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 […]
Paul Brennan
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,” […]
Posted inCommunity/News
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 […]
Posted inCommunity/News
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. […]
Posted inCommunity/News
CDC adds Iowa to list of states affected by ‘record-setting outbreak’ of intestinal disease from contaminated lettuce
Iowa has been added to the list of states with confirmed cases of a parasite-caused gastrointestinal disease linked to contaminated iceberg lettuce, the FDA confirmed Wednesday in an update on the ongoing cyclosporiasis outbreak. The New York Times and the Washington Post had already reported on Tuesday that Iowa was one of six states with […]
Posted inCommunity/News
After resisting pressure from Zach Nunn and RFK Jr. to drop his bid for Congress, Libertarian Marco Battaglia leaves anyway, citing medical emergency
Libertarian Marco Battaglia is no longer seeking a place on the November ballot as a candidate for the U.S. House in Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District. Battaglia, who was in his fourth run for office, has given up his campaign due to a medical emergency, according to a statement on Monday from the Libertarian Party of […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Elon Musk plans to spend millions to put Ashley Hinson in the Senate
Efforts to elect Ashley Hinson to the U.S. Senate and keep the seat held by the retiring Joni Ernst in Republican hands will get a major boost from billionaire and prominent racist Elon Musk. Axios broke the news that Musk has directed his super PAC to spend heavily to boost the chances of Republican Senate […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Obama endorses Josh Turek for Senate
Former President Barack Obama endorsed Josh Turek on Wednesday. The endorsement came in a Turek campaign video, featuring Obama and the Democratic nominee for Iowa’s open U.S. Senate seat playing basketball in a gym. The former president is famously a basketball enthusiast and plays recreationally. Turek, who represents Council Bluffs in the Iowa House, was […]
