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Nov 6, 2024 | 
bleedingheartland.com | Patrick C. Swanson |Laura Belin |Arnold Garson |Andy Johnson
Patrick Swanson has been restoring a Harrison County prairie. The fourth iteration of the multi-day LoHi (Loess Hills) Trek was held October 16-20 in Mills and Fremont counties of southwestern Iowa. This was my third LoHi Trek, joining about 45 others hailing from Colorado to Ohio, Minnesota to Missouri, and various points in between on this unique supported camping and hiking adventure.
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Nov 6, 2024 | 
bleedingheartland.com | Laura Belin |Arnold Garson |Andy Johnson |Dan Guild
First in a series interpreting the results of Iowa’s 2024 state and federal elections. Two years ago, Iowa appeared to be on a different trajectory than much of the country. As Democrats won many of the midterm election races, including in our Midwestern neighboring states, Iowa experienced yet another “red wave.” Of the last eight general elections in Iowa, six have been GOP landslides.
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Nov 5, 2024 | 
bleedingheartland.com | Laura Belin |Arnold Garson |Sami Scheetz |Andy Johnson
Sixteen Iowa House races to watch in 2024 Tuesday, Nov 5 2024 0 Comments Democrats go into the November 5 election with the smallest Iowa House contingent they’ve had in five decades. But even though control of the chamber is not in question, this year’s state House races matter.
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Nov 3, 2024 | 
bleedingheartland.com | Arnold Garson |Andy Johnson |Dan Guild |Henry Karp
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. Presidential endorsements in American newspapers had a good run—more than 150 years—and America is the better for it.
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Nov 3, 2024 | 
bleedingheartland.com | Andy Johnson |Dan Guild |Henry Karp |Diane Porter
DSM Lawyer is an attorney in central Iowa. When will we stop politicizing the judiciary? I practice in Polk County District Court Associate Judge Rachael Seymour’s courtroom all the time and have thoughts about why she received low marks in the Iowa State Bar Association’s judicial performance review. Yes, hearings in her courtroom tend not to run on time, and she can take a long time to issue a written ruling. Why?
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Nov 3, 2024 | 
bleedingheartland.com | Herb Strentz |Andy Johnson |Dan Guild |Henry Karp
Herb Strentz was dean of the Drake School of Journalism from 1975 to 1988 and professor there until retirement in 2004. He was executive secretary of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council from its founding in 1976 to 2000. Out of desperation, as a fearful election day looms, let’s grasp at some straws to try to make sense of what we’ve been through and, even worse, what might be ahead. For example, some political campaigns have had musical themes.
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Nov 2, 2024 | 
bleedingheartland.com | Sami Scheetz |Andy Johnson |Dan Guild |Henry Karp
Sami Scheetz represents Iowa House district 78, covering part of Cedar Rapids. When we brought our daughter home from the hospital a few months ago, and I watched our baby swaddled in her bassinet, sleeping peacefully, I couldn’t help but think about the future my wife and I are building for her. Now, with the November 5 election a few days away, I wonder: What kind of place will Iowa be for families today and for generations to come?
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Nov 1, 2024 | 
bleedingheartland.com | Andy Johnson |Dan Guild |Henry Karp |Diane Porter
Andy Johnson works in the locally-owned clean energy transition, and farms with his wife and three daughters in rural Winneshiek County, northeast Iowa. Is Kamala Harris angry? I sure as hell hope so, and I wish she’d say so. The angry American right does its darnedest to paint her as an angry Black woman. This angry white male Iowa farmer wishes she’d get mad, in a good way. Here is what I imagine she might say.
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Oct 18, 2024 | 
bleedingheartland.com | Laura Belin |Arnold Garson |Andy Johnson |Dan Guild
Continuing a Bleeding Heartland tradition, I will post Iowa’s latest absentee ballot numbers, statewide and for each Congressional district, every weekday, based on figures released by the Iowa Secretary of State’s office. That office also publishes daily absentee ballot totals by county, state House district, and state Senate district.
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Oct 17, 2024 | 
bleedingheartland.com | Laura Belin |Andy Johnson |Dan Guild |Henry Karp
Iowans will decide this November whether to allow one Iowa Supreme Court justice, four Iowa Court of Appeals judges, and 64 Iowa District Court judges to remain on the bench. Since our state adopted the current judicial selection system in 1962, each judge must periodically go on the ballot—every eight years for Iowa Supreme Court justices, every six years for those serving on other courts. Iowa voters have retained almost all judges over the past six decades.
