One week after CNN reported Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks told fellow Republicans she would hold town hall meetings “when hell freezes over,” the three-term incumbent held a town hall meeting. Sort of. Miller-Meeks, who represents Iowa’s 1st Congressional District, held what her office calls a telephone town hall meeting on Wednesday. Unlike an in-person town hall […]
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Posted inCommunity/News
Jackie Norris ends Senate bid, will focus on Des Moines School Board issues
Des Moines School Board Chair Jackie Norris has dropped out of the race for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate. Norris, who launched her campaign for Sen. Joni Ernst’s seat on Aug. 5, announced her decision in a news release on Thursday. Norris’s withdrawal came one day after Axios Des Moines reported Norris had confirmed […]
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Iowans across the state will rally on Saturday as No Kings Day returns
On Saturday, hundreds of cities across the country will see people take to the streets for a No Kings Day of Peaceful Action to protest President Trump’s policies. According to national organizers, there will be more than 2,500 No Kings Day events nationwide. Republican leaders have been denouncing this protest in even stronger terms than […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
An early Velvet Underground ‘protégé,’ Jonathan Richman wrote his way into punk history while trying to troll the hippies
Jonathan Richman can still pinpoint how the Velvet Underground transformed his life with their collar-grabbing sound back in 1967. “It was on record and it was that drone! Oh my God! They changed everything!” As a teenager, he saw the band over 80 times and was a regular presence before and after gigs. “If the […]
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Five questions with Jordan Klepper of ‘The Daily Show’, a MAGA mediator during Iowa caucuses, Jan. 6 and Trump’s ‘weird, dark’ second term
Jordan Klepper is more determined than ever to wrap his mind around the MAGA mindset. A Daily Show correspondent since 2014 (with a two-year hiatus at the start of Trump’s first term that yielded the TV special Jordan Klepper Solves Guns and his own late-night news satire, The Opposition), Klepper is currently one of the storied program’s regular rotating hosts.
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Nearly 50,000 Iowa children could lose food aid in government shutdown, report says
Federal funding for programs feeding thousands of young and vulnerable Iowans could run out if the government shutdown continues, according to a report from Food & Water Watch. The national nonprofit released a map and report Thursday compiling how many children under the age of 5 across the U.S. rely on the Special Supplemental Nutrition […]
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‘Collections are fragile,’ but conservationists say they’re being ignored as the State Historical Society moves out of Iowa City using prison labor
Behind the Centennial Building in downtown Iowa City on Monday morning, workers began to load a truck with parts of the collections housed in the research facility and archives of the State Historical Society of Iowa (SHSI), the building’s occupant since 1956. SHSI announced on June 17 that it would close the Iowa City facility, […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Refocus returns on Thursday! Here’s a guide to 18 films on the festival lineup
FilmScene’s Refocus Film Festival returns to Iowa City Oct. 9-12 with a full platter of cinematic goodness. We asked our resident film scribes Ariana Martinez and Benji McElroy to share the shows they’re most excited to see. We also broke down the lineup by mood, with only a little fighting about what fit where. Click […]
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‘We’re on a knife’s edge’: Art Cullen chides Reynolds’ meanness, Big Ag’s death grip on Iowa land and livelihoods
“When I was a kid in the 1960s, you could drive from Carroll to Storm Lake, and see cattle lining green hills the entire way,” Art Cullen said in a matter-of-fact voice. “Now it’s all row crops, and cattle in feedlots. It’s a different situation. Those green hills are plowed up.” That transformation, the economic […]
Posted inCentral Iowa
DMPS sues consulting firm that vetted Ian Roberts; DOJ criminal complaint against Roberts unsealed
The Des Moines School Board is suing the consulting firm that conducted its search for a superintendent in 2023, resulting in the hiring of Ian Roberts. The board made its decision during a special session that began at 8 a.m. on Friday. The lawsuit against JG Consulting, a Texas-based firm, was filed in Polk County […]
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DMPS was ‘victim of deception,’ says school board; former superintendent Ian Roberts transferred from Woodbury County Jail to DOJ custody
On Wednesday evening, the Des Moines School Board issued a statement in which Chair Jackie Norris called the board “a victim of deception” by Ian Roberts, who the board hired as superintendent of Des Moines Public Schools (DMPS) in May 2023. It was a noticeable shift in how the board has talked about Roberts since Friday, […]
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At a cult compound in rural Iowa, death prayers and doomsday prep gave way to ‘natural’ health grifts and costly tests of faith
On Dec. 12, 1972, cult leader John Robert Stevens made a big announcement: he was a time traveler. “I had a real meeting with the Lord,” Stevens told his followers in the Living Word Fellowship (LWF), also called the Walk. “During this meeting, I was projected seven years ahead of the present time. It was […]
