported building the plant, which “was pitched to taxpayers as a project that would encourage future competition and growth for the region.”

Scott Syroka highlighted the problematic sale in a Bleeding Heartland post last month. That article detailed how then Governor Terry Branstad’s administration orchestrated a package including $300 million in federal tax giveaways related to a flood relief program, $133 million in local tax abatements from Lee County over twenty years, and $112 million in state tax credits or forgivable loans.

The auditor’s letter argued that a sale to Koch Industries would likely increase fertilizer costs for farmers. It would also negate the original intent of the deal; the idea that Koch wouldn’t own the new plant justified “the massive commitment of tax dollars in the first place.” Sand said he agreed with comments Branstad made to reporters in 2013, asserting that the Koch brothers “don’t want the competition,” whereas Iowans “want competition.”

Sand is the first Iowa statewide official to contact federal officials about the sale, which OCI Global announced in December.

Bernie Scolaro is a retired school counselor, a past president of the Sioux City Education Association, and former Sioux City school board member.

My mother used to make our lunches and send us off to school. Our packed lunch consisted of something like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and for dessert, something like a Hostess Ho Ho or Ding Dong. I would come home and have a snack, usually a couple of chocolate chip cookies. At dinner, my parents always wanted to make sure my siblings and I ate everything on our plate—after all, people were “starving to death in Biafra.”  

I was never heavy, but I do remember my mother calling me “pleasantly plump” a few times. I guess that phrase made it more “pleasant” to carry a little more weight. My mother never looked to Governor Nelson D. Rockefeller to tell me when or how much to eat. That was personal and a family matter, certainly not political.

Zachary Roth is the national democracy reporter for States Newsroom. Jared Strong is senior reporter for Iowa Capital Dispatch, where this article first appeared.

Iowa’s health department is failing to comply with the federal requirement to make voter registration accessible to people applying for Medicaid, multiple advocates say, likely leading significant numbers of low-income Iowans to be left off the rolls.

“I would regard this as major noncompliance with an agency’s obligations under the NVRA,” said Brenda Wright, special litigation and policy counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. She was referring to the National Voter Registration Act, the 1993 law that requires state agencies to offer their clients the chance to register to vote. 

The concerns come at a time when Iowa already appears to be struggling to get people on public assistance to register, and as the 2024 election approaches.

Photo of happy farmer by Serg Grbanoff, available via Shutterstock.

Jason Benell lives in Des Moines with his wife and two children. He is a combat veteran, former city council candidate, and president of Iowa Atheists and Freethinkers.

America Needs Farmers.

This statement has become a cultural touchstone. It became popular during the 1980s farm crisis, as a way to raise awareness of the difficulties suffered in the Midwest agricultural industry.

This phrase and branding has seen a bit of a renaissance in the past decade—featured on bumper stickers, commercials, apparel branding, and even partnerships with major universities like the University of Iowa.

America Needs Farmers, or “ANF,” has become less of a slogan for awareness, and more a brand or identity that Midwesterners tout alongside Carhartt or John Deere. The slogan is now almost synonymous with the Iowa Hawkeyes and rural farming, and is controlled by the Iowa Farm Bureau, a 501(c)5 organization representing farmers across Iowa.

Carl Olsen is the founder of Iowans for Medical Marijuana.

The Iowa Department of Corrections filed two study bills this week, asking Iowa legislators to make an exception to the state’s medical cannabis program, Iowa Code Chapter 124E.

Senate Study Bill 3020 and companion House Study Bill 524 call for amending the statute so the state can

Revoke a medical cannabidiol registration card issued to a person who becomes committed to the custody of the director of the Iowa department of corrections or placed under the supervision of the Iowa department of corrections.

Governor Kim Reynolds with her predecessor Terry Branstad in photo originally published on Reynolds’ official Facebook page in September 2020

Scott Syroka is a former Johnston city council member.

Antitrust regulators should block the proposed sale of OCI Global’s Iowa Fertilizer Co. plant in Wever (Lee County) to Koch Industries. The deal would be outrageous, but we must look back to fully understand why.

HOW IOWA TAXPAYERS HELPED FUND OCI’S FERTILIZER PLANT IN WEVER

Then-governor Terry Branstad and Lieutenant Governor Kim Reynolds offered nearly $550 million in tax giveaways to OCI’s predecessor, Orascom, to build the plant prior to its 2017 ribbon cutting.

That included $133 million in local giveaways such as Lee County property tax abatement over twenty years. Another $112 million in state giveaways like corporate tax credits and forgivable loans. And an estimated $300 million in federal tax giveaways from the get-go thanks to the Iowa Finance Authority approving Orascom for $1.2 billion in Midwestern Disaster Area bonds created by Congress after the 2008 floods.

Scott Syroka is a former Johnston city council member.

North American rail giant Canadian National announced on December 6 it would attempt to acquire the Waterloo-based short line railroad Iowa Northern Railway. Before that can happen though, the deal must undergo review by the U.S. Surface Transportation Board. The board should block this acquisition, and it’s not even a close call.

Short line railroads are the small and medium businesses of rail. Short lines like Iowa Northern Railway operate nearly half of all freight rail track in Iowa, according to the railroad interest group GoRail. These short lines run shorter distances and connect rural areas with larger, national rail networks.

Tombstone of Lawrence F. Shea at his war grave on the American cemetery in Margraten, Netherlands. Photo by Arne Hückelheim, available via Wikimedia Commons

Randy Evans is executive director of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council and can be reached at DMRevans2810@gmail.com. 

Veterans Day is around the corner. For John and Bob, the day will be for remembering the men and women who serve in the United States military—and two service members, in particular. 

For John, it will be his son, Robert, a Marine lieutenant who will forever be 29 years old. For Bob, it will be his father, Karl, forever the face on treasured family photographs of a handsome 26-year-old Army captain.

John and Bob are patriots through and through. They are not big-government fanatics. They have something else in common, too. They both believe the American people should never forget the ultimate sacrifice paid by members of the U.S. military, and that is a reason they are disappointed with a decision made by the government they love.

They believe the federal government has made a terrible, insensitive mistake by walking away from a pledge to the families of our war dead after World War II—to make it convenient for Gold Star families to remember their 234,000 loved ones who are interred or commemorated in 26 military cemeteries and memorials in more than a dozen foreign countries. 

Randy Evans is executive director of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council and can be reached at DMRevans2810@gmail.com. 

For many years, an Iowa State University political science professor and I met several times a year for coffee and conversation.

During our coffee klatches, I probed my friend’s thinking on world affairs, on government issues, and on politics in Iowa and across the United States. I suspect he tried to use these get-togethers to give me a something of a graduate-level seminar in American government, absent any lectures. 

Educators these days are frequently accused of trying to indoctrinate their students with a particular point of view. But what I came to realize during those sessions at the Stomping Grounds coffee shop in Ames was fundamental to excellence in teaching: The professor did not tell me what to think. He tried to get me to think more clearly and to analyze with more sophistication and depth. He helped me spot weaknesses in my own opinions and develop a better understanding of factors that may lead other people to see things differently than I did.

After retiring, my friend sold his acreage and left Iowa for a more scenic place to live. Our caffeine intake has declined, but we still stay in touch via email. Last week, the professor’s Stomping Grounds “student” field-tested the professor’s method of posing challenging questions to get people to re-examine their own opinions and see why some people have a different view than other people. 

Anne Schechinger is Senior Analyst of Economics for the Environmental Working Group. This report first appeared on the EWG’s website. 

Overview

• Crop insurance companies and agents received almost $33.3 billion from taxpayers and farmers over the last 10 years. 
• Ten of these companies are owned by publicly traded corporations with enormous net worths and massive executive salaries.
• Lowering program delivery payments to companies and agents and other subsidies could save over $1 billion a year, while maintaining a safety net for farmers.

The federal Crop Insurance Program is known for paying billions of dollars every year to farmers when they experience reductions in crop yield or revenue. But the Department of Agriculture program also sends billions of dollars annually – much of it taxpayer-funded – to a small number of crop insurance companies that service the policies. Many of these companies are owned by extremely wealthy, publicly traded global corporations. The program also gives billions of dollars annually to crop insurance agents – a cost that has soared in recent years.

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.

Where I grew up there were multiple sources of news. To hear the news, men gathered at the post office and Standard station, while women preferred the Clover Farm Store or Rebekah Lodge. 

It wasn’t broadcast news. It was secret, local news that an impolite observer might call gossip.

There was typical gossip including who bought a new combine, whose car was parked too long at the lower tavern, and who had the worst dye job in town. 

But there were special categories delivered only in whispers. Things like a cancer diagnosis, a church lady with a fresh shiner, or a recent bankruptcy. These whispers were met with silence, and the few Catholics crossing themselves.

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

Federal government whistleblowers have a champion in the U.S. Senate: Republican Chuck Grassley of Iowa.

We can measure a politician’s sincerity about a specific issue or policy by how consistently he or she maintains that position, regardless of which party holds power. Through the years—decades, really—that Grassley has served in the U.S. Senate, he has always insisted that government employees who expose questionable dealings or negligent mismanagement by their superiors must be protected in their jobs, without fear of retaliation.

That’s particularly true when the employee’s specific job is to investigate such dealings. Those crucial public servants are the “inspectors general” of the various federal agencies.

All four Iowans in the U.S. House voted on April 26 for a plan to raise the debt ceiling by $1.5 trillion for the coming year, in exchange for “aggressive caps on federal spending” over the next decade.

The House approved the Limit, Save, Grow Act of 2023 by 217 votes to 215, meaning House Speaker Kevin McCarthy had no votes to spare.

The speaker secured passage of his bill by making concessions on biofuels subsidies on the eve of the vote. McCarthy had previously indicated he was not open to altering the bill, but a group of Republicans from the Midwest—including Iowa’s Representatives Mariannette Miller-Meeks (IA-01), Ashley Hinson (IA-02), Zach Nunn (IA-03), and Randy Feenstra (IA-04)—insisted on changes.