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No surprises here: Iowa’s factory farms are causing a water crisis
Emma Schmit is an Iowa organizer for Food & Water Watch. -promoted by Laura Belin Iowa is in the midst of a water quality crisis. With more than 750 polluted waterways, increasing factory farm...
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Iowa Senate district 36 preview: Jeff Edler vs. Dave Degner
Some sobering facts about the bloodbath that was the 2016 election in Iowa: Donald Trump carried eighteen state Senate districts that had voted for President Barack Obama in 2012.* Eleven of those...
View ArticleTrump’s trade war: Be careful what you wish for
Jon Muller: The Trump administration’s two stated goals “are incompatible to the point of being mutually exclusive in a peaceful world.” -promoted by Laura Belin There is a consensus in the U.S. that...
View ArticleDemand clean water now
Chris Jones is a research engineer (IIHR-Hydroscience and Engineering) at the University of Iowa. The Cedar Rapids Gazette published a version of this essay on August 28. -promoted by Laura Belin...
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Saturday’s other presidential candidate event
Ira Lacher reports on the People’s Forum in Des Moines. -promoted by Laura Belin While thousands sat in single-lane traffic at Water Works Park hoping to hear seventeen presidential candidates deliver...
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Our biggest ethanol problem? There’s too much of it
Iowa State University economist Dave Swenson challenges the conventional wisdom on a hot political topic. -promoted by Laura Belin The sky is falling and Midwest rural economies are in danger of...
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Trump’s EPA punishes renewable fuels and farmers
David Weaver farms in Greene County and was the 2018 Democratic candidate in Iowa House district 47. He wrote this commentary after October 1, when Reuters reported that the Environmental Protection...
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IA-Sen: Warning signs for Joni Ernst
Iowans haven’t voted out a sitting U.S. senator since 1984, but several recent events have caused political observers to question Senator Joni Ernst’s strengths going into her first re-election bid....
View ArticleIowa’s Ag department ignored repeated warnings from state auditors
The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship (IDALS) has not acted on advice to improve its management of financial transactions and databases “to prevent losses from employee error or...
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Democrat Lance Roorda running for one of toughest Iowa Senate districts
An under-reported Iowa politics story this year has been strong Democratic recruiting for the 2020 state Senate races. Even though recapturing the Iowa Senate is likely to take at least two election...
View ArticleFederal court puts Iowa’s new Ag Gag law on hold
The state of Iowa cannot enforce the latest attempt to discourage and criminalize undercover reporting at livestock facilities. U.S. District Court Senior Judge James Gritzner on December 2 granted a...
View ArticleWhat the Iowans fought for, bragged about in massive year-end spending bills
The U.S. House and Senate managed to wrap up their work for the year without shutting down the government, an improvement on the state of affairs when the fully Republican-controlled Congress left for...
View ArticleRecognizing Bleeding Heartland’s talented 2019 guest authors
More than 125 authors contributed to the 290 guest posts Bleeding Heartland published this calendar year–way up from the 202 pieces by about 100 writers in 2018 and the 164 posts by 83 writers the year...
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Iowa House district 95 preview: Louis Zumbach vs. Christian Andrews
Disclaimer: State Representative Louis Zumbach has not clarified whether he will seek a third term in the Iowa House next year. When I reached him by phone early this month, he said “I haven’t made any...
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Iowa deserves to be more than just a feedlot between two rivers
Emma Schmit is an Iowa organizer for Food & Water Watch. -promoted by Laura Belin In December, U.S. Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey introduced a historic new vision for agriculture and food in...
View ArticlePath to Iowa caucus victory hidden in plain sight
Aaron Belkin is director of Take Back the Court and a political science professor at San Francisco State University who spent 20 years working to end “Don’t ask, don’t tell” and the military’s...
View ArticleCompromise brewing on MidAmerican’s solar bill
One of the biggest fights of the 2019 legislative session may be resolved peacefully this year. After months of negotiations, the monopoly utility MidAmerican Energy is close to reaching an agreement...
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Iowa Senate district 10 preview: Jake Chapman vs. Warren Varley
Democrats continue to land solid candidates for Iowa Senate seats, despite the GOP’s 32-18 majority in the upper chamber. This week Warren Varley, a farmer and attorney, made his campaign official in...
View ArticleIowa lawmakers chose corporate agriculture and factory farms again
Emma Schmit (Food & Water Action) and Ava Auen-Ryan (CCI Action): Certain Iowa leaders kept the factory farm moratorium from advancing this year, despite unprecedented support. -promoted by Laura...
View ArticleThis Old House
Paul W. Johnson is a preacher’s kid, former Peace Corps Volunteer, former state legislator, former chief of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Soil Conservation Service/Natural Resources Conservation...
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