“Back in November, I signed up to be a sacrificial lamb,” Chris Jones, the Democratic candidate for Secretary of Agriculture, told the overflow crowd at Captain Roy’s bar and restaurant in Des Moines on Sunday evening. “And then something happened — I don’t really even know what — and now it looks like we actually […]
Paul Brennan
Posted inCommunity/News
Bounced checks, unpaid debts, lawsuits: Lahn running mate Derek Wulf is under investigation, may lose farm, Des Moines Register reports
Derek Wulf, running mate of Republican candidate for governor Zach Lahn, is under investigation by the Black Hawk County Sheriff’s Office, the Des Moines Register reported on Friday. The sheriff’s office “declined to comment on the nature of its investigation into Wulf,” the Register’s Tyler Jett wrote in his long, investigative story on Wulf’s legal […]
Posted inCommunity/News
‘These people are certifiable’: Ted Cruz complains of ‘communists and Islamists’ taking over at Hinson event in Clive
With hay bales lining the back of the stage, country music on the speakers and food from Jethro’s BBQ being served, Ashley Hinson welcomed donors to the Iowa Events Center in Clive on Saturday night for her big annual fundraiser, Ashley’s BBQ Bash. The three-term Republican congressmember is currently running for the U.S. Senate to […]
Posted inCommunity/News
A D.C. PAC Brenna Bird co-leads is planning to launch an ‘offensive barrage’ of ads on her behalf
The main PAC for Republican state attorneys general announced Tuesday it is launching a $7 million advertising campaign to boost candidates in 13 states, including Brenna Bird in Iowa. The Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA) said in a news release its “aggressive early offensive barrage” is “phase one of RAGA’s fall campaign and begins immediately […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Voters can now request absentee ballots for the November election
Registered voters in Iowa can now request absentee ballots for the November general election from their county auditor’s office. The first day auditors can mail the ballots to voters who have requested them will be Oct. 14, the same day early in-person voting begins. Printable absentee ballot request forms are available on the Iowa Secretary […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Iowa HHS confirms more measles cases; first U.S. deaths from measles this year reported in Pennsylvania
“As of August 24, seventeen confirmed cases of measles have been identified in 2026, with evidence of person-to-person spread,” the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services (Iowa HHS) reported Monday. That’s five more cases than Iowa HHS reported in its last update on the measles outbreak in the state on Aug. 16. The department […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Polls show Sand beating Lahn, Turek closing in on Hinson; Cook Political Report shifts their forecast in favor of Democrats
Republicans should be in an excellent position to win both the open seat for governor of Iowa and the state’s open U.S. Senate seat. Donald Trump carried the state easily in each of the last three presidential elections. In 2024, he won Iowa by 13.2 percentage points, the biggest margin of victory in a presidential election […]
Posted inStatewide
RFK Jr. visits Dubuque community health clinic facing major Trump budget cuts, as Iowa experiences a measles outbreak
“I love to visit places like Crescent, ’cause they do everything right,” Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told reporters after touring Crescent Community Health Center in Dubuque on Wednesday. “From the very beginning, the focus was on removing barriers and ensuring access to care — regardless of income, insurance, or background,” […]
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Pete Hegseth campaigns for Nunn, uses slurs and says troops dying is the ‘cost’ of fighting ‘radical Islamist crazies’ at Iowa State Fair
“It’s great to be in Iowa at the Iowa State Fair, because I grew up at the Minnesota State Fair,” Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said after taking the stage at JR’s Southpork Ranch on Monday. “Every single year my parents took me to the Minnesota State Fair.” There was some grumbling from the crowd […]
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Iowa Democrats fail to regain first-in-the-nation status; new primary calendar is a ‘middle finger’ to Trump and Republicans, other Dems celebrate
“Iowa is the center of the political universe right now,” Iowa Democratic Party Chair Rita Hart said confidently on Saturday. “Energy, excitement and enthusiasm exists all across our state.” It’s the sort of statement almost guaranteed to trigger applause at a meeting of Iowa Democrats, but Hart was speaking at the Democratic National Committee (DNC) […]
Posted inFood & Drink
How a Des Moines inventor made the modern American hot dog possible
A little over 100 years ago, hot dogs were just cheap sausages stuffed into buns and sold for a few cents on street corners, at fairs and sporting events. By the 1970s, hot dogs, still cheap sausages stuffed into buns, were such an iconically American food that a leading car company invoked them to give its […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Legal challenge to Iowa’s school book ban enters a new phase
Penguin Random House and eight co-plaintiffs have renewed their legal challenge to Iowa’s school book ban. The coalition of the country’s largest publishing houses, the Author’s Guild, two bestselling authors whose works have been pulled from school libraries because of the ban, and an Urbandale High School alum who was still a student when Gov. […]
