Your Commentary Roundup: life, death, AEA, abortion, politics, Trump, violence, sports talk, poetry...
...plus, one of our writers gets high on pot
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Welcome, Steve Semken
Please welcome our newest Iowa Writers’ Collaborative member, publisher Steve Semken. He has been a publisher since 1991 and a writer since first grade. Steve began the Ice Cube Press to understand better how we can best live in the Midwest using the literary arts. What to expect from his column: publishing tips, learning about forthcoming books, discovering new authors, some bits on running a small business, entrepreneurial ideas (or at least inspiration), thoughts on writing, bookstores, events, and the “writing” life. It’s going to be almost musical, writes Steve: On and Off Beats.
Belin Wins
Laura Belin's five-year effort to gain a seat on the Iowa House press bench ended less than five days after the Institute for Free Speech filed a federal lawsuit on her behalf. Laura Belin and Dennis Hart took one last look back at the Iowa caucuses but spent most of their weekly radio show on Iowa legislative news.
Dartanyan Brown brought a touch of nostalgia to the debate about Laura Belin’s credential issue.
Politics and Issues
Art Cullen thinks Gov. Kim Reynolds may have jumped the shark by throwing in with Ron DeSantis and the Moms for Liberty. DeSantis is done. Is Reynolds? Donald Trump, for one, thinks Brenna Bird should be governor.
Ed Tibbetts at Along the Mississippi wrote Friday that the Davenport City Council’s attempt to bury a $1.6 million settlement with a former administrator has failed. Earlier in the week, he invoked the movie “Bull Durham” in accusing Iowa’s legislative leaders of dodging journalist Laura Belin for way too long.
Arnold Garson: The 30th anniversary of Schindler's List and International Holocaust Remembrance Day, all at the same time. A column written in 1994 is still relevant today as Jews face more anti-Semitism than at any time since records have been kept.
Julie Gammack had two OB-GYN physicians on her podcast who are on the frontlines of working with women impacted by abortion restrictions. As a result, they have created a PAC to educate the public about what is going on in women’s health care and to take action to support abortion access. Read the summary of the call or listen to it in its entirety.
President (?) Trump
Steph Copley realizes that Donald J. Trump could be president of the United States, and she has a physical reaction.
Not so fast, Steph. Barry Piatt writes that Donald Trump has a big, brittle glass jaw that could crack by November.
Issues
Kali White VanBaale digs into issues contributing to Iowa's mental healthcare workforce shortage and three major strategies our state needs to pursue to recruit and retain more workers.
The dehumanizing formula for a school shooting, dateline: Perry, IA, by Doug Burns, offers a perspective on the local tragedy, is well-told, and food for thought.
AEA, for Real
Cheryl Tevis urges lawmakers to take a long, hard look at the potentially damaging overhaul of Area Education Agencies (AEAs).
She says it would be a double whammy for Iowa’s rural students and schools.
On Media
Dave Busiek on Media on the benefits of bringing back journalists who’ve been out of the newsroom for many years.
Robert Leonard has two pieces this week. The first explores how the newly formed Iowa "Nonpartisan" "Common Sense" Institute is neither and how they are using the Iowa Women's Basketball team to cover their harmful anti-Iowan agenda. Find it here. The second, "Prayers on the Wrestling Mat and proposed "Christian" coercion in our public schools," exposes how Republicans hope to use supposed "Christian" "Chaplains" to infiltrate our schools and push their harmful ideology as they try to indoctrinate our children.
Border
In Dave Price's perspective column, he describes how the border is a ‘powder keg’ issue.
Around Iowa
Alison McGaughey, the Inquisitive Quad Citizen, shares her first experience with “just saying yes,” (legally, anyway), after a visit to a Cannabis dispensary.
Two Waterloo women were recently honored for making their community look good with a Facebook talk show for almost seven years. Read about "Rocki 'n' Chaveevah" and their "North End Update" show in Pat Kinney's latest "View from the Cedar Valley" column and find out what all this "Boomshakalaka" is about.
Nicole Baart pens a story about a surprising hockey game and the lesson it taught her about being a good neighbor. “Maybe our offering, the very best we can give to our neighbors and the world around us, is an expansive imagination that sees a way instead of a wall.”
From Red Earth Drive, poet and author Ray Young Bear shares his experience as a young Meskwaki, beginning to become a writer.
Beth Hoffman contemplates what their neighbors in rural Iowa think about what she and her husband, John Hogeland, are doing with Whippoorwill Creek Farm.
How did they react to our grass-finished beef ways, our no-chemical crops, our weed-eating goats?
Wintersetonians have different ways of coping with winter. Check out what Vicki Minor has to say.
What’s it like taking the plunge into marriage while dealing with a chronic illness? Read Claire Richmond’d excellent piece in Mary Swander's Emerging Voice.
Kurt Meyer predicts an increasingly familiar roadway feature… in a roundabout way.
Jody Gifford: In the face of discriminatory laws being passed in Iowa, queer Midwestern families are sharing their truth: they're here and they aren't going anywhere.
Macey Shofroth ‘celebrates’ the anniversary of her dead pancreas in her informative column.
Approval of maps for a five-member Tama County Board of Supervisors gave Jeff Morrison an opportunity to explore the reasons behind its expansion and how those boards are constituted in each county in Iowa.
Dining in Des Moines
Wini Moranville recently dined at the city's three highest-end steakhouses—Ruth’s Chris, Fleming’s, and 801 Chophouse. She shares the pros and cons of all three and reveals her favorite. Read her well-reported column to find out her top pick.
Letters from Iowans - are back!
Jeff Morrison is taking on the management of our Letters from Iowans offering. Any paid subscription payments will now support this reader service. Thanks so much to those who have submitted pieces so far, and we encourage all of our readers to consider doing so. Please keep your commentary to about 900 words. Click here for more information: Letters from Iowans.
Sports
Jane Burns writes about Iowa women’s basketball in her week's column titled: ‘Winning Ways at Clarke—in the Land of Clark.
Tory Brecht writes about how he fell in love with Big 10 basketball.
Travel
John Naughton heads to New Orleans and shares a bit about local food fare.
Poetry
Cooking to Survive is a memory poem dedicated to food, matriarchy, and survival by Teresa Zilk
Suzanna de Baca Iowa Writers' Collaborative member Suzanna de Baca shares news that she recently won Black Fox Literary Magazine's "Art of Deception" poetry contest and provides the link to her poem "Secrets Beneath Our Skin.”
Suzanna de Baca
Iowa Writer's Collaborative member Suzanna de Baca will be the moderator for an International Women’s Day discussion on March 7 with the co-authors of the best-selling book "The Thread Connectors." The event, sponsored by Principal Financial Group, Chrysalis Foundation, Iowa Women’s Foundation, and Women Lead Change, will explore women’s relationships, bridge building, resilience to inspire social good, and inclusion. Registration information is below.
Event: The Threads that Connect Us: A Conversation with the co-authors of "The Thread Collectors"
Thursday, March 7, 10 a.m. to noon.
10 a.m. Discussion with the authors
11 a.m. Reception and book signing
https://www.eventbrite.com/.../the-threads-that-connect.
The Iowa Writers’ Collaborative roster. Please support who you can by becoming a paid subscriber.