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1 month ago | 
bleedingheartland.com | Al Charlson |Laura Belin |Jason Benell |Bruce Lear
Al Charlson is a North Central Iowa farm kid, lifelong Iowan, and retired bank trust officer. I’m sure many readers can look back at their careers and think of certain years which stand out in red letters. 2008 is one of those years for me. At that time our bank’s trust department held several commercial buildings in downtown Waverly in a fiduciary relationship. On June 9 I went downtown in my knee-high rubber boots. I was able to get into one of the buildings through the glass side entrance doors.
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2 months ago | 
bleedingheartland.com | Bruce Lear |Laura Belin |Arnold Garson |Al Charlson
Bruce Lear lives in Sioux City and has been connected to Iowa’s public schools for 38 years. He taught for eleven years and represented educators as an Iowa State Education Association regional director for 27 years until retiring. He can be reached at [email protected] In the fall of 1975, I was a freshman at Central College in Pella, Iowa. I had spent the summer detasseling corn, so college rescued me from dew-drenched mornings and sweat-dripping afternoons.
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2 months ago | 
bleedingheartland.com | Laura Belin |Arnold Garson |Al Charlson |Dan Piller
I wouldn’t have guessed President Donald Trump’s lawsuit over the pre-election Iowa Poll could assert claims any more outlandish than the original court filing in December. Enter U.S. Representative Mariannette Miller-Meeks and former State Senator Brad Zaun. The Des Moines Register’s William Morris was first to report on February 4 that Miller-Meeks and Zaun signed on as plaintiffs in Trump’s case against J. Ann Selzer, her polling company, the Des Moines Register, and its parent company Gannett.
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2 months ago | 
bleedingheartland.com | Laura Belin |Arnold Garson |Al Charlson |Dan Piller
Nannette Griffin announced on February 10 that she will seek the Democratic nomination for the coming special election in Iowa House district 100. A lifelong resident of southeast Iowa, Griffin is the founder and owner of Griffin Muffler & Brake Center, a longstanding auto repair business in Fort Madison. She has been active in numerous civic organizations and received an award for women entrepreneurs from the Small Business Development Centers of Iowa.
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2 months ago | 
bleedingheartland.com | Arnold Garson |Al Charlson |Laura Belin |Dan Piller
The things you never knew about Jewish Iowa Sunday, Feb 9 2025 0 Comments Arnold Garson is a semi-retired journalist and executive who worked for 46 years in the newspaper industry, including almost 20 years at The Des Moines Register. He writes the Substack newsletter Second Thoughts, where this article first appeared. This essay tells the stories of a handful of Jews who played important roles in shaping the state of Iowa and some cities during the 19th century.
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2 months ago | 
bleedingheartland.com | Al Charlson |Laura Belin |Dan Piller |Bruce Lear
Al Charlson is a North Central Iowa farm kid, lifelong Iowan, and retired bank trust officer. The Waverly Democrat published a version of this commentary on February 6. Old habits die hard. While many of my neighbors are checking sports scores, I’m checking the U.S. Treasury yield curve. (OK – I do follow the Cyclones closely.) Even though I’m no longer actively managing investments, I’m still interested in the economy.
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Jan 6, 2025 | 
communitynewspapergroup.com | Al Charlson
My first reaction when reading that Waverly Newspapers had hired a new managing editor was “Wow! That’s good news.” The owners of Waverly Newspapers have a strong enough commitment to our community that they recruited and hired an experienced editor to manage the local newsroom. That’s not the experience of every community. An Oct. 23 Associated Press article reported that since 2005 more than 3,200 U.S. newspapers had closed, leaving roughly 5,600 remaining. I’m a lifelong newspaper reader.
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Dec 9, 2024 | 
communitynewspapergroup.com | Al Charlson
A number of my younger friends have told me that they believe theirs will be the first generation of Americans who will not be financially better off than their parents. I’m not sure that is historically correct. My grandfather lost the family farm in 1935 through foreclosure by the insurance company with which he financed the purchase. He spent the rest of his working years farming rented land and never really recovered financially.
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Dec 4, 2024 | 
bleedingheartland.com | Steve Corbin |Laura Belin |Rick Morain |Al Charlson
Steve Corbin is emeritus professor of marketing at the University of Northern Iowa and a freelance writer who receives no remuneration, funding, or endorsement from any for-profit business, nonprofit organization, political action committee, or political party. Donald Trump received nearly 2.3 million more votes than Kamala Harris and captured 312 electoral college votes to become America’s 47th president.
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Dec 3, 2024 | 
bleedingheartland.com | Laura Belin |Rick Morain |Al Charlson |Diane Porter
Three takes on Iowa's 2024 general election turnout Tuesday, Dec 3 2024 0 Comments Ninth in a series interpreting the results of Iowa’s 2024 state and federal elections. With the 2024 election results finalized following the December 2 meeting of the State Board of Canvass, we know the basics about Iowa’s general election turnout.
