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Monday, Nov. 2
Say what you want about the Trump administration’s failed economic policies — they’re keeping the tarp industry busy. The president’s team used plastic-covered scaffolding to block the Kennedy Center’s facade after a judge ordered Trump’s name removed from the building in June. And they reportedly had a massive tarp draped over a racial solidarity mural in Dubuque ahead of the president’s near-canceled rally on Sunday.
Local artist and ISU grad Shelby Fry’s almost 3,000 sq. ft. “Solidarity” mural has decorated the side of the Five Flags Civic Center since 2020. The City of Dubuque confirmed on Saturday it had not authorized the tarp, and ordered it removed by the private company that manages the venue, where Trump’s rally was set to take place. They complied, forcing the president and his supporters to look upon a work of public art last night instead of a wall of rippling black plastic.
Tuesday, Nov. 3
It’s been two years since legendary music producer and composer Quincy Jones died at the age of 91. The highly influential jazz musician from the South Side of Chicago — the grandson of a formerly enslaved woman, and distant relative of Tennessee Williams — has several connections to Iowa. In the ’60s, Jones arranged popular versions of the song “Fly Me to the Moon” for Sarah Vaughan, Frank Sinatra and accompanying orchestras. The jazz classic was originally penned by Iowa composer Bart Howard in 1954.
Jones was also influenced by Grinnell College grad Herbie Hancock, a pioneer in the use of synthesizers in jazz and funk compositions. The “gadget guy of jazz” showed Jones his computer-based recording setup in the early ’80s, as Jones was producing a little project called Thriller.
Wednesday, Nov. 4
Last midterm election — Nov. 8, 2022 — Iowa had the chance to elect a person of color to the governor’s office for the first time in state history. Instead, voters chose to reelect Gov. Kim Reynolds.
Democrat Deidre DeJear was critical of Reynolds’ proposed agenda for 2023, which included passing a six-week abortion ban and school voucher system.
“This governor has gone too far,” DeJear told Little Village. “This type of extremism doesn’t sit well in our state.”
DeJear was an impressive, qualified candidate, and her positions had broad appeal among Iowans. But she received little funding support, especially compared to Rob Sand’s record-breaking donor haul in the past year. Reynolds, meanwhile, spent millions on campaign ads playing to Fox News viewers’ fear of BLM protests and inner cities. One spot featured a clip of Missouri Rep. Cori Bush, a Black woman who goes unidentified in the ad, saying she favors defunding the police. “Aren’t you glad you live in Iowa?” Reynolds cuts in. DeJear, who never advocated for defunding the police, isn’t shown or mentioned.
Iowa has yet to elect a person of color to its highest statewide office, or to the U.S. House or Senate. But last night, voters did rebuke Reynolds’ successor in Zach Lahn. For the first time, three women will represent Iowa in the U.S. House. And history was made elsewhere: Keisha Lance Bottoms, for example, will be Georgia’s first woman governor and first Black governor. Her Republican opponent spent more than $100 million of his own money on the race.
Thursday, Nov. 5
Forty-seven years ago today, Iowa native Kate Koob was taken hostage. The Wartburg College grad was working for the U.S. Foreign Service and living in Iran to study Persian. She was assigned to direct the Iran-American Society out of the U.S. embassy in Tehran, which was overrun by militant students on Nov. 4, 1979, triggering the Iran Hostage Crisis. Before they cut off all communications, Koob managed to get a line to the State Department and inform them of the situation. She employed stealth, diplomacy and daily rituals to keep grounded over 444 days in captivity.
“I felt from the very beginning that I would go free,” she said. “I didn’t know whether it was going to be five days, five months or 15 years, but I was pretty sure I was going to walk away from the place.”
When she and the last 51 hostages finally returned home, they were greeted with parades. Koob went on to serve in the Foreign Press Center, retiring in 1996. She then took a position as an adjunct professor at her alma mater in Waverly, occasionally speaking to local classrooms about her brush with history.
Friday, Nov. 6
Elon Musk has been having a no-good very bad week. He sank more than $400 million into failed Republican midterm campaigns, his net worth tanked by some $30 billion overnight, and some of the newly elected Democrats are promising to investigate and subpoena him. Then there’s the growing chorus of Americans calling on Congress to nationalize Musk’s companies.
With all this going on, Musk announced Tesla’s winding down production of the Cybertruck at the “Gigafactory” in (soon-to-be-blue) Texas. The recall-plagued, widely mocked electric pick-up was a pet project of the trillionaire.
It was also the subject of a missed connection printed in the October 2024 issue of Little Village:
IOWA CITY, SEPT. 16: You were driving your Cybertruck south on N Dubuque Street past the I-80 ramps, and I was driving north. I didn’t see your face, and I’m worried you didn’t see my middle finger. Just wanted to make sure you got the message.
Readers posted photos of the missed connection online, which garnered thousands of shares on Reddit, Instagram and Musk’s X. It was even read aloud by Jennifer Welch on an episode of the I’ve Had It podcast.
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