Iowa

Senator Chuck Grassley held a town hall in Hampton, Iowa, where he faced tough questions from constituents about the Trump administration and government oversight.

Attendees expressed frustration with the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Elon Musk, and its impact on federal agencies.

"The courts are doing their job, and they're doing it really well," the unidentified speaker said. "They're reining in Trump and others, but we need to also have the Senate and the House also providing oversight, and it's your job. We are depending on you and the others to save Democracy."

Grassley, who has called himself a "watchdog" in Congress, said he has a staff with 33 investigations going, including one on curbing "government waste.

@mitchd@loops.video

https://loops.video/@mitchd

For context, this is because Adam Gregg decided to resign from being Lieutenant governor to become the CEO of the IA bankers association.

An interesting tidbit on Gregg's wikipedia page is that Gregg clerked for Justice Mark Cady of the IA supreme court. Mark Cady, who died in 2019 was the author Varnum v. Brien (legalizing gay marriage in the state) and Planned Parenthood v. Reynolds which struck down the 72 abortion waiting period law passed in 2017.

I want to speculate about the intra-GOP politics at the Capitol, but honestly don't have enough to go on beyond that.

edit: Seems to be stopped for now, the white house has recinded the memo, we'll see what the fallout is from here.

The memo itself

Congressional Democrats response

#Iowa GOP response

Reynolds: worse than nothing

Nunn: nothing

Hinson: nothing

Miller-meeks: nothing

Feenstra: nothing

Grassley: hasn't made a statement, but he seems to be focusing more on the inspector general firings

Ernst: nothing, most recent statement is about cutting SNAP benefits that came out after the grant and loan freeze

I'm not an expert in federal grant programs in Iowa, obviously it's bad, but it's hard to do something about it without a more comprehensive accounting of what exactly it does to us. I will be updating this post sorting by policy area as I find things, please feel free to share what you find.

#Food security

Governor Reynolds has refused to accept federal summer EBT for multiple years now but this did not directly affect food security within the school year. Iowa had 29 million meals provided through the federal free and reduced lunch program in Iowa in the 22-23 school year that's in jeopardy.

SNAP itself might be more of a grey area since the memo says it doesn't apply to direct individual benefits (I don't fully believe that personally). 259k recipients in Iowa in 2024

#Healthcare

supposedly mediciad isn't going to be affected. one should hope so because there's 1.5million visits paid for by medicaid in Iowa a year

#Education

13.6% of Iowa school funding came from federal sources in 2021-22

#Disaster preparedness

tba

On Dec. 16, Sheriff Tim Lane filed a sworn ethics complaint against Chris Cournoyer, a former Iowa state senator from LeClaire who is now lieutenant governor, with the Iowa Senate Ethics Committee. The complaint accuses Cournoyer of harassment of a citizen, disclosure of confidential information, improper use of confidential information to further her own interests or those of another person, and improperly or illegally obtaining confidential information. Both Lane and Cournoyer are members of the Republican Party.

Lane’s ethics complaint focuses on Cournoyer’s alleged role in handling information tied to the dismissal of Scott County Sgt. Josh Wall, who has admitted waging an unauthorized investigation into Jennifer McAndrew, Lane’s wife. McAndrew supervises probationers for the Iowa Department of Corrections.

According to Lane, Wall testified that he believed McAndrew was violating the rights of a sex offender by monitoring the man’s activities after his probation was completed.

Lane says Wall admitted that the 2023 investigation into McAndrew was unknown to others within the department and that he kept information related to it on a flash drive stored at his home

During the 2024 legislative session, Cournoyer introduced Senate File 2014, later renamed Senate File 2277, which provided that when a county sheriff intends to conduct a disciplinary or criminal investigation of an employee who is also an immediate family member, that investigation would have to be handed over to the attorney general or the Iowa Department of Public Safety. The bill failed to advance after being approved by a committee.

In May 2024, a letter signed by Cournoyer was published in the Quad-City Times. In his complaint, Lane alleges that Cournoyer’s letter served as an endorsement of Chris Laye, his opponent in the Republican primary race for Scott County sheriff.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/6063063

OER in Use Across Iowa

The cope I'm huffing here is that Trump is too petty to nominate DeSantis, and that Ernst is popular enough with other GOP senators that she get's the pick over Hagerty.

I think she's quietly one of the least bad GOP senators. She's was fairly vocal in support of police reform in 2020, she's big on reducing sexual assault in the military. Honestly I would have been happy if Ernst was the republican Harris promised to have in her cabinet. (all of the things that would be bad about a conservative SecDef are bipartisan anyway)

Also there's the matter of needing a replacement for Ernst, which would be a lot easier to flip the senate seat she wasn't the one holding it.

How does this keep happening?

"Google Trends saw a dramatic increase in searches for “How to change my vote” as early as the morning of Election Day before the polls were closed, according to Virginia news outlet WAVY." Google Trends link here.

Lake Red Rock was formed by flooding that entire basin, including six towns. I read somewhere that they didn't even clear out the buildings and roads. There's probably still stuff down there in the bottom of the lake.

Edit: other link was having issues, this should work

Three Libertarian candidates in Iowa running for the U.S. House will not be listed on ballots this November after a panel ruled they failed to comply with state law, a decision that could affect the outcome of at least one tightly contested race

The state’s objection committee, composed of one Democratic and two Republican elected officials, ruled 2-1 Wednesday in favor of Iowans who challenged the candidates’ legitimacy.

Democrat on the panel who opposed the candidates’ removal, State Auditor Rob Sand, accused his colleagues of political bias, saying in a statement that the decision was “a wrong-headed plot by Iowa’s uniparty to limit voters’ choices.”

One of Iowa's four congressional races was decided by a razor-thin margin in 2022. Republican Zach Nunn, who was challenging incumbent Democrat Cindy Axne, won by less than a percentage point. There was not a third-party candidate.

An advocate for seniors is calling on the state auditor’s office to investigate the state’s failure to collect $10.7 million in fees owed by corporate nursing home owners.

According to documents obtained through the state’s open records law, one for-profit company based in West Des Moines operates 18 care facilities that collectively owe the state $3.6 million in unpaid fees. The company’s top two executives, meanwhile, have made $293,000 in political donations to Statehouse leaders, the governor and industry lobbyists.

Hale said an investigation by the Iowa auditor of sate is warranted, in part to make sure nursing facilities that claim to be increasing staff pay are doing so.

Auditor of State Rob Sand said his office has publicly reported DHHS’ failure “to collect these fees as required by law. However, the auditor’s office isn’t an enforcement agency. We have no legal authority to force DHHS to collect the fees or impose penalties on the facilities that don’t pay them.”

Very fascinating find!