The town of Salix, Iowa, population 304, grew by seven people on May 13.

That’s good news, right?

Not necessarily. The seven new residents previously lived just northeast of town, in rural Woodbury County. They didn’t move anywhere; six of them simply agreed to allow the Salix City Council to annex the 900 acres they own.

When one hundred people packed the Salix City Council meeting to demand answers about future plans for the 900 acres, the meeting was moved to a larger room. However, the topic wasn’t on the agenda, so few answers were forthcoming.

Twenty people were allowed to speak for 45 minutes during open forum. They learned the voluntary annexation was presented to the Salix City Council at the March meeting, and in April, the Council unanimously annexed the property.

They also learned the land currently remains zoned as agricultural, and the Salix city attorney said there’s been no request to rezone. The same landowners still own the land.

“I fully understand that people are concerned about a data center potentially coming into this neck of the woods,” Mayor Kevin Nelson told the residents. “It’s a hot button issue at every level of government, federal, state, and local. And now it’s hitting us in this local area.”

“I would say that a lot of the folks here wanted answers from the city council and thought that they were going to get them tonight, but the city council doesn’t have those answers because there’s been no zoning change requests and no information from the landowners on what their plans are.”

The concerned citizens at the meeting were advised to contact the six landowners for more information.

In response to questions from The Sioux City Journal, a MidAmerican Energy spokesperson said it doesn’t own the land, but an affiliated company holds options on it and other land. These options would “allow flexibility to explore potential future opportunities in partnership with local communities.”

Counties pausing development

The good folks in and around Salix, located 12 miles south of Sioux City, aren’t alone in their frustration and concerns about transparency.

· On May 26, Madison County unanimously passed an ordinance pausing data center development for 12 months during a reviews of its zoning rules.

· May 28, Dubuque County Board of Supervisors imposed a year-long moratorium on data center development. The city manager of Dubuque said a developer was interested in connecting to Dubuque’s water and sanitary sewer systems. The property isn’t contiguous to the city, a requirement for annexation.

· Other counties pausing development or permits include: Adair, Clarke, Buchanan, and Jefferson

· In a recent column I wrote about the fight between Palo and Linn County over a 545-acre Google data center proposed for rural Linn County. Linn County had set up a regulatory framework, including building setbacks, noise limits and traffic impacts. Public records indicated the data center could draw 14 million gallons of water daily from the Cedar River, so the County also required a water use study. Residents also were concerned about potentially higher electric rates. However, Google pivoted, announcing it was working with the city of Palo to annex the unincorporated site in Linn County within the city limits. Palo didn’t have a zoning ordinance governing data centers, but one is underway now.

Impacts on water, environment, and wildlife

Increased water use, power demands, along with land use and zoning, environmental concerns, and community impact lead the list of objections. The following letter from John and Sharon Polifka of Mapleton was published in The Sioux City Journal regarding the potential data center near Salix.

“A private company has plans to build a data center on the 900 acres of land that was annexed to the town of Salix, adjacent to the Owego wetlands. If people might be led to believe that a data center is light industry and harmless, they may be in for a rude awakening.

A data center would pose a substantial threat to the Owego wetlands as a critical habitat for migratory birds (e.g., interference with migration from lights and traffic and window strikes). Aside from the threat to wildlife, data centers use a huge quantity of water to cool their servers (the typical data center uses from 300,000 to 500,000 gallons of water per day. Where do they plan to get that water?

Snyder Bend and Brown’s Lake are virtually dry from past years of severe drought. If they pump the water from the ground it would likely deplete the aquifer and lower the water table. In practical terms, residents in the area could end up losing their wells.

It may be tempting to welcome any economic activity to the area but it comes with inordinate costs. Many people have a stake in this. Therefore, this plan should be vigorously opposed.”

Full disclosure. I grew up in the Loess Hills overlooking the Owego wetlands. Back then, no one called it a wetland, but we knew the water table was exceptionally high. Our family enjoyed reunions at Snyder Bend and Brown’s Lake.

Years later, I recall the fight over locating a large hog confinement there in the 1990s. It was halted. But in 2004, under the guise of economic development, a huge dairy operation was given the green light to operate there. Being in a wetland didn’t prevent it.

Property rights unequally valued

I don’t know if data centers will be a pivotal issue at the ballot box next week, or in November. But I’m betting data centers, along with other large-scale energy usages of farmland, are on the minds of a large swath of Iowa voters.

On Saturday, May 18, I attended a late afternoon legislative forum in Boone where I asked Sen. Jesse Green (R) and Rep. Chad Behn (R) what the Iowa Legislature could do to help rural Iowans avoid situations like the Linn County data center bait-and-switch. They told me the Legislature has been hearing from constituents about data centers, solar farms and wind farms during this past year. I mentioned using Corn Suitability Ratings (CSR) to prevent these developments from consuming prime farmland. They said it had been discussed.

However, Behn said legislators had received “pushback” from some counties and landowners, citing local control arguments: “Who is going to tell us what to do with our property?” He also suggested some local governments were receptive to these developments because it would provide property tax relief.

I pointed out that Iowa has a bifurcated attitude toward private property rights. On the one hand, the Iowa Utility Commission has allowed private companies to use eminent domain to build the Dakota Access Pipeline, as well as the Summit Carbon Solutions Pipeline, despite the protests of private landowners who argue they don’t meet the definition of public use.

Although legislators passed a strong eminent domain law two years ago, the Governor vetoed it. When the House sent it to the Senate this session, majority leader Mike Klimesh rewrote it, and it died a quiet death. Does this show any regard for the rights of property owners?

Now, when property owners agree to sell their land for huge private developments impacting not only the lives of residents, but the water and electrical rates of their surrounding communities, the Legislature suddenly is sensitive to “pushback” from property-owner rights and local control arguments?

Which is it?

Information Black-outs

Data centers may be one issue uniting red and blue state voters. It could be a winning issue for candidates in Iowa.

This power struggle pits farmers, landowners, county and city governments, and communities against one another in a mad scramble to build new motherlodes of power for urban areas, and sometimes out-of-state consumers. These utility-scale industrial energy projects require the same open, level acres highly valued by rural and farm communities.

Recent power plays across Iowa shine a harsh light on conflicts over who controls the land, and who chooses the winners and losers. Is there any comprehensive planning underway to right-size the growth of this AI-hungry industry? What is the impact on our climate goals? What are the true costs of becoming a global AI power?

On the evening of May 17, severe thunderstorms and a series of confirmed tornadoes moved through western Iowa, causing property damage, downed trees, and major power outages. One tornado ripped through Salix, but fortunately, there were no reported injuries or fatalities. Neighbors showed up to help one another recover from the storm – one of the benefits of small-town life.

But the recent tornado damage in Salix may pale in significance to the approaching storm clouds unleashing a powerful struggle. Like the tornado, news of the data center arrived under the cover of night, but without the transparency of Channel KTIV’s First Alert Storm Tracker warnings. Residents will need to stay alert to avoid being kept in the dark.

I’m proud to be a member of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. Please check out our work here. Please consider being a paid subscriber. Thank you for your support!

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Each morning when I wake up, I hear the same three-letter question: Why?

The situation provoking the question changes from day to day, but the refrain remains constant: Why?

The repetition is enough to test my patience after a while:

Why?

Why?

Why?

You might try to console me, saying, “It’s just a phase. It won’t last. Toddlers are trying to develop logical reasoning, and they have an intense drive to understand cause and effect. They’re attempting to make sense of a confusing world. Eventually, they’ll go on to the next stage of development.”

This would make perfect sense, except the toddlers who lived in my house are grown adults. And there are no grandchildren.

No, I must confess. The persistent voice asking, “Why?” “Why” “Why” day after day belongs to ME!

Seedstock Shuffle

For instance, this week, I asked my husband, “Why is the USDA moving two seed vaults from the University of Illinois? It doesn’t make sense.”

He shrugs, responding with another question, “Who would know?”

The canned explanation in news clips is: “the USDA wants to move the collections closer to the farmers and ranchers they serve.”

What? The collections are primarily used for research. Again, I ask “Why?”

First of all, where is USDA moving the collections? The National Soybean Germplasm Collection, the only public soybean seed bank in the U.S., would be moved to the University of Missouri-Columbia. The collection contains almost the entire genetic diversity of the crop.

Ok, Missouri farmers grow soybeans. However, Illinois was the top soybean producing state in 2025. How could USDA get any closer to more soybean farmers? The collection has been housed at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign for 70 years.

The Maize Genetic Cooperation Stock Center at University of Illinois contains 100,000 corn stocks representing genetic mutants. The USDA plans to move it either to the North Central Regional Plant Introduction Station in Ames, or the Iowa State University campus.

Granted, Iowa grows a lot of corn. But Illinois farmers produce a corn crop that’s second only to Iowa.

Does this make sense?

Not really. But why is it a big deal, you may ask. The seed banks are key to on-going research and protecting diversity. The physical infrastructure, climate control, and personnel care for the collections is critical.

Both proposed locations would likely need to add new facilities – an expensive proposition – to recreate the University of Illinois facilities. In fact, ISU experts say that its facility already is underfunded. There also are some risks in transporting the fragile seed banks from Illinois to Iowa and Missouri. The seed stock is irreplaceable.

Is there a good reason to do this? I can think of one, but it’s not good. More later.

What’s the Cost-Benefit?

If you pursue this seedstock shuffle, you’ll see that it aligns with the USDA organizational restructuring directed by Trump and Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins.

During Trump’s first administration, he orchestrated the move of the USDA Economic Research Service (ERS) and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) from Washington, DC to Kansas City, Missouri. I didn’t understand this in 2019, and attempted an article focusing on how it was working out. However, none of the employees who made the move agreed to speak candidly about it.

As it turned out, the General Services Administration (GAO) concluded the move created staff attrition, a loss of institutional knowledge and decimated productivity. ERS economic reports were cut in half, and NIFA grants to Land Grant universities were significantly delayed. Fewer minorities were hired. Contrary to USDA predictions, it didn’t result in cost-savings, or improve efficiency.

The Biden administration moved the headquarters of both agencies back to Washington, but kept the Kansas City offices open. Now, despite overwhelmingly negative feedback during the public comment period, Trump is moving both back to Kansas City.

In addition, under Trump 2.0, the USDA is moving more than one-half of D.C. employees to five hubs across the U.S. : Raleigh, North Carolina; Kansas City, Missouri; Indianapolis, Indiana; Fort Collins, Colorado; and Salt Lake City, Utah. (The USDA is establishing a new National Food Safety Center in Urbandale). Why???

In 2025, Democrats introduced a Cost of Relocations Act, requiring agencies to conduct and publish detailed cost-benefit analysis before permanently relocating any offices, but it hasn’t been passed. The USDA would close four buildings, returning them to the General Services Administration.

Is the administration worried that many employees might refuse to move?

Or is this the point? The USDA already has shelved more than 15,000 employees, through deferred resignation and early retirement.

Settling Scores

What’s the actual reason? Why is this massive relocation being done? A total of 90% of USDA employees already work outside of D.C.

When Trump was campaigning in 2024, he said he wanted to move as many as 100,000 federal employees out of the nation’s capital, relocating them “in places filled with patriots who love America.”

Now, are we getting closer to knowing why USDA is moving the seed banks from one Midwestern agricultural state to two other neighboring Midwestern agricultural states?

Illinois would be the big loser, right? How does Illinois vote? How does Trump feel about its governor?

There are many other Whys? So many of Trump’s actions defy explanation.

· Greenland threats

· Feuds with Pope Leo

· Reflecting Pool makeover

· Tariffs (Americans be damned)

· DOGE fiasco

· Kennedy Center takeover

Let’s all join together in one collective primal scream: WHHHHHHHHHHHYYYYY?

It’s not ideology; Trump is hardly a policy wonk. If you look at each instance, Trump’s inexplicable actions stem from one or more of these motivations:

· Greed

· Narcissism

· Ego

· Control

· Revenge

· Disdain for experts/elites

Now, here’s one final “Why?” On June 14, Trump is staging a Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Freedom Fight 250 on the White House South Lawn. A 5,000-seat Octagon arena will be constructed, paid for by UFC. In case you can’t make it to the invitation-only event, it will be broadcast on CBS.

Why? The mixed martial arts sports attracts young males, and is compared to cock-fighting in cages: lots of punching, kicking, and blood-splattering. It’s all about the manosphere, and hyper-masculinity.

Nothing says, look how far we’ve come as we celebrate our nation’s 250 year history, does it?

Of course, it will destroy the lawn; UFC is supposed to pay $700,000 to restore it.

Why, just why?

Today so many of us adults are trying to make sense of a confusing world. It almost makes us nostalgic for the toddler days of Why questions:

“Why is the moon hiding behind the clouds?”

“Why should brush my teeth?”

“Why can’t my dog talk?”

However, we can’t stop asking “Why”, even though it would be easier to take a deep breath, look away, and respond, “Sometimes there are no good answers.”

Above all, there’s one answer we never should accept to any of our Why questions: “Because Trump says so!”

I’m proud to be a member of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. Please check out our work here, and consider being a paid subscriber. Thanks for your support!

Our daughters hardly believe me when I say Iowa was a politically competitive state not that long ago. They don’t remember much about Tom Vilsack’s two terms as governor, or long-serving Senator Tom Harkin, or Rep. Neal Smith, and certainly not former Gov. Harold Hughes.

They also were too young to appreciate Iowa’s moderate four-term Republican Governor Robert Ray, or veteran Congressman Jim Leach. They do remember Barack Obama, and his meteoric rise here in Iowa.

So how did Iowa go from electing the first African American president to Donald Trump 2.0? How did Iowa lose its purple status? It didn’t happen overnight.

The roots of Iowa’s current status as a red state can be traced back to 1979, when Federal Reserve Chair Paul Volcker suddenly hiked interest rates, dramatically spiking borrowing costs.

Unlike the Great Depression, when all Americans suffered, farmers bore the brunt of the economic fallout in the ‘80s, thanks to Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz’s challenge to “Get big or get out“. The result was a rapid devaluation in farmland assets, sowing the seeds of the farm crisis.

The next succeeding crop of young farmers was encouraged by their parents to leave the farm for a better life. Iowa Beef Processors revolutionized hog processing, and broke Iowa’s strong labor unions. During the Farm Crisis years, Premium Standard Farms and Smithfield Foods took full advantage of the Iowa farmer’s weak finances, leading to the consolidated hog industry we have today.

The exodus of good rural jobs was worsened by the North American Free Trade Agreement, and the loss of full and part-time small manufacturing jobs. Here are a few in Iowa,:

· Archway Cookies

· Electrolux

· Maytag

· Heinrich Envelope

Iowa, for the most part, has replaced these and many other sources of employment with low-wage retail and service jobs.

In the 1990s Iowa’s urban population centers began growing by leaps and bounds, and our youth left Boone County and other rural and ag-based counties for better jobs. As schools consolidated, and retail stores shuttered, it left us with older voters, fewer small-town jobs, and less cross-pollination of ideas.

Don’t Ignore Rural Voters

But in 2005, Democratic National Chair Howard Dean devised a 50-state campaign strategy that paved the way for Obama’s two terms. By 2016 during Hillary Clinton’s campaign, the Democratic strategy seemed to shrink down to a single focus: win big in urban areas to compensate for the inevitable losses in rural America. The Democratic message was aimed somewhere else, far from Iowa’s struggles. The part of the message that came through loud and clear was the description of rural people as “bitter”, “gun clinging” and “a basket of deplorables”.

So enough about where we’ve been! Now, where are we going?

Today there are signs of hope in rural Iowa. More than ever, Democrats need to reconnect with rural, farm and small-town voters, with a laser focus on:

· Bread and butter issues, especially inflated cost of living, food and gasoline

· Healthcare, childcare, and schools

· Expanded community college technical training and workforce readiness

· Most of all, dialing back on cultural and lifestyle wedge issues. Iowans know Democrats care about people of color, and other minority groups, but they want to see this same focus what they call the common, working-class people

Surely, Republican leaders in Iowa have shown little interest in proposing a specific rural agenda beyond tax cuts, scare tactics about school bathrooms, and deporting immigrants. Expanding charter schools and giving tax $ to private schools isn’t a winning rural strategy.

Local control, once a pillar of the Republican platform, is a joke. Today we have:

· Book bans and threats to city and school librarians as well as teachers. One Republican candidate for governor has a campaign ad accusing our schools of pushing a Marxist agenda! Give me a break!

· Passage of a law to punish local government for not flying the flag when the Governor says so (even if it’s an unelected, out-of-state, largely unknown person)

To add insult to injury, other issues are hurting us here in Boone County and other rural counties:

· Lack of a Federal farm bill. After 2 1/2 years of delay, the legislation recently passed by the House isn’t guaranteed passage by the Senate. The Big Beautiful Bill already undermined the rural/urban coalition that’s held farm bills together for decades, locking in the $187 billion SNAP cut. The House Farm bill seems more like a cosmetic effect aimed at midterm elections. The E-15 ethanol provision stripped from the Farm Bill passed yesterday in the House, but we’ll see about the Senate!

· Eminent domain; after its passage in 2025, and the veto by Kim Reynolds, was sent back to the Senate by the House early in the 2026 session, where it was laid to rest.

· Iran war, and its consequences in our daily lives: fuel costs and inflation,

· Unpopular tariffs; hurting small businesses, cutting farm exports, driving up fertilizer, equipment, and feed costs.

Point to the Republican Record

Wait, there’s more! What about economic development in Iowa? Trump has gutted the USDA Rural Development. More cuts are proposed in Fiscal Year 26, impacting business, housing, and utility programs, as well as grants and loans.

Iowa is headed in the wrong direction. But don’t take my word for it! The Iowa Competitive Dashboard of the Iowa Business Council recently reported that Iowa ranks:

· #32 in population growth

· #34 for economic growth

· #35 for primary care providers per 100,000

· #38 in outward migration

· #42 for mental health care providers

Beyond the business economy, Iowans don’t like what is happening to public schools. Education Savings Accounts for private and charter schools aren’t popular, and don’t benefit a shrinking rural demographic. Gov. Reynolds just signed a bill to provide charter schools additional per-student funding, and allow their students access to public school extracurriculars. Home schoolers now can charge tuition and fees if they teach non-family students. Home schooling hurts rural schools, and there’s virtually no state oversight.

It’s not just a small school dilemma. Case in point right here in Boone County: The Boone Community School Board’s closure of its century-old orchestra program, and reduction of several positions to make ends meet.

What’s going on in Iowa seems like an effort to skim the cream off the top of our educational system, and leave the rest of the students to learn in the public school of hard knocks.

Deserts APlenty

We’ve been short of rainfall the past few weeks here in Boone County, and much of Iowa. As we approach the mid-terms, Democrats should make sure Iowans know we already have an abundance of deserts. This includes:

· Maternal health care deserts. Abortion laws are driving away OB-GYNs. Hospitals are cutting labor and delivery departments.

· Grocery store deserts. In a state that’s the agricultural wonder of the world, we have increasing numbers of small towns without grocery stores. Grants making local foods more available for school lunches and food banks as well as putting $$ in the pockets of small local farmers have been cut.

· Nursing home deserts; in some areas of the state, it’s worse than others. One private equity firm took over ownership of 29 Iowa nursing homes in one fell swoop. It can’t be good for the quality of resident care.

· Pharmacy deserts; Pharmacy Benefit Managers are paying pharmacies less than their costs of doing business ; 31 Iowa pharmacies closed in 2024. And more than 200 since 2014. An Iowa law curbing PBMs was signed by Reynolds last year, but key portions are being challenged in court. Three PBMs control about 80% of U.S. prescription market.

· Soon, coming to your community: Hospital Deserts; the Big Beautiful Bill included $800 billion cuts from Medicaid, threatening our rural hospitals and clinics. The Rural Health Transformation Fund of $290 million to Iowa can’t be used to directly fund services, and in no way offsets what was cut.

A poll of Independents, Democrats, and Republicans by health policy group KFF earlier this year indicates the cost of health care would impact their Midterm vote. They also blame Republicans and Trump for letting tax credits lapse from the Affordable Care Act.

The recent announcement of $312 million in Iowa water quality funding over the next 12 years is a limited response to the pressure campaign of Iowans. It’s not all new money. More incentives to protect soil and water resources are needed for nonfarm landowners, who own 55% to 58% of farmland in Iowa.

Iowa’s water resources also must be guarded against Meta, Google, and others. Are data centers and crypto farms the only economic development rural Iowa can attract?

Nothing Conservative about Extremes

As we look to the midterms, we can expect Democrats to be accused of being too liberal. Instead of debating whether this is true or not, why not ask:

· Is it conservative to use over one billion dollars of Iowa’s reserve funds to balance the budget for two consecutive years?

· Is it conservative to spend over $300 million a year for Education Savings Accounts focused primarily on a few mostly urban areas?

· Is it conservative to unleash DOGE, allowing unqualified tech geeks access to our Social Security info – and more – and when it’s all said and done, none of this chaos and devastation in our government resulted in a significant deficit reduction?

· Is it conservative for the state to assert a growing control over schools and libraries and city councils?

There’s nothing conservative about the overreach we’ve experienced over the past two terms of Kim Reynolds.

Caitlin Drey’s election in NW Iowa was a hopeful sign. However, it was a special election, with lower voter turnout.

We can’t be overconfident. Trump may be unpopular, but he’s still strong amongst the rank and file. Democrats must focus efforts on independents and traditional nonMAGA Republicans. In Iowa, we can offer voters a true choice between candidates.

Most of us remember when Sen. Tom Harkin retired in 2014, and Terry Branstad turned over the reins to Kim Reynolds in 2017.

The Republicans have controlled the governor’s office and House and Senate majorities for 10 years. Has it made life better in Iowa? We need to ask voters: Is the status quo working for you and your family? Do you want more of the same?

There’s so much at stake for us in Boone County in this midterm election.

I want to leave you with one last question. It’s actually a riddle:

When is a door not ajar?

“When it’s closed.”

Let’s begin to work today to open the door to making Iowa a swing state again.

Thanks to the Boone County Democrats for inviting me to offer these comments earlier this week. Thanks to all my readers for allowing me to share my message with you today!

I’m proud to be a member of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. Please check out our work here, and consider being a paid subscriber. Thanks for your support!

2026 has been declared the International Year of the Woman Farmer. During this year, the United Nations is highlighting “the essential roles women play across agri-food systems, from production to trade, while often going unrecognized.”

Perhaps someone should mention this to our President? Or is it more likely that he knows, and just doesn’t care?

When Donald Trump was handed a carefully compiled slate of nominees submitted by their state associations to serve on the United Soybean Board, he and Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins refused to accept five of them. Four were women.

No explanations were given. The USDA routinely approves these nominations. None would be nominated unless they’ve served tirelessly as volunteers. This has been true, regardless of whether there’s a Democrat or Republican in White House.

The United Soybean Board (USB) wasn’t notified until three months after its slate of state nominees was submitted. Virginia farmer Susan Watkins is a seventh-generation farmer, originally nominated to serve in the first Trump administration. She already had been elected to the Executive committee as treasurer in December, and would have been in line to chair the board.

The Virginia Soybean Association appealed her rejection, but was told the decision would not be reversed.

Why am I so shocked? After all, this rare rejection has Donald Trump’s fingerprints all over it. This administration is hostile toward women. No one should be fooled by Trump’s appointment of women to his Cabinet; two already have been fired. However, none of Trump’s marginally qualified male Cabinet members have been summarily dismissed.

Witch Hunts Turn Back the Clock

This indiscriminate anti-DEI spectacle is self-defeating. There’s nothing in USB policies about diversity, equity, and inclusion, and the USB isn’t a lobbying group. These volunteer positions have been politicized simply based on gender.

When I became an ag journalist several decades ago, agriculture was a male-dominated industry. I was the first woman hired to write about anything other than recipes and crafts in the 70-year-history of Successful Farming. The entire universe of agricultural advertising agencies, consultants, Cooperative Extension, USDA government agencies, equipment dealers, and the academic faculty of Land Grant universities was a polite, but good ole boys club. When I attended ag attorney or ag banker conferences to cover business topics, I often was the only woman.

I grew up on a two-generation farm. I knew that most farm women kept the books and prepared the taxes, often cared for livestock, or worked in the fields when needed. All this was on top of raising children, and feeding them with produce grown in their gardens and orchards. When I married a farmer, I saw that my mother-in-law could do anything that needed doing on the farm.

Yet when women were asked what they did on the farm, they typically replied, “I’m just a farm wife.”

Whenever I was asked to speak to women, I called them on it. “The expression, ‘I’m just a farm wife,’ has no place in your vocabulary today,” I’d say. “The time has come for you to re-evaluate your self-image. . . your interests are professional, your self-image deserves to be, too.”

In those years, if a woman were widowed, she was forced to sell the farm to pay the inheritance taxes if their property was held in joint tenancy; it was assumed to belong solely to her husband. In 1976 I traveled to Washington, D.C. with Doris Royal, a Nebraska woman who had launched a grassroots petition campaign to change the law. After a day on the Hill, we were invited to the National Commission on Observance of International Women’s Year event at the White House East Garden. Its 382-page report recommended estate tax reform, mentioning Royal by name. She spoke with President Ford after the ceremony.

However, it wasn’t until August 1981 that the Economic Recovery Tax, signed by President Ronald Reagan, resolved this inequity.

Throughout history, there have been other women leaders. Mary Elizabeth Lease worked with her husband in Kansas and Texas, trying and failing to make a living in farming during an era of high mortgage interest, exorbitant railroad shipping rates and bank foreclosures. The mother of four studied law and passed the Kansas bar in 1885. Soon she was traveling the country, speaking on behalf of the Farmers Alliance Movement Her biggest applause line was “You farmers need to raise less corn and more Hell.” She eventually left the Alliance because it wouldn’t support a woman’s right to vote.

The National Grange, co-founded by a woman, Caroline Hall, has recognized women as equals since its founding in 1867. Women could vote, hold office, and fully participate. However, after the turn of the century until the early 1990s, many other women were encouraged to join auxiliaries, including the CowBelles, and Porkettes, and devote most of their time and energy to promoting their products to women in grocery stores and in consumer groups.

In my early years of covering agriculture, some women began forming their own national organizations, including American Agri-Women, Women Involved in Farm Economics (WIFE), United Farm Wives, and the Women, Food, and Agriculture Network. They wanted to make decisions, policies, and gain leadership.

Significant changes occurred in agriculture, sending many women to work off-farm to provide health insurance for their husbands and families. Eventually, auxiliaries were eliminated to cut costs, and some women gained leadership positions in mainstream farm organizations. Pam Johnson of Floyd County became the first woman president of the National Corn Growers Association in 2012. In this position, she worked to advance farm policy, trade, and advocate for the 36,000 member association.

During a recent lecture at Iowa State University, she told students, “One watershed moment of insight happened at a leadership conference, where I began to understand how in our relationships, our friendships, our partnerships, and teams at work, diversity is a good thing. Being with people who are not exactly like us can be the perfect balance.”

In the early 2000s, I was asked to speak to the Farm Operators class at Iowa State University on a unique topic: “How to find a farm wife.” I told them, “Today’s young bachelor farmer no longer simply looks for a gal who can milk cows or keep house. If he’s smart, he scouts for a woman who can handle a combine and a computer with equal ease. Success in modern farming depends upon management.”

After all, today women make up 59% of the enrollment in the College of Agriculture at Iowa State University. Women represent one-third of farmers, and own one-half of U.S. farmland.

Using Civil Rights Law Against Most Vulnerable

The Trump administration isn’t simply singling out women in agriculture. It’s also trying to sink its anti-DEI tenacles into corporations.

Coca-Cola Beverages Northeast, a Japanese-operated company, employs 3,400 people who bottle, pack, deliver, and sell products in this region. More than 85% of the employees are men.

In 2024, a Coca-Cola distributor hosted an event for about 250 women employees to hear speakers and participate in team-building exercises at a Connecticut casino. Women met company managers and shared their work-related challenges with one another.

Following this first-ever event, a male employee filed a complaint. Last month the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) sued, stating the women’s event was a form of unlawful discrimination against male employees under federal civil rights law.

It’s possible other cases may be looming. Trump’s EEOC chair has made it known that she wants to hear from white men who feel they’ve experienced discrimination at work. She was quoted in February, saying women-only networking events would create “new girls clubs”. What?

Executive Committee Loses Two Directors

The male USB directors who nominated the four women are genuinely upset by USDA’s actions. The United Soybean Board has 77 directors; 40 of the new or reappointed directors in 2026 are men. It only has five women directors, the fewest in at least a decade.

Meagan Kaiser, 2023 USB chair, points out that women have been part of USB since it was founded in 1991. In a post on LinkedIn, she wrote, “In 2026, it’s unacceptable that we’re still debating whether women belong in leadership roles in agriculture. It’s condescending and incorrect to suggest women farmer leaders have served only because of a mandate. We have always been here. The process must show greater respect to the farmers who fund the check-off and the integrity of the system they support.”

Iowa farmer April Hemmes of Hampton, agrees. She believes women nominees at other commodity organizations received the same treatment by USDA. Hemmes was appointed by three Presidents, and served three terms, including on the Executive Committee. “They didn’t just remove those directors appointed by the last president,” she says. “So it wasn’t a clean slate. I’ve farmed 41 years on my own, and served on USB for years, but if I had been up for reappointment this year, I would have been left off. It’s hard to imagine this happening in 2026, the Year of the International Woman Farmer, with a woman U.S. Secretary of Agriculture.”

Women Bring Assets to the Table

According to the United Nations, “Women farmers are central to food security, nutrition, and economic resilience. IYWF 2026 raises awareness and promotes actions to close the gender gaps and improve women’s livelihoods worldwide. “

But not necessarily in the U.S.

Women farmers are key agents of change around the world. There’s a through-line from women gaining access to and control over land, finances, technology education, and decision-making, and the economic well-being of women and their families.

Mariangela Hungri knows this. In 2025, this Brazilian soil scientist was named World Food Prize Laureate here in Des Moines, receiving $500,000 for her pioneering work in soil microbiology and sustainable farming.

As a young girl, her teachers advised her to abandon her dream of becoming an agronomist. Soil science was dominated by men. The dominant emphasis was on chemicals, but she wanted to focus on nitrogen and biologicals. She played a significant role in changing how Brazil grows food over the past 40 years, while raising two children, and maintaining funding for her groundbreaking research.

Women have worked on farms throughout the past 250 years of this nation. An 1862 report from the newly formed USDA noted that on three out of four farms, “the wife works harder, endures more than any other on the place.”

It appears the USDA leadership has forgotten the lessons of history.

Farmers, as well as their commodity organizations, need women’s voices more than ever today. Representation matters.

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Property tax relief ranks as a high profile issue impacting Iowans’ bottom lines in 2026. But smoldering beneath the radar is a high-stakes battle over a broad swath of Iowa and across the Heartland with even greater potential to impact future property values and quality of life. Energy security.

This power struggle pits farmland owners, county, cities, and communities against an onslaught of new energy infrastructure. Urban areas in Iowa, and increasingly out-of-state, are scrambling to develop motherlodes of power. These utility-scale industrial alternative energy projects require the same open, level acres highly valued by rural and farm communities.

Recent power plays across Iowa shine a harsh light on conflicts over who controls the land, and who chooses the winners and losers. They raise questions involving:

· local and county governments vs. the state

· rural vs. urban

· absentee landowners vs. farmers

· judicial vs. legislative

· individual rights vs. community quality of life

· economic development vs. outsourced costs of doing business

The use of intimidation, political maneuvering, and hard-ball legal tactics are sowing a bumper crop of anger, fear, and frustration among Iowans.

Backlash against Energy Sprawl

On April 24, a $300 million wind project in Worth County received blowback after the Iowa Supreme Court upheld a county zoning ordinance aimed to reduce the buildable sites for turbines by up to 98%.

Worthwhile Wind and Invenergy, its parent company, spent several years and almost 2.8 million planning and preparing for a solar “farm” with 55 turbines projected to generate 165 megawatts of electricity.

But no one rolled out the red carpet. A 2017 project, Freeborn County Wind Farm, had angered residents by building too close to homes, creating noise, safety risks, and reduced property values. Voters had elected two new county supervisors to the three-member board in protest. The new board adopted a temporary moratorium in 2021, and passed an ordinance to regulate wind systems in 2022.

By 2024, Worthwhile Wind Farm had sued Worth County, winning in district court. But Worth County appealed to the Iowa Supreme Court. The Court found that the company had not filed a permit application, and had invested less than one percent of the total cost of the project prior to the moratorium. Its reversal of the district’s decision has created new case law for Iowa, possibly setting a national precedent regarding development of wind energy.

On April 24, Jacob Rodney, Worth County, Iowa posted on Facebook, “Today the little guys won.”

Others were quick to celebrate, including this post: “Congratulations!!!!! Just stomped on a 40 acre solar farm up here in Elk River, MN in a residential area of lots 3+ acres. They tried to put it on a wetland with protected species. Now there is the data center to squash. I think these are things you all want to brush up on along with the CO2 lines, add them into zoning restrictions. Meanwhile, major metro industrial sites with contamination have sat vacant since the 80’s and no one puts a solar or data center there. Just need farmland, wetlands, natural prairie and nesting sites.”

Vacant Land Myth

Solar energy only accounts for 4% of total energy production in the U.S. That figure is projected to grow to 45% by 2050, with the potential of swallowing up almost 10.4 million acres.

There was standing-room-only crowd on December 2024 when the Cerro Gordo Board of County Supervisors amended its zoning ordinance to ban large-scale, industrial-grade development of wind turbines, solar energy, or battery storage facilities in rural areas of the county. A moratorium already had been passed after landowners north of Burchinal were approached by Chicago-based Ranger Power in 2019, seeking to build a 3,600 acre solar farm.

Supervisor Chris Watts held up an uncashed check for $500 at the December meeting, saying, “I want to return this check to Ranger Power. They sent it to me as a campaign contribution. I look at it as a bribe. I don’t accept bribes, and this is yours to pick up at the end of the day.”

He added, “I do believe in renewables. I do believe in wind. I do believe in solar. But what’s happening right now here in Cerro Gordo County, I just don’t believe is right.”

However, on April 27, 2026, the Iowa Utilities Commission ruled in favor of Ranger Power’s plan to build a 500-megawatt solar “farm” on 2,250 acres of land in Cerro Gordo County, south of Mason City and Clear Lake.

The social media response was swift: “IUC just gave the keys to Cerro Gordo County and the state of Iowa to Ranger Power or any other solar developer by overruling our county ordinance,” one commented. “What prevents us from being completely overwhelmed by utility scale solar? Our legislators need to do something asap.”

Seriously, can anyone expect the Iowa legislature to act? After four years of stalemate, the Legislature passed an eminent domain bill in 2025 in response to the Carbon Summit CO2 Pipeline, and Gov. Reynold vetoed it. The same House bill was sent to the Senate in January this session, and we’ve heard crickets since then. Placing trust in the Iowa Utilities Commission, which gave the go-ahead for the Dakota Access Pipeline that runs within a quarter mile of our farm, and beneath the nearby Des Moines River, seems equally ill-advised.

Granted, there are distinct differences between the pipelines’ use of the state’s eminent domain to dig up the property of unwilling landowners, and the common practice of renting or purchasing land for turbine and solar fields. Pipelines clearly are less obtrusive in the landscape. But the tactics employed to create an unequal level field for Iowans are similar.

Who Benefits?

For instance, Alliant Energy’s industrial-scale solar project in Linn County was promoted as only impacting land immediately surrounding the Duane Arnold Nuclear Power Plant. Landowners, primarily absentee, signed nondisclosure agreements. Today, located on the fringe of Cedar Rapids, Pleasant Hill Solar is the largest utility-scale solar project in Iowa, as well as the largest lithium-ion battery storage facility.The solar field went online in March 2024 on county land, despite opposition from Palo, residents (population 1,600)

Today Palo and Linn County are fighting over a 545-acre Google data center proposed for rural Linn County. Linn County had set up a regulatory framework, including building setbacks, noise limits and traffic impacts. Public records indicated the data center could draw 14 million gallons of water daily from the Cedar River, so the County also required a water use study. Residents also were concerned about potentially higher electric rates.

Recently Google pivoted, announcing it was working with the city of Palo to annex the unincorporated site in Linn County within the city limits. Palo didn’t have a zoning ordinance governing data centers, but one is underway now.

Nuclear is the latest energy iteration. The proposed Google site dubbed Project Meridian is just south of the Duane Arnold Nuclear Power Plant near Palo. NextEra Energy Resources and Google have announced a 25-year partnership to restart the nuclear power plant to support Google’s cloud and AI data center infrastructure.

Who Loses?

Farmers can farm around wind turbines, and many welcome the lease income. That isn’t much comfort to neighbors within view of the red blinking lights at night, or the noise from the whirling blades. Some utilities are working on a new radar system to activate the lights only when aircraft are detected.

Agrivoltaics is an option allowing for grazing sheep and growing produce beneath solar panels, but there are technical challenges at a viable scale. It’s pretty safe to assume people don’t live in the country to savor the sight of huge swaths of solar panels from their decks or front porch.

Beyond aesthetics, landowners stand to profit more from long-term leases to solar companies than from renting to farmers (most farmers are renters). Utility scale developments also drive up demand for land, along with farm rental prices. Clearing and grading land for solar leads to compaction, increased runoff, and erosion.

Last, but not least, corporations are notorious for outsourcing their costs of doing business. Regarding rural America as Flyover Country fosters the attitude that it’s well-suited to landfill disposals. What are the true costs of alternative energy?

Recycling tops the list. There’s been some success recycling steel towers, but wind turbine blades are difficult. Less than 10%of solar panels are recycled, and if they end up in landfills, they may leak toxic lead and cadmium. Recycling lithium-ion solar batteries requires a specific process. An estimated eight million metric tons of solar panels will be at the end of their lifecycle by 2030.

Permanent storage for nuclear waste is a long-term concern which must be addressed. Creating nuclear waste to satiate the voracious appetite of AI at a time when there still are overarching questions about the true benefits of AI seems premature.

A May 2024 report from the Economic Research Service states that between 2009 and 2020, 43% of solar installations were sited on land previously used to grow crops, and 21% on pasture or rangeland. Should a landowner’s economic opportunities and decisions be limited? Is it possible to prioritize productive farmland, using an ordinance protecting land with a corn suitability rating of 70 or above from being converted to industrial use?

What’s the alternative to fuel the nation’s energy needs? The current administration favors continuation of coal and oil.

But few others question the need for homegrown energy. Farmers across the Great Plains have leased their land for oil wells for decades. Midwest farmers willingly grow crops for ethanol and biodiesel, and rent acres for wind turbines. Selling permanent easements to out-of-state private companies for the transport of energy consumed beyond their state borders, however, is a hard sell. Using land to cultivate rows of concrete infrastructures or plastic conduits goes against the grain.

I clearly recall visiting South Dakota in the early days when wind turbines were a welcome opportunity for cash-strapped farmers, and hailed as a source of clean energy. Today many large-scale developers of alternative energy have adopted the same hard-ball tactics of oil and carbon pipeline companies: “We can do this the easy way, or the hard way, folks!”

Today Iowans are at Ground Zero to determine the wise use of our bountiful resources.

As another growing season looms on the horizon, the undulating contours of the land conceal the stark power plays underway across Iowa. It’s not only a battle over natural resources, but the cultural values people attach to their natural resources. Community opposition to energy projects is likely to accelerate as energy projects encroach into traditional land uses.

The outcome is likely to re-shape Iowa’s long-term future, and alter its iconic landscape.

When Artemis II voyaged to the moon and back, its 10-day orbit became a focal point in our daily news feed, as Americans marveled at the awe-inspiring images of our life-sustaining Earth relayed back through space. On April 10, more than 27 million people gathered in front of television screens to celebrate the astronauts’ homecoming.

Less than two weeks afterward, on April 20, as Americans observed the 56th Earth Day, only a fraction of this viewing audience interrupted their day to witness sincere, but fragmented Earth Day efforts to reverse climate change, biodiversity challenges, soil degradation, increased pollution, and other issues threatening our Spaceship Earth.

We can do better! But don’t take my word for it.

Iowan Paul Johnson said it first. Johnson is hailed by some as one of the most significant American conservationists of the last generation. If you’ve ever heard of the Iowa Groundwater Protection Act, The Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, or can identify what the last two letters of IDALS stand for, or explain the acronym REAP, you’ve benefited from Johnson’s legacy.

Now more Iowans can learn about him. I celebrated Earth Day 2026 by reading a new book, edited by Johnson’s longtime friend Curt Meine. Titled: We Can Do Better: Collected Writings on Land, Conservation, and Public Policy, it traces Johnson’s life and career, featuring his personal essays as well as speeches, articles, and published newspaper columns to constituents throughout his three decades as a state and federal legislator, USDA chief of the Soil Conservation Service, and a Decorah, Iowa, farmer.

From Public to Private Lands

In one sense, Johnson was an unlikely individual to revolutionize the way that Iowa and the nation addressed conservation, soil erosion, and water quality.

Born the son of a preacher in Oakland, California, he served in the Peace Corps in West Africa, and he spent a decade in academia at the University of Michigan. But Johnson’s Swedish family roots were firmly transplanted into the soils of the Midwest in the 1880s. Johnson’s parents moved to South Dakota when he was 10 years old, where he worked on farms as a teenager, and later to Illinois. As a youth, he spent time at the Boundary Waters, studied forestry and developed an enduring passion for public lands.

After drafting his Ph.D., he reversed course, and began to question his direction in life. His initial passion for protecting public lands had evolved. “I think a major goal should be to get people on private land to do a better job of caring for the land,” he said. “I’d have to be a farmer if I ever was going to speak for agriculture.”

Following the tumult of the 1960s, he and his wife and their young family joined the back-to-the-land movement in the early 1970s. They settled on a farm in Iowa’s Driftless area that fit their criteria: a mixture of woods and cropland, with productive soils and clean water. They called it Oneota Slopes Farm.

They planted Christmas trees and milked a small Jersey herd. Johnson returned to his earlier interest in public service, and was elected a Winneshiek County soil commissioner. Before leaving on a family summer vacation in 1984, he offhandedly agreed to have his name placed on the ballot for the Iowa legislature. He unexpectedly won in November by a narrow margin.

By this time, the storm clouds of the farm crisis had begun gathering on the horizon. In February 1985, 15,000 farmers and their supporters rallied on Iowa State University’s campus in Ames. Johnson, his legislator colleague David Osterberg, and a few other legislators joined to show solidarity. They begin to devise strategies to keep farmers on the land. “It’s not just a farmer problem,” he said.

A Man on a Mission

Over the next six years in the Legislature, Johnson served on the education, agriculture, and natural resources committees. As Johnson collaborated with like-minded legislators, including Ralph Rosenberg, he looked for ways to advance conservation through public policy.

During a 1986 government reorganization, he took advantage of the chaotic cost-cutting to achieve such a goal, changing the name of the Iowa Dept. of Agriculture to include two words: Land Stewardship (IDALS). It was a subtle but significant challenge to the conventional paradigm: private land is a resource requiring management.

A study by the U.S. Office of Technology Assessment had revealed that the nation’s groundwater was at risk from leaking landfills and storage tanks, hazardous wastes, abandoned wells, and ag pesticides and fertilizers. It became an issue in the 1986 governor’s campaign.

“We don’t know the long-term health effects of drinking tainted water and probably won’t for many years,” Johnson said.

He helped draft and floor-manage the 1987 Iowa Groundwater Protection Act. He described the creation of the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University as the Act’s “heart and soul,” believing the Center’s independent research would lessen the negative impact of environmental problems created by agricultural practices.

Following its passage, 400 ag chemical dealers gathered at the State Capitol to protest taxing ag chemicals to fund the Center’s research. Johnson even found himself in a private shouting match with Iowan Norman Borlaug, Father of the Green Revolution. Borlaug argued that people across the world would starve without the use of chemicals in agriculture, and eventually farmers would reduce their use through better farming methods. Afterwards, Johnson recalled: “All I was saying was that we were wasting an awful lot of fertilizer, and it’s ending up in our groundwater.”

As a state legislator, he posed the question: “Are we growing our food as gently as possible?”

During his third term, Johnson was becoming disillusioned with the growing partisanship, and he missed his Decorah farm. He declined to run for a fourth term.

Tapped for National Role

The 1985 Farm Security Act was a turning point for the intersection of federal policy linking conservation and agriculture. It featured a stronger role connecting eligibility for federal subsidies to conservation practices on highly erodible land. In 1989, Johnson became the first farmer to serve on the National Academy of Sciences’ Board of Agriculture.

In 1994, he was tapped by President Clinton to lead the Soil Conservation Service (SCS). It was Johnson’s dream role: its mission focused entirely on private land. The SCS became the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) during his first year, broadening the vision of protecting natural resources.

The 1996 farm bill expanded protections, setting the stage for the subsequent conservation titles administered by the NRCS. The Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program was developed, and the National Conservation Buffer was initiated in 1997. Over the next five years, the NRCS helped farmers install a total of 1.2 million miles conservation buffers on 4.4 million acres.

Under Johnson, a 1997 watershed NRCS report, America’s Private Land: A Geography of Hope, was distributed to every NRCS office, member of Congress, and the Cabinet. It called on Americans to rededicate their efforts to conserve the land.

After four years, Johnson resigned, becoming the longest serving USDA head, as well as the longest-tenured NRCS chief.

Johnson mentored former Senator Tom Harkin, as well as candidate for governor, Tom Vilsack. In 1999, Vilsack asked Johnson to lead the Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources. Returning to Iowa, he was disturbed by many changes, including the Republican majority’s disinterest in surface water quality, wetland restoration, confinement siting, and air quality.

He called for “another real burst of effort on water quality,” organizing Iowans around protection of their watersheds, and improving water quality monitoring.

He issued a report, written by my Iowa Writers’ Collaborative colleague, Larry Stone titled: Iowa: A Portrait of the Land, reminding Iowans of our rich history of natural resources, and the urgent need to protect our heritage.

Johnson urged more technical assistance to help farmers “I believe it is tragic that in our rush to cut government, we have slashed the heart and soul of private land conservation. . . In Iowa we have a huge backlog of projects farmers have applied for.” Johnson served for two years.

From 2007 to 2011, he served a term on the Iowa Environmental Protection Commission, where he had to defend his vote against applications to build hog confinements near the Raccoon River. He also began work on a book: Private Land Conservation: A Glass One-half Full, which he was unable to complete. He urged Iowa’s land grant university to “take back the mission and vision” of the original Morrill Act in 1862.

In 2012, Johnson was nearly killed in an accident on his farm. He recovered, continuing some of his farm activities, but eventually he was unable to get around without a wheelchair.

Johnson was devastated by the 2017 closure of The Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture by former Gov. Branstad, who had signed the legislation creating it in 1987.

“This action is a horrible mistake,” Johnson wrote in a letter to The Des Moines Register. To him, it signified the breakdown of legislative collaboration, and a rejection of the Center’s research into tilling the land, managing nutrients, using pesticides, and building vegetative buffers.

Gentle Giant of the Earth

I never had the privilege of meeting Paul Johnson. But my years as a farm journalist coincided with most of his years in public life. and his achievements provided plenty of fodder for me in the pages of Successful Farming.

In 1986, I wrote a story for our national audience titled, Groundwater Pollution Emerges as a Rural Issue. I cited a 1983 ISU Farm and Rural Life Poll stating a total of 65% of Iowa farmers identified water quality as a moderate or severe problem. I referred to an Iowa Geological Survey study revealing nitrate levels in many shallow aquifers in the Big Spring Basin had tripled since 1968, and exceeded EPA’s drinking water health standard.

In 1987, I wrote about the groundwater hazards from abandoned wells. In June 1988, six months after its passage, I wrote, “New Groundwater law under attack in Iowa.” I quoted the executive vice president of the Iowa Fertilizer and Chemical Association, who stated, “The authors under the guise of the Groundwater Protection Act have a real objective to put all out of business.”

But Johnson was a pragmatic visionary. Regarding the protection of private lands, he said, “Regulation cannot do it all.” He was convinced a voluntary approach could work. “NRCS must speak for the land and its health, . . but others, landowners, users. and city dwellers likewise must take some responsibility to see that land stewardship is accomplished, “ he wrote.

Paul Johnson died on February 15, 2021. Although Iowa (and the nation) is a better place, it’s still a sizeable work in progress. The good news is many farmers are engaged:

· The Lobe Rangers, who farm in the Des Moines Lobe, have adopted farming practices for over a decade to protect soil and water. They’re speaking out now because the conversation about agriculture typically omits the voices of individual farmers. Catch them on Facebook.

· A group of farmers in northern Iowa and southern Minnesota call themselves The Oat Mafia. They’ve joined forces to build a food-grade oats mill in Albert Lea opening this summer. In addition to providing a new source of value-added income, growing food grade oats will boost their efforts to achieve a three-crop rotation.

· The Jefferson County Farmers & Neighbors are voicing their criticism of the Iowa Senate on Facebook for withholding $600,000 to keep the 60 IIHR water sensors from going dark on June 30. They point out there’s $18 million in the Groundwater Protection Fund in a revolving fund replenished annually with taxes on fertilizer and pesticides (Thanks to Paul Johnson and others).

· Two weeks ago, I joined an Iowa Soybean Association field tour of farm and water conservation practices in the Raccoon River Watershed. As farmer, Mark Schleisman pointed out, “If you are not making money, you won’t be here tomorrow, that’s about sustainability.”

Is it enough? Of course not. But as Paul Johnson underscored, farmers need technical assistance. Yet Trump’s recently released USDA budget states No new funding for Conservation Technical Assistance, designed to help farmers implement plans for cover crops, no till, or prescribed grazing.

This is happening at a time when we’re seeing historically low levels of staffing within our NRCS offices due to layoffs and deferred resignations last year.”

Whose Mission?

Rachel Carson is credited with inspiring the first Earth Day in 1970, and Paul Johnson hung her photo on his office wall at the USDA in Washington, DC. One day later, he was told her photo in his gallery of conservation luminaries might annoy some “aggies”. Johnson ignored the advice.

The Artemis II mission is a reminder that America still has what it takes to lead the world through a shared national purpose. In the same way, Americans still can do great things right here on Earth.

What if we could recapture the same appreciation year-round for our awesome Spaceship Earth as the Artemis II crew experienced during their 695,000-mile trip? What would it take for us to launch an historic mission of protecting our Earth with a similar sense of purpose?

After the Leopold Center was defunded in 2017, then Chair of the House Ag Committee Pat Grassley declared, “Mission Accomplished.”

Not so fast! Whose mission?

Thanks to Johnson, Iowa became a leader at the crossroads of agriculture and land stewardship. His words still can inspire us on a new mission today, “We can do better. Just think what we could do!”

Please check out other columns at the Iowa Writers Collaborative and consider a paid subscription to keep community-based local journalism and commentary alive . We’re especially grateful to our paid subscribers; they have access to our column archives and are invited to the Office Lounge, a live Zoom call on the last Friday of the month at noon Central

Our April 8 edition of The Ogden Reporter arrived last week, on the usual day, in our mailbox, in the usual way. The front page featured the local Easter Egg Hunt and highlights of the Boone County Board of Supervisors meeting.

It was business as usual, and well, this was newsworthy!

It wasn’t supposed to happen. Two weeks ago, I wrote about the April 1 permanent closure of The Ogden Reporter and The Madrid News-Register, two weekly newspapers in Boone County, where I live. They were part of a chain of 18 community newspapers and assorted shoppers suddenly cast aside when Hampton-based Mid-America Publishing announced it was getting out of the newspaper business.

It seemed a cruel April Fool’s joke. But late afternoon on April 8, rumors began to circulate. Then a Facebook post appeared on The Ogden Reporter page, stating: “We know there has been a lot of uncertainty surrounding the future of The Ogden Reporter. We want our community to know your newspaper is not going away.”

The message was posted by “a privately owned small business with a strong belief in local journalism and small-town communities,” and concluded with a promise to share more soon.

As we learned the next day in a follow-up post, The Ogden Reporter and the Madrid News-Register were purchased by Central Iowa Publishing, owned by Dustin and Taylor Teays. The Teays live in Bayard, and publish two other newspapers, The Scranton Journal and The News Gazette in Bayard.

“We want to stress that while we don’t live in Ogden or Madrid, that won’t change anything about how we do business,” they stated. “We will be present, we will show up, and we will tell your stories, because we are here for you. Our motto for our newspapers is, “Locally Owned, Locally Focused” and we will stand by that.”

In rural Iowa, any location within one hour’s drive is local.

In fact, the good news is that at least 13 of the Iowa community newspapers formerly owned by Mid-America Publishing now have been sold. Is it time for folks to move on from the story? Not so fast! As Paul Harvey said, “and now you’ll know the rest of the story!”

Here’s the Scoop

For instance, the purchase of the 150-year-old Hampton Chronicle, along with the Bonus Shopper, promises to offer a unique multi-platform collaboration. OnTheGoMedia is the parent company of 104.9 KLMJ-FM and 98.9 KQCR -FM 9 (99 The Wave) in Parkersburg. Its president, Shawn Dietz, is pledging to maintain the newspaper’s print tradition, while integrating coverage with its radio, digital platforms, streaming radio, and local content podcasts.

“Especially in a small town, I think there’s a view that there’s this rivalry or some competition between radio and newspaper,” Dietz told KCCI. “And I’ve always said my philosophy is our community is served best when both of our entities are operating well and we’re kind of in sync and just do what each other does best.” The first edition under new ownership hit the stands on April 8.

Dietz was named February Entrepreneur of the Month in 2024 by The NIACC John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center and North Iowa Area SBDC. In an interview that year, he said, “Adapting is a process that will never be complete. There’s always going to be something new. I don’t want to see us fight the trends. I want to see us meet our audience where they’re going.” That attitude bodes well for the future of The Hampton Chronicle.

In Eagle Grove and Clarion, The Eagle Grove Eagle and Wright County Monitor were purchased by Jerry Wiseman and Kristin Grabinoski. They also bought the Ida County Courier, Holstein Advance, and one shopper.

Grabinoski is a principal of Stateline Publications, based in Armstrong, Iowa, which already publishes the Armstrong Journal, Bancroft Register, Swea City Herald Press, and the Ringsted Dispatch. She partners with Wiseman on the Humboldt Independent and other publications.

The Garner Leader and Clear Lake Mirror-Reporter were acquired by Enterprise Media, a Charles City-based publishing company founded in 2016 by Christopher Hall and his wife Kristin. Enterprise Media owns and operates the Kossuth County Advance, the New Hampton Tribune, Greene Recorder, Nashua Reporter, the Spencer Reporter, and Dickinson County News and the Decorah Leader. Their plan is to retain the two local editorial staffs, but share a managing editor and a common printer: the Charles City Press.

The news isn’t quite as good for the Sigourney News-Review, which is continuing in “a modified format”. The Iowa Newspaper Association will coordinate its printing of public notices, and the newspaper “possibly will feature content from the Iowa Capital Dispatch.” All current subscribers will continue receiving a print version, with the familiar News-Review masthead and overall style. City and county officials have been notified to ensure the continuity of official notices.

The Day the Media Circus Came to Town

Last, but not least, Nelson Media Company purchased the Graphic Advocate in Lake City, along with four NE Iowa papers, (Winnebago County Tribune, Parkersburg Eclipse News Review, Butler County Tribune-Clarksville Star, and the Grundy Register). The company, owned by Chris Nelson, plans to combine the two Butler County papers under the name, Butler County Eclipse.

Nelson Media Company is a familiar name in this west central Iowa neck of the woods. After years of local ownership, The Graphic Advocate was sold to Mid-America Publishing. In 2022 Mid-America’s CEO texted the managing editor that the newspaper was facing imminent closure. The managing editor felt the community deserved more notice. He posted a screenshot of this text on his personal Twitter account, and then re-tweeted it on the newspaper’s Twitter account. He urged readers on his personal Facebook page to help save the newspaper. A few days later he was fired by Mid-America Publishing for sharing confidential information.

This is where Nelson Media Company stepped in, offering to buy The Graphic Advocate from Mid-America Publishing. However, no deal was reached. So the locally-owned The Leader in Webster County (printed by Mid-America Publishing) struck an agreement to purchase it.

Without getting into all the weeds, two competing versions of The Graphic Advocate were published in Lake City, a town of 2,000, for about one month – each by a different publisher. After some persuasion, the owner of The Leader in Dayton reluctantly decided Nelson Media was in a better position to own and publish The Graphic Advocate. After being assured by Chris Nelson that he “believed in small towns and newspapers,” she also sold The Leader to him on June 30, 2022.

Negotiations between Mid-America Publishing and Nelson Media over The Graphic Advocate had reached an impasse by August, so Nelson launched a new paper, The Calhoun County Phoenix, led by the same managing editor who had been fired from The Graphic Advocate by Mid-America Publishing.

Meanwhile, things weren’t going so smoothly for The Leader in Dayton, under Nelson Media ownership. The August 16, 2023 edition carried the front-page headline, “Lytton Mayor retires.” However, Lytton is a town in an adjoining county, where Nelson Media recently had launched The Calhoun County Phoenix. The original headline accompanying the article, “Lehigh Mayor Retires,” had been changed by Nelson Media’s managing editor.

Many subscribers weren’t amused, and they cancelled their subscriptions. The Leader’s managing editor suddenly left. Then Nelson Media announced The Leader was for sale. The week prior to the Labor Day Dayton Rodeo, the biggest economic driver in town, Nelson announced the paper would shut down.

Start the Presses

Two part-time writers for The Leader from the communities of Dayton and Duncombe stepped in. Justine Hemmestad and her husband Shawn purchased the paper. Together, with Courtney Sogard, The Leader has been publishing local news for the past two and a half years.

“We worked hard to save it,” Justine says. “It was personal to us – you could see by reading it that this paper has heart.”

However, the week following Mid-America’s announcement it was leaving newspaper publishing, The Leader announced its shift to a digital focus, while maintaining a limited number of tabloid-sized print PDF copies to mail to subscribers and a growing number to sell at drop-off points including Casey’s and Dayton Farm and Lumber. The Leader is updating its web presence, and in the future hopes to offer customized digital editions to several surrounding communities in news deserts.

“We have 17,000 followers on Facebook,” Justine told me. But she cites rising print costs and postal fees. “Print subscriptions weren’t growing.”

She told subscribers in the April 9 edition, “While the format may be changing, the mission of The Leader remains the same: to provide reliable, relevant and community-centered journalism.”

“For the first time, we’re growing,” she adds. “It’s affordable now.”

Paper-Thin Margins

I wish the best for The Leader.

I also wish Nelson Media Company a bright future, along with the newspapers it recently purchased. I hope this time around its commitment will endure.

The road ahead is fraught for community newspapers. Rising production costs, shifting reader habits, and declining ad revenue threaten to unravel the fragile fabric of community journalism. The U.S. Postal Service, a critical linchpin for rural newspaper delivery, is raising rates under its long-range “Delivering for America” plan. On April 9, the USPS filed notice of additional price changes scheduled to take effect July 12.

Tariffs and global supply chain issues loom. Newsprint, the single largest material cost, is closely tied to Canadian imports. Ink prices have been driven higher by tariffs, along with demand for petroleum-based products and imported chemicals.

Efforts at the Statehouse to move public notices from newspapers and onto government-run websites are alarming.

Newspaper margins are paper-thin. (Pun intended.) Newspaper owners will attempt to maintain subscription and ad rates, fearful of triggering cancellations. Local business advertising also faces economic pressures. I can recall when the local Ogden grocery store ads covered the newspaper’s back page. Today, although the community is fortunate to have a grocery store, there aren’t any ads in the local paper; the corporate office prints flyers, placing them at the store, and the post office.

Community support is the key ingredient. It’s up to local folks who typically commute out-of-town to work and shop, but who realize a local paper is their best source of verified information concerning city government, school boards, public safety, and community life.

It’s No Time to Bury the Lede

All is not well. But all isn’t lost when it comes to local newspapers across Iowa.

The front page of The Ogden Reporter this week featured articles written by the new owner, Dustin Teays, promoting RAGBRAI’s upcoming pass-through Ogden, and a feature highlighting National Library Week, and the local library, along with photos of the school prom. Taylor Teays introduced herself, including a photo of their young family. It was a refreshing change. I’ve even read that they’re dropping their subscription price by $10.

“This newspaper matters,” the Teays wrote. “The stories, the people, the history, the connection—it all matters. And we believe deeply in the role a local newspaper plays in keeping a community informed, connected, and heard.”

The Leader’s front page featured an eye-catching photo and a heartwarming story of the move of the former rectory of Dayton’s now-closed Catholic church to the local Hidden Acres Christian Camp, where it will be known as the Beverly House. I learned the touching connection to the mother of the newest member of our local 4-H club. I might never have known it without this story written by Justine Hemmestad.

Sure, a local newspaper isn’t in the business of breaking news 24/7. But in rural Iowa, it’s so much more – it’s in the business of bringing people together. “It’s about making connections, and sharing the personal touchstones of our lives,” Justine says.

Ain’t that good news?

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The proposition that anyone running for political office should have their heads examined is not a new idea. In the past, however, the idea has always been received with laughter. That anyone should seriously consider the possibility is startling. Within the context of the present political crisis of leadership, it is possible that the time has come to stop laughing at the idea and start thinking about it seriously.

This is a timely issue, isn’t it? Would you be surprised to know this is the lede of a story I wrote for the Columbia Missourian as a student at the University of Missouri in the mid-1970s? I re-discovered it recently, and I was struck by its relevance today.

The focus of my youthful concern was two national leaders who had resigned in disgrace. I posed these questions:

· “If Spiro Agnew’s dishonesty had been revealed by a psychological test, would he have ever become vice president of the United States?”

· “Suppose that President Nixon’s weakness as a judge of character had been disclosed by a psychological examination. Could Watergate have been averted?”

I asked, “Should psychological tests be required of public officials?”

I pursued the answer by interviewing credible sources, beginning with the director of clinical training in the University of Missouri-Columbia psychology department. He responded: “I have reservations about the accuracy, validity, and effectiveness of any array of techniques used in the screening of political candidates.” He suggested that if it were a voluntary situation in which the individual feels it’s in their best interest, a psychological test could be valuable.

However, he said psychological tests wouldn’t necessarily eliminate dishonest individuals from attaining public office. “Any individual who has cheated throughout his political career without detection would be shrewd enough not to be caught in a psychological test,” he told me.

The mayor of Columbia agreed, adding, “It’s highly speculative to predict a political candidate’s performance on the basis of any one or two tests,” he said.

Another source, a Democrat running for Missouri state representative doubted that any two or more groups of psychiatrists could agree on a single series of tests. He suggested that any evaluation could be subjective. “I don’t believe psychology is an exact science,” he said. “What bothers me is who decides when a person is fit to hold office?”

Failing to gain an outright endorsement of psychological testing, I asked, “How, then, can a citizen avoid voting for ill-fit individuals?”

My sources unanimously concurred that determining who has “the right stuff” isn’t rocket science. The best prediction of an individual’s future behavior is his or her behavior in the present, they said.

“Perhaps there is no substitute for good old-fashioned citizen involvement,” I wrote.

New Definition of Bully Pulpit

If good old-fashioned citizen involvement had succeeded in 2024, Americans wouldn’t have awakened on Easter morning in 2026 to a profane diatribe directed toward Iran by the leader of the free world on Truth Social. Trump’s Easter message concluded with a mockery of the Muslim faith.

This shocking diatribe was followed a few days later by Trump’s apocalyptic threat to “wipe out Iran’s whole civilization”. Never mind the Geneva Convention, or that the deliberate targeting of civilian infrastructure is an international war crime.

This is a President who has no filter. It has little to do with his disdain for political correctness. Trump’s words extend far beyond simply stating how he feels without regard to how it offends others or exposes uncomfortable truths. Although his supporters argue that his proposed military war crime on Truth Social was simply a negotiating tactic, it was unhinged and reckless rhetoric.

Americans know, based on the Watergate tapes, that Richard Nixon was profane in his daily conversations with his staff. It’s no secret that Lyndon Johnson was prone to vulgar expressions in his private interactions.

Neither one held a digital device in his hands 24/7, poised to broadcast each inane musing, or angry outburst on his own social media platform. Truth Social is listed as a public company under Nasdaq, but DJT is the majority owner. Public comments made by past presidents always have been carefully scripted by their press secretaries. Should any president be allowed to own a social media platform?

Every president since Jimmy Carter has been drawn into Middle East conflicts. Following a ceremony for the 241 U.S. Marines killed in Beirut in 1983, President Regan underscored his comments with the reassurance, “America seeks no new territory, nor do we wish to dominate others.”

These past presidents made us feel good about ourselves as Americans. However, I hang my head in shame when Trump berates our European allies, threatens to invade Greenland, or throws a temper tantrum over being barred from imposing unconstitutional global tariffs.

Trump’s behavior is exacerbated by the weakening of our three co-equal branches of government. Past Congresses have ceded expanded powers and scope to the Executive branch, including broad executive orders. Our Founding Fathers explicitly sought to establish a government with a balance of powers. They had the foresight to consider how things might play out if the chief executive is a narcissistic bully with delusions of grandeur.

Living in a Post-Shame Era

Over the past two years, we’ve heard a lot about cognitive tests. Trump constantly accused Joe Biden of declining cognitive abilities. He bragged about “acing” cognitive tests three times at Walter Reed Hospital, telling us about the five words he repeated back to his doctors: “Person, Woman, Man, Camera, TV.” He boasted that he’s a “very stable genius.” He has suggested mandatory, cognitive exams for all presidential candidates.

Tests to detect mild cognitive impairment could be a useful tool, but I’m not convinced that aging is the core issue here. It’s often observed that people tend to lose their “filter” as they age, becoming more blunt and sometimes making inappropriate comments. Other studies indicate personalities don’t change drastically over time; people may encounter more difficulty regulating their emotions, or experience more irritability, or anxiety. But people usually become exaggerated versions of their younger selves as they age.

My concern is psychological or moral impairment. How could we detect a serious condition that should disqualify a political candidate from running for office (I’m not including diagnoses of bi-polar, depression, or schizophrenia). What about someone who is a sociopath, or lacks empathy, displays paranoia, exhibits signs of borderline personality disorder, narcissism, sadism, or masochism?

How about identifying a candidate who lacks a sense of common decency? Or testing for their capacity to feel shame? That would be a good start!

In Search of the Right Stuff

Fifty years after I wrote the story, “Should our Politicians be Tested?”, the U.S. still is stuck without a remedy for preventing someone like Donald Trump from putting his name on the ballot for the highest office in the land.

Yet one day ago, the four astronauts on the Artemis II splashed down off the coast of San Diego after hurtling 694,000 miles through space for ten days. They endured challenging circumstances that would cause most of us to melt down.

How do you think NASA knew these four individuals had “The Right Stuff”?

Tests. Astronauts must go through rigorous psychological testing, evaluations to identify resilient individuals able to face extreme isolation, high stress, and interpersonal challenges. (It sounds like the office of the Presidency, doesn’t it?) They undergo personality tests, interpersonal and cognitive simulations to rule out psychopathic personalities and identify desirable traits including high emotional stability and low neuroticism.

To a lesser degree, CIA and FBI candidates undergo rigorous testing, including psychological assessments. Police candidates take psychological evaluations, and psychiatrists must agree to clinical interviews and behavioral observations. The goal is to weed out candidates with “the wrong stuff” for the job.

Maybe we should select our presidential candidates from the astronaut pool?!

Ultimately, however, I realize we can’t require testing of our political candidates because our Founding Fathers in their infinite wisdom did not write this into the Constitution. A candidate for President must be a natural-born citizen of the U.S., at least 35 years of age, and a resident of the U.S. for 14 years. Similar criteria apply to Congressional candidates.

The U.S. Cabinet and the Vice President could remove the President, citing the 25th Amendment. Congress could impeach the President and vote to remove him from office. But this is after the fact, and neither alternative is likely until the balance of power is equally distributed in Congress through upcoming elections.

Let’s face it: we’re where we are today because our Founding Fathers had complete confidence in the future citizens of the U.S. We the People let them down when we elected Donald Trump in 2016, and then inexplicably put him back in the cockpit in 2024 (despite the January 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol).

The successful mission of Artemis II this week is confirmation that the United States, in the 250th anniversary year of its founding, still has what it takes to lead the world– not by brute force or bellicose rhetoric – but through courage under pressure, an ambitious spirit of exploration, and an indominable belief in our shared national purpose.

It’s my hope, for the sake of future generations, that we can regain the belief in our ability to elect leaders who reflect our highest aspirations and values in 2028. (I don’t want to have to write about this issue again in another 50 years!)

We must elect members of Congress who will rein in executive powers and curb the influence of money in politics, as well as state leaders who recognize the value of teachers and a curriculum that infuses students with the power of critical thinking skills.

It’s on us. We have to do better. We must do better. We’re the ones who must have The Right Stuff.

I’m proud to be a member of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. Please check out our work here. Please consider being a paid subscriber to my colleagues’ sites. Thank you for your support.

Last Friday I placed an ad for the church spring pancake breakfast. It was set to run this week, in color, in the usual 2” x 2” format, featuring the usual breakfast menu, and at the same time as usual – just a different date from last year. I’ve been placing ads in the local newspaper to promote our two annual breakfast fundraisers for a couple dozen years.

When the newspaper was published this week, the ad appeared, just as I asked, in the usual format, on the usual page. But what was unusual was this letter from editor Craig Schultz, on page 1:

“Well, folks, this is probably the hardest thing I’ve even had to tell anyone. This upcoming Wednesday, April 1st, and I am well aware of the irony of the timing, will be the last publication date for the Register-News and the Ogden Reporter.”

It was no April Fool. Although I didn’t know it when I placed the ad, it would be the last one ever in the weekly newspaper, launched in 1874.

For 44 years, The Ogden Reporter was owned by the husband-wife team of Gary and Sharon Alban, with a couple of part-time employees. The paper offered a lively mix of school and community coverage and public notices. Following Gary’s death in 2010, it was sold to Mid-America Publishing in Hampton. The local office, along with the editor, was moved 22 miles away, to the Madrid Register-News, which also became part of this chain of almost two dozen newspapers. Now Mid-America Publishing is getting out of the newspaper business.

The closure would leave one newspaper to serve Boone County: the Boone News Republican. However, it’s no longer local, since it’s published by the daily Ames Tribune, which was sold to GateHouse Media. Gatehouse merged with USA Today publisher Gannett.

The timing of the closure isn’t great for the newest Ogden business: the Medicap Pharmacy. It opened its doors on March 23. The former pharmacist, Patti Swanson, who grew up near here, ran the pharmacy for 39 years. She worked past retirement, determined to find a new owner so the community wouldn’t suffer the loss of its pharmacy. It was a relief to the local medical clinic branch when Medicap agreed to re-locate here. But Medicap didn’t want to own the building, so two Ogden graduates living out-of-town, and working in Des Moines, purchased and remodeled it.

It’s not good news for Fareway Stores, either, which opened a small footprint store here in 2022, three long years after Ogden’s grocery store burned down in 2019.

Where will those businesses, in addition to the lumberyard, chiropractor, medical clinic, dentist office, branch bank, two fitness centers, insurance business, financial services office, and Dollar General advertise now?

Where will residents read public notices: minutes of the Ogden Community School Board, the Boone County Board of Supervisors’ meeting, the Ogden City Council, the Boone County Sheriff’s Report, the Police Report, and local obituaries? What about publishing street repair bids, the city’s proposed property tax rate, or the upcoming PPEL tax (Physical Plant and Equipment Levy)? Certainly not in The Boone News-Republican. Online? Possibly, but many residents in this town of 2,000 wouldn’t make this transition.

What about the photos featuring high school athletes and game coverage, Student of the Month, and jazz band and show choir events? What will become of the local archives?

Mid-America attributed the closures to, well, you know, the usual: dwindling readership and advertising revenue, and Covid. I don’t believe the Internet was mentioned. A few of its papers are being sold, or are considering other ownership options.

Life in a News Desert

I guess it shouldn’t have been surprising. Earlier this winter, a friend dropped in. My husband cleared a space to visit at the kitchen table, moving assorted newspapers, the Dayton Leader, the Ogden Reporter, the Des Moines Register, and the Wisconsin State Farmer. Our friend, a local businessman with a post-graduate degree, remarked, “I didn’t know anyone read newspapers anymore.”

Iowa’s legislature hasn’t been supportive: the Republican majority has threatened for years to end the requirement to publish public notices, a major source of revenue for local newspapers. Current legislation proposed by Rep. Brent Siegrist would require public notices to be posted online, in addition to print. It has passed the House, and currently is in the Senate.

I was hopeful when the Ogden Reporter and the Dayton Leader began republishing some articles from The Iowa Capital Dispatch, a nonprofit independent online news service (iowacapitaldispatch.com). It’s not local news, but it’s credible, relevant information regarding state government.

The Western Iowa News Foundation also offers the potential for a new business model: http:www.westerniowajournalismfoundation.com/contact us. Of course, most local newspapers have online editions, but digital seldom replaces lost print advertising revenue.

Although 2,100 newspapers across the U.S. have shut down since 2005, only an estimated 500 local or state digital news sites have replaced them.

Unfortunately, what passes for news on social media today often exacerbates political and social economic divides. Our news has become nationalized, and one reason for this may be the dearth of local news. This leaves the national news (disliked by so many) to shape the local or state narratives of people.

A news desert is defined as “communities, either rural or urban, where residents have very limited access to the sort of credible and comprehensive news and information that feeds democracy at the grassroots level.”

It raises political, social, and economic implications. Research reveals that in counties where the population is impoverished, isolated, older, and less educated, only half have one newspaper, and two-thirds lack a daily newspaper. Residents also are less likely to vote.

Pharmacy and Maternity Care Deserts

Another announcement this week, made on the eve of April 1, was no April Fool’s Day joke: the closing of four small-town pharmacies in Zearing, Conrad, Traer, and Ackley. They’re all owned by NuCara, which owns 17 other pharmacies. (NuCara’s parent company, Nudak Ventures, is involved in a lawsuit with the State of Iowa Dept. of Health and Human Services.)

These closures were attributed to the current pharmacy benefit manager model forcing them accept reimbursement rates below the cost of business, as well as “gaps in Iowa’s rural healthcare strategy creating an unsustainable environment for some rural pharmacies. . .” Prescriptions are being transferred to Marshalltown. Some of the remaining 13 pharmacies have been purchased, and will be re-branded as Medicap.

Other news arrived just ahead of April Fool’s Day: the announcement of the closure of Hometown Foods in Conrad, on March 30.

But it’s not just small towns waking up to find it’s no joking matter to lose their quality of life and health care and news outlets. MercyOne Clinton Medical Center announced it’s closing its labor and delivery services. Clinton has a population of 24,000, and now women must drive an hour or more to Dubuque or Davenport to give birth. Reasons for the closing: “issues with government funding, staffing shortages, and policy changes to Medicaid and Medicare”. The state of Iowa laments the loss of young Iowans, but if babies can’t be delivered locally, it’s not hard to understand why. Iowa ranks fourth for net out-migration of college educated individuals, aged 25-29.

If local newspapers continue to close, and people are cautioned not to believe everything they read online, how will we know about all the other forthcoming closures in rural Iowa?

It’s no joke.

Nothing is Too Incredible to Believe

It may be coincidental that these closures coincide with April Fool’s Day in 2026. But it leads me to conclude there’s another reason April Fool’s Day just isn’t much fun anymore: Donald Trump is turning the April Fool’s Day tradition on its head.

A traditional April Fool’s Day joke seems as though it might be true. We fall for it, but turns out to be false. In 2026, Americans are bombarded by news that seems incredible. We can’t believe it ever would happen. But it turns out to be true. For instance:

· Giant banners of Trump’s face now hang from the Dept. of Justice, Dept. of Labor, Dept. of Agriculture, and other federal government buildings

· Trump has taken over of John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and put his name on the building

· A replica of a Christopher Columbus statue has been installed on the White House grounds

· Military bases have been re-named for Confederate leaders

· The convicted perpetrators of the January 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol have been pardoned

· Sensitive Social Security information was breached by arrogant college dropouts working for DOGE

· Trump’s signature is replacing the U.S. Treasurer’s signature on U.S. currency

And there’s so much more. Once upon a time these would have been considered too surreal to fool even the most gullible folks among us?

Wait, here’s one more: How about a gold-painted, faux-marble toilet sculpture titled “A Throne Fit for a King” installed near the Lincoln Memorial on March 31? This, too, is real, but at least it’s amusing!

Calling All Empathy Subscribers

The demise of our local newspaper makes me nostalgic for “Small Town News,” a popular segment on The Late Show with David Letterman. He loved to poke fun at actual news published in small town newspapers. This “news” seemed too absurd to be true, but it was real.

You still can watch vintage “Small Town News” segments on YouTube. Here’s one from the Clarence Bee, Buffalo, New York with the headline Man with dead squirrel is suspicious. “The Erie County sheriff’s deputy is investigating an incident of a person seen running east on main street, not wearing any shirt or shoes, and carrying a dead squirrel.”

I’m not sure this would raise any eyebrows today! Recently a top FEMA official named Gregg Philips said during a podcast interview that his car was lifted while he was driving, and he was transported 50 miles away to the Waffle House in Rome, Georgia. No kidding!

But what happened on August 11, 2023 in Marion, Kansas wasn’t the least bit funny. Its newspaper and the home of its editor were raided by law enforcement who seized phones and computers. The publisher’s 98-year-old mother died the day after they raided the house where she lived with her son. The editor in this town of 1,892 simply was doing his job of speaking truth to power and keeping businesses accountable. The raid violated the newspaper’s First Amendment rights, and resulted in a $3 million fine and the resignation and indictment of the police chief.

The outrage over this raid led to a surge of what’s been described as “empathy subscribers” from around the world who wanted to rally behind the small, rural newspaper on principle. Is this what it would take before people realize what they’ve got before it’s gone?

Local newspapers provide a community service. They offer a unifying platform for diverse individuals, highlighting how much we have in common. During these chaotic times, we must keep our focus on the local angle. We need government transparency more than ever.

Think about it: if Marion, Kansas didn’t have a local newspaper, no one ever would have known about the cover-up of a local restaurant owner’s driving record, or the shady background of its police chief.

If a tree falls in a forest, and it isn’t used to supply newsprint, does it make a sound?”

I’m proud to be a member of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. Please check out our work here. Please consider being a paid subscriber to my colleagues’ sites. Thank you for your support.

Benefit for paid subscribers:

Join roughly three dozen members of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative in Storm Lake on April 23 and 24 as we swap ideas by day and gather for music at night. On Thursday evening, the Weary Ramblers take the stage, followed the next night by a circle of our own writers and musicians at legendary Byron’s in Pomeroy.

Evening events are open to paid subscribers (free, with guests welcome for a small fee).

If this community matters to you and you’re able to lend a hand, we would love to have you with us.

Let us know if you can join us by using these two RSVP forms.

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Friday @ Byrons in Pomeroy

What’s causing Iowa’s #2 ranking in new cancer cases? Not many journalists who reported on cancer risks for a national farm magazine 30+ years ago are writing about this today. When I began writing about the Agricultural Health Study results in the mid-1990s for Successful Farming, my focus was on farmers and their spouses: they were on the front lines of agricultural-related health exposures.

In March, the 2026 Cancer in Iowa Report highlighted the Agricultural Health Study findings, stating that farmers have 13% fewer cancers overall than expected, compared to the general Iowa population. This was followed by the release of the Iowa Environmental Council and The Harkin Institute report, a peer-review of scientific studies. Recently I’ve read many social media posts responding to the Iowa Environmental Council and The Harkin Institute report that generate much more heat than light.

Years ago, as I covered the Agricultural Health Study (funded by the National Cancer Institute and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences), I learned it was important to distinguish between these two scientific terms:

· Correlation: the specific degree to which two variables are related. Correlation does not imply causation (a direct cause-and-effect relationship).

· Association: the general statistical relationship between two or more variables.

I considered writing a column this week to address the issue, but my Oct. 19, 2024 column still is relevant, with only a few dated references. I offer this column today, aware that it contrasts with much of the prevailing wisdom. But I feel it’s a balanced perspective reinforced by my decades of reporting and lived experiences. Thank you!

"The causes of cancer are complex. Heredity, viruses, and exposures to toxic substances all contribute." 2002

"While many well-understood behavioral and genetic factors increase cancer risk, the role of chemical exposures in the environment in increasing cancer risk is not as well-documented." 2024

Two quotes, both scripted in the cautious, scientific narrative that dodges definitive conclusions. I wrote the first one in a Successful Farming article reporting on the rise of lymph cancer in Iowa and other Midwest states. The second is from a white paper developed by the Environmental Health Sciences Research Center, and distributed at the Iowa Cancer Summit in Ankeny earlier this week.

Twenty-two years have elapsed since the first one. What's the take-away? The more things change, the more they stay the same? Or is there something new?

Let's dig deeper.

Follow the Science

Raising questions regarding health risks isn't new to me. But my focus has been on farmers, who are on the front lines of occupational risks, including chemical application, and drinking water from shallow private wells. During my 40 years as a farm editor, and now after 40 years of farming in Boone County, I've had a front-row seat to the ramp up in the use of chemicals in ag production, as well as the rapid expansion in livestock confinements.

In 1986, I teamed up with two other editors and a Rutgers University environmental scientist to produce "A Picture of Pesticide Exposure" in the January issue. A florescent agent was added to pesticides, and then photographed under ultraviolet lights to reveal contacts with the skin during application; it helped to convince some farmers to use personal protective equipment and clothing. In the same issue, I wrote "Groundwater pollution emerges as a rural issue". Both articles were considered groundbreaking in the farm magazine press at that time.

As the hog industry began consolidating, the combining of manure with nitrogen from fertilizer, led to the emerging issue of nitrates in drinking water. Nitrate levels were found to be higher in private wells than in public water supplies. In 1987, I wrote, "Is your well well?", and followed up with a report on a 1990 survey showing many rural wells were unsafe.

In 1994, I was excited to discover the Agricultural Health Study (AHS), a new collaborative effort of the National Cancer Institute, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The AHS launched by surveying a cohort of 52,394 Iowa and North Carolina farmers and pesticide applicators and 32,345 of their spouses. This cohort has expanded, and its scientific investigators work closely with researchers at the University of Iowa and the U.S. Geological Survey.

In 2001, I wrote a December Rural Health feature titled, "Nitrate in drinking water is source of cancer research." A University of Iowa study had found that women who drank water with elevated levels of nitrates for more than a decade were nearly three times more likely to develop bladder cancer than women who did not. It did not prove nitrate directly caused cancer. After all, it's complicated. Nitrate is produced naturally in our bodies, and it's in our diet. It occurs naturally in soil, and its sources include fertilizers, decaying plants, sewage, and animal manure. Byproducts of water disinfection also have been linked to greater risks of bladder cancer.

What do we know?

During the past year, as news of Iowa's second-place rank in the U.S. in the incidence of new cancers percolated to the surface, and became a top-of-mind topic for many Iowans, agriculture began receiving a lot of attention. I wasn't surprised to see it on the 2024 Iowa Cancer Summit agenda. But I was impressed that Laura Beane Freeman, a senior investigator for the Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology Branch of the National Cancer Institute was presenting. Beane Freeman, who grew up on a farm in Tama County, received her Ph.D. from the University of Iowa. She's a co-principal investigator on the Agricultural Health Study Executive Committee.

The 2024 AHS newsletter led with this study update: "In Iowa, 12% of private wells had well water nitrate levels that were estimated to exceed the maximum contaminant level (MCL) set by EPA for public water supplies (10 mg/L). . . Among the AHS participants with private wells, 79% in Iowa reported regularly testing their wells for nitrate compared to 44% in North Carolina. We are currently studying potential associations between drinking water nitrate and a variety of health outcomes, and recently reported that higher levels of nitrate in water were not associated with kidney disease." The AHS also announced plans to study neonicotinoid insecticide in well water.

A recent Environmental Science and Technology Journal article highlighted a survey of more than 20,000 Iowa households conducted by the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development at Iowa State and the Conservation Learning Group, ISU Extension and Outreach: "Approximately 40% of the respondents to the surveys do not regularly test, treat, or avoid their drinking water," it reported. (Iowa offers free county-based well water tests for nitrates, arsenic, and coliform bacteria.)

"Farmers have a lower rate of cancer overall," Beane Freeman told the Iowa Cancer Summit participants. "It's not surprising, due to a lower rate of smoking and more physical exercise. But specific cancers are higher, including prostate, non-Hodgkin Lymphoma, lip cancer, and leukemia."

What else do we know?

Other factors increase cancer risks: namely radon and alcohol. I first wrote about radon health risks in 1988, when a federal health advisory based on the results of a 25-state EPA study singled out radon in homes as a potential cause of lung cancer. Iowa has the highest average radon level in the U.S. The Iowa Dept. of Public Health states the average indoor radon concentration in Iowa is six times the national average. The cost of a radon test kit ranges from $25 to $100.

The 2024 Cancer in Iowa Report by the Iowa Cancer Registry stated Iowa has the fourth highest incidence of alcohol-related cancers in the U.S. Alcohol was identified as one of the most modifiable risk factors. In March 2024, I wrote an Unfinished Business column, A Sober Message for Iowans: Less is Better, focusing on Iowa 's binge drinking. Alcohol is a toxin available everywhere today – from country gas stations to grocery stores and even most of Iowa's county fairs.

Regardless of sex, age, race, education, or income, Iowans binge drink above the U.S. average. This upward trend in alcohol consumption was noted as far back as 2007 in a State of Iowa report.

Other risk factors for Iowans:

·       Obesity; 37% (above the national average)

·       Diet, including nitrate-processed meats

·       Physical inactivity

·       Smoking, 14.7% in Iowan (national average is 14%)

·       UV exposures

·       Patient to physician ratio; 45th in U.S.

The good news from the 2024 report? The number of Iowa cancer survivors is growing.

Another positive step is the news this month that the University of Iowa Health Care and Mission Cancer + Blood are forming a $280 million cancer care network to bring advanced oncology care closer to home for more Iowans, especially in rural areas. This includes the U of I's Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center, a designated National Cancer Institute cancer center.

What to do?

Cancer still is a horrible disease. We're all looking for the bogeyman so we can prevent it. Science is slow, methodical, building its conclusions on one study followed by another, and often requiring decades of research. Most of us aren't wired to think in scientific terms, and we don't have the patience.

Is agriculture the bogeyman? Are nitrates in drinking water causing cancer statewide? The scientific answer is: "We don't know." Yet.

More studies are needed. More data is required. In the meantime, Iowa needs to ramp up its offense. We must start with what we do know, and what we can do, including a statewide public health campaign to raise awareness of free water testing for the 7.6% (300,000) of Iowans who depend on private drinking water wells. Small municipal water systems need help, too. An increasing number of Iowans use Rural Water Systems; there are 20 statewide.

Does this mean Iowa should turn a blind eye to the role of agriculture? Certainly not. Even if the increased cancer incidence isn't due to nitrates in drinking water,

·       Don't Iowans deserve clean water for drinking and recreation?

·       Shouldn't Iowa reduce its contribution to nutrient pollution in the Mississippi River, and the hypoxic zone at the Gulf of Louisiana?

·       What about the taxpayer costs of paying the Des Moines Waterworks to remove elevated levels of nitrates?

Iowa isn't alone. In Wisconsin, 10%-20% of private wells fail to meet state drinking water standards, according to the state's Groundwater Coordinating Council. EPA has ordered Minnesota to take more actions to protect people from nitrates in groundwater.

Individual remedies + Statewide focus

Perhaps it's only human nature to obsess about uncontrollable and unproven risk factors instead of our daily choices to ignore known risks. We tend to focus on the risks of polyfluoroalkyl substances (pfas), genetically modified foods, artificial sweeteners, and many other substances. Why not start with the 2024 report by addressing known associations, such as our reliance on alcohol to have a good time? Or, by examining other risk factors, including obesity, diet, inactivity, and smoking? It's not a popular approach. But some remedies may rest in the palm of our hands.

Since 1992, Iowa's hog herd has increased more than 70%. Simply pointing a finger at agriculture as the primary driver of cancer in Iowa is tempting. But it distracts us from acting on our current science and research findings, and the follow-up studies required to prove multiple contributing factors.

We won't solve a rising cancer rate overnight. But we must start somewhere. It shouldn't be politicized by limiting the liability of chemical companies, as the Iowa Legislature tried to do in 2023.

"Iowa is the only state in the country with a rising cancer rate, but I don't hear any elected officials talking about it," Ryan Melton told a small group of supporters in Ogden earlier this week. Melton is running for Congress against Randy Feenstra in District 4.

Melton's right. It should be a bipartisan priority of Iowa's Legislature and Governor to take proactive steps to protect Iowans from harmful exposures, and to make healthier choices easier.

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Join roughly three dozen members of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative in Storm Lake on April 23 and 24 as we swap ideas by day and gather for music at night. On Thursday evening, the Weary Ramblers take the stage, followed the next night by a circle of our own writers and musicians at legendary Byron’s in Pomeroy.

Evening events are open to paid subscribers (free, with guests welcome for a small fee).

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Friday @ Byrons in Pomeroy

My earliest memory of Fidel Castro was shaped by the Cuban missile crisis in 1962. It was one-dimensional: Castro was a bad guy and a brutal dictator. Ninety miles away in Cuba, Castro was lionized as a liberator and a father-figure.

In 2014, President Obama shocked the world by restoring diplomatic relations with Cuba, thawing 50 years of Cold War antagonism between the two neighboring countries. In 2016 Obama scored tickets to a Tampa Bay Rays spring exhibition baseball game in Havana, seated next to Castro’s brother, Raúl, now the new President Castro.

In September 2016, I joined 25 ag journalists on a learning mission to Cuba. It was an amazing opportunity to peer behind the curtains of the failed Cuban Revolution.

Sugar Barons and Tobacco Traders

Fidel Castro wasn’t the first oppressor of the Cuban people. Beginning in the 1500s, with the invasion of the Spanish conquistadors, and followed by the U.S. military occupation after the Spanish-American War of 1898, the natural resources and wealth of Cuba have been plundered by foreign powers. Castro liberated Cuba in 1959 from the corrupt dictatorship of Fulgencio Baptista, who had suspended the 1940 constitution, and aligned himself with foreign powers, including the U.S. who provided weapons and money.

Our group’s brief bus ride from Havana’s Jose Marti International Airport brought us face-to-face with Exhibit A establishing why Castro had been welcomed as a liberator. The crumbling facades of magnificent mansions in Central Havana, Vedado and El Cerro are a testament to the smothering wealth of the sugar barons and tobacco traders. The impoverished Cuban people lived in the shadows of this corrupt splendor.

Castro argued passionately for independence and economic and social justice. He made certain that the Cuban people, for the first time, were educated, and received quality medical care. Gender and racial equality also were flagship achievements.

But he refused to compromise his socialist ideals, and never achieved economic justice for his people. State-owned farms subjected Cubans to severe deprivation. Castro became a repressive dictator, and under his leadership, Cuba fell into the orbit of the Soviet Union.

After narrowly averting a nuclear catastrophe during the Cuban missile crisis in 1962, the U.S. imposed a complete economic embargo. Cuba became even more reliant on Soviet markets, military support, and oil. The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 cut Cuba’s lifeline, and led to a two-decade geopolitical relationship with Venezuela in exchange for subsidized oil, debt relief, and joint investments. In fact, Cuban personnel formed part of the inner security ring at the residential compound of Nicholas Maduro during the U.S. operation leading to his recent capture. Thirty two Cuban agents were killed in action.

Expectations Rise under Obama

But back in 2008 market reforms promoting entrepreneurship and property ownership ushered in new hope to the Cubans. An ailing Fidel Castro relinquished control to Raúl, who embraced the concept of private self-employment. Thanks to U.S. passage of the 2000 Trade Sanctions Reform Act, Cuba was importing about $800 million in food from the U.S. by 2009.

Cuba needed food imports to fuel its growing tourism market. In 2015, a record-breaking three million people traveled to Cuba, including a 77% increase in Americans. Nine thousand state-run restaurants transitioned to private ownership. Cuba began moving away from state-owned farms, promoting cooperatives and farmer’s markets, and allowing long-term land leases to pass to the next generation.

We visited a Havana farmer’s market. All the fruits and vegetables were organic; the products of the longstanding U.S. embargo limiting fertilizers and pesticides. We enjoyed lunches and dinners at paladares, privately-owned restaurants in homes. We knew the delicious menus included dishes not found on the tables of most Cubans. The supermarket we visited had limited options and we saw partially empty shelves in the meat and dairy cases. But food ration cards were being phased out.

Daily life remained difficult – the average Cuban didn’t own a car. Crowds gathered on the sidewalks at government-designated public wi-fi hotspots. But two years of President Obama’s executive actions easing diplomatic and economic restrictions with the U.S. were lifting Cubans economically. Our meetings with government officials and university professors, and conversations with Cuban business owners made it clear the Cuban people wanted an end to the U.S. embargo.

The first regularly scheduled U.S. commercial flight touched down in Havana in November 2016. Obama also nominated a U.S. diplomat currently serving in Cuba as the first official ambassador in 55 years, although political opposition prevented his confirmation. The U.S. signed a Memorandum of Understanding fostering cooperation with Cuba in organic production, climate research, biotech, soil conservation, and irrigation.

But there were warning signs during our visit. Venezuela was forced to cut its oil shipments to Cuba by almost 20%, leading to power blackouts and gas shortages. Our group attended a briefing in a conference room when the lights flickered, and we remained in the dark for 20 minutes while our presenter calmly continued talking.

Trump Reverses Gains

Fidel Castro’s death in November 2016, two months following our return to the U.S., closed an epic chapter in Cuban-American relations, and elicited joy from many Cuban Americans in Miami.

Just as Cuba was opening a new chapter, the election of Donald Trump interjected new uncertainties into the Cuba-U.S. relationship. In the closing days of his campaign, while in Florida, candidate Trump pledged to shut down the newly re-opened U.S. embassy in Havana. Congress would have the final say on lifting the embargo, but many hardliners, including Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, said they wanted greater human rights reform first.

Raúl stepped down from the presidency in 2018, but maintains a figurehead role. In 2021, the largest anti-government demonstration in Cuba was met by a harsh crackdown from President Miguel Diaz-Canel. President Biden reopened the U.S. Embassy in 2023, lifted the cap on how much money Cubans in the US, could send home, increased flights, and created more banking options for Cuban entrepreneurs.

These actions were reversed when Trump assumed office in 2024, and he reinstated Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism. Tourism had tanked by almost 50% in 2024, compared to 2018. The average government salary was $25 per month. Since jobs are guaranteed, the official unemployment rate was under 4%. But we were told it probably was closer to 25%.

Although Cuba was a third world country in many respects, it had unique differences, including:

· Average male life span of 75 years

· Infant mortality rate comparable to the U.S.

· Low birth rate

· High literacy. Cuba exported doctors to other countries in exchange for goods and services

· Well-trained agricultural and medical biotech scientists

· Large out-migration

No Honor Among Thieves

Today Cuba struggles in the shadows, caught in the crosshairs of the U.S. At the same time the Trump administration is conducting a fiery bombardment of Iran, it’s threatening tariffs on any country supplying oil to Cuba. What will happen to Cuba and its 10 million people?

The Trump administration has linked easing sanctions to demands for political reforms, and openly suggested that Cuba’s current system may not survive this crisis. Political changes may be the price Cuba must pay. But Cubans never have paid taxes, and reforms of its economic model won’t happen overnight.

Trump said he will have the “honor of taking Cuba. I can do anything I want with it,” he added. One possibility is removing Diaz-Canel, leaving the Cuban government intact. But how does the leader of the land of the free and the home of the brave dare to broadcast imperialistic trash talk like this to the world?

The U.S. hijacked oil tankers, seized oil, and blew up boats before abducting bad-guy Venezuelan leader Maduro. Since when has the United States of America overtly conducted regime change? From 1899 until 1901, the U.S. occupied Cuba, granting it independence on the condition it would have the right to intervene to ensure Cuba had a “suitable” government. This provision was repealed in 1934. Who knows, maybe the Trump administration would find a way to revive this in order to develop Cuba’s recently-discovered oil off the north coast?

Citing the Monroe Doctrine as a defense for intervention in Venezuela and Cuba might pass muster with some Americans, but Iran is hardly in the Western hemisphere.

The U.N. has condemned the U.S. fuel blockade of Cuba. Two days ago the Mexican government sent a humanitarian ship carrying food, medical supplies, and solar panels to help Cuba cope with its dire energy shortage and the U.S. blockade.

Cuba has survived a punishing social, political, and economic environment for most of its history. Cubans are well-versed in all types of power outages. Colonized by the Spanish, it’s been occupied by both the British, and the Americans, each holding Cuba’s future hostage through a series of power plays.

During our visit in 2016, jazz clubs and restaurants reverberated with an eclectic mix of Latin rhythms, music, and dance. Old Havana offered magnificent architecture and impressive art museums, as well as wonderful street art and murals. But we discovered Cuba is much more than mojitos and old cars.

We found the Cuban people resilient and resourceful, and fueled by a driving desire to remain independent and retain their rich culture.

As University of Havana professor Jorge Sanchez told our group a decade ago, “Cuba is like a beautiful girl, poorly dressed. But we do not want to lose our identity. Of course we have political differences with the U.S., but more issues connect us.”

¡Viva la Cuba

!

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As a farm girl growing up in northwestern Iowa, I couldn’t make sense of traditional gender roles. I wasn’t a tomboy, but I didn’t know why my sister and I had to wear dresses to school. (We could wear warm trousers beneath our dresses on below -zero days, and remove them in the cloak room.) I don’t recall any good explanation ever given: It was just the way of the world.

i didn’t understand why men and women would adjourn to different rooms following a big family meal at Grandma and Grandpa’s home, or why their conversations were so different. The women washed dishes while they gossiped or spoke in hushed tones about “female” health problems, and the men relaxed in the parlor, smoking their pipes, and discussing politics and farm policy. That’s just the way it was. (But I preferred to eavesdrop on the men.)

I spent a lot of time reading, and my fictional heroines didn’t have to conform to all the social norms: Jo March in Little Women, Nancy in Nancy Drew, Scarlet O’Hara in Gone with the Wind, Elizabeth Winthrop in The Winthrop Woman, or Anne Boleyn in The Concubine.

During college English Lit, I discovered another unconventional heroine from the late 14th century: The Wife of Bath. I wrote a 10-page paper titled Medieval Male Chauvinism, defending this thesis: “The Wife of Bath is a vehicle for criticism of the traditional view of the Medieval church regarding marriage and the role of women.” I explored the dichotomous medieval images of women: Mary, the Virgin Mother, worshiped for her purity and innocence, and Eve, condemned for creating original sin following the unfortunate incident of the apple in the Garden of Eden.

The colorful life of Geoffrey Chaucer’s Wife of Bath posed a threat to the dominant view of women as articulated by the Church. She was bawdy and opinionated. She said the quiet part aloud: Wives should rule their husbands!

But the Wife of Bath also complained that most women didn’t have the opportunity to tell their own stories. She took it upon herself to highlight the prejudices and problems facing women in medieval culture. This also advanced Chaucer’s aim in The Canterbury Tales of shining a light on people whose voices typically were unheard.

Throughout history women who broke the mold in real life have been overlooked, marginalized, and often outright villainized. Women’s History Month was launched in 1987 to set the record straight.

A new book, We the Women, the Hidden Heroes who shaped America, by Norah O’Donnell with Kate Andersen Brower, celebrates many of these fascinating untold stories of women who were unwilling to accept the way of the world.

Trailblazing Women’s Work

Most of the women in We the Women aren’t household names. But they’re even more admirable because most of them ran households, and raised children, on top of the achievements cited in this book. Here are a select few:

Mary Katherine Goddard, 1739-1816. She’s the only woman with her name printed on the Declaration of Independence. She had learned the printing business from her brother, and the Continental Congress asked her to print their official resolutions as well as the document listing the signers. In doing this, she placed her life and livelihood at risk of retaliation from the British. In July 1775 she was named the postmaster of Baltimore – the first woman postmaster in the Colonies, and later, of the United States. With the ratification of the new Constitution in 1789, she was removed from office. The official reason? The job would require more travel than a woman could handle.

Mercy Otis Warren, 1728-1814. She was called the secret muse of The Bill of Rights. Four years prior to the Declaration of Independence, she was writing criticisms of the British Colonial governor, and taking other British leaders to task through her plays. In 1805, she wrote the History of the Rise, Progress and Termination of the American Revolution, the first book published by a woman in America. None of this would have been possible without the support of her prominent father and later her husband.

Elizabeth Ellet, 1818-1877. She authored Women of the Revolution, a three-volume history published in 1848. Women’s lives weren’t considered important by historians of this time. It’s only because of Ellet that we have a record of their contributions today. She married in 1835, and by 1843, she had set up an apartment in New York City, the center of the publishing industry. She traveled back and forth to visit her husband in South Carolina, publishing at least 17 other books.

Belva Ann Lockwood, 1830 -1917. As a young widow, she sent her daughter to live with her parents while she earned a college degree. Later moving to D.C. with her daughter, she became active in women’s suffrage. After remarrying, she persevered to find a law school that would admit her. She had to appeal to President Ulysses S. Grant for the release of the law degree she had earned. “We shall never have equal rights until we take them, nor respect until we command it,” she said. Lockwood ran for president in 1884, long before women could vote. After appealing to Congress to change the rules, she became the first woman attorney to argue a case before the Supreme Court.

Charlotte Forten, 1837-1914. Forten grew up a free Black woman, educated in the antebellum north. The women role models in her family founded the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society. She became a published abolitionist poet and essayist. After the Civil War, she traveled

South to teach freed slaves. She was the first black woman to write for The Atlantic Monthly in 1864. She helped establish the National Association of Colored Women in 1896.

Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, 1821-1910. She applied to 30 schools to achieve her ambition to become a physician. Studying the human anatomy alongside men was considered extremely improper, and sometimes she was denied observation of surgeries. Even after earning a degree, the public wasn’t ready for women physicians. But she and her sister Emily, who eventually earned her medical degree, opened The New York Infirmary for Indigent Women and Children in 1857.

Susan LaFlesche, 1865 - 1915, a native American member of the Omaha tribe witnessed an Indian woman die when a white physician refused to treat her. She graduated valedictorian of her medical class in 1889, becoming the first indigenous woman to receive medical degree. She opened the first private hospital on a Native American reservation in 1913. Her sister Suzette LaFlesche, 1854-1903, became an interpreter in the landmark civil rights case of Standing Bear v. Crook. It was the first Native American civil rights victory in U.S. federal court. She also worked as an advocate, lecturer, and writer.

Emily Warren Roebling, 1843- 1903. It required 14 years to build the Brooklyn Bridge, and the human toll was steep. It took the life of developer John Augustus Roebling, and severely disabled his son Washington Augustus Roebling, husband of Emily. She took over as project manager and became a skillful negotiator and stand-in chief engineer. She fought to retain leadership under the Roebling name. The plaque on the Brooklyn Bridge is dedicated to three Roeblings: She is listed first.

Inez Milholland, 1886-1916. After being rejected by several law schools, she earned her degree in 1912. In 1913, dressed in flowing white and riding a white horse, she led 5,000 women down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C. creating huge headlines just prior to President Wilson’s inauguration. It was a turning point in the passage of the 19th amendment. Despite her diagnosis of pernicious anemia, she made 50 appearances in 28 days in eight states promoting women’s suffrage. “Mr. President, how long must women wait for liberty?” she asked at a National Women’s Party event in 1916, where she collapsed on stage. She died a few weeks later, at the age of 30. The 19th Amendment passed in 1920.

Margaret Sanger, 1879-1966. Sanger’s motivation was derived from her mother, who endured 18 pregnancies, dying at age 50. Sanger became a nurse, witnessing other women die from the lack of reproductive rights. She opened the first birth control clinic in Brooklyn in 1916, and founded the American Birth Control League in 1921 (the precursor of Planned Parenthood). She was jailed 9 times for violating the Comstock Act, which banned dissemination of information about contraception. She worked with philanthropist Katharine McCormick to obtain funding to develop the first birth control pill.

Mary McLeod Bethune, 1875-1955. She was the first in her family not born into slavery. In 1904, she opened the Daytona Educational and Industrial Training Institute for Negro Girls. She also launched the Mary McLeod Hospital and Training School for Nurses and the National Council of Negro Women. She became the only woman on FDR’s “Black Cabinet”. She lobbied with the First Lady for a training program for the first black pilots, integrating the military during WW2. In 2021, she became the first woman to represent a state in the National Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol.

Frances Perkins,1880-1965. After college, she taught and volunteered at Hull House in Chicago. In 1911, she witnessed Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. Leaving her New York office of the National Consumers League, she became even more involved in changing labor laws to improve safety and working conditions and end child labor. In 1933, she was asked by FDR to serve as Secretary of Labor, becoming the first woman to serve in the Cabinet. She was considered a major architect of Roosevelt’s New Deal. “Being a woman has only bothered me in climbing trees,” she declared. She is most known for developing the Social Security policy.

Rep. Patricia Schroeder, 1940 2023. She moved from Oregon to Des Moines as a child, and graduated from Roosevelt High School. She met her husband while attending Harvard Law School. They married in 1962, moving to Colorado at a time when married couples weren’t allowed to obtain contraceptives. She was elected to Congress at age 32 on a platform of opposition to the Vietnam war, support of the environment, and child care. “I have a brain and a uterus and they both work,” she announced. Schroeder fought for the Family and Medical Leave Act, passed in 1993, as well as protections against child abuse, the Safe Motherhood Act, and the 1978 Pregnancy Discrimination Act. She served as a member of Congress, at a time when fewer than 10% were women. She ran for president in 1988. Her 1998 memoir was titled 24 Years of House Work. . . and the Place is Still a Mess.

Count on Backlash

Suffragists meeting in Seneca Falls in 1848 created the Declaration of Sentiments, demanding their rights as citizens, including:

· Right to vote

· Legal status in marriage/divorce

· Access to education

· Expanded employment options

· Control of property and earnings

Most of these rights have been won, but some not until 1970s. I came of age just as the second wave of women’s rights was gaining momentum, with a focus on structural inequalities. Landmark Supreme Court cases and legislation included:

1) The 1972 decision that unmarried women had the same constitutional rights to contraceptives as married women

2) Passage of Title IX, prohibiting sex-based discrimination in any education program or activity receiving federal funds

3) The 1973 ruling that the U.S. Constitution generally protected a woman’s right to abortion

4) The 1974 Equal Credit Opportunity Act made it illegal to deny women credit because of sex or marital status

I was able to buy my first house as a single woman in 1981. I naively assumed there would be a through line of progress for women’s rights throughout my lifetime, and if I had daughters, they wouldn’t have to fight the same battles.

But progress has been uneven:

· One-third of working physicians are women, but much less in some surgical specialties

· Women are 56.2% of law school students

· Women control half of the wealth in the U.S.

· 11% of Fortune 500 companies are led by women

· A total of 69% of veterinarians are women

· Women compose 34% of the STEM workforce

· Only 14% of engineers today are women

· Women earn 83¢ for every dollar earned by men

· Women hold about two-thirds of U.S. student loan debt

Then, as now, there were those who stood in their way, arguing this wasn’t the way of the world. Some of them were women. For instance, Phyllis Schlafly, who held a law degree and was decidedly not a typical housewife, turned the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) into a war among women over gender roles. Passed by Congress in 1972, it was only ratified by 35 states prior to the deadline. It’s still not part of the Constitution.

After fighting for four years to deprive Iowa women of their reproductive rights Gov. Kim Reynolds succeeded in passing a six-week abortion law in 2023. Today it’s more difficult to recruit OB-GYN providers for all women, and it’s creating maternity care deserts.

Although she proposed legislation allowing Iowans ages 18 and older to obtain various birth control products directly from a pharmacist, and the Iowa Senate passed this bill, the Iowa House never brought it to a vote. Reynolds also placed regulatory and funding restrictions on Planned Parenthood Centers, shrinking the number of clinics.

On the national level, the women appointed by President Trump to his Cabinet simply promote his administration’s culture war policies. Over the past decade, we’ve seen how easily women’s economic potential– and their autonomy – can be eroded.

Recently I ran across a brief entry in my old college notebook. I wrote: “My interest in women’s lib was not a sudden fad. I didn’t just wake up one morning and rush out and burn my undergarments, smash my perfume bottles, or give all my dresses to the Goodwill. That’s not what women’s liberation means to me. . .

“ A really ambitious boy is urged to aspire to the office of President; an ambitious girl is supposed to aspire to be Miss America. . . . This brings me to a point which I can’t emphasize enough: women cannot truly be liberated until men are.”

During this 250th anniversary of our country, we must not allow women’s struggles against inequalities to be erased from history. We owe them too much.

We must assume that women’s rights are on the ballot every time there’s an election. After all, hidden heroines still are in our midst, and someday they’ll add their own inspiring stories. The next chapter remains to be rewritten.

I’m proud to be a member of the Iowa Writer’s’ Collaborative.

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I must need more schooling. One post graduate degree is inadequate to understand what’s happening to K-12 education in Iowa today.

Living out here in the hinterlands of west-central Iowa, I keep reading and hearing about all the fabulous parental school choices. These choices are light years beyond open enrollment, a decades-old school choice for parents.

In addition to Iowa’s 328 local public schools, there’s a head-spinning number of K-12 options today with one thing in common: they’re all funded by taxpayers like me.

In 2023, Governor Kim Reynolds introduced Iowans to a new world of private school vouchers when she forced Education Savings Accounts (ESAs) on our spineless state legislature. For the first time, Iowa students could use public tax funds to attend their choice of private school. However, 41 Iowa counties have no private schools. Their protests against funding school choices that their students were unable to access were ignored.

Boone County does have two private, religious elementary schools in Boone, 18 miles from where I live. But transporting children from the western reaches of the county never has been a popular choice.

Earlier this month, I read about an entirely new school in Greene County, about 40 minutes from where I live: a private “faith-based” K-3 school in Jefferson, called Foundations Elementary School. It held an open house earlier this week, and I decided to take a look.

Jefferson is a town of 4,350. I’ve heard great things about its public schools. In fact, three of my great nieces, and one great-nephew graduated there.

The unassuming one-story remodeled school building is located on the grounds of Abundant Life Ministries. When it opens this fall, Foundations Elementary will operate according to a hybrid learning model. Its Kindergarten and 1st grade will attend two days per week, and the 2nd and 3rd graders will attend two other days of the week. All grades will attend together one day per week. Two days per week will be spent in at-home learning with an instructional plan. Students will take “the same standardized tests and assessments that public schools are utilizing”.

According to its promotional information, Abundant Life Ministries identified a “gap” in Greene County: no private schools. Apparently, it also identified the opportunity to take advantage of ESAs, funded by Iowans’ taxes: the private school tuition will be $8,000 per pupil per year, the same as Iowa’s school vouchers.

As I watched several young families arrive at the open house, I wondered:

· Is there a population boom in Jefferson?

· If you build it, will they come?

· “Why would I fund this school with my tax dollars?”

Private Schools Expand

Jefferson isn’t an isolated example. My great nephews who live in Sioux City attend public schools. But their parents now have a new choice: Siouxland Christian has added an $11 million secondary school, based on a 250% enrollment growth since 2020.

Is there a population boom in Sioux City? No? It’s no coincidence – the enrollment growth aligns with the creation of the voucher program.

Just 46 miles north of Sioux City, St. Mary’s Schools (K-12) in Remsen, population 1,890, is undergoing a $7 million renovation/expansion.

In western Iowa, Carroll Kuemper Catholic is growing by leaps and bounds, with plans for a $28.5 million expansion. Is Carroll, Iowa’s population of 10,000, rapidly growing? No. But its private school enrollment is.

Statewide, accredited private schools grew more than 6% in the 2025-26 school year. Statewide public school enrollment dropped 1.53% last year.

Unchartered Territory

All these choices make my head explode! But there’s more. In 2021 Iowa had two charter schools. Last year, there were 19. Charter schools are public, and don’t charge tuition. Charters can’t selectively deny students; but they do not and cannot take every child. They’re accountable to state educational standards, but they can ask their governing board to waive certain state requirements.

Gov. Reynolds gave the new charters a jumpstart with almost $4 million through a new grant program, the Iowa Charter Start-up and Expansion Grant program, created with funding from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.

This explosion of charter schools isn’t likely to benefit a shrinking rural demographic. Now I see Governor Reynolds has proposed legislation to increase the per pupil charter state funding equal to the amount of public and private schools: $8,000 per pupil.

The legislation (HF 2699 and SF 2406) would allow charter school students access to public school extracurricular activities, including drivers ed. (Public schools may charge a fee.) Charters also would receive extra per-student funding to help cover teacher salaries, the same way public schools do.

But that’s not all. In 2024 the Iowa Legislature rolled over and approved the Governor’s cuts to the Area Educational Agency, which serves students with learning and physical disabilities and helps provide professional teacher development. Now our Governor wants to take money from the reduced AEA budget to provide these services to charter schools.

Publicly Funded; Privately Managed

I understand the need for a few public charter schools to assist with dropout recovery or offer an alternative learning environment. But what’s behind this huge influx of charter schools in Iowa? Just follow the money.

Iowa law allows public charter schools to be operated by a “founding group” which can be an out-of-state for-profit management group. To date, most of Iowa’s charters are operated by out-of-state for-profit companies. For instance:

· The Horizon Science Academy (Pre-K-6) in Des Moines and in Davenport are operated by ConceptSchools, which manages more than 40 nationwide charters focusing on STEM.

· Des Moines Prep (8-9) in the East Village is operated by Opportunity Education, an Omaha-based nonprofit launched by Joe Ricketts, whose family owns the Chicago Cubs. (Nebraska law doesn’t allow public charter schools.) Cedar Rapids Prep (6-9) opened last fall; Davenport Prep (6-9) opens this fall.

· Great Oaks High School & Career Center in Des Moines is managed by Oakmont Education, an Ohio-based for-profit education management company.

· Florida-based CIVICA Network Opportunity Education and Scholarship Prep (Des Moines and Cedar Rapids, K-1 grade.)

Why would these out of state companies flock to Iowa? It seems an obvious strategy to allow private business access to a new public revenue stream. They charge the schools a management fee, tapping into public taxpayer dollars, and operate as a quasi-for-profit.

When Secretary of Education Linda McMahon announced a fiscal 2026 $60 million budget increase for charter schools, she said Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds told her that “increasing charter schools has improved public education and parental involvement”.

I’d say she needs to prove it to Iowans.

Parental Choice is Trojan Horse

Not long after ESAs were signed into law, private schools began posting regular tuition hikes. As money is siphoned from public schools, Iowans also are paying Odyssey, a New York-based accounting firm, to administer the voucher program. All the while, as these bright, shiny school choices are promoted, trust in Iowa’s public schools is eroding.

The reality is that parental choice is the brainchild of Project 2025. Unlike public schools, private schools are free to deny enrollment to students who are disabled, require English as a second language, or are LGBTQ. They can exercise the choice to discriminate, and they’re not fiscally or academically accountable to taxpayers.

I have nothing against private K-12 schools. However, in Iowa, most of them are religiously-affiliated. I do believe the First Amendment of our Constitution requires separation of church and state, and it’s a violation to fund a private school choice with public funds. If parents want to ground their children in faith, they can take them to church, send them to Sunday School, and pray with them at home. It’s not the role of government-funded education to school them in their religion.

Charter schools may have a place. However, considering the huge amount of taxpayer funding at stake, I suspect the majority of out of state charters that rushed here after Reynolds signed the law in 2021 aim to siphon public money from public institutions and divert it to the pockets of interest groups, all under the guise of “parental choice”.

At least a quarter of charter schools fail within five years. If so, will Iowa have failed their students? How will Iowa evaluate this taxpayer-funded experiment called parental choice? Private schools require little or no tracking of student achievement. Iowa’s Auditor is being hamstrung by Gov. Reynolds and the Republican majority from holding the voucher program accountable to Iowa taxpayers. What would happen to the private school building boom if Iowa’s cash cow ESA program dries up?

Public Schools’ Brick-and-Mortar

The Governor and our legislature have been underfunding public schools, based on the rate of inflation, for over a decade. The recent 2% increase in state supplemental aid is, in essence, a cut. Not unexpectedly, considering the state’s aim to increase private and charter school enrollment, combined with Iowa’s declining birth rate, public school enrollment is dropping.

An estimated 200 public schools in Iowa are projecting to use a budget guarantee for the 2026-27 school year, due to declining enrollment and a 2% state aid increase. Legislators have agreed to absorb the shortfall this year, avoiding an increase in local property taxes. What will happen in the future?

It’s not just a small school dilemma. Case in point: The Boone High School is cutting its century-old grades 7-12 orchestra program, along with several positions totaling a $665,000 reduction.

Governor Reynolds’s mantra is “we have to fund students, not systems.” However, unless parents are provided the transparency and accountability to evaluate their choices, it’s meaningless.

Iowans don’t like what is happening to public schools. A statewide campaign called Public School Strong is calling for school board resolutions to fully fund public schools and phase out the voucher program.

As a former school board member, I don’t understand why legislators are allowing this to happen. What will be the impact of shortchanging public school students and teachers? When test scores dip, will we hear, “Well, public schools are failing, so we might as well just privatize education”?

What’s going on in Iowa seems like an effort to skim the cream off the top of our educational system, and then leave students in the hinterlands and urban centers to learn in the public school of hard knocks.

Public schools must educate all students, and our system of public education helped create a strong middle class. In turn, educated citizens have formed the bedrock of our democratic republic. As we celebrate America’s 250 years of democracy, we know public schools have played a pivotal role since the first Iowans arrived here in covered wagons. One of their first steps was building a public school.

The defining purpose of public education is promoting equality and opportunity. It’s why we fund public schools with our tax dollars. Public schools are the brick and mortar binding our communities together and bridging our divides. The overriding goal of public education is advancing the common good – not catering to individual choices that diminish the whole.

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Now that the Iowa legislature has done its best to weaken the foundations of Iowa’s K-12 public school system, it’s focused on eroding the pillars of higher ed.

A new crop of legislative proposals advancing past the first funnel deadline raises serious concerns.

(1) HF 2649 would establish a pilot program allowing community colleges to launch up to three bachelor’s degree programs. This would pave the way for greater competition with Iowa’s 26 not-for-profit private liberal arts colleges.

The bill specifies that community colleges located 50 miles or less from a four-year school with a similar degree are ineligible. But this distinction means very little; most community colleges operate satellite campuses.

Taylor Collins (R-Mediapolis), chair of the Iowa House’s Higher Education Committee, argues that the legislation is needed to fill education deserts, serve place-bound adults, and others unable to afford a four-year degree. However, it potentially could trigger an avalanche of financial woes at the exact time as the predicted demographic enrollment cliff. A sharp drop in births traced back to the 2008 Great Recession is projected to lead to a 13-15% decline in college-age freshmen nationwide during the next decade.

It risks siphoning students from Iowa’s private colleges and universities, undermining their financial survival.

The initial investment of setting up 40 new degree programs is tagged at $20 million over the next five years. What would be the funding mechanism? New programs would require oversight, assessment, credentials, and compliance. Meanwhile, private colleges and universities already provide student access to four-year degrees at little or no cost to Iowa taxpayers.

The issue of unfair competition is at the core: Community colleges receive state funding, and private colleges do not.

(2) HF 2240, another brainchild of the Higher Education Committee, proposes raising the taxable threshold on university endowments. The tax would increase from 15% to the highest corporate rate, and the threshold would be raised to $500 million from $250 million. This would apply to endowments at Grinnell College, the University of Iowa, and Iowa State University.

Collins argues the endowments should be used for the “benefit of Iowa students.” The legislation would funnel the tax proceeds to students majoring in “high-demand, high-paying” jobs.

Wouldn’t reasonable leaders recognize that this would cast a pall over charitable giving? Donors rarely offer a blank check – instead choosing to designate gifts. Furthermore, about 80% of college and universities use their endowments to offer scholarships. Taxing endowments at higher rates would make higher education less affordable at these institutions.

(3) HF 2488 aims to tether the Iowa Tuition Grant to a state mandate eliminating diversity, equity, and inclusion offices at private colleges and universities. Public state universities were forced last year to scrub any trace of DEI. Now the Iowa Tuition Grant is being weaponized as a cudgel against private colleges and universities to satisfy the Republican’s counterproductive vendetta.

The Iowa Tuition Grant was created over 50 years ago to help rural and low-income students afford college. Many recipients became first-generation college graduates. Eligible private school college students can apply for a $7,500 Iowa Tuition Grant each year.

Full disclosure. I received my undergraduate degree from Morningside, a private liberal arts institution. I didn’t even consider attending a four-year public university because I wasn’t able to obtain more financial aid there, most notably the Iowa Tuition Grant (Federal Pell Grant and work-study).

Between one-third and one-half of Iowa tuition grant-eligible enrolled students attend private colleges and universities. Although I lived and worked briefly in three other states, I returned to Iowa, where I spent 36+ years contributing to its tax base. That seem like a reasonably good return on Iowa’s investment.

Private College Students Reach New Heights

I question the research supporting these legislative proposals. I understand that legislators want to align Iowa’s higher education degrees with Iowa’s workforce needs. Where are Iowa’s education deserts? Thanks to technology, private colleges and universities as well as community colleges offer a combination of in-person, hybrid and online learning options.

What high demand workforce needs are unmet? I’ve seen the following degree programs listed: nursing, education, I.T., public safety, business, health care management, and agriculture. Where are the students unable to obtain these degrees?

Not only do I question the research justifying these proposals, I also suspect lawmakers are unaware of the evolution of curriculum and degree programs at Iowa’s private liberal colleges and universities over the past decade. I’d wager it would be difficult today to find an undergraduate degree in philosophy. New degree programs have been created in response to changing workforce demands in local communities, as well as requests for career-relevant, specialty training.

Here’s a sampling of recent market-oriented majors:

· Morningside University in Sioux City launched its School of Agriculture & Aviation in 2015. Students enrolled in the Regina Roth Applied Agriculture and Food Studies Program have a choice of a major or minor in Applied Agriculture and Food Studies, as well as agriculture education, along with minors in agribusiness, agronomy, food safety and environmental policy. The Lags Greenhouse, added in 2022, grows 2,000 pounds of food for the school cafeteria, sells poinsettias to the public, and amaranth to a local grocer. Aquaponics is incorporated into the hydroponic greenhouse. The 2.5 acre site also grows larger crops, including pumpkins, sweet corn, squash and melons as well as a vineyard.

In 2022, Morningside University purchased a 76-acre farm just southeast of the city, where students are planting and growing crops, learning about soil quality, farm practices, fertility strategies, and conducting research.

· Morningside launched aviation management, professional flight, and un-crewed aircraft systems majors in fall 2023. The program is fully accredited by the Federal Aviation Administration and its current application for the Restricted Airline Transport Pilot Program would allow graduates to apply for airline transport certificates with 1,000 flight hours.

· R.N. to B.S.N. degrees. Morningside University’s Nylen School of Nursing and Health Sciences recently announced its merger with St. Luke’s College (part of Unity Point Health) in Sioux City. They’ve collaborated on bachelor degrees for years, and after the merger is finalized this year, their combined students will be able to pursue an associate degree at Morningside in radiologic technology and respiratory therapy, an associate of science in nursing, and an accelerated bachelor of science in nursing.

· Buena Vista University in Storm Lake recently set up a partnership with a 160-acre family farm, allowing students in science, agriculture, and the environment to gain interdisciplinary opportunities for hands-on education, experiential learning, and research. The Boettcher Raccoon River Sustainable Agriculture Center 10 miles north of the campus will open this spring.

Other Iowa private colleges and universities are expanding in market-related directions. Coe College in Cedar Rapids is partnering with the Eastern Iowa Airport and Revv Aviation to offer aviation management and the option of flight school.

If You Build it, Will They Come?

Technical and vocational training is vital for tomorrow’s workforce. Most employers expect to provide new hires with specific training. They also need well-rounded students who are problem-solvers, critical thinkers, and can work as a team. Research shows the average individual changes careers five to seven times.

Private liberal arts colleges and universities are integral to the economic and cultural landscapes of their communities. Have legislators researched the financial impact if some are put out of business by unfair competition with the state of Iowa? The loss of Iowa Wesleyan University in 2023 sent shock waves through Mt. Pleasant. It’s unlikely these well-paying jobs will be replaced.

Most importantly, the creation of four-year community college programs to fill workforce needs doesn’t mean potential students will crash down the entrance gates to enroll. Case in point: the University of Iowa’s Center of Intellectual Freedom was rammed through the legislature in 2025, and it’s struggling to attract students. Private colleges and universities spend considerable effort studying new student-driven programs prior to launching.

Furthermore, high need jobs aren’t always highly-paid: namely child care or nursing homes. Iowa desperately needs to fill these positions; they don’t require four-year degrees. Doesn’t Iowa also need pastors, social workers, and EMTs? If private colleges lose out to expanded competition from community colleges, this would diminish students’ access to education close to home.

Legislators point to the success of other states from similar initiatives: do these states have a network of private liberal arts colleges comparable to Iowa? Iowa’s higher education offerings are the envy of most: three Regents institutions, 15 community colleges, and 26 not for profit, private colleges and universities. With the exception of Florida, most four-year community college programs in other states are too recent to allow for evaluation. Would a hastily implemented initiative lead to duplication?

What’s the success rate of Iowa students transferring from community colleges to four-year schools? They’ve been coordinating for decades. However, if students are struggling, are there other low-cost, less risky fixes to apply?

Other factors to consider:

· the increasing numbers of high school students earning college credits from community colleges

· the growing percent going straight into the workforce: to 17% from 9% between 2012-2022

· the possibility some community college would drop some associate degrees?

Weaponizing the Iowa Tuition Grant against private colleges and universities seems rich to me: the Iowa legislature recklessly hands out Educational Saving Account funds to private K-12 students, but allows these school administrators to operate independently from most state requirements and oversight.

I have one final question: Do we really need the Iowa House Higher Education Committee? This is the first committee to oversee higher education in over 50 years. Collins say its purpose is to review all areas of higher education to see if objectives are met and address “a crisis of confidence in higher education.” So far, it appears the Committee is simply using the tactics of schoolyard bullies: stealing the lunch buckets of colleges and universities.

Am I the only one who doesn’t see the need to interfere in the continuing evolution of higher education curriculum? Aren’t universities and colleges governed by boards and regents? Such micromanagement poses a real risk of damaging the economic engine driving Iowa’s well-rounded system of higher education.

Quality of Life Incentives

Here’s my suggestion to the Iowa legislature. Instead of trying to force Iowa youth into pre-determined job molds which inevitably will morph and evolve with the job market, why not focus on making Iowa a great place to live? A welcoming place? A place with an unparalleled quality of life, including clean water, recreational trails, libraries, child care options, reduced cancer rates, and academic freedom? A place where Iowa youth want to live and work after college, and one that would attract new residents to fill the “high-demand, high-wage” positions?

Such quality of life improvements also would accrue to hard-working Iowa parents who have spent a lifetime investing their love, energy, financial resources and taxpayer dollars into raising their children here, only to see them leave, along with their future grandchildren – tomorrow’s future workers. Why not entice them to employ their talents and skills to build better communities and a stronger Iowa?

Finally: Research suggests states that will successfully circumvent the demographic enrollment cliff will be identified by one key asset: Hispanic students. However, this seems exactly the opposite direction that Iowa legislators, as well as our Congressional delegation, are headed.

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We’ve heard the stories of Mrs. Martin Luther King, Jr., the devoted wife and mother of four children. But what about Coretta, the young woman who removed the word “obey” from her wedding vows in 1953? Or Coretta, the woman who spent 38 years following her husband’s death advocating for an array of causes? There’s much more to know: Coretta Scott King was a force to be reckoned with.

I learned just how much more at the “Celebrating Coretta Scott King: Her Story and Songs” concert at Morningside University in Sioux City earlier this week. This Black History Month event showcased the classical musicianship of Coretta Scott King, and how she used it to advance the cause of civil rights.

The concert was sponsored by the NAACP, Sioux City Branch in collaboration with the Morningside University Dept. of Visual and Performing Arts and the Sioux City Public Library. The event received funding from Humanities Iowa, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Federation of State Humanities Councils.

“It’s not just Black History we’re celebrating,” said Tim Steele, an Iowa native who wrote the narration, curated the musical selections, provided musical direction, and accompanied many of the soloists. “It’s truly American history. Instead of erasing it, we should be embracing it.”

My former college roommate, Dr. Marty S. Knepper, Morningside University Professor Emerita, and the sister of Tim Steele, served as project director. She said the convergence of shared personal connections brought this vision to reality:

· Coretta Scott King graduated from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston in 1954.

· Timothy Steele, a Drake University graduate, has been an active vocal coach, collaborative pianist, and conductor on the opera faculty of the NEC for the past 34 years.

· Bass-baritone Neil Nelson is a NEC graduate, who studied with Steele, and has sung in opera houses across the U.S. and in Russia. However, the Jamaican-born performer didn’t learn until years after his graduation that Scott King also had been an opera student there.

· Marty and Tim’s father, the Rev. Otto Steele, received his doctorate at Boston University’s School of Theology one year prior to Martin Luther King’s enrollment there. Like King, he had a social justice-oriented major, and his dissertation advisor was the same as MLK’s.

· Performer Shannon Salyards Burton, who trained at Boston University, serves on Morningside University’s vocal music faculty.

“My brothers Tim, John, and I grew up hearing the story of Dad ‘s advisor who delivered a tribute at Martin Luther King’s funeral,” Knepper says. “I’ve found that most people did not know Coretta Scott King was a concert soprano.”

A repertoire of 25 freedom songs, spirituals, and art songs, many by Black composers, were key elements of the storytelling, with performances by the Morningside University Choir, directed by Ryan Person and the Gospel Community Choir, directed by NACCP member Sandra Pearson. Other vocal talents included Sioux City native Clark Sturdevant and several Morningside University student performers. The story was narrated by NAACP Chapter President Monique Scarlett.

Early Adversity

Coretta Scott was born on April 27, 1927 in a two-room home on a farm outside deeply-segregated Marion, Alabama, the second of three children. She described herself as “a tomboy and a fighter,” and one day she would draw upon every ounce of these instincts for the life she chose to pursue.

She walked three miles to grade school, and attended Lincoln High School, a black high school in Marion, where she studied music. Her family’s house and sawmill were burned to the ground after her father refused to sell his mill to a white logger.

“I’m just a poor wayfaring stranger traveling through this world of woe. But there’s no sickness, toil, nor danger in that fair land to which I go.”

Poor Wayfaring Stranger, performed by Clark Sturdevant

In 1943, Scott King’s older sister became the first African-American student to attend Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio. Two years later, Coretta graduated as class valedictorian, and received a partial scholarship to Antioch. From 1947 until 1952, she studied music, and elementary education. But she was prevented from student teaching at an all-white school in Yellow Springs. “It was something she never forgot. She didn’t want those who came after her to experience this,” said narrator Monique Scarlett.

She joined the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and participated in the Race Relations and Civil Liberties Committees.

In November 1948, Paul Robeson, an acclaimed baritone and leading civil rights leader, was impressed when she performed Poor Wayfaring Stranger and Thanks Be to Thee at an Antioch College event sponsored by the NAACP. He encouraged her to continue her professional studies. She enrolled at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, funded by a $650 grant for tuition and fees from the Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation. She arrived on campus with $15, where she recalled living on graham crackers and peanut butter. Eventually she earned money cleaning and doing laundry.

A friend introduced her to ML King, a doctoral candidate at Boston University’s School of Theology. She said she wasn’t interested in dating a Baptist minister. She had in mind a career as a concert soprano.

But King called her, and they met for their first date on the steps of Jordan Hall at the NE Conservatory of Music. They discussed questions of race and economic injustice and the quest of peace. He was immediately smitten with her, and she gradually recognized he was a unique individual.

Married on June 18, 1953, she wore a blue dress, and instructed the pastor, the Martin Luther King, Sr., to remove the words “obey” from their marriage vows. Segregation prevented them from renting a hotel room, so they spent their honeymoon night at a funeral home owned by a friend.

They returned to Boston to complete their degrees. She graduated from NEC in 1954, and he received his doctorate in 1955.

He accepted a call to be pastor in Montgomery, and they made decision to stay in the Deep South. A year afterwards, their first child was born.

Three weeks later, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a city bus, and changed the course of U.S. history.

“Oh, Freedom! Oh, freedom. Oh, freedom over me! And before I’d be a slave, I’ll be buried in my grave and go home to my Lord, and be free!”

Performed by the Gospel Community Choir and the Morningside University Choir

ML King led the boycott. On January 30, 1956, a bomb exploded on the Kings’ porch, but Coretta and Yolanda escaped serious injury. She lived with the threat of harm, and the worry that her husband might not make it home one day. Segregation on buses was declared unconstitutional on Nov. 13, 1956. As their family grew, she continued to play a role in civil rights campaigns in Birmingham, Selma, and Chicago.

“Precious Lord, take my hand. Lead me on, let me stand. I am tired, I am weak, I am worn. Through the storm, through the night, lead me on to the light. Take my hand, precious Lord, lead me home.”

Precious Lord, Performed by the principal soloists

The Kings left Montgomery in 1960, moving to Atlanta, where he became the co-pastor of Ebenezer Baptist, and their home became an organizing center. Coretta launched a series of 40 Freedom Concerts across the U.S., including songs and narration, and raising $65,000 for the Civil Rights Movement. She traveled to Geneva, Switzerland, serving as a delegate on behalf of Women’s Strike for Peace at the United Nations Disarmament Conference.

“Because I had loved so deeply, because I had loved so long, God gave, in His great compassion, the gift of song.”

Compensation, performed by Allen Quasin

in January 1966 in New Lady magazine, Scott King said, in part, “Not enough attention has been focused on the roles played by women in the struggle. By and large, men have formed the leadership in the civil rights struggle but ... women have been the backbone of the whole civil rights movement.”

MLK traveled constantly, and often was arrested and jailed. In Memphis to lead striking sanitation workers in 1968, he stepped out onto the balcony of the Lorraine Motel on April 4, at about 6 p.m. The 39-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate was killed by a single rifle shot

.

The Struggle Continues

Days after the funeral, Coretta and three of their four children went to Memphis to lead the march by sanitation workers. Later that month, she took her husband’s place at an anti-Vietnam War rally in New York City. Within a year she wrote a biography called My Life with Martin Luther King, Jr., tracing their life together and the Civil Rights movement from Montgomery to Memphis.

She helped launch the Poor People’s Campaign in 1968. She was surveilled for years by the FBI for meeting with a Soviet Union delegation at the Geneva Conference, and her opposition to the Vietnam War.

She threw herself into the founding of the $15 million Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change. The King Center trained thousands of South Africans in the principles of non-violence. Everyone had predicted massive bloodshed, but there was virtually none when Nelson Mandela was elected President in 1994.

She worked for 15 years to establish the national MLK, Jr. Holiday. Led by Michigan Rep. John Conyers, it was introduced 79 times; Coretta’s efforts collected nine million signatures. It was observed for the first time by Federal workers in 1986, and after another 17 years, all 50 states recognized it.

She campaigned for the Equal Rights Amendment, and for LGBTQ rights. When she died in 2006, at the age of 78 years, 6,000 people attended her funeral, including four U.S. presidents. The Coretta Scott King Center at Antioch College opened in 2007. An annual memorial concert is held at NEC, and a bronze statue of her on its campus features the words, “Continuation of a Dream.” In 2017, a posthumous memoir, My Life, My Love, My Legacy, was published, describing her life following ML King’s death.

Keeping Hope Alive

News of Jesse Jackson’s death broke on the morning of the concert, and the significance of his passing during Black History Month wasn’t lost on the Sioux City audience. Jackson’s legacy was interwoven with MLK. He had marched by his side, and was on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel that night. He called Coretta to let her know what had happened. Jackson’s death, marking the passage of an era of the fight for freedom and social justice, infused a sense of loss into the spirit of the evening.

Attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion by the Trump administration, and the Iowa legislature also have spilled over into the celebrations of 2026 Black History Month, along with controversies over:

· the removal of the National Park Exhibit honoring servants of George Washington at the President’s House in Philadelphia

· the unapologetic video clip on Trump’s Truth social media account portraying the Obamas as primates

“Civil rights history has a direct correlation to today as we continue the fight for equality and justice for all,” Monique Scarlett said. “While previous generations marched and advocated for fair treatment, today we must stand tall and demand it.”

As the concert concluded, as if on cue, the audience rose to its feet, clapping to the contemporary arrangement of the final hymn, performed by the Gospel Community Choir with pianist Tim McGee and drums by Tim McGee, Jr. and conducted by Sandra Pearson.

“We shall overcome. We shall overcome someday. Oh, deep in my heart I do believe that we shall overcome someday.”

“Giving up is not an option,” Scarlett shouted out, as the melody faded into the night.

And all the people said, “Amen.

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“I’ve been thinking a lot about the sort of letter I would write to my country for its 250th birthday,” Asma Khalid told a large audience at Iowa State University’s Great Hall earlier this week. “Our American experiment is under intense pressure at this moment. But I’d argue this tension isn’t new.”

Khalid, the 2026 Mary Louise Smith Chair in Women and Politics, was a featured America250 lecture series speaker. A frequent guest on national TV news programs, she formerly covered the White House and politics for National Public Radio for years. Today she’s co-host of a new launch, BBCWorld’s The Global Story, a daily news podcast focusing on the intersection of American politics and international events.

Khalid is a native of Crown Point, Indiana, and as a student at Indiana University in Bloomington, she studied at the London School of Economics. She also earned a master of philosophy degree in Asian and Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Cambridge.

Anchored in the nation’s Capitol for most of her journalistic career, she’s traveled the U.S. during national political campaigns, and said it was a “real pleasure” to be back in the Midwest. “I grew up as a Hoosier, but over the past decade I’ve gotten to see America in ways very few other people get to,” she said.

Khalid has crisscrossed the country, observing, reporting, and talking to voters. She is a visibly identifiable Muslim who wears a headscarf.

“We live in an incredibly diverse country,” she said. “Covering campaigns and government over the past decade has made me wonder how we Americans get along. It’s a story that’s been on my mind as the country turns 250 years old.”

She said things began changing during the 2015-2016 campaign. “There was undeniable political angst,” she said. “It was an election cycle when I was shouted off a woman’s doorstep in Ohio for being Muslim. I had to log on or off social media accounts because of the public vitriol being spewed. These things weren’t routine in previous campaigns. But they happened a lot that year.”

Khalid shared a memorable conversation from the campaign trail that year with a middle-aged African-American man. “He told me, ‘We’re witnessing a lot of tumult. America itself was an experiment –we really don’t have a model for our system of government. The U.S hasn’t been around all that long in the grand scheme of history.’ “He said, ‘We’re trying to create an America, something perhaps never done before, that’s a real democracy in a society that’s pluralistic.’ “

He concluded, “We sort of think it will work. The U.S. has not always lived up to its ideals, but for decades it’s worked as a pluralistic, multi-racial democracy. So we kind of think it will continue, because it always has, but what if we don’t put in the effort to keep it alive, and healthy? Who is to say, it will continue to live on in this way?”

Khalid said, “What he said stuck with me – the idea that if we truly want a real democracy in a society that’s pluralistic, it’s not something that’s necessarily achieved through pure inertia. People would need to believe all kinds of ideas and principles could co-exist and be tolerated, even if they do not match their own. It will take a lot of work from all of us.”

She added, “Part of this is about knowing who we are on our 250th birthday, where we come from – our origin story – and how we relate to the rest of the world. It’s a complicated story.”

Khalid said stories from the past can help make sense of the current moment in history. She played a clip from The American Muslims documentary podcast airing later this year on PBS to underscore that America has been a mixture of cultures, traditions, religions, and races since its early history. It featured the portrait hanging in the Philadelphia Art Museum of a Muslim man named Yarrow Mamout, painted by the famous Revolutionary era artist Charles Wilson Peale. Mamout was enslaved, but eventually bought his freedom. About 30% of African slaves brought here were Muslim.

Who Belongs? Who Doesn’t?

She highlighted Thomas Jefferson’s ownership of a copy of The Koran that now is housed in the Library of Congress. Ever since he penned the words, “We hold these truths to be self-evident. That all men are created equal . . .”, Khalid said there’s been a tension between what the document says, and what has been practiced, most notably in the days of Jim Crow segregation.

Khalid also has traveled to California to the site of one of the earliest mosques on the West Coast, built in the early 20th century. One of the founders was of Indian origin, a subject of the British Colonial Empire. He married a Mexican woman, although at that time men from the Asian continent weren’t allowed to marry white women. But there were many communities of such intermarriages in the Southwest, Khalid said.

This man often crossed the Mexican border, but racial anxieties had grown since passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1917. On April 20, 1928, he was detained, and brought before immigration inspectors. He was prevented from returning to the U.S., and declared ineligible for citizenship because he was a native of the Asiatic Barred Zone, home to many of the world’s Muslims.

In 1924, Khalid said more than 60 Asians who were already naturalized had their citizenship revoked. “They were uniformly denaturalized,” she said. “The same thing is happening today. Who belongs? Who doesn’t belong?”

Unwelcome in One’s Own Homeland

Another example of how Khalid employed the micro to help understand the macro featured her conversation during the 2015-2016 election campaign with a retired Army veteran at the Red Barn Diner in Manchester, New Hampshire.

She said she was taken aback when he pivoted from their discussion about Mitt Romney and Rand Paul, to ask, “What do you think about Charlie Hebdo?” After she responded it wasn’t a good idea to kill journalists, he asked, “When are all you Muslims going to have your Million Man Muslim March to condemn terrorism?”

She said this anecdote comes to mind when questions are raised about when the political conversation about racial minorities began shifting. “Covering that political cycle like I did, I often say Trump didn’t create the political culture,” Khalid said. “He merely tapped into a pre-existing condition.”

Khalid described her childhood in Crown Point, Indiana as “lovely,” adding that “people were incredibly kind.” Growing up as a Midwesterner, she said she generally believed that “If you’re kind to your neighbors, by and large, they will be kind to you.” But she found it wasn’t what happened in that election cycle.

She said, “One crisp evening fall of 2015, I was a following a young canvasser door-knocking. The woman who answered the door was explaining why gun ownership was her top issue when her mother came onto the porch. She saw me, and started yelling, ‘There’s a Muslim on my front porch, I can’t believe it. You need to get off.’ “

Khalid said, “For the first time I felt that some of my own people despised me. I was born in the Midwest and went to college in the Midwest. I sold Girl Scout cookies in a neighborhood like this one, and the woman reminded me of people I had known all my life. But none of them ever had yelled at me to get off their porch.”

Who Can Be an American?

Khalid said some conversations in Washington, DC portray the U.S in the vanguard of protecting Western civilization, while others see the U.S. in the vanguard of protecting democracy. “There’s a sense at times these two ideas cannot co-exist, nor do people want them to,” she said.

Khalid said this debate seems most raw when it concerns immigration. She played a clip from an interview with Stephen Miller, one of Trump’s top advisors, and a driving force behind the debate. He said the problem arose 50 years ago, when civil rights were applied to immigration policy, “suddenly establishing a global ability of people to come to America, bring their families, eventually emptying out their entire towns and villages to the United States of America,” he said. He singled out Somalians, saying, “Not only is the first generation unsuccessful, but you see persistent issues in subsequent generations, with consistent high rates of welfare use and criminal activity.”

She said President Trump also has implied that only immigrants with a heritage in Western civilization can fully integrate as Americans.

Khalid added the current fight over democracy at home, and what’s going on in the world recently spilled over at a University of Chicago Institute of Politics event, where the question was asked: “Has the U.S. left the group chat room?” Is it abdicating its responsibility?” She shared a thought-provoking question by a student there who asked what it means for democracy at home if the U.S. forms deeper friendships with Hungary and El Salvador than traditional liberal European democracies?

Khalid concluded, “The world is changing. It’s abundantly clear the traditional role of the U.S. in post WW2 is over.” She noted the administration has asserted that America has the right to control the Western Hemisphere. “It’s not clear old friends and allies like Europe are on board with this new vision of the world order,” she said.

“As we turn 250 years, can we preserve our democracy at home, isolated from the rest of the world?” Khalid asked. “To me, it’s increasingly clear, what happens here affects the rest of the world and vice versa. It’s a moment of reckoning.”

America’s Mid-Life Crisis

“Americans have fundamentally different views,” Khalid said. “In many ways as I cover our politics, it seems we’re going through an identity crisis. Maybe it’s a part of midlife, or the natural growing pains of a country that’s still very young.”

She said as the U.S. turns 250, immigration is the issue that most closely connects us to the rest of the world, and it raises these three questions:

· “Who gets to belong here as an American?

· “What does it mean in terms of our values to be an American?

· “What kind of nation do we want to be now?”

“These are existential question as we turn 250 years old,” Khalid concluded.

I’m proud to be a member of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. Meet our writers here, or subscribe to our free weekly roundups, “our Sunday morning newspaper,” and our Wednesday “flipside’ edition featuring sports, music, culture, and other topics. Thank you!

It’s the Winter of Our Discontent. Again. During the past decade, it seems every winter has been a season of discontent.

The source of this discontent isn’t the unrelenting forecasts for snow, ice, or cold weather. That’s a given in Iowa, and part of the bargain we make for choosing to live a place with four distinct seasons. No, there’s a more profound reason for this discontent: the Iowa Legislature is in session.

The Winter of Our Discontent is the title of John Steinbeck’s final novel, published in 1961. The title is inspired by the first two lines of William Shakespeare’s Richard III:

“Now is the winter of our discontent

Made glorious summer by this sun [son} of York.”

On first blush, you might argue there’s nothing Shakespearean about the plot line of the annual legislative production under Iowa’s Golden Dome. It’s essentially the same mean-spirited theatrics, year after year:

· Reduce/starve public school funds

· Devise new ways to make life harder for transgender children

· Erect more hoops for public school teachers to jump through

· Tighten the screws on public libraries and school librarians

· Minimize the importance of school vaccine requirements

· Limit access to voting in elections

· Assert control over the academic autonomy of public universities

· Restrict collective bargaining rights for public-sector unions

· Increase public funds for private schools

This is a synopsis of the revolving themes in past years, with various tax cutting subplots woven in from one year to the next.

Nanny State No Longer a Bad Thing?

If Iowa legislative productions were pure theatre, they’d fall into the category of comedy, and even farce. Increasingly, legislative acts unfold as mysteries, lapse into melodramas, and culminate in tragedies for Iowans.

This legislative year is shaping up to continue the tradition of a melodramatic focus on public education, schools, and students, beginning with:

HSB 636: The House Education Committee voted to eliminate longstanding partnerships of public schools with public libraries, banning the use of student ID cards to access public library materials. It also would restrict mobile libraries (bookmobiles) from operating on school grounds.

Moms for Liberty, a nonprofit advocacy group called Protect My Innocence, and others are aiming to close a loophole in the 2023 Iowa law that allows K-12 student use of school IDs to access age-inappropriate public library books depicting sex acts.

Just wait until our legislators find out about the Internet!

This legislation rises to an entirely different performative level: Theatre of the Absurd. It would hurt small, rural schools without in-house libraries, as well as large districts like the Des Moines Public Schools. It also erects barriers to students who simply want to explore the contents of the public library or bookmobile to expand their reading options.

When I was in grade school, we didn’t have our own school library. Upper elementary students were allowed to walk a couple of blocks as a group at noon hour on Wednesdays to the tiny brick town library to check out books. Once every couple of months, the bookmobile stopped on its route throughout Woodbury County. I recall my excitement on the day when it rolled into town with a fresh supply of books.

Who decides what is “damaging” kids today? Of course, parents prefer their children to live in a world that’s safe, insulated from poverty and inequity. But under the Golden Dome, librarians are cast into the role of villains, waiting in the wings to corrupt children through their devious selection of book titles.

Books are far from the most dominant influence on kids today. But this legislation would cast a wide net, entangling many schools, children, and their parents, all for the sake of keeping a handful of children from finding a safe space in this unaccepting world. Only a few years ago, Republicans constantly accused Democrats of imposing a “Nanny State” on society. Were they only play-acting?

Tragedy in the Making

Recently two Polk County legislators, Sen. Tony Bisignano and Sen. Janet Petersen have called for the state’s Government Oversight Committee to investigate why leaders haven’t met with the Child Welfare Task Force Committee over the past two years. The Task Force was created in 2023 after the starvation deaths of teenagers Sabrina Ray and Natalie Finn, as part of a $10 million settlement between the state and Sabrina’s two surviving sisters.

In 2015 Malayia Knapp fled from the Urbandale home of her adoptive parents to escape similar abuse. There’s a common thread here: all three girls were home-schooled. The Child Welfare Task Force Committee also is a needed response to child abuse hidden in the shadows of Iowa’s lax supervision of homeschooling.

Prior to 2013, Iowa’s “competent private instruction” statue allowed parents the choice of (1) homeschooling with the support of a certified teacher (2) having the child’s academic progress assessed annually by standardized test or portfolio review. A 2013 amendment to an education funding bill added an “independent private instruction” option without any educational requirements. Homeschooling parents no longer had to meet initial reporting requirements to their local schools.

The growth of home schooling leaves children vulnerable, and the state of Iowa doesn’t check on them. I know several rural families who homeschool, and I certainly don’t suspect child abuse. However, I do wonder how the children are learning what they need to know; I never felt capable of homeschooling my kids. I also wonder why education no longer is prioritized in Iowa.

Closing the Curtains on Kids’ Health

H.F.2171: The Iowa House Education Committee also voted 14-9 to remove longstanding statutory vaccine requirements for K-12 students to attend school. The bill now is moving on to the full House, thanks to the vote of my representative Chad Behn (R-Boone), and a few others.

This follows the announcement by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, led by HHS Secretary and vaccine-denier Robert F. Kennedy, that it no longer recommends six formerly routine vaccinations for children and adolescents. No scientific evidence was offered for the change.

As it stands now, parents already can opt out their children for medical or religious reasons. A total of 95.6% of Iowa students were fully vaccinated in the 2020-21 school year, and now the rate has fallen to 92.7% in 2025-26. A total of 95% is needed to achieve herd immunity for highly contagious diseases.

Vaccinations are proven public health tools to prevent diseases that killed or disabled children two generations ago. If this were a theatrical production, it surely would fall into the genre of a murder mystery. Indeed, it’s a mystery why this bill is being introduced at the same time South Carolina is coping with a record-breaking outbreak of measles. It’s currently the largest outbreak since measles was declared eliminated in the U.S.

H.F. 2171 would allow nearly eradicated childhood diseases to rampage across our state. But it’s framed as a matter of parental rights. Whose parental rights? Iowans for Freedom is one group advocating against vaccine mandates. Eleanor Roosevelt had it right when she said, “With freedom comes responsibility.”

I read a Community Facebook post this week where a guy argued that if your child is vaccinated, and you believe vaccination is effective, why should you be concerned if another child isn’t? It was pointed out to him that some students have compromised immune systems and other children may not be old enough to be fully vaccinated. He also was told that only thinking of this from his individual viewpoint was self-centered. That’s why the U.S. developed public health policies: to improve community safety and reduce health inequalities.

All the melodrama about protecting children from reading certain books exists beneath the Golden Dome – and within the same universe – as the folks who want to remove vaccine immunization as a requirement for attending school. We want to protect kids from reading sexual references in books, but not from potential health consequences of disability or even death from infectious diseases? It’s a tragedy in the making.

S.F. 2003 is yet another mystery show. The House Education Committee passed a bill prohibiting any curriculum related to gender identity and sexual orientation in grades 7 through 12. It’s an expansion of the 2023 ban for K-6 students. This ban was challenged in court in May 2025. Protect My Innocence argues gender information would “confuse or overwhelm” 7-12th grade students.

However, as kids mature, their First Amendment rights are awarded more weight, so it’s even more of an uphill battle to impose this ban on older students. The real mystery is why this bill would be awarded an encore performance.

Iowa law requires instruction in human growth and development, including human sexuality in grades 7-12. Parents already may opt out their children. The bill moves to the Senate Education Committee.

Iowa Youth Have Tough Acts to Follow

Steinbeck said he wrote his novel to draw attention to the moral degeneration of American culture during the 1950s and 1960s. The plot line features the single-minded pursuit of wealth and stature by the main character, Ethan.

However, Ethan is devastated later in life when he finds his son won honorable mention in a national “Why I Love America” essay contest by plagiarizing. His son defends his actions by implying he learned unethical behaviors from his father and others around him.

“Strength and success – they are above morality, above criticism. It seems, then, that it is not what you do, but how you do it and what you call it,” Ethan muses.

Iowa legislators might want to read The Winter of Our Discontent, and consider how the legislative roles they’re playing today may come back to haunt them –and Iowa families – in the lives of our youth.

What Would it Take to Earn Rave Reviews?

Theatre certainly involves pretense, and the suspension of disbelief as well as blocking, upstaging others, and grandstanding. Iowans have had enough of this predictable Playbill. There’s still time to redeem the 2026 Iowa Legislative session while the performance reviews still are being written. The First Funnel date is February 20. It’s only Act 1.

Meaningful legislation waits in the wings:

· Curbing cancer rates by reducing radon levels and teen use of tanning beds

· Increasing child care availability and lowering costs

· Regulating nursing homes more closely

· Restoring eminent domain rights to property owners

· Capping out-of-pocket insulin costs

· Funding Iowa’s public schools

· Improving water quality and soil health

· Expanding health care access

To be sure, passage of all would require some incredible plot twists. But focusing on this substantive legislation would earn a standing ovation long after the final curtain call. By the time the Legislature adjourns in May, it could transform the Winter of Our Discontent to the “glorious summer” Shakespeare envisioned.

I’m proud to be a member of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. Meet our writers here, or subscribe to our free weekly roundups, “our Sunday morning newspaper,” and our Wednesday “flipside” edition featuring sports, music, culture, and other topics. Thank you!