Vanished
...a young man, ideals, churches, and other losses in today's Sunday Read
Randy Evans & Tory Brecht humanize ICE’s hidden toll by tracing the disappearance of a promising scholar‑athlete— even his family and priest are left scrambling for answers. Read more
National politics
@Douglas Burns: The Iowa Mercury carries an interview with a Capitol Police officer about his experiences on Jan. 6, 2021 during the insurrection. “I've been through hell” says Jan. 6 Capitol Police officer slated to keynote Council Bluffs, Iowa political event. Read more
@Arnold Garson: Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., has been rapidly tearing down all of the barriers the Federal Government established over the past 65 years to prevent a disease that once killed several hundred children a year in the U.S. from entering our borders. Read more
@Mary Swander (Emerging Voices): What does it takes to be an effective campus organizer? Read Aidan Yoder's piece in Emerging Voices. Read more
@Ed Tibbetts: Republicans cut off funding for public broadcasting because they say it’s biased. But Ed Tibbetts at Along the Mississippi explains they’re quietly using government coercion to help their friend in right wing talk radio. Read more
@Matt Russell: Democrats have to invest in younger leaders starting now if they hope to win in 2026. Russell compares rural Americans and young Americans as key constituencies that must be mobilized to defend democracy now and to win elections in 2026. Read more
@Art Cullen: Art Cullen sorts out mixed messaging from the president and secretary of agriculture: There will be no amnesty for immigrants unless you need some cheap help in the dairy barn. Read more
@Dan Henderson: Americans are united: no mass deportations and no open borders! There is a consensus emerging on this issue, and the party that genuinely listens and develops policies to address the real issue will be rewarded at the ballot box. Read Daniel Henderson's take on the immigration issue, which he claims isn't as polarizing as we are led to believe. Read more
@Barry Piatt: Barry Piatt asks the question a lot of Iowans are asking – “What’s the matter with Chuck Grassley, and – for that matter – with the rest of Iowa’s congressional delegation?” Read more in Barry’s column, “Barry Piatt on Politics: Behind the Curtains.” Read more
@Randy Evans: The Trump administration’s deportation of Pascual Pedro, a former high school soccer star with no criminal record, and not even a traffic ticket, has put a face on the president’s supposed focus on “criminal alien thugs.” Read more
@Dave Price: More federal cuts are ahead following the latest action by Congress. Dave Price wants to know if you think this is the best way to run a government? Read more
@Dennis Goldford: If you don’t address what people care about, they’re not going to listen to you. Read more
@Rekha Basu: A reminder of what happens when voters turn a blind eye to the past — right down to Trump/Epstein. Read more
Iowa politics
@Cheryl Tevis: Cheryl Tevis debunks the myth that churches can take care of Iowans hurt by government cuts in health care insurance and food. Alms for the poor, anyone? Read more
Here are just a few Iowa churches lost and the building repurposed. @Ed Tibbetts: Iowa Republicans are ignoring the plight of the state’s failing economy. As Ed Tibbetts at Along the Mississippi explains, Rep. Zach Nunn is the perfect example. Read more
@Laura Belin: Laura Belin wrote about why the Iowa Senate finally agreed to enact a law that will help Iowans counter frivolous lawsuits targeting them because of how they exercised their First Amendment rights. Read more
@Tory Brecht: Pasqual Pedro’s parish priest is rallying an entire community to demand justice. Fr. Guillermo Treviño Jr. talks with me about the fight to bring him home. Read more
@Laura Belin: On "KHOI's Capitol Week," Laura Belin and Spencer Dirks began with Representative Zach Nunn’s bizarre trial balloon and covered tons of other Iowa campaign news. Read more
@Rick Morain: Nitrate generators get a free ride and river‑water municipal plants pay the price. Read more
Business
@Rick Jost: Summer Dreamin' in Wadena: In 1970, upwards of 40,000 rock music fans swarmed a farm just outside Wadena for “Iowa's Woodstock.” The festival was a business bust, but it paid dividends with much‑needed lessons in civility. Read more
@Ken Chester: Let’s Go RVing! The recreational vehicle industry demonstrates that electrification extends beyond conventional transportation with the all new Grounded G3 Electric RV. Read more
The new Grounded G3 electric RV, created by former SpaceX engineers and based on the Chevrolet BrightDrop EV Zevo 400/600 platform, offers a range of 246 miles and features such as self-heating batteries, rooftop solar panels.
Mental Health
@Robert Leonard: After a tragic death of a loved one who died too young, Bob Leonard found "Loss and Remembrance in Northern New Mexico." Read more
Media
@Chip Albright: Iowa PBS and Iowa Public Radio uniquely support the emerging Iowa music scene. Recent budget cut announcements to public broadcasting are yet another blow to the quality of life in the Hawkeye state. Read more
@Daniel P. Finney: Whether CBS fired Colbert over criticism of his bosses or not, late-night TV was already on its way out. Read more
@Dave Busiek: Dave Busiek on Media finds it hard to believe that CBS cancelled Stephen Colbert for strictly financial reasons. And, Iowa’s DC delegation ALWAYS sides with Trump. Read more
Weather and Environment
@Chris Gloninger: From Iowa to SNL to politics — and climate action. A fun conversation with Gary Kroeger! Read more
@Chris Gloninger: Three Degrees: From Saturday Night Live to Climate Action — Iowan Gary Kroger’s journey from comedy to climate politics—and why saving the planet may require a punchline or two. Read more
@David Thoreson: Restore Nature to Improve Water Quality and Mitigate Flooding — Iowa has the most altered, industrialized landscape in America. Read more
Around Iowa
@Jeff Morrison: Jeff Morrison looks at how the RAGBRAI LII route relates to previous rides, new towns, map errors, and use of artificial intelligence to create local logos. Read more
@Chuck Offenburger: RAGBRAI-LII is rolling across the state now, and Iowa Boy Chuck Offenburger will ride a special 15 miles of it next Saturday. He prepped last week on “the prettiest mile of trail in Iowa” near Okoboji. Read more
@Kurtis Meyer: Kurt Meyer’s latest column is about tent camping with Chicago granddaughters. Kurt notes a small window: when the kids are old enough... and he's not TOO old. Read more
Sports
@Phoebe Wall Howard: A top sailor explains why she pulled together an all-female team to race from Chicago to Mackinac Island, a year after saving a man's life in a man‑overboard rescue during storms. Read more
@Jane Burns: Women's sports fans have a nice selection of new books to choose from for a little summer reading — including some with Iowa connections. Read more
Diversity in the Heartland
@Dana James: Black women across this country are being laid off, pushed out and left behind at unprecedented rates. Our names aren’t in the headlines. Our stories aren’t being told. And yet, we are the ones holding up our families, our churches, our schools and our communities. Writer Debra Carr looks into the developing crisis happening in Iowa and elsewhere. Read more
The Iowa Angle
@Michael Judge: Brian Wilson, Love, and My Need for Mercy: A TFP guest essay by Iowa author Scott Samuelson — "Long ago," writes Samuelson, "my first love entered into that room inside me that the music of Brian Wilson had opened." Read more
We’re Having a Party!
Paid Subscribers, You are in for a treat!
Saturday July 26, at 3 p.m., the Iowa Theater will screen “Storm Lake,” a 2021 documentary film that won the Audience Award for best feature at the American Film Institute’s DOCS film festival that year and was nominated for a Peabody Award.
Art Cullen, whose family-run newspaper, The Storm Lake Times, is the subject of the film, will take the stage at the Iowa Theater after the screening for an interview conducted by Julie Gammack,
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Also free is the afterparty two blocks from the theater at The Winterset Livery, a unique event space that was once an actual horse livery. Delicious, robust appetizers will be catered by Petite Cafe. A cash bar will be available.
If you are not a paid subscriber and want to attend, now’s the perfect time to upgrade, but you should act fast. The Iowa Theater has 80 seats on the ground floor, 72 in the balcony, and the back part of the balcony is better for snuggling than watching a movie.
Let us know if you can come. Deadline to RSVP is July 21: