Part 4: How to corrupt Iowa agriculture
Latest deep dive by Tyler Higgs on money in Iowa politics. -promoted by desmoinesdem There’s nothing more Iowan than farming, and there’s nothing more dangerous than a corrupt politician. Those idyllic...
View ArticleGrassley, Ernst part ways on five-year Farm Bill
The U.S. Senate approved a new five-year Farm Bill today by 87 votes to 13, sending the conference committee compromise to the U.S. House. The final version rejected efforts to undermine food...
View ArticleIowa political reaction to final passage of Farm Bill
All four Iowans voted yes as the U.S. House sent a new five-year Farm Bill to President Donald Trump on December 12. A day after passing the U.S. Senate with overwhelming bipartisan support, the...
View ArticleHow Democrats can reach rural America, build relationships, create change
Second in a series of post-election commentaries by Amber Gustafson, who was the Democratic candidate in Iowa Senate district 19. -promoted by desmoinesdem Remember the Hippos – A Parable Once a...
View ArticleRecognizing Bleeding Heartland’s talented 2018 guest authors
The Bleeding Heartland community lost a valued voice this year when Johnson County Supervisor Kurt Friese passed away in October. As Mike Carberry noted in his obituary for his good friend, Kurt had a...
View ArticleIt’s time for a moratorium on factory farms
Emma Schmit is an Iowa organizer for Food & Water Watch, and Adam Mason is State Policy Organizing Director for Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement. -promoted by Laura Belin It’s time for a...
View ArticleIowa’s 2019 economic outlook: The good, bad, and ugly
Iowa State University economist Dave Swenson reviews the evidence that President Donald Trump’s trade policy is “harming a large number of Iowans, limiting the state’s potential prosperity.” -promoted...
View ArticleIowa Democrats seated on powerful House committees
U.S. House leaders announced committee assignments for the new Congress this week, and Iowa’s three Democrats could hardly have done better. Representative Dave Loebsack (IA-02) will remain on the...
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Cannabis: A greener way forward for Iowa
Gwen Hope unpacks the economic and social possibilities that accompany legalizing cannabis, demystifying the oft-maligned psychoactive plant. -promoted by Laura Belin Since the middle of the 20th...
View ArticleState not ready to accept “Ag Gag” law is unconstitutional
Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller didn’t ask state legislators to pass the country’s first “ag gag” law, and his office didn’t lobby in favor of banning “agricultural production facility fraud” while...
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J.D. Scholten reacts to Steve King on “Iowa Press”
Last year’s Democratic nominee in Iowa’s fourth Congressional district submitted this commentary in response to U.S. Representative Steve King’s appearance this weekend on Iowa Public Television....
View ArticleHow poor soil health and missing infrastructure leave our rivers filthy
John Norwood is an elected commissioner of the Polk County Soil and Water Conservation District. -promoted by Laura Belin On the evening of February 27, your Soil and Water Commissioners for Region 6...
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Representative Fisher’s last chance
Leaders of Iowa House or Senate committees can bury legislation without ever allowing discussion, let alone a vote. As Emma Schmit and Adam Mason report, that’s what’s happening with a bill that could...
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When advocacy works: One bad land bill defeated, efforts to stop another
Angelisa Belden is communications and development director for the Iowa Environmental Council. -promoted by Laura Belin Iowans were up in arms this week in reaction to two bad bills aimed at...
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MidAmerican’s bid to crush small solar creates strange lobbying bedfellows
MidAmerican Energy’s effort to crush small-scale solar generation made it through the Iowa legislature’s first “funnel” and will be eligible for floor debate in both chambers. The House Commerce...
View ArticleIowa lawmakers pass another unconstitutional “Ag Gag” bill
Iowa legislators just can’t quit violating the constitution in the service of livestock farmers and their lobby groups. Two months after a federal judge comprehensively dismantled Iowa’s 2012 law...
View ArticleFarm Bill failure and the Washington bubble
Barb Kalbach: “Congress panders to corporate ag at the expense of family farms, rural communities, and our food supply.” -promoted by Laura Belin “This is an evolutionary, not revolutionary Farm Bill,”...
View ArticleRemember: An army marches on its stomach
Barbara Leach, president of My Rural America Action Fund, is a former Iowa farm owner and manager. -promoted by Laura Belin Much is frightfully wrong in rural America, and 80 percent of Iowa’s counties...
View ArticleWater is our shared lifeblood
Sable Knapp‘s home state is Iowa, and she currently lives in Maine. -promoted by Laura Belin The human body is two-thirds water, as is the surface of the planet we inhabit. Water quality profoundly...
View ArticleFlood reduction and clean water solutions are not magic
Angelisa Belden is communications and development director for the Iowa Environmental Council. -promoted by Laura Belin Iowans are dealing with the aftermath of receding flood waters this week....
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