Water quality has been in the forefront of the news in Iowa this summer: beaches filled with toxic algae, high nitrates in drinking water, and water use restrictions. As a state, we have been grappling with these issues and more as a product of pollution in Iowa’s waterways. Submit your comments to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) by October 20 and ask them to improve Iowa’s water quality protections for our health.
Clink on thte link below to tell the Iowa DNR to properly address Iowan’s health through the triennial review process. Here are a few protections IEC is advocating for:
Adopt numeric nutrient standards to prevent nitrate and algae problems.
Set a protective nitrate standard for drinking water.
Adopt human health criteria that EPA has recommended.
Maintain requirements that help meet standards and protect Iowa’s water supplies from pollution.
The Iowa DNR is accepting written public comments until October 20. Questions? Contact us at iecmail@iaenvironment.org.
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Iowa City Wed, Oct 1 @ 5:30 – Ped Mall Fountain Stage – downtown
Featuring State Senator Zach Wahls, candidate for U.S. Senate, UI Law Professor Andrew Jordan, UI Journalism Professor Brett Johnson, Iowa City Librarian Sam Helmick, County Supervisor Jon Green, and more.
Come show your support for our Free Speech rights! For questions or further information please contact Rod Sullivan at rodsullivan29@gmail.com.
💙🇺🇸💙
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Leila for Iowa
Help elect Leila Staton to fight for Iowans’ financial freedom, access to healthcare and housing in Iowa House District 54.
I am not running on corporate PACs, and am relying on grassroots contributions just like yours.
GORDON WATKINS
President and Co-founder
Buffalo River Watershed Alliance
DR. CHRIS JONES
Retired University of Iowa Research Engineer
Author of The Swine Republic, and President of Driftless Water Defenders
FREE!
A $5 donation helps JFAN protect Jefferson County’s quality of life
Imagine a state that works with a community to shut down a large CAFO then establish a permanent moratorium in a valued watershed.
Crazy pipe dream?
This actually happened in Arkansas in the Buffalo National River watershed. On Thursday, October 16 you’ll hear the whole story during the JFAN Annual Meeting.
Gordon Watkins, Co-founder and President of the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance, will unfold the inspiring story of how the local and broader community came together to oppose C&H Hogs, a 6500-head hog factory farm permitted in 2012. C&H Hogs was built in the watershed of country’s first national river. Its 2.5 million gallons of manure per year threatened the recreational opportunities and aesthetics of this valued resource.
The community’s outreach and perseverance over a 12-year period drew a wide range of allies working to protect the scenic 135-mile Buffalo National River, a major tourist destination and economic driver in Newton County, Arkansas, where C&H Hogs was located.
Watkins will describe how this coalition came together how it pushed the Hutchinson administration to close the CAFO and enact a temporary moratorium in 2019. Its continued efforts resulted in the Sanders administration recently declaring the moratorium permanent.
And then we have Iowa. Could something like that ever happen here?
It could if water quality advocate Dr. Chris Jones had his way. Jones knows all too well how Iowa’s political system bends to the will of agribusiness to the detriment of water quality and public health. He will first provide an overview of why it’s so difficult getting the Iowa state legislators to properly regulate CAFOs and protect water quality.
But Jones recently developed a comprehensive vision for a progressive food and farm policy that could start to heal the land and better protect water quality and the health of Iowans. He’ll share this vision, providing a roadmap of how we can improve the state’s circumstances.
About our Speakers
GORDON WATKINS has lived in the Ozark Mountains of northwest Arkansas since 1973 where he and his wife, Susan, operate an organic farm and a tourism business catering to visitors to the Buffalo National River.
In 2013, Gordon helped co-found and is current president of the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance (BRWA), a non-profit organization created in response to the sudden appearance of the 6500-head confinement C&H Hogs.
DR. CHRIS JONES, President of Driftless Water Defenders, is a retired research engineer from the University of Iowa and former manager of the Iowa Water Quality Information System that provides real-time monitoring and reporting of water quality data throughout the state.
The JFAN Annual Meeting is free; a $5 free-will donation helps JFAN protect Jefferson County’s quality of life. Registration is required, and you can sign up here.
We have gone through an absolute convulsion of media micro coverage on the Charlie Kirk shooting. One of the most interesting offshoots was the firing of Jimmy Kimmel for making an innocent comment. It had nothing to do with the comment but instead had everything to do with using the incident to accrue power to the executive against the constitution.
We must have heard a thousand times that Charlie Kirk was a ‘conservative.’ No one explained how Kirk was a conservative or how he practiced his conservatism. Whenever I hear the use of such all encompassing words it gets me to wondering just what the user means. In this case I think it is just lazy journalism.
Words such as ‘conservative’ have become trigger words that are meant to evoke an often erroneous image in the listeners mind. ‘Conservative’ has been shaped to evoke the image of someone who believes in a long established set of rules and norms that are the basis for sound and sane society.
For instance most would say conservatives defend intelligent use of our resources such as nature, money and manpower. It also evokes the image of a person very much in control of themselves, not prone to impulsive actions, deliberate in their thoughts and actions.
Now think of those who claim the mantle of conservative. For the most part they are destroying nature and causing irreversible climate change; their policies often do not make any monetary sense; their actions are often impulsive and poorly thought out (use of guns). As for self control, they are often led by a pack leader (such as a wealthy strong man) and seldom act outside the pack.
If you think about it this is hardly the image the lazy journalist conveys when they blankly utter the phrase ‘conservative’ as in ‘conservative Charlie Kirk.’ When you think of what Kirk did, it was hardly ‘conservative.’ He was much more of a far right radical extremist than someone who was trying to save and maintain a society.
But of course for today’s mass media lazy journalism that doesn’t rouse the wrath of the king is the coin of the realm these days. So our pathetic, corporate media spent precious air time making an extremist into a Marty. It always helps to have a bag of reliable words at the ready.
My second thought related to Kirk is why do we never hear of what happens to those shot and injured. I guess most of us just kind of assume that those victims, since they didn’t die are able to go merrily on their way and resume life. But when we all think about it, if you have been shot, there is a very good chance you will have life altering problems.
But in our society even if you have such life altering problems due to someone else’s shooting of a gun you are saddled with the financial responsibility for the rest of your life. Maybe a person needs special living accommodations? Perhaps round the clock nursing care? Maybe they can never work again?
Miya Rodolfo-Siosan (4 minutes)
Long time Iowans can remember back to the November 1991 shooting on Iowa’s campus by graduate student Gang Lu. Lu killed himself and six others died from gunshot wounds delivered by Lu. However, one victim survived. Miya Rodolfo-Siosan was permanently paralyzed from that day until her death in 2008.
“An average of 118 people a day died from a gun-related incident in 2023. For every person who dies by firearm, more than two survive, often with significant and expensive mental and physical injuries. {ed note: That is ~40,000 dead and over 100,000 who survive and must figure out how to live a year}
In June 2024, US Surgeon General, Vivek Murthy, MD, issued a Surgeon General’s Advisory on Firearm Violence, the first publication from the Office of the Surgeon General dedicated to the health issue.
Gun violence has significant health and economic consequences, especially among child and adolescent survivors. Gun violence can place a strain on health care systems, with survivors increasing hospitalizations and spending by 1,449% and 1,713% respectively.
Gun violence in the US has steep economic consequences, totaling $557 billion in 2022. Most significant are the quality-of-life costs, which include the value of pain and well-being lost by survivors of firearm injuries, decedents, and their families.”
First, I simply must ask – since Iowa State fired an employee for allegedly celebrating the death of Charlie Kirk will the honchos at our universities comb through emails and social media posts for any such similar conduct following the period after Melissa Hortman and her husband were murdered?
Grab on to something well anchored. This next week may test our ability to hang on. Remember that Wednesday is the day that MAGAs will be shutting down the government as the FIWH {Felon In the White House} has been angling for as his admin continues to distract from the EPSTEIN! files.
Then comes the SURPRISE! meeting of military brass that Secretary of WAR! Petey Kegbreath has called. Will it be war with Venezuela? Purging the top brass and imposition of loyalty to the FIWH demands? Both? Whatever you can bet it won’t be good.
And what political enemies are in the scopes for next week? The James Comey indictment shows that even being a Republican or MAGA or someone who did an immense favor to the FIWH himself is no defense against retribution from the FIWH. (Did you forget about Comey’s roll in the 2016 election? His October surprise?)
But first, some animal comedy before the swirling the drain starts. It is our old friend Stella and a few piles of leaves (4 minutes)
A) Airports in Denmark, France and Norway were shut down by what last week?
B) Thursday ICE abducted or arrested a worker at a downtown grocery store in what Iowa town?
C) Despite cutting foreign aid to many poor countries that is resulting in deaths, the administration has promised to bail out what extreme right wing country?
D) Old fashioned values! Tom Homan took his $50,000 bribe in what old fashioned way?
E) How about some Autumn questions? About how many women in the US are named Autumn?
F) The FIWH had people with what kind of visas abandoning trips to return to the US as quickly as possible last weekend?
G) Some folks were planning on getting a free house or car last week but their plans were foiled when what did not happen (again)?
H) A sculpture was erected near the US capitol and then quickly removed of the FIWH cavorting with what close friend?
I) Let’s reach back to grade school to remember what kind of trees lose their leaves in the autumn?
J) The acolytes went nuts when they claimed that a what the FIWH was riding on was stopped on purpose at the UN?
K) Speaking of the UN, what world leader was the subject of a mass walkout before he gave his scheduled speech Friday?
L) Why do leaves turn colors in autumn?
M) What Canadian sport will change its rules in 2027 to make it look more like its US counterpart?
N) The FIWH issued an Executive Order against what non-existent group Monday?
O) RFK jr. and his lackeys at Health and Human Services announced they will conduct a ‘review’ of pills designed to do what?
P) Party on, dudes and dudettes! What world known party goes from September 20th to Oktober 5th in Munich, Germany?
Q) Apples are often associated with autumn. Back in colonial days what were apples called?
R) What is Kenvue and why was it in the news last week?
S) Ryan Walters, Secretary of Education for the worst public school system in the US in Oklahoma, did what last week?
T) Morton, Illinois is called the pumpkin capital of the world. Why?
“If you think Tylenol is bad for children, wait until you learn about guns.”Comment on Trump’s saying Tylenol causes autism
Tip of the hat to democraticunderground.co
Answers:
A) drones buzzing airports thought to have been sent from Russia
B) Iowa City
C) Argentina. Current Argentine President Milei îs a big admirer of the FIWh and practitioner of far right economics
D) In a paper restaurant take out bag
E) 135,000
F) H1B visas. The FIWH announced he would charge $100,000 to any H1B visas coming in to the US as of last Sunday
H) Jeffrey Epstein
I) deciduous
J) escalator – it was inadvertently stopped by his videographer. Many were surprised he was able to overcome the obstacle
K) Netanyahu
L) as the sunlight fades less chlorophyll is made and the colors underneath show up
M) Canadian football. Fans are upset
N) antifa. It doesn’t exist. It is a philosophy
O) Mifepristone
P) Oktoberfest
Q) winter bananas or melt-in-the-mouth
R) Kenvue is a company spun off from Johnson & Johnson for its Over the counter medications. Kenvue is the maker of Tylenol, the drug falsely cited by the FIWH as causing autism
S) He ordered all high schools in Oklahoma to start turning Points USA chapter at their schools. Then he resigned to start a company to work against teachers unions.
T) Morton is the home to a Libby’s canning factory where 90% of the world’s canned pumpkin is processed.
The ONLY reason Disney is bringing Kimmel back is because the American people stood up, called out the executives by name, Disney’s stock plummeted and Disney lost a lot
First let me remind you thatthere will be a second NO KINGS day of action on October 18th. I personally believe this will be one of the most historic events in this countries history. It will test whether people truly do have the power to hold a tyrant accountable. Trump and his toadies continue to violate the constitution almost minute by minute and it must be stopped.
Let me also remind you that Trump and his MAGA toadies in congress – including Iowa’s entire groveling congressional delegation – are planning to shut down the government on Wednesday. They have made it plain that they plan to shut the government down by refusing to negotiate anything with Democrats. Their only plans are to blame Democrats and fire federal workers and blame that on Democrats.
That, folks, is how kings take power. Remember that each and every cowardly politician who refuses to stand up to Trump is in effect empowering his continuing power grab. From Grassley, Hinson, Ernst, Reynolds on down to state house MAGAs who have attacked unions, cut unemployment insurance and undermined public schools.
With that as a lead in I want to remind you of four events that will be taking place tomorrow Sunday September 28th, Monday September 29th and Wednesday October 1. The first is a rural candidate forum to be held at the Cedar County Fairgrounds in Tipton. Politicians across the spectrum have been invited to address farm issues.
As any good Iowan knows, the current administration has demolished the markets for Iowa farm products potentially making 2025 a disaster for Iowa farmers. The poster below gives the time and location. Hopefully there will be some folks there to explain and defend the administrations policies.
The second event on Sunday in honor of International Safe Abortion Day, will be a screening of Zurawski v. Texas, a groundbreaking new documentary executive-produced by Jennifer Lawrence, Hillary Clinton, and Chelsea Clinton. The film reveals the devastating impact of abortion bans in the U.S. through the stories of women denied medically necessary abortions and the fearless attorney who took their fight to court. Their struggle is not only for themselves, but for millions whose reproductive freedom hangs in the balance.
The third event will be in Washington. It is an IA-01 Town Hall: Funding & Affordability Challenges for Rural Healthcare. Please join Fairness for Iowa, Protect Our Care Iowa, and Iowa Physicians for a National Health Plan for a powerful town hall discussion on the growing challenges rural Iowans face in accessing vital healthcare services in their communities.
Today, Dr. Ian Roberts, Superintendent of Des Moines Public Schools, was detained by ICE agents. This follows horrific attacks from ICE across the United States, including in Iowa City just yesterday. In light of these events, Progress Iowa Executive Director and DMPS parent Mazie Stilwell released the following statement:
“No Iowan is safe. We’re living under a fascist regime because Nunn, Miller-Meeks, Hinson and every single Iowa Member of Congress has been in lockstep with the MAGA administration that is terrorizing our communities. President Trump is willing to use political power against anyone who disagrees with him. While the details of Dr. Roberts’ detainment have yet to be released, we cannot let him, or anyone in America, be detained without due process. We demand our representatives provide answers and appropriate action.
“We hope our elected leaders agree our freedoms are more important than their allegiance to Donald Trump. It is time for themto finally stand up for us and stop these attacks on our freedoms and our communities. Every Iowan should call their legislators and ask why Iowans are being detained, and what they are doing to protect us.”
Sen. Chuck Grassley: (202) 224-3744 or (515) 288-1145
Sen. Joni Ernst: (202) 224-325 or (515) 284-4574
Rep. Nunn: (202) 225-5476 or (515) 400-8180
Rep. Miller-Meeks: (202) 225-6576 or (563) 232-0930
Progress Iowa is the state’s progressive communications hub with a network that reaches nearly 100,000. Year-round, we promote progressive ideas and causes with research-backed creative media strategies to empower Iowans who want to improve our state.
DM School Board holds a news conference yesterday afternoon. News conference was in progress as I copied the link.
“Shortly before 11 on Thursday morning, two men who eventually identified themselves as “federal agents” violently seized a worker at Bread Garden Market on the Ped Mall in Iowa City. Neither man was wearing a uniform or displaying a badge or identification as they tackled Jorge Elieser González Ochoa, forcing him to the floor. After handcuffing him while one agent held a sparking Taser, the two marched González to the store’s rear entrance, then placed him in an unmarked minivan and drove off. The whole time González was calling out in Spanish, asking for someone to help him.
González was preparing to apply for asylum, and at the time he was seized was in ICE’s Alternatives to Detention (ATD) program, in which immigrants remain free while their immigration cases are being resolved.
The seizure of González by the two agents in plainclothes was captured on video by bystanders, one of whom kept shouting for agents to identify themselves, and for someone to call the police.”
Save America March seeks to build unity, one step at a time
DES MOINES, IOWA— On Monday, September 29, talk show host and former state rep Ed Fallon begins a five-week trek through Iowa. Fallon sees theSave America Marchas an opportunity to dialogue with Iowans of all political stripes about preserving America’s democracy through peaceful, nonviolent means.
Fallon plans to walk about 10-15 miles a day. He’ll carry only the walking stick he received from Trappist monks in 2006, the satchel gifted to him by Mahatma Gandhi’s granddaughter Sumitra Kulkarni in 1995, and a few personal items. He will ask people along the route to put him up in their home each night.
The first week of the March includes stops in Des Moines, Pleasant Hill, Clive, Waukee, and Van Meter. Tentative plans for the second week include stops in St. Charles, Winterset, and Greenfield.
“Our democracy is being supplanted by authoritarian rule,” said Fallon. “We’ll never address the existential threats of climate change and nuclear weapons, or any other pressing issue for that matter, without a functional democracy. Violence isn’t the answer. The approach of leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Cesar Chavez, and Dorothy Day is what will save us.”
Fallon invites people to march with him for a mile or a day. He’ll ask overnight hosts to organize a meeting, a meal, and music, and to include family, friends, and neighbors with differing viewpoints. “It’s a big ask,” admitted Fallon. “In my experience, when people who don’t see eye-to-eye politically get together over conversation, food, and music, they inevitably find common ground.”
As an example of this principle, Fallon referencesCrossing the Divide, a short documentary that followed the Climate Justice Unity March in 2017. The initial antagonism by local residents toward marchers was replaced by an understanding of the need to address common concerns.
“Authoritarianism has been spreading for a while,” said Fallon. “This year, it’s gone from bad to worse. The civility that used to define public engagement is being supplanted by name-calling, lying, and flouting the Constitution.”
Fallon’s history of marching as a vehicle for social change dates back to 1986, when he organized the Iowa stretch of the coast-to-coast Great Peace March. Since then, Fallon has organized five long marches and walks.
— He founded Great March for Climate Action (nowClimate March) and in 2014 joined 50 people to march 3,100 miles from Los Angeles to Washington, DC. His memoir —Marcher, Walker, Pilgrim— chronicles that journey.
— In March-April 2015, Fallon completed theDakota Access Pipeline Walk— a solo hike of 400 miles from southeast Iowa to northwest Iowa along the route of the then-proposed Dakota Access pipeline.
— In November 2015, Fallon and Steve Martin walked 200 miles from Normandy Beach to Paris, France, in support of the United Nations Climate Summit.
— In April 2017, thirty people participated in theClimate Justice Unity March, walking 85 miles from eastern Iowa to Des Moines to call for climate action, and to highlight the shared concerns of Native and non-Native Iowans.
— In September 2018, thirty participants in theFirst Nation – Farmer Climate Unity Marchwalked nearly 100 miles from Des Moines to Fort Dodge to oppose expanding the Dakota Access pipeline.
In addition to directing two non-profits — Climate March andBold Iowa— Fallon hosts theFallon Forum, which has aired continuously for sixteen years. His platform includes a weekly radio show on eight stations in seven states, a podcast, and blog.
Fallon also managesBirds & Bees Urban Farmwith his wife, Kathy Byrnes. The non-profit’s mission is to help people turn their yard into dinner. Fallon is also an accomplished musician, performing traditional Irish music with theDes Moines Irish Sessionand having recently recorded theChopin Nocturnes.
Save America Marchis sponsored by the Fallon Forum and Climate March. People interested in supporting the March can donate to either organization. People who would like to host Fallon or march with him can reach him at (515) 238-6404 or ed@fallonforum.com.
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“Resist the change you don’t want to see in the world.” — Ed Fallon
There is little to say about the death by gun violence of Charlie Kirk. Too many U.S. citizens die of gun violence and the Congress can, and should do something to prevent more death and destruction. On the other hand, Republicans, including gubernatorial candidate Brad Sherman, find things to say,
In a Sept. 16, “Letter to the People of Iowa,” published at The Iowa Standard, Sherman wrote in response to the shooting, “…many are waking up to the uncomfortable reality that the United States of America has been and is engaged in a long ideological war that is threatening to break out into all-out chaos.”
I’m calling malarkey.
There will only be chaos for as long as conservatives like Sherman persist in framing our lives in society that way.
When I go to the grocer, the convenience store, the hair stylist, or the hardware store there is no war going on. People are trying to live their complicated lives. For war to exist, there have to be at least two sides, and I just don’t see it in the people among whom I live. We don’t need Republican agitators like Sherman. We are better without them.
Kirk is dead. We should pay appropriate respects. Put down your inflammatory words Mr. Sherman. Any ideological war, if there ever was one, is over.
Let’s get on with making Iowa a better place to live.
~ First published as a letter to the editor on Sept. 18, 2025 at Little Village Magazine
Go to Indivisible.org to join Indivisible and to find your local Indivisible group.
And now a word from Ezra Levin at Indivisible.
This week’s actions are all about fighting bravely and pushing others to be brave with us — from Disney execs in the Kimmel showdown, to our Democratic senators in the funding fight, to our communities on No Kings Day. But first, Ezra addresses the past few days’ big news.
A while back, Leah and I watched the HBO miniseries Years and Years, which tells a dystopian fictional story of the UK’s slow decline into authoritarianism. Each episode jumps forward a few years, with the technofascist story lurching ahead ever more menacingly. Emma Thompson is great as an authoritarian leader, but it may hit too close to home if you’re (reasonably) looking for escapism now.
Unfortunately, our reality is not just some dystopian fiction. Things that all-knowing political commentators dismissed as alarmist months ago are now being defended by MAGA footsoldiers and both-sided by upstanding political commentators. The simple facts are galling:
The president of the United States said publicly, “I couldn’t care less” about right-wing political violence.
And the administration is now widely reported to be preparing a crackdown on political opponents.
But as threatening and dangerous as all this is, what I see here is a weak regime lashing out. This is desperate, bizarre stuff that will backfire if we make it backfire.
The regime is making a mistake. We’ve got to take advantage of that. I’m not a professional political commentator (thank god), so here’s my take as a pro-democracy organizer instead:
The regime is overplaying its hand. They think they are now justified in cracking down on free speech, peaceful protest, and the opposition. But they’re wrong — they don’t have the support for it.
We’ve seen this kind of overreach and blowback again and again this year. “Winning” issues for Trump — immigration, cancel culture, crime — all crumble in the aftermath of his spasms of authoritarian power grabs.
Americans don’t like masked men disappearing people to foreign gulags. Americans don’t like invading and occupying American cities. Americans don’t like rigging the next election to protect the regime from accountability. Americans don’t like crackdowns on freedom of speech.
And over the past few days, Americans have shown that. Just as we were about to send a different version of this newsletter, ABC/Disney reinstated Kimmel.
Pressure works! This happened because Disney executives — including CEO Bob Iger and Entertainment Co-Chair Dana Walden — felt the heat:
By all accounts, ABC/Disney caved to Trump because they thought it’d be the easier thing to do, but they were not in any way prepared for the blowback that followed. They bought into the image of Trump as all powerful — but found out pretty fast that everyday people hold a lot of power, too.
The regime wants to look all powerful — we shouldn’t let it. On Friday, I talked to Jen Psaki on MSNBC about the Disney pressure campaign and the regime’s escalation. My main point: The best way to fight back against Trump’s attacks on our rights is to exercise those rights.
We did that over the last few days by pushing Disney to reverse course. Now, we’ve got to do it again — by making No Kings on October 18 an enormous, historic demonstration of people peacefully exercising their First Amendment rights.
We’re closing in on 1,500 events on the map with nearly a month left. We’re exceeding the rate of new event registration we saw for No Kings in June — then the largest domestic protest in years — meaning this is shaping up to be the largest peaceful protest in modern American history.
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)
Action alert from IEC:
Don’t forget there are currently over 1,500 NO KINGS events scheduled for October 18. Find an event near you
Blog For Iowa 