Iowa Writers’ Collaborative

1 month ago | bdemo.com | Daniel Finney |Iowa Writers’ Collaborative

The Iowa Legislature wants to keep sexually explicit materials out of the hands of minors. That seems like a reasonable enough goal, but lawmakers are going about it wrong. A bill moving through the Iowa House, House File 274, wants to scrub any potential obscenity from public schools and libraries. As state law stands, public schools, libraries, and educational programs are allowed to use “appropriate material for educational purposes” without being subject to obscenity penalties.

1 month ago | bdemo.com | Ed Tibbetts |Iowa Writers’ Collaborative

Rarely, do we see anything quite like it. The extraordinary Oval Office blowup between Volodymyr Zelensky, Donald Trump and JD Vance on Friday was one of those rare moments that set the whole political world to talking. Except Iowa’s congressional delegation. I have searched in the roughly 24 hours since the meltdown at the White House to find a reaction from anybody in our state’s congressional delegation, but I have found none. Give them their due, they’re cagy politicians. As leaders, they stink.

2 months ago | bdemo.com | Ed Tibbetts |Iowa Writers’ Collaborative

Kim Reynolds is not happy. A few weeks ago, in her Condition of the State address, Iowa’s governor told us how she was going to Illinois this spring to convince businesses to come to Iowa. Predictably, she trashed our neighbors to the east. Republican governors from Iowa love to do this. Reynolds even tried out the line of attack she would use to convince those Illinois businesses to move across the Mississippi River: Taxes, regulations, crime. Their “education system is failing,” she said.