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July in Iowa

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July in Iowa

...it's hot, it's summer, it's RAGBRAI, sports, food, and politics

Jul 30, 2023
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July in Iowa

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What is more indicative of summer in Iowa than RAGBRAI, Hedgeapples, crop dusting, food judging at the Fair, and cabaret singer Marilyn Maye performing in Okoboji?

Iowa in July

Yes, you’ll read your share of political analysis and news, but with temperatures soaring outside, your Iowa Writers’ Collaborative members also have other things on their minds. Our newest columnist, Jeff Morrison, debunks a long-held belief about a mythical newspaper headline.

We have presidential candidates scouring the state, and many on our team are here to offer their perspectives. Laura Belin reported on the speeches by the 13 presidential candidates in town last week, and Dave Price was in the room when they appeared together. Julie Gammack wrote a welcome letter to Ron DeSantis. Doug Burns is on a mission to tell us about some of those who are lesser known. And our D.C. correspondent revisits slavery with a memory from his youth in a Van Meter grade school.

Metro foodies: Wini Moranville has two column morsels for you this week.

Chuckle along with Fern and Joe, whose column can be found in the ‘Politics’ category because they touch on the country singer/vigilante who found a unique way to promote himself.

Beth Hoffman says: Here’s about the funnest thing you can do in the garden—plant garlic. Yes, I know...

Steph Copley writes about her friend, Brooke, and Chuck Offenburger revives his cinnamon roll judging prowess.

Larry Stone reviews a new book by Neil Hamilton: The River Knows: How Water and Land Will Shape Our Future (Gammack will host Hamilton on her Monday Zoom Lunch call).

Jody Gifford saw the movie Barbie AND has Tik Tok life hacks from grandmothers worldwide.

First, Dave Busiek reports on serious issues uncovered by student journalists.

DAVE BUSIEK, ON MEDIA

Dave Busiek on Media
Right and Wrong Lessons for College Journalists
Heads are rolling across three college campuses this past week – two of them due to outstanding work by student journalists, and the third due to a misguided attempt to control what student journalists are taught. First, the good news. Student reporters at Northwestern University did an outstanding job breaking a story of hazing in the school’s football …
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2 months ago · 16 likes · 4 comments · Dave Busiek

POLITICS

Presidential candidates are popping up all over. Some are well known, others not so much. Read Doug Burns on a candidate you might not know much about, Ed Tibbetts on Ernst, Dave Price on the candidates in town last week, Julie Gammack’s advice to De Santis, and Dana James introduces us to a new opinion writer.

DOUG BURNS

The Iowa Mercury
Presidential aspirant Binkley wants to chase hate from public life
PANORA and WAUKEE A pastor and businessman from Texas, with roots in Georgia, is pinning his presidential bid on a Christian ethos of bringing divided people together on common issues. Ryan Binkley, a Republican, thinks the appetite for hopefu…
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2 months ago · 3 likes · Douglas Burns

ED TIBBETTS

Along the Mississippi
Joni Ernst's calendar confusion
Joni Ernst apparently needs help reading a calendar. Twice over the past week, the Iowa senator has complained about an incompetent, overreaching federal government. Both times, she blamed the Biden administration. Both times, she was wrong. I suspect she knows that. In which case, Ernst doesn’t really need…
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2 months ago · 16 likes · 6 comments · Ed Tibbetts

LAURA BELIN

Iowa politics with Laura Belin
Fourteen quick takes on the Republican presidential field
This analysis first appeared at Bleeding Heartland and is shared here as part of the Iowa Writers Collaborative. For regular emails linking to all recent Bleeding Heartland articles and commentary, subscribe to the free Evening Heartland newsletter. Your email provider may truncate this post. In order to read the whole article without interruption, you …
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2 months ago · 1 like · 1 comment · Laura Belin
Iowa politics with Laura Belin
Thoughts about my first year on Substack
A year ago this week, I wrote my debut post for this newsletter and linked to KHOI’s “Capitol Week” in this space for the first time. Julie Gammack had been trying to get me onto Substack for a while, but I didn’t see the need. I had been writing about Iowa politics…
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2 months ago · 8 likes · 9 comments · Laura Belin

DANA JAMES

New Black Iowa
The Black Iowa Newspaper: We've got opinions
The Black Iowa Newspaper, distributed in more than a dozen cities and 55 locations, launched in June of 2023. We introduced two Black Iowans who are new to writing professionally, and we plan to debut more. 📰 Here we introduce Shade Burgs, a veteran and small business owner who tackled military recruitment and the “woke” agenda…
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2 months ago · 3 likes · 2 comments · New Black Iowa

JULIE GAMMACK

Julie Gammack's Iowa Potluck
Welcome to Iowa, Governor De Santis
Dear Governor DeSantis, Welcome to Iowa! Pay no attention to those national news stories saying your poll numbers are plummeting. You could be the Iowa surprise this January 15, 2024. I do have some advice, however. The state of Florida consists of many folks who came from somewhere else. The west coast, or Gulf Coast, is where midwesterners tended to f…
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2 months ago · 33 likes · 18 comments · Julie Gammack

DAVE PRICE

Dave Price's Perspective
What we learned from 13 candidates on 1 stage
Twelve Republicans got ten minutes each Friday night to convince 1,200 Iowa activists (plus countless others who read, listened or viewed from elsewhere) that Donald Trump should not be the party’s nominee for a third time. Most of those candidates failed to take him on directly (again) and the two who did, heard the punishment from the crowd at the Rep…
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2 months ago · 1 like · Dave Price

FERN AND JOE

Fern and Joe
Try That in a College Town
Fern: I went to college at a state university in upstate New York. Tuition was cheap. There weren’t any “legacy” admissions. Just lots of kids from Long Island, some with state scholarships. And yet, there was a class distinction between the “townies” and the college students. At the end of the Sixties and early Seventies there was real tension and di…
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2 months ago · 8 likes · Fern Kupfer and Joe Geha

BARRY PIATT

Barry Piatt on Politics: - Behind the Curtains
Remembering History Was Never Their Agenda
Remember the loud wails of protest when the statues and monuments in public spaces honoring the Confederate Generals who waged armed treason against the United States in order to preserve slavery started to come down? “You can’t erase history!" they cried…
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2 months ago · 3 likes · 1 comment · Barry Piatt

IOWA LIFE

JEFF MORRISON

Between Two Rivers
Iowa’s most famous headline that never was
In Iowa newspaper lore, it’s the headline that had to happen at some point. In 2007, Mason City Globe Gazette columnist Richard Johnson tried to find it and came up empty. He wrote, “like all good mysteries, [it] remains shrouded in the mists of time…
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2 months ago · 2 likes · 5 comments · Jeff Morrison

ART CULLEN

Art Cullen’s Notebook
A bike ride hearkens to a common conversation we used to have
RAGBRAI riders making the trek from Sioux City to Storm Lake on July 23, 2023. Love-hate best describes my feelings about RAGBRAI which, in case you didn’t notice, retraced its first route of 50 years ago and rolled through Storm Lake on Sunday.Art Cullen’s Notebook is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider bec…
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2 months ago · 25 likes · 6 comments · Art Cullen

MARY SWANDER

Mary Swander’s Buggy Land
Once the Air Had Cleared
The crop dusters had just disappeared into the horizon, the roar of their motors replaced by the voices of my Amish neighbors. The Yutzy family sang a cappella in four-part harmony-- the men’s voices deep and resonant, the women high and tinkling--drifting over the cornfields…
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2 months ago · 9 likes · 6 comments · Mary Swander

JODY GIFFORD

Benign Inspiration
Life Hacks From Grandma
Life hasn’t been the same since social media came into our lives. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter (X), Snapchat and TikTok make it infinitely easier to connect to news, entertainment and information in a flash. I’ll be the first to admit that Facebook and Instagram get a lot more of my attention than they …
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2 months ago · 1 like · 1 comment · Jody Gifford

CHUCK OFFENBURGER

Iowa Boy Chuck Offenburger
Godspeed & tailwinds, RAGBRAI! Let’s go!
JEFFERSON, Iowa – There were a lot of younger people scrambling around the courthouse square here on Monday – lining up outdoor toilets, erecting traffic barriers, putting up large canvass shade canopies, hoisting huge promotional signs, helping local groups start setting up their food stands, and more…
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2 months ago · 17 likes · 6 comments · Chuck Offenburger
Iowa Boy Chuck Offenburger
Ready to roll at the Iowa State Fair
DES MOINES, Iowa – Jamie Buelt, owner of the public relations and marketing agency “en Q strategies” in Des Moines, has been involved in some of the biggest business, political and community campaigns around Iowa over recent decades. But her husband Gary Buelt, their kids, and a few of us friends long ago realized what she’s always really wanted to be …
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2 months ago · 4 likes · 4 comments · Chuck Offenburger

JOHN NAUGHTON

My Life, in Color
No bike, no problem: RAGBRAI still fun for me
RAGBRAI is the nation’s largest recreational bike ride, which drew a projected 60,000 riders during an Ames-to-Des Moines leg this past week. And then there’s me. What? I haven’t been on a bike since junior high. The Register’s Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa attracts cyclists from dozens of countries to pedal past our state’s rolling hills, connecting with friends and friendly strangers and testing their ability to withstand heat and storms…
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2 months ago · 1 like · John Naughton

BETH HOFFMAN

In the Dirt
Farm Meditation: The Power of Multiplication
Farm Meditations are series based on events that happen on Whippoorwill Creek Farm in South Central Iowa. We raise grass fed and finished beef, goats, foraged mushrooms and veggies. Visit our website to learn more about the farm, our journey and my book…
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2 months ago · 9 likes · 4 comments · Beth Hoffman

LARRY STONE

Listening to the Land
The River Knows
Retired Drake University Law Professor Neil Hamilton wants Iowans to take a long, hard look at what we’ve done . . . and what we’re doing to our state. “ . . . . something has changed in Iowa and not for the better,” laments Iowa native Neil Hamilton, who grew up on an Adams County farm and spent his career at Drake University as a law profes…
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2 months ago · 7 likes · 1 comment · Larry Stone
Listening to the Land
RAGBRAI on the river . . . ?
Back in the 1970s, as The Register’s Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa (RAGBRAI) was taking the state by storm (or by wheel and spoke?) I passed up an opportunity for fame and fortune . . . or possible disaster. After yet another successful RAGBRAI week, Don Benson, head of the Register’s promotion department, cornered me in the newsroom with an idea. …
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2 months ago · 5 likes · 3 comments · Larry Stone

PAT KINNEY

View from the Cedar Valley
Gallivanting through Iowa - and then some
IOWA CITY – Jayjay’s his name. Galivanting’s his game. He’s Jayjay Goodvin, a paraeducator in the Iowa City schools. That’s his mild mannered alter ego. He’s known to a growing social media …
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2 months ago · 4 likes · 1 comment · Pat Kinney

STEPH COPLEY

It Was Never a Dress
An Ode to the Brookes of the World
There’s a certain type of woman who sparkles even after the daily grind has dulled the rest of us into gray. It’s the same type of woman who lights up every room she walks into, no matter the occasion. We’ve all at least seen and admired these women from afar, but only some of us have been lucky enough to call one of them a friend…
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2 months ago · 6 likes · 2 comments · Steph C

NIK HEFTMAN

Become Inspired...
"FUNDAMENTALS"
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2 months ago · The Seven Times

MACEY SPENSLEY

The Midwest Creative
The Coarse Texture of Every Reality
The Midwest Creative is a passion project borne out of my love for my home and my sincere belief that the Midwest deserves our love, care, and investment. I will sing the praises of the creative community in this region until my last breath. But I need your help to reach as many people as I can…
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2 months ago · 5 likes · Macey Spensley

ROBERT LEONARD

Deep Midwest: Politics and Culture
The Rules of the Universe
Dad was a carpenter. I remember when I was very young he kept his tools in the trunk of our only family car, a Chevy sedan. Every morning he would lift the trunk lid and put his sawhorses in, and in those days before bungee cords he would tie the trunk lid down with rope so the sawhorses wouldn’t fall out, and then drive to the construction site where h…
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2 months ago · 3 likes · 3 comments · Robert Leonard

CHERYL TEVIS

Unfinished Business
Unfinished Business
Americans today spend 6,259 hours annually mesmerized by their screens: phones, laptops, and TVs. They enter virtual worlds, seek out virtual experiences, and create alternate personas. But who needs the Meta Universe or an Avatar, when you can escape your workaday world, or ignore societal expectations for an evening filled with the unique sights, brigh…
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2 months ago · 4 likes · Cheryl Tevis

JANE NGUYEN

The Asian Iowan
A Day at Arnold's Park
The older I get, the longer it takes me to decide how far I’m willing to go to have “fun.” It seems with age; my bravery has gone out the window. When I was in my 20s, I bungee jumped in The Bahamas, and I wanted to go sky diving. This past weekend in northwest Iowa, I second-guessed going down the historic Funhouse slide in Arnold’s Park Museum and had…
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2 months ago · 4 likes · Jane Nguyen

ROBERT LEONARD

Cedar Creek Nature Notes
Hedge Apples
It’s less than a five-mile drive to the Cedar Bluffs Recreation Area from home and I see a great many things along our route. This time of year I see beautiful flowers, of course, but I also see a wide variety of wildlife. Deer, opossums, raccoons, squirrels, coyotes, rabbits and more. A crazy number of rabbits. I also see regularly see Mourning Doves, …
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2 months ago · 3 likes · 5 comments · Robert Leonard

JULIE GAMMACK

Julie Gammack's Iowa Potluck
Writers' Retreat Update
To our new subscribers: Julie Gammack produces the annual Okoboji Writers’ Retreat held September 17-20, 2023. One year ago, she began offering a paid subscription option to this column as a way for people to support scholarships for the retreat. As a result, lives are transformed in so many ways. Today’s post is an update. Please don’t feel pressured …
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2 months ago · 5 likes · 2 comments · Julie Gammack

ENTERTAINMENT AND DINING OUT

WINI MORANVILLE

Wini’s Food Stories
Two Groovy New Things for Paid Subscribers Only
Thank you so much for being a supporter of…
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2 months ago · 2 comments · Wini Moranville
Wini’s Food Stories
DSM Dining News Roundup
Here’s my twice-monthly roundup of news and views on the DSM dining scene. Thoughts on Restaurant Week’s Higher Prices…
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2 months ago · 6 likes · 2 comments · Wini Moranville

DOUG BURNS

The Iowa Mercury
'Oppenheimer,' greatest movie ever made, haunts us with biggest of big questions
Read more
2 months ago · 1 like · Douglas Burns
The Iowa Mercury
It's a wonderful — and informed — life in Donna Reed's Denison, Iowa — thanks to a bold Latina journalist
DENISON, Iowa It's as if the movie came to life. Only this time, in real life, the small town folks came to save truth itself from going over the bridge into the rivers of misinformation. In one the largest turnouts for a chamber of commerce event local officials …
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2 months ago · 6 likes · Douglas Burns

TERESA ZILK

Talking Good
Stories to Tell My Daughter
Stories to Tell My Daughter sold out and packed the Viking Theater at Grand View University last Sunday. Many thanks to everyone who attended, supported and volunteered. My special thank you to all of the storytellers Karena Hoof, Claudine Cheathem, Kelly Garrison Simmons, Lya Williams, Sonia Brown, and Jill Well…
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2 months ago · Teresa Zilk

POETRY WITH SUZANNA DE BACA

Written Tales Magazine
Bone Dry and Scorched
You can purchase Written Tales Magazine in print or digital format or become a paid subscriber and download your favorite editions. To view our upcoming stories & poems, please visit our publishing schedule calendar…
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2 months ago · 6 likes · 8 comments · Written Tales

JULIE GAMMACK

Julie Gammack's Iowa Potluck
A conversation with Marilyn Maye
Listen now (59 min) | This podcast was recorded on July 24 as a part of Julie Gammack’s Potluck podcast series. To subscribe: Marilyn Maye will appear in the Pearson Lakes Art Center August 1 and 2. There are still a few tickets remaining for the August 2nd performance.She will be performing in the beautiful Lauridsen Performing Arts Theatre: Click here…
Listen now
2 months ago · Julie Gammack

SPORTS

ROB GRAY

Rob Gray's Area
ROUNDUP: CU Says CYA to Pac-12, Big Rob Energy Seeks Big Gain in Efficiency and more
AMES — Late July’s usually a slow time in terms of news that impacts or pertains to Iowa State athletics. Football media day’s just around the corner (Aug. 4), as is a working vacation for the men’s basketball team in the Bahamas (Aug. 4-10). But in the ongoing age of conference realignment, the typical ebb and flow of news, like the weather, is anythi…
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2 months ago · 3 likes · 2 comments · Rob Gray

THE IOWA CONNECTION

KURT MEYER

Showing Up
Round-Table Musings about a Real-Life Author
I was a fortunate trailing spouse last week on a business trip to New York City. One highlight, lunch at the Algonquin Hotel, prompted fresh thoughts about author Edna Ferber (1885-1968). Ferber was part of the renowned “Algonquin Round Table” in the 1920s, a life she hardly could have imagined during her Ottumwa, Iowa years (1890-1897)*. Just as viciou…
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2 months ago · Kurtis Meyer


Iowa Writers’ Collaborative Columnists

Laura Belin: Iowa Politics with Laura Belin, Windsor Heights
Doug Burns: The Iowa Mercury, Carroll
Dave Busiek: Dave Busiek on Media, Des Moines
Iowa Writers’ Collaborative, Roundup
Steph Copley: It Was Never a Dress, Johnston
Art Cullen: Art Cullen’s Notebook, Storm Lake
Suzanna de Baca: Dispatches from the Heartland, Huxley
Debra Engle: A Whole New World, Madison County
Julie Gammack: Julie Gammack’s Iowa Potluck, Des Moines and Okoboji
Joe Geha: Fern and Joe, Ames
Jody Gifford: Benign Inspiration, West Des Moines
Rob Gray: Rob Gray’s Area, Ankeny
Nik Heftman: The Seven Times, Los Angeles and Iowa
Beth Hoffman: In the Dirt, Lovilla
Dana James: New Black Iowa, Des Moines
Pat Kinney: View from Cedar Valley, Waterloo
Fern Kupfer: Fern and Joe, Ames
Robert Leonard: Deep Midwest: Politics and Culture, Bussey
Letters from Iowans, Iowa
Tar Macias: Hola Iowa, Iowa
Kurt Meyer: Showing Up, St. Ansgar
Wini Moranville: Wini’s Food Stories, Des Moines
Jeff Morrison: Between Two Rivers, Cedar Rapids
Kyle Munson: Kyle Munson’s Main Street, Des Moines
Jane Nguyen: The Asian Iowan, West Des Moines
John Naughton: My Life, in Color, Des Moines
Chuck Offenburger: Iowa Boy Chuck Offenburger, Jefferson and Des Moines
Barry Piatt: Piatt on Politics Behind the Curtain, Washington, D.C.
Dave Price: Dave Price’s Perspective, Des Moines
Macey Spensley: The Midwest Creative, Iowa
Larry Stone: Listening to the Land, Elkader
Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Buggy Land, Kalona
Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Emerging Voices, Kalona
Cheryl Tevis: Unfinished Business, Boone County
Ed Tibbetts: Along the Mississippi, Davenport
Teresa Zilk: Talking Good, Des Moines

The Iowa Writers Collaborative is also proud to ally with Iowa Capital Dispatch.


PODCASTS

Robert Leonard has a service where he compiles podcasts about and for Iowans, called the Iowa Podcast Collaborative. Subscribe if you’re looking for new audio to keep you company on the road, or wherever:

Iowa Podcasters' Collaborative

The Iowa Podcasters' Collaborative is a group of podcasters in Iowa creating content related to news, culture, and more. It's a product of the success of the Iowa Writers' Collaborative.
By Robert Leonard


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July in Iowa

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