Constituent 1: Grassley 0. Thank you, ISL for capturing this conversation. Whoever that individual is, he represents Iowa values far better than our senator. It’s nice to see some folks in the room without gray hair.
Once again we bring you Progress Iowa’s Friday version of their daily newsletter while the Iowa Legislature is in session.
Happy Friday!
It’s been an exciting week for Iowa’s college basketball teams! Congratulations to the Iowa State Cyclone women and men playing tonight in the Sweet 16. We’re rooting for you to go all the way!
And Progress Iowa’s Extreme 16 has officially launched, and we’ll tell you who made it all the way to the top in just a minute. Before we get to that though, let’s take a look at today’s top headline:
1.GOP SLASHING UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS: Iowa House and Senate Republicans are getting closer and closer to passing Corporate Kim Reynolds’ slashes to unemployment benefits, a top priority for the governor who puts corporations over hardworking Iowans. Once the House and Senate versions of this bill are reconciled, Iowans will see their hard-earned unemployment benefits slashed by over two months.
Join us and share this message to Corporate Kim Reynolds and her Republican allies that Iowans deserve better than being sold out for corporate greed.
Click to tweet: As Iowans, we value hard work and know good paying jobs help Iowa grow. But, @IAGovernor & the @IowaGOP’s agenda will force Iowans to work for lower wages and struggle to provide for their families. Iowans deserve better than being sold out for corporate greed.#ReynoldsWorkforceCrisis #IALegis #Iowa
After you share that message, check out some of the other top stories we’re watching today:
2.REPUBLICANS ARE DRIVING TEACHERS AWAY: The Republican plan to force teachers to publish their curriculum materials and lessons plans online will put even more pressure on underpaid education professionals, and could cost schools nearly $30 million. Instead of investing more money to support our public school systems, Republicans continue to push harmful education bills that drive our state down in the rankings and scare away teachers.
3.SCHOOLS STRUGGLING WITH LACK OF FUNDS: Thanks to Kim Reynolds and Iowa Republicans’ decades long attack against our state’s public education system, school districts across the state are struggling to find workers to fill the void, forcing districts like Johnston Community Schools to consider changing their start time to make up for the lack of bus drivers. If the Governor and her Republican friends actually invested in Iowa’s education professionals instead of vilifying them again and again, our state may actually be able to address the Reynolds Workforce Crisis and stop losing qualified, passionate individuals.
4.SCOTUS HEARINGS HAVE CONCLUDED: After a painful week of watching lackluster Republican Senators attack one of the most qualified Supreme Court nominees in our nation’s history, the Senate Judiciary hearings for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson have finally concluded. We share Senator Cory Booker’s joy in seeing Judge Brown Jackson nominated, and we are excited to see her confirmed to the Supreme Court. Join us and call our senators, Ernst and Grassley, to urge them to vote “Yes” on her confirmation.
Ernst D.C. Office: (202) 224-3254
Grassley D.C. Office: (202) 224-3744
5.EXTREME 16 WINNERS: This year was a tight bracket for Progress Iowa’s Extreme 16, where we listed the most extreme elected officials in Iowa. Taking the top spot this year is “Sinister” Senator Jake Chapman, who introduced a bill that would have put teachers in jail! Corporate Kim Reynolds came in second for consistently putting corporate donors over the needs of working Iowans. And rounding out our top three, Senator Chuck Grassley, who has been in public office since the year Kim Reynolds was born. You can check out the other winners at the link listed here: Progress Iowa Extreme 16.
Want to hear more from our team? You can go to our online news blog, Potluck, to hear from Iowans and leaders around the state. Want to help progressive messaging and policy in the state of Iowa? Sign up at ProgressIowa.org to volunteer, donate, and hear more from our team!
Thanks for reading, and we’ll get back with you Monday for another Hive Five!
– The Progress Iowa Team
Progress Iowa | P.O. Box 548 | Des Moines, IA 50302
This is a bit long, but it gives a great flavor of the insane accusations that Republicans brought against Judge Brown Jackson (10.5 minutes):
Watching the insanity that Republicans called a hearing for SCOTUS nominee was hard as the (Republicans) went to their old standby of accusing anyone left of Atilla the Hun of being involved in pedophilia somehow. It was sickening. Even the supposed benign Grassley got s couple of accusations in on the last day.
Yet even as bad as that was, Republicans have let it be known that overturning any and all decisions by SCOTUS since Earl Warren became Chief Justice. Indiana senator Mike Braun accidentally blurted out that the Loving decision, which ended state bans against interracial marriages, was in the cross hairs of the scope.
Braun then tried very unconvincingly to walk his accidental truth back, to little avail. But this was only the most recent instance of Republicans letting it be known which of the SCOTUS they hope to overturn either via law of by having a future Court reverse current rulings.
The decisions in the cross hairs go as far back as 1954’s Brown v. Board of Education, the one that seems to be the mother of bad decisions. Besides Brown and Loving other decision marked for overrule include Griswold v. Connecticut that allowed people to purchase contraceptive material and Obergefell v. Hodges that ended bans on same sex marriages.
What a week- Ukraine, Jackson hearing and a trip to Europe for Biden:
A) Next door in Nebraska, what Republican congress member was convicted Friday of felony campaign contributions and lying to the FBI?
B) According to NATO estimates, how many Russian troops have been killed, wounded or missing in Ukraine?
C) At the hearing for SCOTUS nominee Brown Jackson, what Republican senator was caught checking twitter for name mentions after his lie filled turn at questioning?
D) Russia tied all their conspiracy lies together Friday by claiming the US bio-terror labs in Ukraine is being run by what presidential offspring?
E) Back to reality. The former president sued what former opponent, claiming that accusations of Trump’s collusion with Russia harmed his campaign?
F) In Georgia a group is trying to block Marjorie Taylor Greene from running for congress because of what?
G) Speaking of history making women, what woman who was America’s first female Secretary of State died this week at age 84?
H) Almost immediately following the end of Brown Jackson’s hearing what leading Republican announced he would vote against her confirmation?
I) Emails exchanged between what wife of a current SCOTUS justice and the White House called for Trump to remain in power in January of 2021?
J) How did Iowa State’s basketball teams do in their Sweet Sixteen NCAA tournament games Friday night?
K) According to the data released by the Census Bureau Thursday, what percentage of US counties had more deaths than births last year?
L) What woman’s grave is plastered with ‘I voted’ stickers after general elections?
M) In Iowa, a bill cutting what for workers has passed both houses of Iowa’s legislature?
N) Mackenzie Scott gave a record $275 million contribution to what women’s healthcare group last week?
O) To make up for troops lost in Ukraine, Russia is turning to what source for soldiers?
P) Mark Pomerantz in a letter said the former president was “guilty of numerous felony violations.” Why is this significant?
Q) A Boeing 737 jet fell out of the sky and crashed in what country last week?
R) Applications for jobless aid last week fell to the lowest seasonally adjusted average since when?
S) Wednesday was the 12th anniversary of signing of what ground breaking healthcare bill?
T) Alaska’s representative, Don Young, died on an airplane last week. What formerly famous Alaskan said she would serve in the House “in a heartbeat”?
Our greatest responsibility is not to be pencils of the past.
— Rod Serling
Answers:
A) 1st district congress member Dan Fortenberry – AND NOW he resigns!
B) 40,000 – huge losses
C) Ted Cruz
D) Hunter Biden (rofl)
E) Hillary Clinton
F) she participated in an insurrection against the US in violation of the 14th amendment
G) Madeline Albright
H) Mitch McConnell
I) Ginny Thomas wife of Clarence Thomas
J) they both lost, sadly
K) over 75% (2300+ counties)
L) Susan B. Anthony – this is to commemorate her being charged with a crime when she voted in the 1876 election.
M) unemployment insurance
N) Planned Parenthood – Scott is the ex wife of Jeff Bezos
O) Jails – men in jail for not paying alimony and child care and other such crimes.
P) Pomerantz was investigating Trump for the Manhattan DA’s office when the new DA decided to stop the investigation.
Q) China
R) September of 1969
S) the ACA (Obamacare)
T) Sarah Palin
The GOP’s attack on Jackson for being soft on crime is a bold strategy for a party led by a criminal. – Andy Borowitz
Editor’s comment: The folks at Progress Iowa run an annual “Extreme 16” yearly to coincide with the NCAA tournament. Sadly, Iowa’s Extreme 16 seldom make it because they are good. Rather, these are people in positions of power who can make life even tougher for the average Iowan:
EXTREME 16 BRACKET: Iowa’s Sinister Senator Earns Top Seed
Gov. Reynolds, Sen. Grassley and Rep. Hinson round out the top four
Des Moines, Iowa — Iowans voted, and the #Extreme16 has been selected! This year, State Senator Jake Chapman takes the top spot in Progress Iowa’s list of the most extreme Iowans.
“It’s a bit of an upset but really should come as no surprise that Sinister Jake Chapman beat out heavy hitters like Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley and Congresswoman Ashley Hinson,” said Matt Sinovic, Executive Director of Progress Iowa. “Chapman sealed his fate as Iowa’s number one most extreme Iowan when he accused teachers of having a ‘sinister agenda’ and proposed a bill that would put teachers in jail.”
Sen. Chapman narrowly beat out Governor Kim Reynolds for the top spot, as the two were separated by just one vote.
“Corporate Kim Reynolds is one of the strongest number two seeds in Extreme 16 history,” said Sinovic. “This year alone Reynolds has proposed a measly and insufficient funding increase for public schools, and suggested robbing public schools to fund private schools instead. As if that wasn’t bad enough, Reynolds has repeatedly sold us out, in favor of her corporate donors, and took her divisive agenda national with the State of the Union response, all while ignoring the workforce crisis she created that has made it tougher for small businesses and schools to stay open.”
Click here to view the bracket and read below to view the entire Extreme 16, in addition to the “first four out.”
2022 Extreme 16 – Tournament Resumes
“Sinister” Jake Chapman, State Senator – Aside from his attacks on Iowa teachers, Chapman serves as Senate President, meaning he’s responsible for all the terrible legislation that moves through the chamber. And there have been a lot of terrible bills moving through this year.
“Corporate” Kim Reynolds, Iowa Governor – The Governor has only signed a handful of bills into law this year, and spoiler alert: they’re all bad. She’s signed off on an unfair flat tax, underfunding public schools and keeping transgender children from playing sports. She could have spent that time working to improve the Reynolds Workforce Crisis, but she’d rather score political points than solve real problems our state is facing.
Chuck Grassley, U.S. Senator (Class of 1959) – Where to begin? He has voted to overturn the ACA, voted against the American Rescue Plan, blocked voting rights legislation, and has threatened to hold up the Supreme Court nomination process of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. Let’s hope he does the right thing and votes to appoint this highly qualified candidate. Grassley has been in elected office since 1959, and has not improved with age.
“Harmful” Ashley Hinson, U.S. Representative – Hinson is no stranger to the Extreme 16, but this is her first appearance as a congresswoman. Hinson just can’t seem to stop taking credit for others’ work. Recently, she touted millions of dollars in funding for locks and dams along the Mississippi. She failed to mention those funds are thanks to the bipartisan infrastructure bill she voted against and called “socialism.”
Bobby “The Bird” Kaufmann, State Representative – Bobby previously appeared on our list as part of a duo with his father, Jeff, but this year he’s earned his own spot. The act that landed him the number 5 spot? His infamous flipping of the bird at the Iowa Capitol back in January, which he said should tell constituents who disagree with him what he thinks.
Mariannette Miller-Meeks, U.S. Representative – Miller-Meeks voted AGAINST a bill that would help veterans exposed to toxic burn pits… need I say more?
Amy Sinclair, State Senator – As Chair of the Senate Education Committee, Sinclair has happily moved along harmful bills that undercut our public schools and put undue burden on our education professionals.
Jack Whitver, State Senator – As Senate Majority Leader, Whitver helped usher in Corporate Kim Reynolds’ unfair flat tax plan and had a hand in ejecting media from the Senate floor this session.
Steve Holt, State Representative – Rep. Holt is one of the most reliably fringe representatives in the state, and this year his continued attacks on the judiciary earned him a top 10 spot in the Extreme 16. His bizarre subpoenas may not have moved forward, but his attempts to undermine fair courts will almost surely continue as long as he’s in office.
Mike Bousselot, State Representative – Rep. Bousselot has made quick work in joining the ranks of the most extreme in Iowa, as he has only been in the legislature for a short time. He’s more than earned his spot with his consistent and relentless attacks on labor unions and working families. And we can’t forget his demonstrably dishonest attack ads that propelled him to his seat in the first place.
Pat Grassley, State Representative – As Speaker of the Iowa House of Representatives, he’s responsible for every awful piece of legislation that moves. Every corporate sellout, every attack on educators and working families, and every theft of public resources is a betrayal of the vow he and every elected official takes to serve his constituents.
Roby Smith, State Senator – Smith is another consistent member of the Extreme 16. He’s number 13 on our list this year, for his efforts to help Governor Reynolds avoid transparency and hoard executive power. Smith sponsored a bill that would end confirmation votes for several of the governor’s appointees.
Sandy Salmon, State Representative – Salmon is a newcomer to our Extreme 16. She earned a spot on the list with her bill that would limit social studies teachers’ ability to hold discussions on current events and require they teach “both sides” of “controversial issues.” Thankfully, it appears that the bill is not moving forward.
“Phony” Joni Ernst, U.S. Senator – Another familiar face. Ernst has been busy voting against ARPA and blocking voting rights legislation. She also failed to close the “boyfriend loophole” it the Violence Against Women Act, leaving a large group of women vulenrable to domestic violence.
“Whining” Skyler Wheeler, State Representative – Our final spot on the list goes to Rep. Wheeler, who went on a crusade to “save girls’ sports” by banning transgender athletes from competing in our state. News flash: girls’ sports don’t need rescuing.
Iowans cast their votes for the Extreme 16 over the past week, and the full bracket can be viewed by clicking here. In addition to the 16 who were seeded, the ‘first four out’ that just missed the cut were State Senators Zach Nunn, Ken Rozenboom, Adrian Dickey, and Jason Schultz.
One of the most baffling aspects of what has been Iowa’s turning into a Republican dominated state is that working people have been voting for Republicans. The thought of working people voting for a Republican seems at counter purpose to what working people would want representative government help them to achieve.
Yet here is Iowa on the cusp of experimenting with policies that have over the course of the last decade or so turned Iowa into a paradise for the rich and a hard place to survive for the working class. This year’s legislature is in the process of slapping workers around a bit more.
Iowa workers would have 10 fewer weeks of unemployment benefits under a bill passed Wednesday by the Iowa House and Senate.
House File 2355 is an amended version of a proposal by Gov. Kim Reynolds. It shortens the maximum amount of unemployment to 16 weeks, down from 26 weeks under current law. The bill also redefines a suitable job, requiring unemployed workers to accept lower-paid offers earlier in their job search.
The Senate’s version of the bill also introduces a one-week waiting period before Iowans begin receiving unemployment benefits. Rep. Michael Bousselot said he removed that provision from the House’s bill after discussion with union workers, who opposed the waiting period.
<< snip >>
Democrats in both chambers opposed the bill, offering a list of amendments to broadly change the state’s protections for workers: restoring collective bargaining rights, increasing access to affordable housing, making it easier for people to find a job despite a criminal record, and raising the minimum wage.
All Democratic amendments failed on the House and Senate floor. Members of the minority party spoke for several hours, emphasizing that the majority of people on unemployment severely need the benefits.
Workers have voted more and more for Republicans based on so-called “cultural” issues. Republicans have responded by making it harder to unionize, keeping wages low and now by cutting lifelines like unemployment insurance.
Our corporate puppet governor – “Corporate” Kim Reynolds – claims that workers are not taking available jobs because unemployment is so extravagant. Nothing could be farther from the truth and she knows it. Her proclaimed ‘worker shortage’ in Iowa is not due to workers idling about because unemployment benefits are so lavish. Not by a long shot.
There are problems in Iowa that the legislature refuses to address that could lure workers to Iowa. We could start by raising minimum wage. Iowa is currently among the lowest in the country.Add lack of benefits into that low wage calculation. That will never attract workers.
Then there is the problem of inadequate child care. For many families the cost of child care takes more that what they can make at a low wage job. Why even work if it is a money losing proposition.
Our governor can’t seem to understand why young people are leaving Iowa for better opportunities and then they do stuff like this.
And let us hope that workers are finally starting to realize that when you vote for Republicans because of their claims on the so-called cultural issues, that behind those claims is a legislative agenda that hurts workers and hands huge benefits to the wealthy and connected in our state.
Democrat Rep. Chris Hall of Sioux City immediately pushed back against those claims.
“In my opinion, that is the most polite and soft way that you can tell the public they’re about to get screwed,” Hall said. “Is the solvency of the unemployment trust fund at risk? No. And nobody’s buying the governor’s rationale that garbage policy like this will have a positive economic impact. It’s not going to address the workforce shortage.”
<< snip >>
Other Democrats pushing back against the bill were equally as blunt as Hall.
“This bill that we have before us today is a middle finger to hardworking Iowans,” Rep. Liz Bennett of Cedar Rapids said during the debate.
“Why are we punishing people who are fired through no fault of their own and looking for work?” House Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst of Windsor Heights asked. “By cutting them off and thinking that will get them back to work?”
“This is short-sighted, this is mean, and this is wrong.”
This is not a typical BFIA post. It’s not about politics. But the video really spoke to me as a reflection of our shallow, wasteful, disposable, unsustainable, American culture. Google dead malls and you will get image after scary image of abandoned American malls that give you the creeps, like pictures of haunted houses. And yet for the generation that grew up in malls, there is sadness and loss watching their demise. As I watched this video about Southridge Mall in Des Moines, the only episode I’ve seen in the series, I felt sad too.
“The combination of machine-counted paper ballots with rigorous post-election audits is far more likely to give us a trustworthy vote count than the complete abandonment of machine-counted ballots.”
Guest column published in the Des Moines Register by Douglas W. Jones a retired professor of computer science at the University of Iowa. He was chair of the Iowa Board of Examiners for Voting Machines and Electronic Voting Systems in 2000 and is co-author of the book “Broken Ballots” (CSLI Press, 2012).
Proposals nationally to abandon voting machinery in favor of hand-counted paper ballots reported in the March 13 Register (“Some push for counts by hand,” Page 5A) pose significant problems.
Hand counting works well where there is only one race on the ballot. In many parliamentary democracies, you vote for your member, the parliament elects the prime minster, and that’s it. Hand-counting such ballots is very fast; you just divide the ballots into stacks according to how they are voted and then count the number of pieces of paper in each stack.
In contrast, hand counts of U.S.-style ballots are messy. A small rural county might have 20 races on the ballot, and larger urban counties usually have many more.
By around 1930, the majority of urban voters in the United States were using mechanical voting machines, so you have to look before that to see how well, or poorly, hand counting works.
Outright fraud attracts the most attention. In the days of hand counting, tally clerks sometimes parked pieces of pencil lead under their fingernails so they could mark on ballots they disliked. The mark didn’t even need to look like a vote because most states have laws that disqualify ballots having “identifying marks.”
An even more subtle approach was for biased election workers to demand strict enforcement of disqualifying rules for ballots they disliked while being lenient about accepting ballots they liked. This leads to a spiraling arms race where partisan vote counters disqualify an ever-increasing fraction of the ballots until the election is determined by who can disqualify the most ballots instead of by how the voters feel.
It takes armies of biased ballot counting clerks to corrupt a hand-counted election, but our political parties have such armies. When these armies are devoted to campaigning, get-out-the-vote work and poll watching, it is good for democracy. When they are put to work on manipulating the vote count, it destroys democracy.
Problems like those described above led election reformers in the US to demand mechanical voting machines a century ago. They hoped that voting machines would break the back of political machines.
They were wrong. It turns out that moving vote counting from the hands of precinct election workers to voting machines moved the integrity of the process from the army of precinct workers to the voting machine technicians. With the move to computerized electronic ballot counting, the technicians in the county building are no longer as important as the programmers working for the voting machine vendors.
We know, from numerous studies, that the electronic ballot counting machines currently on the market are vulnerable to various attacks, but when they are operated properly, they count very accurately.
Back in 1965, the state of California addressed this problem by requiring a hand-counted audit after each election. The California model was to do a limited hand count to check the honesty of the machine count. They selected precincts at random to cover 1% of the ballots cast and then audited those. No other state did this until the controversy surrounding the 2000 presidential election. Today, a majority of states, including Iowa, require some kind of post-election auditing.
In the decades after 2000, we’ve developed more sophisticated audit models. When the margin in an election is large, you don’t need to hand-count many ballots to check the result. When the margin in the election is small, though, 1% is not nearly enough. The risk-limiting audits pioneered in Colorado and Rhode Island address this by hand-counting more ballots in close elections and even more when discrepancies are found.
There is plenty of room to improve how most states audit elections, but I believe that the combination of machine-counted paper ballots with rigorous post-election audits is far more likely to give us an accurate and trustworthy vote count than the complete abandonment of machine-counted ballots.
The USDA has continued a dangerous Trump-era program that will allow a number of pork processing plants to increase their “line” or “processing” speeds. This means more animals will be slaughteredand prepared for human consumption per minute — at the expense of worker and animal welfare.
The added pressure on the people working at the slaughterhouses to work at excessive speeds makes it more likely for them to suffer significant injures. It also makes it more likely for animal protection laws to be overlooked. This can result in rough and abusive handling, frequent use of electric pods, botched stunning, and careless slaughtering that can cause CONSCIOUS animals to feelexcruciating pain.
Meat factories are already considered an extremely hazardous working environment. Being forced to increase line speeds adds extra stress for these workers and puts them at significantly greater risk of accident and injury.
The animals and plant workers at the slaughterhouses aren’t the only ones whose safety is compromised with increased line speeds. Public health and food safety are also jeopardized when workers are forced to rush. Studies have shown that slaughterhouses operating at faster speeds contained higher rates of contamination from fecal and digestive matter.
The faster the lines are running, the more waste factory machines release, leading to higher air pollution and more agricultural runoff dumped into the ocean.
We are excited to announce the newest member of our board, Todd Prichard. Todd is a Democratic representative serving Iowa’s 52nd district in the Iowa House of Representatives. More importantly, he is one of the last rural Democrats in Iowa.
Rep. Prichard is a public school graduate, veteran, and lawyer. He has worked across the aisle on important issues like rural development, workforce training, veteran affairs, and public safety. But Rep. Prichard also understands the importance of promoting Democratic policies and investing in the next generation of Democratic voters.
That’s why we’re proud to have Rep. Prichard on our team as we work in his home state of Iowa and rural states across the country. Together, we will support Democratic candidates, policies, and voters in our shared mission to make sure rural America is prioritized in our political system.
Rep. Prichard has seen the challenges and backward policies that his Republican colleagues often bring to the table. But he also sees the way forward. Rep. Prichard can help us find the best way to connect with rural voters and win on the issues that these communities are most worried about right now.
United Rural Democrats (URD) is leading the effort to rebuild the Democratic Party in rural America. If we’re going to take back our country, we need a 50-state strategy to organize in every community across the country. Will you support our network of activists on the ground as we work to rebuild our party’s infrastructure and flip these areas blue?
Governor Kim Keynolds: (515) 281-5211 U.S. Capitol Switchboard: (202) 224-3121 Iowa Members of Congress - Rep. Randy Feenstra (R) - Rep. Ashley Hinson (R) - Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R) - Rep. Zach Nunn (R) Iowa US Senators - Senator Joni Ernst (R) - Senator Charles Grassley (R)
This is not a typical BFIA post. It’s not about politics. But the video really spoke to me as a reflection of our shallow, wasteful, disposable, unsustainable, American culture. Google dead malls and you will get image after scary image of abandoned American malls that give you the creeps, like pictures of haunted houses. And yet for the generation that grew up in malls, there is sadness and loss watching their demise. As I watched this video about Southridge Mall in Des Moines, the only episode I’ve seen in the series, I felt sad too.
Action alert from 
Blog For Iowa 