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Iowa House district 64 preview: Bruce Bearinger vs. Chad Ingels
In a colossal recruiting failure, Republicans did not field a candidate last cycle in Iowa House district 64, which Donald Trump had carried by a 13-point margin in 2016. The GOP will not give State...
View ArticleComments on the governor’s Invest in Iowa Act
Polk County Soil and Water Commissioner John Norwood adapted comments he sent to members of the Iowa Senate assigned to the subcommittee on Senate Study Bill 3116. That legislation incorporates...
View ArticleKevin Warth offers unique perspective for Iowa Senate district 44
Tyler Mills is a Democratic activist in southeast Iowa who is consulting for Kevin Warth, one of three Democrats seeking the nomination in Senate district 44. -promoted by Laura Belin Kevin Warth’s...
View ArticleMake Iowa great again: Yes, we can
Paul W. Johnson wrote this piece in 2017, when Republicans in the state legislature passed a budget bill that defunded Iowa State University’s Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture and eliminated...
View ArticleRural America needs reinforcements to fight COVID-19
J.D. Scholten is the Democratic candidate in Iowa’s fourth Congressional district. -promoted by Laura Belin More than 9/11 or the financial crisis of 2008, the coronavirus or COVID-19 has affected...
View ArticleAnother COVID-19 casualty: Enforcing environmental rules
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources announced this week that they are relaxing enforcement of some environmental regulations because of the novel...
View ArticleDonald Trump’s oil pandemic
Dan Piller: Senator Joni Ernst and her Republican handlers don’t need to be told what low corn prices do to incumbents in Iowa in election year. -promoted by Laura Belin President Donald Trump plans to...
View ArticleWill anyone verify meatpackers’ COVID-19 mitigation efforts?
Novel coronavirus outbreaks have forced multiple meatpacking plants to shut down and turned Louisa County into Iowa’s hot spot for COVID-19 cases per capita. Governor Kim Reynolds asserted on April 15...
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Down on the farm with Trump
Dan Piller: Donald Trump benefitted from a slumping agricultural economy in 2016, but the Iowa farm economy has slid even further on his watch. -promoted by Laura Belin A mystery that will baffle...
View ArticleThoughts on a post-Trump agenda for Democrats
Dan Piller speculates on what the federal government might attempt if the 2020 presidential and Congressional elections swing toward Democrats. -promoted by Laura Belin Democrats have learned, the hard...
View ArticleBig Ag’s “Too big to fail” fails us all
John Aspray: “This pandemic was not the first sign of vulnerability in our food system. It just widened the cracks that have been there all along.” -promoted by Laura Belin Every Iowan is familiar with...
View ArticleExclusive: Iowa governor denied 35 AG requests to join national cases
Governor Kim Reynolds denied 35 requests to sign Iowa on to multi-state legal actions during the first year of an unusual arrangement in which Attorney General Tom Miller ceded some of his authority....
View ArticleIgnoring Iowa’s factory farm crisis is a big mistake
Emma Schmit is an Iowa organizer for Food & Water Watch. -promoted by Laura Belin The rise of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has shown us a lot. We’ve seen communities banding together to protect...
View ArticleIowa’s Ag Gag 3.0 may get past courts
It took them long enough. After federal courts blocked two laws designed to suppress unauthorized access to livestock production facilities, Iowa lawmakers approved and Governor Kim Reynolds signed a...
View ArticleIowans lose out to industrial ag in 2020 legislative session
Emma Schmit is an Iowa organizer for Food & Water Watch. -promoted by Laura Belin While coronovirus disrupted the Iowa legislative session this year, it failed to hinder business as usual. Once...
View ArticleErnst’s words don’t match actions on COVID-19 relief for fossil fuels industry
U.S. Senator Joni Ernst told members of the Iowa Farmers Union in June that she’d prefer for fossil fuel companies not to be eligible for COVID-19 relief funds. However, months earlier she was among...
View ArticleThe “death tax” is hogwash
Neil Hamilton: “It is almost impossible to find an Iowa farm family or ‘small business’ impacted by the estate tax, let alone one forced out of business.” -promoted by Laura Belin Election season has...
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When Iowa farmers took to the streets–and got results
Dan Piller: The “Farmers Holiday” movement was the Black Lives Matter of the Corn Belt during the early 1930s. Mass protests, including blocking traffic, changed government policy.-promoted by Laura...
View ArticleSenator Rozenboom’s conflict of interest on Ag Gag couldn’t be clearer
Emma Schmit of Food & Water Action and Adam Mason of Iowa CCI Action co-authored this post. Bleeding Heartland covered this year’s new “Ag Gag” law here. -promoted by Laura Belin Iowans across...
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Largest farms received most trade bailout, COVID-19 payments
This article first appeared on the Environmental Working Group’s website. -promoted by Laura Belin The largest and wealthiest U.S. farm businesses received the biggest share of almost $33 billion in...
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