High inflation, gas and grocery prices, and health care are haunting Americans this Halloween.

However, two polls in the past week reveal that voters are facing up to an even more frightening spectre: Government corruption. It’s the top issue for 60% of registered voters, according to a Fox News poll.

CNBC’s All-America Economic Survey conducted Oct. 14-18 conjures up a similar result, with 36% citing government corruption as one of the most critical issues, ahead of food and groceries (34%), gas and protecting democracy, both at 23%. The poll is co-led by Democratic pollster Hart Research Associates and Republican pollster Public Opinion Strategies.

On the cusp of casting votes in the November 3 midterm election, Americans are witnessing alarming apparitions of the wealthy and well-connected cashing in. Some Democratic candidates are pointing a finger at corruption as the underlying reason ordinary people are getting the short end of the broomstick this Halloween.

The rot begins at the top, with the Self-Dealer-in-Chief Donald Trump staging a nonstop performance of How Not to Drain the Swamp. During Trump’s first presidency his supporters defended him, saying, “He doesn’t even cash his government paycheck.” They believed he was serving as president out of the goodness of his heart! It’s as if he had cast a spell over them.

But an August 2026 poll from Reuters/Isos reports 7 in 10 Americans believe Trump’s presidential decisions are influenced by his businesses. Case in point: his net worth has surged to $7.3 billion, up from $3.9 billion in 2024, according to a September article in Forbes. Here are a few potential reasons:

· Personal Assets. The White House insists Trump doesn’t direct the active trading that’s defined his second term. It’s conducted by investment advisors, but his assets aren’t held in a traditional blind trust. In August, Trump bought about $25 million in Meta stock, and as much as $5 million in SpaceX debt two days before signing a new policy to expand U.S. commercial space transportation. He also accepted a jet from the Qataris valued at $400 million; by pure coincidence, his company is developing a golf course and luxury villas on Qatar’s eastern coast.

· Crypto Business: World Liberty Financial was founded in 2024 by Trump, his sons, and the sons of Manhattan real estate mogul Steve Witkoff. Trump family crypto ventures generated at least $2.3 billion in profit from mid-2024 through April 2026. Four days before Trump’s second inauguration the brother of the United Arab Emirates’ ruler purchased a 49% stake in World Liberty Financial.

· Diplomacy/Duplicity: World diplomacy also is a profit center for the Trumps and their inner circle. Son-in-law and Special Peace Envoy Jared Kushner isn’t an official government employee. He’s not required to make financial disclosures, and his venture capital firm has attracted immense Middle Eastern investment. Witkoff, who has no diplomatic experience or background, also is a special peace envoy to Iran, Russia, and Ukraine. His net worth has increased by at least $300 million since he started this side gig (plus World Liberty Financial.)

Trump fired Kimberly Guilfoyle from her plum assignment as Ambassador to Greece. She was mimicking his modus operandi by accepting improper gifts and cashing in on her official position. But as the ex-fiancée of Trump’s son Don, she was throwing shade on Vice President Vance’s taskforce to crack down on fraud.

After all, Trump has declared he “will not let our country be looted and plundered by thieves and pirates and foreign fraudsters and basically scum.”

High Stake States

The CNBC survey shows 93% of registered voters do not believe elected officials should personally own or trade stocks in individual companies that have contracts with the federal government. A similar majority would exclude a sitting president’s immediate family from receiving federal government contracts if they own or invest in these companies.

The corruption issue also has generated spirited state campaigns, especially where candidates are accused of hiding skeletons in their closets:

Texas: At every stop, Senate candidate James Talarico argues that wealthy donors have corrupted politics, and this corruption is fueling the affordability crisis. He takes aim at his opponent Ken Paxton who was impeached by the GOP-dominated Texas House in 2023 on charges of bribery and obstruction. (He was later acquitted.) Another Talarico ad targets Elon Musk for spending millions to elect Paxton.

Iowa: Although most of the energy is on the Democratic side, Republican Ashley Hinson has run prominent ads touting her stance opposing insider trading. But her messaging collides with ads run by her opponent Josh Turek, who highlights how her net worth catapulted after she went to Washington in 2021. Turek vows to take on the current “corruption crisis” by passing campaign finance and congressional ethics reforms. He does not accept PAC donations.

Maine: Susan Collins is defending herself against accusations that her PAC solicited a donation from a contracting firm in 2020 – a pay-to-play scheme. It was investigated by the Biden administration, but no charges were brought. Her Democratic opponent Troy Jackson is calling her out for corruption.

Creepy Corruption

In the 2024 election, Democrats pleaded with voters to protect democracy by voting for Kamala Harris. They were unconvinced.

Trump candy-coated his promises to bring down the cost of living and drain the swamp. He was re-elected despite his role in January 6, legal indictments, character flaws, web of lies, and infidelities. In his second term he’s governed like an autocrat – profiting from his office and entrenching himself in power. He’s accepted dark money donations to the White House ballroom and Freedom 250, and fast tracked the Paramount merger for his billionaire buddy, Oracle-owner Larry Ellison.

Of course, Trump is not on the ballot. But his enablers are. The president’s allies in Congress – Hinson, Miller-Meeks, and Nunn – have given him a free pass to continue making money off his office. They never dared to say “Boo” to him.

Now Trump’s campaigning for them because he fears being held accountable if they lose their seats. If Iowa’s incumbents are returned to Congress by voters, we can expect more of the same from Trump: blaming bogeymen and hobgoblins for the lack of affordability and declining quality of life.

What if voters finally make the connection in 2026 between Trump’s corrupt transactional policies and their worsening economic well-being? It’s the Republicans’ worst nightmare. Just thinking about it sends shivers down their spines.

Federal campaign finance and ethics laws were passed to prevent candidates and officeholders from becoming beholden to big donors or using their position for personal or political gain. Yet that’s precisely what Trump is doing — our government’s anti-corruption firewall has been breached. The Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision spawned Super PACs, unleashing unlimited money into federal elections.

The CNBC Poll shows a majority of voters feel the Democrats would do a better job dealing with government corruption. If they win, we must hold them to their promises to take on corruption, and teach Trump and other tricksters a hard lesson: “You can’t keep stealing from the American people.”

Banishing Corruption

As trick or treaters line up at our doorsteps this weekend, prices for candy and gum have skyrocketed 7.7% in one year, and more than 18% in two years. Higher fuel costs and expensive imports triggered by the Iran war and U.S. tariffs are bringing the affordability campaign message close to home.

Slime remains popular with kids of all ages this Halloween. But what’s the true cost of allowing our government leaders to subject us to more of their SLIME? Have voters reached a tipping point on corruption?

The witching hour is near. Will Iowans wake up on November 4, forced to watch re-runs of the horror movie, We Are Still Here? Or, will we ignore the fearmongering, exercise our supernatural powers at the polls, and flip Iowa’s polarized political channel to enjoy The Vanishing of Republican incumbents and super majorities?

Stay tuned: Park your broom and sit for a spell!

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Holiday party!

Many thanks to those of you who are paying subscribers. And as a token of appreciation, paid subscribers are invited to the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative annual Holiday Party. This year, it’s at the World Food Prize Headquarters in downtown Des Moines. It’ll be held December 10th at 7:00 pm. Drinks and a dessert party in the beautifully-restored building on the banks of the Des Moines River.

Last year’s party at the Harkin Institute was a blast! It’s quickly becoming one of the best holiday parties in Iowa, bringing writers and readers together for conversation.

Paid subscribers should RSVP here.

Looking forward to seeing you. And thank you!

It seems someone informed Donald Trump that American women won the vote back in 1920.

Why else would he have staged an event with First Lady Melania Trump to announce a new White House initiative to advance women’s health two weeks prior to the midterm election? A poll released in August by Bellwether Research and Consulting shows that only 32% of American women approve of Trump.

This initiative, packaged in the form of an Executive Order, creates a Division of Women’s Health within the National Institutes of Health (NIH). A new White House Women’s Health Taskforce also will be formed within 90 days.

“Beginning today, we will change the reality of women’s health,” Melania Trump read from her script. “Previous generations fought for women’s rights. Our generation will fight to discover the cures that will ensure a woman can live her life in health and to the fullest.”

The Executive Order calls for further research into maternal and mental health, including understudied conditions: infertility, endometriosis and fibroids, as well as osteoporosis, Alzheimer’s disease, heart disease and stroke. Artificial intelligence would be used to speed up health discoveries, accelerate development of new treatments, and ensure care is accessible and affordable.

Sounds good, right? Almost too good to be true.

Prior Incarnation

The NIH already has the Office of Research on Women’s Health, created in 1990 under President George H.W. Bush to study a broad range of health issues. In 2024, President Biden signed an Executive Order on women’s health, highlighting heart disease, menopause, endometriosis and Alzheimer’s Disease. However, in the past year, NIH has funded 31% fewer competitive research projects with the word “women.”

In April 2025, DOGE slashed funding for the NIH Women’s Health Office, disrupting landmark studies focused on preventative care. After a huge public protest the funding was restored.

Trump’s women’s division doesn’t replace the NIH Women’s Office. The plan is to “collaborate” and exercise a broader mandate. However, the Executive Order does revoke Biden’s 2024 Executive Order.

No mention was made of any new funding from Congress to reinforce this initiative. If not, any investment in new research surely would dilute funding from a current focus of study.

The White House taskforce, chaired by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Susie Wiles, White House chief of staff, raises some questions. How would the women’s initiative be used to advance Kennedy’s MAHA and anti-vax agendas?

What Does Real Change Look Like?

Let’s assume this new initiative is likely little more than window dressing –a throw-away election ploy. What other policy changes could this administration pursue in the next two years to improve women’s health?

· Expanded child care. The U.S. ranks 40 out of 41 high-income countries in child care access, affordability, quality, and parental leave. President Clinton created the Child Care and Development Fund to help stressed-out lower-income parents pay for child care so they could work or enroll in job training. It’s been critically underfunded by the HHS. J.D. Vance recently proposed siphoning this funding to create a $12 billion plan to pay $9,000 per year per child for one parent to stay home with them.

Think Project 2025. At least 80% of the families currently benefitting from these childcare subsidies are single parents ­ mostly women who work outside the home. However, under Vance’s plan, only married couples would qualify.

· Improved food security. Women also would gain from government efforts to reduce food insecurity. Over 5 million Americans already have lost their SNAP benefits, thanks to the 2025 One Big Beautiful Bill which rewrote eligibility and work requirements. A total of 58% of them are women, especially those working low-wage jobs and single mothers. Two thirds are mothers of school-age children.

· Prioritized maternal health care. Medicaid covers 41% of all births in the U.S. and an even larger share in some states. Beginning in 2027, cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill threaten postpartum coverage and reproductive health care, including risky conditions like high blood pressure and diabetes. It also threatens access. Between 2000 and 2024, about 40 Iowa labor and delivery hospital units closed, increasing the distance and the risk for women in labor.

· Support for teen sex and health education. A federal Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program (TPP) grant to EyesOpenIowa, along with TPP grants in more than two dozen other states, was canceled in June by HHS two years ahead of its funding cycle. In mid-August, a federal judge blocked the action while a lawsuit proceeds. The judge also blocked the abstinence-only sex ed rules HHS wrote for the replacement grants. Congress established the TPP in 2010. Since then, teen pregnancy rates have dropped about 72%. The Trump administration argues that it “normalizes or promotes sexual activity for minors.”

· Protection from sexual predators. Last month, a bookmobile unlike any other made a stop in Des Moines. the Donald J. Trump and Jeffrey Epstein Memorial Bookmobile. Millions of copies of pages from the Jeffrey Epstein files were displayed, complete with government redactions. It’s part of a national tour organized by the Institute for Primary Facts, a nonprofit that creates public record exhibits, and DEFIANCE.org, a civic action group.

Wouldn’t releasing the remaining three million files send a signal to women that this administration values their well-being and protection above the wealthy men who feel entitled to prey on teenage girls?

Earlier this week, the Republican candidate for Ohio governor, billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy released an ad featuring the estranged mother of his opponent Amy Acton, who called her daughter a liar. Acton, a victim of rape by her stepfather was removed from her mother’s home, along with her younger brother. Her stepfather was indicted, yet her mother lived fled with him to avoid trial until his death.

As a 12-year-old, Amy Acton was victimized by a child predator, and today, this accomplished woman who overcame her trauma has been victimized again by a $4 million political ad by her male opponent. J.D. Vance, visiting Ohio after this story broke, dismissed the ad, stating politics is a “tough business.” As he left for his campaign trip to Iowa, Trump dismissed Acton’s trauma as “fair game.” “I only wish I could have had an ad like that against somebody,” Trump said. “But as it turned out, we didn’t need it.”

· Reduced gun violence. Compared to women in other high-income countries, American women are 21 times more likely to die from gun violence. Yet the Republican Party turns a blind eye to it, along with the deaths of innocent school students, and queues up each legislative session to expand gun ownership and open more public areas to guns.

Have Iowa Candidates Worked for Women?

How does Iowa’s Congressional delegation use their powers to improve women’s mental and physical health? They voted “Yes” to the One Big Beautiful Bill. They voted for it – knowing that Medicaid is a critical lifeline to Iowa’s hospitals, nursing homes, and clinics. They voted for it, knowing these cuts disproportionately impact women of all ages who are the majority of beneficiaries.

Iowa’s Congressional delegation also voted “Yes” to the biggest cut in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program’s history. They voted for it – knowing that mothers and their children will be on the front lines of facing food insecurity.

Iowa’s delegation, including Ashley Hinson, voted “No” or avoided bipartisan efforts to force a vote to release the Epstein files UNTIL DONALD TRUMP SIGNALED that it was OK to vote “Yes.”

As the launch of the Division of Women’s Health and White House taskforce fades into the post-midterm election horizon, Iowans need to remind our delegation that we expect them to raise their voices loud enough to drown out the “Quiet Piggy” taunts of the President.

Vote for Candidates Who Work for Women

When the 19th Amendment to the Constitution granting women the right to vote was signed into law in August of 1920, it was only 10 weeks away from the presidential election between Warren Harding and James Cox.

Suffragists assumed a huge majority of the 20 million American women would be eager to vote.

But when the votes were counted on election day, only an estimated one-third of eligible women voters exercised their new right.

Melania Trump was right when she said, “Previous generations fought for women’s rights.” Yet during my lifetime, I’ve seen the milestones achieved by women being erased. In 2026, we can’t let this continue. The stakes are too high. As Americans, we must vote as if our life or the life of a woman we love depends upon it. Indeed, it just might.

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Piper, the executive director of Blue Missouri, writes a Substack called The View from Rural Missouri, hosts a weekly podcast called Dirt Road Democrat, and has 330,000 TikTok followers. Born in Louisiana and raised in Arkansas, her experiences resonate with all of us living in rural states with a GOP-dominated government. I’ve been following her for some time. (https://jesspiper.substack.com/)

I finally met Piper, a 51-year-old teacher-turned-political activist at the Brown--Woodard fundraising event in Ogden Iowa, last weekend.

.First Step to Reclaiming Democracy

If Missouri had not taken a hard turn to the right in the early 2000s, Piper might still be a self-described “mild-mannered high school teacher” of American literature in Maryville. Her husband also still might be teaching at the same school. Instead, she says he was fired from his job because of her political activism.

Piper, who has an M.A. degree, was earning $41,000 after 16 years of teaching. During Covid, she attended a George Floyd protest in Kansas City and her superintendent saw her on the nightly news. “She also knew I had filed to run for office,” she says. “Two days later she fired my husband because she couldn’t get to me. I was tenured, but he wasn’t.”

After 10 years of having no choice on Missouri down ballot races, Piper had decided to run for state representative in 2022. She raised $275,000 during her campaign – more than any other Missouri state house candidate running in a district that had not elected a Democrat in 34 years.

She received only 25% of the vote. “I was taken to the woodshed,” she says. “But I forced the GOP nominee to stay in the district and work, and I forced them to spend money in a district they never had to drop a dime in.”

She has no regrets. “When I ran, more than 40% of seats were uncontested,” she says. “In this cycle, only 2% are uncontested. A win is having a candidate. That’s the first step in clawing back our democracy.”

Putting Choice Back on the Ballot

Today Piper raises funds for Missouri’s down-ballot Democratic Party candidates, and travels the highways and byways speaking from her heart about the harmful policies being inflicted on Missourians, and how she keeps going despite her hard knock life as an outspoken Democrat living in Hopkins, population 480.

That life includes knocking on thousands of doors in northwestern Missouri – and beyond. Without fail, Piper says she noticed when she initiated a conversation, she was told: “It’s the Democrats’ fault.”

“What Democrats?” she would respond. “It’s been 34 years since a Democrat has been elected in my state district. What Democrats are you talking about? People also would say, ‘You get what you vote for.’ But I couldn’t vote for anyone else, and neither could 40% of Missouri district residents who had no choice in their vote.”

Siphoning Public School Funds

Piper and her husband are the parents of five children. As a former teacher, she’s passionate about what she describes as “the dumbing down” of the state’s K-12 schools.

“Missouri is 49th in the nation for educational funding,” she says. “The state now only supplies 32% of the operating funds needed to keep the doors open, the lights on, and pay the teachers.” Over 30% of Missouri’s schools run a four-day week to help recruit teachers and save on operating costs. Low teacher pay drives turn-over.

To add insult to injury, Piper says that state funding is being “extracted” from public schools and “siphoned” to private religious schools. “The Missouri legislature underfunded K-12 public schools by $190 million in the state budget, while pulling $60 million from the budget to fund private religious schools,” she says.

The Pipers live 67 miles from the nearest private school. Jess called the Missouri Dept. of Education, saying she’d like to exercise her parental choice by applying for a voucher from the MOScholars program. Everything seemed fine until she was asked to name the school receiving these funds: it was a public school. “Oh, no,” she was told. “Public schools don’t qualify.

Piper wasn’t surprised –she was making a point. “Missourians pay $7,000 to enroll a student transferring to a private religious school, but there’s not a dime to transfer to a public school,” she says.

Sound familiar to Iowans?

Missouri’s Amendment 3

In 2024 Missouri became the first state to reverse a complete abortion ban since Roe vs. Wade was overturned. Missourians accomplished this herculean feat by gathering 380,000 signatures to put a citizen initiative ballot measure on the ballot. The initiative also enshrined reproductive freedom into the state constitution.

“But we still don’t have reproductive health in Missouri,” Piper says. “Our Republican legislators refused to abide by our will. On our ballot this November, we’re voting on Amendment 3, yet another abortion ban.” However, there’s a twist: A “yes” vote also would prohibit gender transition surgeries on minors. “This already was banned in 2023, but it will expire,” she says.

“We live in a state where we’re losing OB access and rural hospitals are closing and where the maternal mortality rate is double that of California and Massachusetts,” Piper says. “We’re pro-life, and don’t let anyone ever tell us we’re not. We’ll reinforce our ‘No’ vote in a few weeks on Amendment 3!”

She describes extremism as the GOP’s “magic formula.” “They can’t sell tax cuts for the wealthy, funding of private schools, and other awful policies, so they keep their base riled up and scared by attacking reproductive rights, trans kids, immigrants, and advocating gun rights.”

Don’t Wait for the Calvalry!

Piper doesn’t cut any slack for the Democratic National Committee. “It’s disinvested in Iowa and Missouri, and other rural states,” she says. “The DNC thought it could win with just suburban and urban voters, and not worry about the hicks in small towns. How’s that been working out? “ she asks.

“As Democrats we have to stop pointing to rural Americans as the root of our problems,” she insists. “It’s alienating and it’s mathematically wrong. Six million Californians voted for Trump in 2024. That’s the entire population of Missouri.”

Piper points to former Democratic National Committee chair Howard Dean who advocated for a 50-state strategy in 2005. He and his team rebuilt state parties, and two years later, Democrats took the House and Senate. Two years later Barack Obama was elected.

“Just think about what if we had continued to follow his 50-state strategy?” she says. “Where would we be now?”

No Time to Fold Now

I lived in Missouri while I was earning my journalism degree from the University of Missouri at Columbia. It was a much different place then. As a neighboring Iowan today with relatives living in Missouri, I’m thankful that the state has grassroots leaders as dedicated as Jess Piper. On November 3, we all should be cheering Missouri on to the defeat of Amendment 3. The challenge intensified in September, when a Missouri-based nonprofit with undisclosed donors began fueling the “Yes” vote on Amendment 3.

Earlier this year Missourians also beat back Amendment 5 on the primary ballot, a constitutional amendment to phase out state income tax and make changes in sales tax. It was rejected by almost five to one. Iowans are facing a vote on adding Amendment 1 to the Iowa constitution on Nov. 3, an attempt to make it harder to raise income taxes – protecting wealthy individuals and corporations, and potentially leading to increasing sales taxes, which more directly affect lower-income Iowans. It would hit close to our home communities.

But Piper believes there’s reason for optimism, both in Iowa, and in Missouri. So far, she says Blue Missouri has raised $350,000 for 70 down ballot race Democrats in Missouri, drawing from crowd-funding and other sources.

“I see hope everywhere I go,” Piper says. “I see new efforts to organize. People are tired, but they’re more tired of school vouchers, fertilizer prices, water quality, and data centers. So they keep going.”

She urges, “Stay, fight, link hands, draw a line in the sand. No more! Knock on doors. Put up signs. Send donations. Vote!”

“When we show up, we win.”

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Which one?

Is it the $500 check issued to one million Americans in 30 states enrolled in the Affordable Care Act? The Trump administration claims it’s compensating you for being “overcharged.” (Insurance companies paid user fees to participate in ACA, and these fees were retained in an account.) But you’ll only receive this check if you live in a state that relied on the federal government to operate its ACA exchange– healthcare.gov. This includes Iowa.

No doubt you remember Congress refused to extend the enhanced ACA premium subsidies at the end of 2025? As a result, the government shut down for 43 days. In exchange for Democratic help to re-open it, the Republicans promised to vote later on to extend the subsidies. The House passed a three-year extension in 2026, but it stalled in the Senate. Now some ACA monthly premiums have doubled, and enrollments have been dropping.

However, maybe you’ll be receiving a $90 check? It’s going out to 20 million people enrolled in Medicare, Part B. These $90 checks are issued from Medicare’s “general improvement fund” created by Congress in 2008 –but never used to issue direct payments. Your $90 could be direct deposited by the Social Security Administration. If not, your U.S. Dept of Treasury check will be labeled, “Medicare Improvement Fund Payment; $90 Payment to Offset October Premium.” If you’re a typical American, your monthly premium for Part B is around $203. A $90 one-time payment won’t quite cover it, will it?

Now, before you get too excited about all this FREE MONEY, you’re not eligible if you’re covered by Medicare Advantage. Medicare Advantage is a private plan managed by insurance companies (but paid for by the U.S. government).

Uninsured Numbers Balloon

What if you’re a Medicaid recipient? Is your check in the mail? The One Big Beautiful Bill signed into law on July 4, 2025 cut $625 billion over the next decade from Medicaid. It also added work requirements, more frequent eligibility checks, and new cost-sharing between state and federal governments. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated it will cause 7.8 million people to lose their Medicaid coverage.

Another domino effect is that hospitals, clinics, and nursing homes depend heavily on Medicaid payments to keep their doors open.

The Medicaid changes were carefully timed to hit right after the mid -terms, beginning December 2026. Combined with the loss of ACA coverage, the number of newly-uninsured Americans could swell to 16.9 million. Sorry, but there’s no check for you!

If you’re an average lower-income worker with employer insurance coverage, you won’t receive a Trump-Money-Talks check, either. Earlier in his administration, he touted “The Great Healthcare Plan” that would divert subsidies paid to big insurance companies, and send money directly to Americans to buy their own health insurance. However these funds aren’t included in this tranche. There aren’t any strings attached requiring this FREE MONEY to be spent on health care.

Trick or Treat?

It’s no coincidence that these checks are being rushed out the door only a couple of weeks ahead of the midterm elections, is it? These one-time, out-of-the-blue payments almost seem like bribes or pay-offs, don’t they?

A letter bragging about Trump’s bogus health policy accompanies the checks. Wait, doesn’t the Hatch Act make it illegal for the government to use federal power and money to influence partisan political elections?

In response to this criticism, the administration responded, in part, “This President will never stop enabling Americans to take control of their health by implementing policies that put money back in their pockets.” Sure! Since when did handing out checks pass as a policy?

Regardless, whether they’re bribes or unlawful, the USPS is delivering the checks this month.

Maybe someone in the Trump administration has noticed recent polls showing Americans are struggling with the costs of gas, groceries, and health care. KFF, a nonprofit health research group, released a poll earlier this month indicating that Democrats have the overall advantage among voters on their handling of health care. They also have the advantage among independents. This gap has widened from a 10 point margin in an April poll to 20 points in September.

The KFF poll shows that Democrats and Independents say Trump’s policies have had a negative impact on their health care costs, and the health and well-being of people in their communities. Republicans are not as likely to agree.

Nearly one half of rural voters said their communities don’t have enough doctors or other health care providers. Even more said there’s not enough mental health workers. Compared to a similar question in 2017 the percent saying their communities don’t have enough hospitals has increased from 21% to 35%. At least six in 10 rural voters said they’re worried about the cost of health care.

Cashing in on Trust at Ballot Box

This administration could have chosen to do something meaningful, like proposing legislation to improve health insurance coverage, or restoring the deep cuts it’s made. Instead, it’s handing out woefully inadequate amounts of money to Americans.

This callous disregard for the most vulnerable Americans gives Democrats a golden opportunity to capitalize on voters’ trust on health care issues during their mid-term campaigns.

Dave Dawson is raising this point of difference in his District 4 campaign to replace Randy Feenstra. He supports a public health insurance option. Dawson says if he’s elected, he’ll vote to restore $1 trillion in health care cuts to Medicare, including $900 billion in Medicaid to low-income and disabled adults and children’s mental health services.

He points out that nearly 25% of rural Iowa relies on Medicaid, and these cuts threaten the closure of hospitals, clinics, and nursing homes in small rural towns in the 36 counties across the 4th district. When Americans lose their coverage, health care providers won’t turn them away – they’ll try to absorb the cost

“The Big Beautiful Bill over-cut health care, and $50 billion in grants is a drop in the bucket,” Dawson says. “Now they have to apply for grants.”

Dawson is referring to the $50 billion Rural Health Transformation Program offered by Republicans to help soften the blow of the federal cuts. But this $50 billion over the next five years is earmarked to fund innovation, not to help rural hospitals pay their overhead costs.

During their first debate, Dawson’s opponent Chris Gowan offered up the defense that Republicans have tried to come up with alternative plans for the ACA. “Republicans have not gotten credit for their efforts,” he said. Was he talking about the 67 times that the House voted to repeal the ACA?

Josh Turek is criticizing Ashley Hinson for her vote to cut Medicaid. Turek, who was born with a permanent disability, strongly supports public health care. If elected, he says he would work to make sure every American would have “a baseline level of coverage.”

Some members of Congress also have been working to offset the health care repercussions of the One Big Beautiful Bill. These proposals include interest-free loans to rural hospitals to upgrade equipment, or extending telehealth, ambulance services and support for low-volume hospitals. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tennessee, is pushing a bipartisan package called the Rural Health Agenda.

But here’s the catch: Democrats need to take control of the Senate on Nov. 3 to make these efforts count for anything.

In the meantime, what do you plan to with your Trump-Money-Talks check? You could send it back, of course. Davi Mondt Lowman, a member of the Boone County Democrats, has a better suggestion. Why not send it to a Democratic candidate struggling to compete with the Republicans’ motherlode of cash?

Unless, of course, you’re hedging your bets, and biding your time in case you receive Trump’s big budget-busting check: $5,000 if the Republicans retain both houses of Congress!

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Here’s what it’s not.

Earlier this week, Missouri Republican Senator Eric Schmitt accused former special counsel Jack Smith of perjury, and said Smith would go down in history as a total dirtbag. If you’ve been living under a rock until after November 3, this moment went viral, and now we all know Schmitt wrongly accused Smith of conspiring with Georgia state prosecutors against President Trump because he confused two basketball teams: the University of Iowa women and the NBA Atlanta Hawks. He did not apologize to Smith.

What if he had been correct, and Smith had been lying in his sworn testimony? Would it have been OK for Schmitt to call him a dirtbag during a televised U.S. Senate hearing?

In the wake of this embarrassing display of uncivility, I streamed the KTIV debate between 4th District House candidates Dave Dawson and Chris McGowan. I watched McGowan and Dawson shake hands, and as McGowan stepped back to his podium, I heard him preface his opening remarks with these two words: “Civility Begins.” I was transported into a time machine.

Both northwestern Iowa natives

Dawson grew up in the small northwestern Iowa town of Washta, and now lives in Lawton, a few miles east of Sioux City where he’s been a Woodbury County attorney for 29 years, primarily prosecuting child abuse cases. He served two terms in the Iowa House, from 2013-2017.

McGowan, a Sioux City native, recently resigned from his 15-year position as CEO of the Siouxland Chamber of Commerce. He’s served in the Iowa Air National Guard, and is an attorney. He ran unopposed in the primary.

Their one-hour debate was moderated by KTIV-TV managing editor and evening anchor, Matt Breen, and Dave Price, Gray Media’s Iowa political director. It highlighted a handful of current topics:

Q: The $15 billion Mesabi Metallics steel mill in Lee County

Dawson made clear his support for economic development, but said he’d want to make sure the mill would bring long-term good jobs and wages. “A large corporation from India may not need tax incentives to locate a new business in Iowa,” he said.

McGowan, who emphasized his economic development experience, expressed confidence in Iowa Economic Development Director Debi Durham to protect taxpayers and create capital investment and jobs. He said he hoped the Iowa legislature moved forward to ratify it.

When Price raised the question of a connection between Mesabi Metallic, its parent company, the Essar Group, and Russian financing, McGowan said he’d rely on negotiated claw back clauses to protect taxpayers.

Dawson said he’s heard concerns that the India-owned company has connections to Russian oil, and it may be an attempt to skirt U.S. sanctions imposed over the invasion of Ukraine. “We need make sure we’re fully vetting any company that wants to do business in Iowa and wants tax incentives, especially when it may have questionable ties,” he said.

Q: Tariffs

McGowan shared a tariff-related conversation with the Sioux Bee Honey CEO who expressed worry that retroactive tariffs could blow up the economics of its recently announced expansion at a new Siouxland site. McGowan said tariffs are very challenging to Iowa value-added ag, and they shouldn’t be applied retroactively.

Dawson countered by saying tariffs have squeezed Iowa’s economy, leading to higher consumer prices, fewer export markets, and a Supreme Court ruling declaring them unconstitutional. “Congress has been abdicating its responsibility for oversight,” he said. Dawson said he’d vote to end tariffs.

McGowan pointed out, “This administration has done what previous administrations said they would do, but never followed through: making sure free trade is also fair. The U.S has been on the short end of the stick of international trade for decades, and the President’s trying to level the playing field.”

Q. Grocery and Gas Prices

McGowan said fuel costs are making the transportation of goods “ridiculously expensive”. “One of the most impactful things we can do, and Republicans have been talking about it for decades is maximize the production of energy at home,” he said. “When we rely on domestic sources, we drill and produce energy and lead the world in energy production, prices are certain to come down.”

Dawson suggested three steps to impact affordability:

· End the war in Iran

· Investigate corporate monopolies

· Pass an increase in the federal minimum wage

He said Iowa’s minimum wage has been stuck at $7.25 for 17 years –the longest time in American history. “If you move across the Missouri River into Nebraska, the minimum wage is $15 per hour,” he said. “Why would a young person stay and work in Iowa when they could make twice the money in Nebraska?”

To lower gas prices, Dawson would:

· Vote to end the war in Iran

· Pass a long-term farm bill, with year-round E-15

· Restore cuts in federal wind and solar tax credits

“All solutions would require Congress to act,” he said. “Not to do nothing, as they’ve been doing.”

McGowan agreed he’d vote for year-round E-15 ethanol. He said we wouldn’t be paying these prices if the previous administration had not killed the Keystone XL Energy Pipeline. If the gas tax is suspended, he said our infrastructure would suffer “enormously”. But he’d be open to this conversation to provide consumer relief.

Dawson said Iowa has some of worst quality roads and bridges in the U.S. He said cutting the federal gas tax wouldn’t erase the 25% increase in gas prices. “It’s not the source of the problem – it’s the war,” he said. “We have no imminent threat, and should use these funds to fix roads, bridges, and health care.” Dawson said the War Powers Resolution makes the war unconstitutional. “We need members of Congress not afraid to stand up and ask hard questions,” he said.

McGowan underscored his family’s military roots, saying five of his six children are serving in uniform. He said Iran has been chanting death to America for 47 years, and cited unconfirmed estimates of how many of its own citizens it’s killed. Although he said he believes Congress has a role under the War Powers Resolution, he stated he doesn’t have access to classified information. He said he hopes for a speedy resolution to the conflict.

Q. CBO estimates of the $4.1 to $4.7 trillion added to the national debt over the next decade by the One Big Beautiful Bill.

McGowan said the $40 trillion debt is his campaign’s top priority. “It’s unacceptable,” he said. He defended the cost of the Big, Beautiful Bill as necessary to secure the U.S. southern border. He would favor Congress adopting a balanced budget amendment, and said he’d be a fiscal hawk in the nation’s capital.

Dawson also supports a balanced budget amendment. “Government needs to pay as it goes, including wars,” he said. But he said Republicans voted for the Big Beautiful Bill without any Democrats. “Republicans can’t claim to be the party for fiscal responsibility when they’re ballooning the budgets and national debt,” he said. Over $2 trillion went to the highest income earners, and he said reversing this could be a start to reducing debt.

immigration and balancing border security and workforce needs

Dawson said upholding the law is important, but revoking asylum, work permits, and student visas violates our Constitution. He said many law-abiding citizens from foreign countries are productive in District 4’s economy. “We need young workers, “ he said. “Iowa’s population is aging and shrinking at the same time. Immigration is who we are as a country.”

McGowan’s approach differs, as he said he’d focus immigration on skilled labor, H2As and H2Bs for ag, as well as health care. He said employers constantly tell him they need more labor for their companies to grow. He said it’s wrong that politicians on both sides of aisle raise money on the immigration issue. He blamed former Sec. Mayorkas for flooding the border to increase U.S. House seats and impact the electoral college.

Q. Health care

Dawson said he’d vote to restore $1 trillion in health care cuts to Medicare, including $900 billion in Medicaid to low - income and disabled adults and children’s mental health services. He said nearly 25% of rural Iowa relies on Medicaid, and these cuts threaten the closure of hospitals, clinics, and nursing homes in small rural towns in the 36 counties across the 4th district. “The Big Beautiful Bill overcut health care, and $50 billion in grants is a drop in the bucket,” he said. “Now they have to apply for grants. It’s the reason I’m running. We should be looking out for Iowa’s vulnerable children, seniors, and disabled.”

McGowan said letting ACA’s enhanced subsidies expire was the right decision. He said the ACA had good intentions, but it contributes to the exorbitant costs of health care, and we need to bring both parties to the table to create a new solution.

Dawson said the $1 trillion ACA cut could have been restored for less than the cost of the Iran war. Over 25,000 Iowans in the 4th District saw increased private insurance rates in the ACA market place. He supports a public health insurance option for anyone over 26, based on income and ability to pay. “If you like your private insurance, you could keep it,” he said. A public option would help people who move or change jobs, and prevent many people from being forced into bankruptcy to pay for health care.

Q. AI regulations

McGowan said the U.S. is in a tech race over AI with the Chinese. “But we need guard rails. It might be one area where the President and I don’t see eye to eye,” he said. Regarding the proposed Google/Mid-American data center in nearby Salix, he said he doesn’t favor economic development incentives, and would require closed loop for water, noise mitigation, and reduced energy costs. “Google and Mid-American have come a long way in addressing those issues,” he said.

Dawson said current AI rules are too loose, and it’s dangerous to allow the industry to regulate itself. He said he’s concerned about misuse – fake online pornography of children, and harassment and bullying in schools. “As a prosecutor who’s been looking out for children for a long time, we need stronger regulations, and limits on social media aps for kids, causing mental health crises, and suicide,” he said.

Dawson said data center location should be decided by city or county, but the federal government should enforce standards regarding water, and reliance and on energy. He said he doesn’t oppose data centers but recognizes some people don’t want them where they live. He supports the Woodbury County Board of Supervisors’ one-year moratorium.

Dawson also wants to end corporate PAC. “I don’t take PAC money,” he said. “My opponent has not taken this pledge, and has relied on it.”

McGowan and Dawson will have one more debate on October 14 at 7 p.m. on Iowa Press. But Dawson has challenged him to a series of three debates.

Negative Ads Overshadow Issues

Civility in politics has been described as the skill of discussing important topics with others who disagree without any serious falling out.

The 1884 presidential campaign of Grover Cleveland has been called one of the nastiest in American history. I didn’t cast a vote, but still recall how our American history teacher, Mr. Ken Quirk allowed us to mention Cleveland’s illegitimate son in our skit about this campaign. (Cleveland provided support payments.) His opponent was characterized as a liar with shady financial connections.

What were the issues in the 1884 campaign? Who knows? Either the campaign was devoid of any, or the mudslinging drowned them out.

In my lifetime, it seems civility started going downhill on the national level in the mid 1990s, when the Republicans published its Contract for America, and a few years later provided all our children a sex education lesson, thanks to Bill Clinton’s appalling lack of judgment in the Oval Office.

I struggle to understand why Iowans had to be sucked into the national negative spiral. It began with the election of Kim Reynolds in 2018, who felt compelled to mimic Donald Trump’s MAGA vocabulary and behavior, and echo his issues. The “meanness” that’s dominated our politics has come from the top down, and at times I barely recognize the Iowa I grew up in.

How much of this is the influence of political ads? The airways have carried political ads for decades, but anyone who still watches them today must be appalled by the outright lies and excessive negativity.

Dave Dawson has released only one TV ad, and I’m not sure I’ve seen any from McGowan. Is the 4th district race civil only because it’s not perceived as competitive as other Congressional districts? Dawson and McGowan have been acquainted over years, working and living in the Sioux City arena. Is it easier to villainize your opponent when he or she is a relative stranger?

Watching McGowan and Dawson engage in a civil discussion clearly distinguished their differences, in sharp contrast to other campaigns where critically important Issues are obscured by naked appeals to fear and anger.

Bringing Back Divided Government

What exactly is a dirtbag, anyway?

Merriam-Webster defines it as: A dirty, unkempt, contemptible person.

When did dirtbag enter the American vernacular? As far back as the 1800s, a sand bag, or dirt bag was used to hold back flood waters. More recently, it referred to a vacuum cleaner bag that holds whatever has been sucked up. (Think Chuck Grassley’s dearly departed Beth.)

However, in 2000, an American rock band called Wheatus released a single titled Teenage Dirtbag. When did this word enter the realm of politics? In 2016, it was morphed into the phrase, the Dirtbag Left.

If McGowan is elected to Congress, will he be able to stand his ground for civil, respectful decorum, or will he be forced into adopting the prevailing uncivil tone?

Is it counterintuitive to believe Iowa could begin to climb out of this moral morass if we succeed in bringing divided government back on November 3? Would reaching across the aisle become less of a stretch? Our leaders will set the tone, and electing Rob Sand as governor could help restore Iowa to the state we recognize and love.

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The prospect boggles my mind. In what universe does this happen?

Lahn is a smooth operator. His platform flouts Republican third rails, and embraces a potpourri of unconventional campaign promises appealing to independents, populists, influencers, and progressives.

Not a Farmer

I first heard of Lahn described as a Belle Plaine, Iowa, farmer. But, as more details emerged, I learned he didn’t grow up there on the family farm. Instead, Lahn may have divided his time between the small northwestern town of Hinton and nearby Sioux City. He graduated from East High School in Sioux City. No farm roots here.

His Belle Plaine farm backstory is at least two generations removed. One early TV political ad stated his family “lost” this farm. However, it turns out that the farm was lost in 2005 when no one in the family wanted to buy it from his great-grandmother’s estate.

Lahn later bought the acreage and home in 2014 with his first wife. Sometime during the past six years or so, he purchased the farm ground with his second wife. He announced his campaign last November from the front porch of the restored farmhouse. That doesn’t make him a farmer.

The conservation features he paid others to add to this showplace property don’t make him a farmer, either.

But Lahn talks a good game when it comes to saving Iowa’s independent farmers, practicing conservation, and improving water quality. He’s planted einkorn, a type of Mediterranean wheat (I had to look this up). But I suspect his carefully cultivated farm knowledge is sustained by shallow roots. When he talks to farmers, he says his father was a crop consultant for decades. However, when he speaks to religious groups, he describes himself as the son of a preacher and conservationist.

Lahn encourages farmers to grow food crops, and defy the “big ag” corporations squeezing them out. He wants to allow farmers access to the USDA School Lunch program, so they could sell their produce and meat. His long-term goal is 80% of food served in Iowa’s public schools grown here. Does he know President Trump cancelled 1 billion in local food grants, including millions in the Local Food for Schools program initiated under Biden and Vilsaack?

What else does Lahn say about agriculture? In a TV ad called Defend our Land, he shares his worries about out-of-state land ownership. It’s a reasonable concern, but not the only one. For instance, my January 13, 2024 column, The Real Dirt on Who Owns U.S. Farmland highlights that the Church of the Latter Day Saints owns at least 22,000 acres of Iowa farmland across 21 counties. U.S. cropland losses since 1982 are larger than the state of Kansas, where Lahn has spent several years, and where his children live. Developed land has increased by about 48 million acres. In Iowa, hyperscale data centers have emerged as a bipartisan issue, and Lahn has adopted a populist stance.

But his recent ads are skewing negative. One attempts to connect the family business of Rob Sand’s in-laws to the “illegal dumping” of nitrates in Iowa’s drinking water. However, he doesn’t mention the Lauridsen Group by name, probably because it only manufactures feather meal and blood meal for use as organic fertilizer. Although Lahn didn’t work for Koch Ag & Energy Solutions, one of the four largest fertilizer companies controlling the market, he can’t exactly claim the moral high ground when it comes to family wealth. His second wife divorced Chase Koch, son of Charles Koch, CEO of Koch Industries.

Not a Nutritionist

If Lahn isn’t a farmer, does he have a health or nutrition background? No. Lahn says he wants healthier food, and promotes the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) coalition. This is linked to his goal of serving 80% Iowa-grown food in schools.

The MAHA Action PAC recently donated $1 million to his campaign. In its press release, it states, “No bigger MAHA champion than Zach, and no better state to plant the MAHA flag than Iowa.” The president of the MAHA Action PAC claims it’s a down payment on the nation’s first MAHA governorship (sorry, Kim Reynolds).

Lahn’s avowed MAHA support undergirds his commitment to “personal health freedom,” and opposition to government intrusion in medical decisions. He doesn’t believe in vaccine mandates for school children. He also wants to pull mRNA Covid vaccine off the market, and make mRNA unavailable for late stage cancer research, or potential break-through treatments for melanoma.

Lahn campaigns on reducing Iowa’s high cancer rates, and cites unproven connections between colon cancer and nitrates as fact. He is anti-glysophate (Roundup). I’m not sure what chemical his tenant uses to terminate Lahn’s cover crops? He doesn’t call for a ban, but wants more research on its safety. A few days ago HHS and EPA announced a registration review of glysophate.

In 2024, when Lahn was director of the Montana branch of Americans for Prosperity (a Koch-funded right-wing advocacy group), he railed against Obamacare and Medicaid Expansion. How does this promote health? Sand’s ad featuring a Montana Republican is damning, including video of Lahn’s prominent role in the 2018 award-winning documentary Dark Money. Lahn has dismissed the financial impact of Medicaid cuts on rural hospitals as “partisan talking points”.

Not an Educator or Businessman

So, if Zach Lahn isn’t a farmer, a health professional or nutritionist, is he a businessman or educator? In 2018 he cofounded an unconventional private school called Wonder School in Wichita, Kansas with the wife of Chase Koch. After Lahn and Annie Koch divorced their spouses, they were married in 2020. Today they serve on Wonder’s school board. A Des Moines Register story earlier this summer detailed the untenable financial position of the school. Personal loans to the school from Lahn and his wife total $4.5 million. Unlike Iowa, Kansas offers modest tax breaks to residents willing to help finance private school scholarships – not Iowa-style vouchers.

Lahn touts Wonder School, an unaccredited school charging $12,000 per year in tuition, as a model for reinventing schools.

In an early commercial, Lahn attacked the public school curriculum in Iowa classrooms as Marxist, and said our students are taught “to hate our country.”

A letter to the editor in The Des Moines Register earlier this year from a Boone County School board member caught my eye. She prefaced her letter with a short, full-throated endorsement of Zach Lahn. Then she proceeded to make her case against Iowa’s Education Savings Accounts for private school students.

As a parent of public school students, she pointed out that Iowa’s private school voucher policy reduces public school resources, leading to difficult school budget cuts and financial pressures. She said she wanted to believe Zach Lahn’s stance that he would be a champion for public schools.

“Republicans should not ignore the concerns of the very communities that have supported them for decades,” she wrote. “Many voters are frustrated by what they are seeing happen to local schools.”

I only can hope she has lost faith in Lahn by now, but I’m doubtful.

A Political Operative

What about Zach Lahn’s Iowa First platform? Doesn’t this imply that the past decade of Republican leaders and supermajorities haven’t put Iowa first? If he had been living here, he might have noticed a through line to his campaign platform of increasing school rankings, water quality, independent farms, and health care. Lahn, who moved back to Iowa in 2023, registered to vote in Belle Plaine just in the nick of time, October 2024, to qualify for the ballot. Flying his private plane to Kansas, where most of the Lahns’ blended family live, also doesn’t bode well for putting Iowa First.

His stance of life at conception would constitute a complete abortion ban. Lahn also accepted the endorsement of former Iowa Congressman Steve King, who was rejected by Iowa voters in 2020 as a bigot and racist. Lahn said he “was honored” to have King’s support.

Lahn never has held elected office. He revealed questionable judgment and inadequate vetting in selecting his running mate, Derek Wulf. The Des Moines Register reported earlier this month about Wulf’s serious financial and legal issues.

Lahn offers a heartfelt argument that Iowa policies have driven our children out of state. He wants to “keep Iowa’s kids in Iowa.” Who doesn’t want their adult children living a 25-minute drive away, or their grandchildren coming to visit more often than the holidays? it’s a bipartisan issue, along with education, water quality, family farms, and health care.

“I found myself saying, what I believe a lot of Iowa’s kids say, ‘I just want to go home,’” Lahn has said. “I miss my family. I miss the fact that I took for granted that I lived 30 minutes from both of my sets of grandparents that came to all my sporting events. . . We can’t forget where we came from.”

But Lahn’s bipartisan issues require realistic solutions. I’ve written about most of these intractable agricultural and rural issues for decades. No Iowa governor is going to break agribusiness monopolies, substitute a safer, more effective ingredient than glyphosate overnight, or convert enough of Iowa’s acres to food-to-table crops. How would dropping childhood vaccines, weakening Iowa’s public schools with private school vouchers, and denying health care improve the lives of Iowans?

A Chameleon Candidate

Clym Yeobright surprised everyone when he moved home in Thomas Hardy’s 1878 novel The Return of the Native. Most expected Clym to be the local golden boy who left and never came back. Instead, he surrendered his business career as a diamond merchant in Paris to return to his native Egdon Heath to become a “schoolmaster to the poor and ignorant.”

It doesn’t go well for Clym, who is a flawed character. He makes poor decisions, and ultimately loses his vision, unclear on what he wants, who he is, or who he wants to be. By the end of this novel, he has become a wandering preacher and educator.

Lahn is a real-life native son whose life story is filled with contradictions, wrong turns, and idealistic visions. He’s a chameleon, changing colors and disguising himself to blend in with his surroundings, whether it’s in Montana, Kansas, or Iowa.

But will Iowans welcome home the Prodigal Son, hoodwinked by his feel-good pie-in-the-sky promises that risk turning the entire state of Iowa into a Wonder experiment? Or, once elected, will he drop his bait-and-switch pretenses, and govern in the mold of his Republican predecessors over the past decade?

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Suddenly, no lights, no Internet, no oven, no refrigerator. A quick call to a neighbor confirmed that her lights had flickered, but the power at her house came back on almost immediately.

The weather could not be blamed. No wind. No rain. An ordinary autumn day. We called Alliant Energy. After we were advised to check our fuse box, and we repeated that at least one other neighbor had experienced a brief outage, the dispatcher said, “Well, OK, call back later today if it doesn’t come back on.”

Of course. We could easily manage without power for four hours without any updates from Alliant.

No noon news, so we ate a lunch of cold sandwiches and fruit. I paid a bill – by check. Then our mail arrived by rural mail carrier, thanks to good, old-fashioned horsepower.

What now? We called another neighbor, and he said he had learned that Alliant estimated power should be restored by 3:30 p.m.

I decided to run an errand to a nearby town. After glancing at the mirror over the bathroom sink, I looked down to see my favorite pair of earrings on the counter, and I picked one up. As I raised it to my ear, I dropped it. It skittered around in the bowl of the sink, and disappeared down the drain.

No! I grabbed a flashlight, removed the stopper, and peered down into the drain. No sight of it. I can’t deal with this now, I thought.

So I grabbed my purse and headed to the garage. I started the car, and pressed the garage door button. Nothing happened. Duh, no power. I couldn’t get the car out of the garage. My husband had driven the pickup to town.

I felt powerless.

The Power of Music

Power outages, power surges, power grabs, power struggles. . . Can we all relate? Doesn’t this sum up so much of what is going on today on a much larger scale, two weeks prior to the mid-term elections?

In Clinton, Iowa, where a hyperscale QTS data center is proposed to consume 1,100 acres between the Branden Hills Homes subdivisiont, the Valley Oaks Golf Club, and the municipal airport, residents are working to take back their power.

They organized a free concert and peaceful protest on Sunday, September 13 at the Riverview Bandshell on the Mississippi River. “The residents of the city have spoken out clearly,” Dana Brandenburg told the crowd of about 1,500. “They do not want the data centers in their backyards. If you allow our farmland to be swallowed by concrete and cooling fans, you can never get it back. Once the green spaces are gone, the heart of this small town goes with them. Please honor the legacy of farmers like my father who built this community.”

In the 1980s Brandenburg said her parents worked with the Iowa DNR to reintroduce river otters in wetlands on the proposed data center land.

Theresa Andrews, Clintonians Against Data Centers, also spoke out, saying petition signatures opposing the proposed development were being circulated that day. She encouraged residents to attend city council meetings and make their voices heard. (The Clinton City Council voted down an earlier call for a moratorium to allow time for more study.) Fundraising throughout the event supported the grassroots group.

Farmers to the north and east of Clinton are worried that Alliant Energy is planning to build 765 kV transmission tower lines. It’s being proposed in other states to support AI data center growth, including Minnesota and Pennsylvania. The Iowa Utilities Commission recently adopted rules, and identified about 700 miles of proposed 765 kV and 345 kV transmission projects that may cross Iowa.

As reported by The Des Moines Register, the Iowa Business for Clean Energy recently claimed Alliant is using a loophole in Iowa law to conceal how much customers could be on the hook for increasing generating capacity to serve data centers. It argues that the Iowa Utility Commission could approve Alliant’s plan without any proof of a need for more gas-powered plants. The board of Iowa Business for Clean Energy includes former state utility regulators, among others.

Diesel Power

What else can be done to take back power? Some concerned citizens have reserved a ticket on a cross-country bus tour. Salix, Iowa residents opposing a 900-acre hyperscale Google data center will be on hand on September 25 to greet the AI Data Center Revolt bus. Beginning September 12 in Austin, Texas, the protest bus tour is traveling across the South and up the East Coast, stopping in Washington, D.C., and northern Virginia before arriving in Dubuque, Iowa on September 24, and ending October 5 in California. Altogether, it’s making 35 stops to planned data center site in 27 states. This message plastered on the side of the bus says it all: “America First. Communities First. Technology Should Serve People, not the other Way Around.”

The organizing force behind the bus tour is Humans First, launched earlier this year. Some of its leaders are rumored to be progressive, but it’s also being promoted as a conservative group; its chairwoman is the RNC National Committeewoman for Georgia, and a founder of the Tea Party Movement. Strange bedfellows! https://www.humansfirst.com/revolt. Here are its three stated goals:

• Taxpayers should not be complicit in the building of data centers, i.e., tax dollars should not be spent to fund data centers

• Non-disclosure agreements should not be signed by government officials when negotiating data center projects

• AI should not endanger the lives of American citizens

The small Woodbury County town of Salix has been in turmoil since spring. The Board of Supervisors has voted on a one-year moratorium for unincorporated areas, and has filed a lawsuit against the City of Salix for not following proper procedures when it annexed 900 acres of farmland into the city.

Legal Power

Here in Boone County, Iowa, more than 170 farmers recently gathered to protest their lack of power. Five miles from my farm on September 11, U.S Dept. of Agriculture Deputy Secretary Stephen Vaden met at a neighboring farm to discuss anti-competitive practices, specifically in the fertilizer market.

The event, called “Fed Up; Fertilizer Cartel Profits on Farmers’ Backs,” was hosted by the Iowa Corn Growers Association, and attended by corn and wheat grower associations from 13 states, including South Dakota, Illinois, Minnesota, Kansas, Missouri, and Ohio.

Speakers included Linda Thrasher, co-founder of Greenfield Nitrogen, LLC, a farmer-formed company laying the groundwork to build a regional anhydrous ammonia manufacturing and storage facility near Garner, Iowa.

But she told Vaden and the group that farm cooperatives and retailers are hesitant to work with Greenfield Nitrogen, LLC, due to fears of retaliation from the dominant fertilizer companies.

CF Industries and Nutrien control more than half of the fertilizer market in the U.S. Koch Industries and Mosaic are two other dominant players. In 2017, Iowans may recall the state of Iowa financed the construction of a fertilizer plant near Wever in southern Iowa to provide more competition. When it went under, it was purchased by Koch Ag & Energy in 2024. The U.S. Dept. of Justice refused to block the sale.

Iowa Corn Grower Association president told Vaden, “Farmers are simply told the price, and you’re forced to take it.” Vaden responded, “We all know that it’s not really a free market.”

The FTC, under the Dept. of Justice, opened an investigation into unfair pricing or anticompetitive practices in September 2025, and comments at the September 11 meeting, or any submitted anonymously to the website, SaveFamilyFarms.US, are being included in this investigation.

Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig, and Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird attended the meeting, along with Ashley Hinson. Hinson said she and Sen. Grassley have sponsored a bill, the “Fertilizer research and Price transparency Act.” If I’m not mistaken, this legislation originally was sponsored in 2023 by Joni Ernst, Tammy Baldwin, and Grassley, and has been languishing in Congress.

Diesel fuel, tariffs, and the Iran War weren’t the focus of this hearing. However, with the price of diesel up to $6.29 per gallon at harvesttime, farmers are feeling powerless to manage their businesses. Diesel also increases transportation costs, and is fed into the retail cost of food.

State Power vs. Local Government

Other power grabs and struggles are roiling Iowans. The first phase of the Summit Carbon Solutions Pipeline through Iowa remains in a state of chaos. Yet Summit Carbon Transport, an affiliate of Summit Carbon Solutions and the company leading the second phase of the project, recently asked the Iowa Utilities Commission to expedite the draft schedule, moving up the final hearing from late February 2027 to reach a decision on the dockets by the end of the 2026.

Multiple landowners along the proposed pipeline route in Floyd and Ida Counties argue it’s too soon for the commission to set a hearing schedule because the pipeline’s initial route still is pending in District Court. Since these segments are less than five miles in length, hearings aren’t required to be held in home counties, and would be conducted in Des Moines.

Cerro Gordo County also has filed a lawsuit against the Iowa Utilities Commission to stop approval of a 2,000-acre solar farm project on prime agricultural ground. River City Energy, a project proposed by Chicago-based Ranger Power, is planning to build a 500-megawatt solar facility south of Mason City and Clear Lake.

The Cerro Gordo Board of Supervisors had approved an ordinance in December 2024 restricting large-scale solar projects in agricultural areas. However, the IUC contends that county ordinances don’t override state certification decisions. Cerro Gordo argues that the company never applied for a local zoning permit. Who holds the power: state or local government?

Speaking Truth to Power

Secret nondisclosure data center agreements, anti-competitive practices in the fertilizer market, eminent domain questions of local vs. state control. Is there a way to hotwire the connections to restore citizen power?

Before the House adjourned early this week in Washington, it easily passed a bill aiming to make AI data centers pay for their energy needs, plus the full cost of necessary new power and transmission upgrades. It’s a federal recommendation, and states would continue to regulate electricity markets. The Senate needs to act, but it’s a start.

The timing was no coincidence. Some of our federal lawmakers have received the message of their constituents. They’re reading the polls. The midterm election is looming.

On the home front, my power was literally restored by 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday, and normal life resumed. However, I didn’t run the water in the sink of the upstairs bathroom. The next morning, we called the plumber, and within five minutes, he retrieved my earring from the sink trap. Knowledge also is power.

We are not powerless. We are not alone. How and when will Iowans’ power be restored? November 3 would be a good time to start.

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The parking lot overflowed and lights softly glowed through the glass block walls of the building. Outside a flag waved overhead, and flowers bloomed in planters at the school entrance in Boxholm, Iowa last weekend. Inside those hallowed halls of ivy, poetry was recited, speeches were delivered, and the melodies of the school song reverberated to the rafters.

For the fourth consecutive year the number of school closures rose nationally last year. But it’s not often that they’re brought back and revived to live on as a reunion venue for alumni, Sunday night open gym pick-up basketball, a Little League softball diamond, or a fitness center for the community.

In 1958, the Boxholm Consolidated School reorganized with long-time rival, Pilot Mound, becoming Grand Community. The Fraser School followed suit in 1966. Those were the glory days, the days before demographic trends ravaged rural America. By 1985, only 15 graduates crossed the stage to receive a diploma. It was the final class, the same year that I moved here after my marriage.

But the school continued to welcome elementary students from Boxholm, Pilot Mound, and Fraser, and later, as the school shared with a neighboring school, students arrived from Dayton, Harcourt, Burnside, and Lehigh for two more decades. My daughters attended grade school here. I served on its schoolboard from 1996-2005, and as president from 1999 until 2003.

During these years, our board worked hard to shore up the balance sheet, using our PPEL funds to replace the gym floor and repair the roof. Farm consolidation trends, combined with Iowa’s 1989 open enrollment law, were pummeling small schools, and we knew it was only a matter of time before another reorganization push. Our goal was to maintain the 1955 one-story school addition so that it might one day become a stand-alone community center.

But four summers ago, the prospects were grim. The school doors had been locked since 2014, and the legislature passed a one-time cash levy to demolish unused schools in 2021. The reorganized school district board set an April 20, 2022 meeting to vote on demolition bids.

Then Mark Muench, a farmer, and the great-grandson of founding school board member Aikin Muench, called a meeting in his machine shed to determine what could be done. They learned the school superintendent still had a few more days to approve a change order without any penalty.

A foundation was formed at the 11th hour, and the 1955 one-story school addition was saved from the wrecking ball. This set in motion a painstakingly lengthy legal process of transferring the building from the school district to the Boxholm City Council, and finally to possession by the Foundation on September 28, 2023.

Then the real work began. No one wanted to simply recreate a monument to the past: the board’s vision was to create the Grand Heritage Community Center. Many residents remained skeptical. $1.2 million later, the board’s vision is close to becoming a reality.

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School Sprouts Bumper Crop of Talent

The last two Grand Community All-School Reunions were held at a restaurant in a nearby town outside the school district. A good time was had by all, but it was not a Grand time.

After three years of fundraising, grant-writing, and old-fashioned elbow grease, the Grand opening of the Grand Community Center earlier this summer attracted a good turnout. But no one was sure how many would attend the All-School Reunion on Labor Day weekend. Maybe 70? Possibly 100? The final head count swelled to 185.

The Class of 1947 was the oldest class attending, and the youngest one was the Class of 1983. You can be guaranteed that none of the scripted speeches that day were AI-generated. The oldest alumna at the event, Dorothy Henrichs, 97, class of 1947, had done her homework. She read aloud a poem she had written for the special occasion.

No school reunion would be complete without a shout-out to sports – often the crowning glory of small town schools. Grand Community was no exception. The Boxholm Consolidated School’s boys’ team, called the Swedes, emerged as consolation winner in the 1932 Iowa State Boys Basketball tournament. In 1960, for the first (and only) time in school history, Grand Community’s girls team earned a ticket to the State tournament in Des Moines. Senior Sharon Kalkwarf led the team with 30.3 points per game.

You may know that Iowa hosted the Granny Basketball National Tournament at the Prairie Trail Fieldhouse in Ankeny in July. Thirty-two teams from 11 states competed six-on-six. A month later, I learned in the serving line of our church supper that a couple members of the community had gone to the games to see Sharon Kalkwarf Swensen.

“That’s great Sharon came from Arizona to watch the game,” I said. “Oh, no, she wasn’t watching, she was playing on a team,” I was told. Swenson was back in Iowa for the school reunion, and she told me she’s played Senior BB for about a decade. Her team won the last national tournament. The team snagged fourth place in 2026, 66 years after she played for the first time in Des Moines!

But athletic excellence wasn’t the only talent sprouting from Grand Community’s bumper crop of graduates. There were budding musicians, too. New York City Opera singer Jane Thorngren was unable to attend this reunion, but she returns often for school reunions and to perform benefit concerts. She launched her vocal career at age 3.5 years, singing at the United Methodist Church here where her mother Mildred was the organist and choir director. Thorngren, a farm girl who studied music at Drake University, went on to earn an advanced degree at the University of Southern California. It led her to operatic roles and concert stages in Canada, Mexico, Europe, South America, the French Indies, and Asia. as well as with symphonies in Pittsburgh, Seattle, Phoenix, Savanah, Hartford, Birmingham, Denver, Vermont and chamber orchestras in NYC, Los Angeles, Pasadena, Europe, Japan, Hong Kong, Armenia, and many others.

Jane’s younger brother Doug moved to California in the ‘70’s where he played percussion for Johnny Mathis for five years, including seven guest appearances on The Tonight Show. He also recorded songs with The Manhattan Transfer and Henry Mancini.

Know Much about History?

The Grand alumni hailed from near and far: from Portland, Oregon, Ashburn, Virginia, Waterville, Maine, and San Antonio, Texas, and points inbetween. No one seemed to be trying too hard to impress anyone else. Conversations spilled over into the hallways and across the decades, as they exchanged small talk, personal experiences, and spoke of the roads not taken in life.

Beyond it all, they reached out to find common ground and to build on a shared sense of history. The Boxholm Museum opened for tours on the morning of the reunion. Dave Peterson, Class of 1967, had spent 10 years after work and on weekends restoring and renovating the former bank building to house the museum. This hidden gem is featured in Iowa Culture – Past and Present by Carson and Connie Ode. It’s open by appointment only.

Peterson may not have been a history major, but you can look up almost anything you’d like to know about the Boxholm and Grand Community School districts in the hardbound 287-page history he published in 2005. It features graduating class photos from 1915 to 2005. Peterson spent four years restoring water damaged class photos and tracking down missing photos.

Deck Crouch, Class of 1959, was honored with an alumni award. He drove the school bus for 65 years, transporting approximately 6,700 students safely to school and home again – through two whole-grade sharing agreements as well as one reorganization.

Crouch has operated gas station/mechanics shop/convenience store at 2nd and Pilot Street for 62 years, and you’ll still find him there at work Monday-Saturdays. He’s served on the Pilot Mound City Council for at least 23 years, and led the building committee for the United Methodist Church after it burned to the ground following a lightning strike in 1998.

Crouch recalls hearing news of the plane crash killing Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper less than an hour to the north of here, and along with other students, he gathered inside the door of the school the morning of February 4, 1959 to share their shock and grief.

But Grand graduates also have witnessed a lot of history beyond the school’s four walls. Fast forward to the Vietnam War, and the assassinations of leaders including President John Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and Robert Kennedy. Then came September 11, 2001.

Doug Thorngren’s wife, Sandy, didn’t graduate from Grand. But on September 10, 2001, she was a flight attendant scheduled for a United Airlines #23 return flight from NYC to LA at 9 a.m. the next day, September 11. Her plane was grounded by 9/11, the airport closed, and the control tower evacuated. But in 2023, we saw Sandy interviewed in a TMZ documentary titled 9/11 the Fifth Plane. As the passengers were deplaning, one of the Arab business class passengers asked her, “Did they get the White House?” Sandy and the other flight attendants combed through the plane and the lavatories, checking for anything unusual. The plane was locked as they left. Later, the authorities found unclaimed luggage containing box cutters and Al Qaeda documents in nearby aircraft.

The FBI interviewed the United 23 flight crew individually at their hotel that night, and Sandy was in New York for three days afterward. Neither Sandy nor another veteran flight attendant ever worked a flight again after that day. “I decided I just couldn’t do it anymore,” Sandy said. Nothing about United 23 was included in the official 911 Commission Report when it was issued in 2004.

(For more, see my April 1, 2023 column, Lifting the Curtain on 911, https://cheryltevis.substack.com/p/unfinished-business-b4f?r=fut92&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web

Nothing ever would be the same in the post-9-11 world for any of us, including our children, as their teachers wheeled TVs on carts into the classrooms on that day here at Grand Community, and across America.

So many losses. So much that’s been taken away. But here in Boxholm, the City received a grant to build a small playground on the site of the old school.

A Sense of Place

A time of silence for dearly departed Grand classmates reminded all the reunion-goers that time is finite. They raised their hands high in unity, agreeing on a plan to meet here for another Grand Community All-School Reunion in 2029.

Who knows? By that time, the fitness center will be complete, and a new child care center may be serving families in the community. The surrounding rural area may benefit from a new wedding/reception venue. An estimated $100,000 should do it!

Some things don’t change: We still need people, community, family, and a sense of place to sustain us in this unpredictable world. Although the 1917 school is gone, the pain of its passing is relieved in part by the Grand Heritage Foundation’s plans to give renewed life to the newer school addition.

After four decades of feeling powerless and paralyzed by rural demographic trends, Grand Heritage Community Center is moving forward to build upon its remaining assets, and become the backdrop for a new generation of children and families.

That certainly is a milestone to celebrate.

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The U.S. has blended imported lean ground beef trimmings with our well-marbled U.S. beef for years. Imports already were forecast to hit a record 6.1 billion pounds this year, a 14% increase over the previous year, as the U.S. domestic beef herd struggles to rebuild from the triple whammy of prolonged drought, wildfire, and high feed costs. The threat of the New World Screwworm closed the Mexico border for over a year, stopping the flow of live cattle to supplement the shrunken U.S. supply.

Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins recently took heat at the Iowa State Fair over the President’s surprise announcement that the U.S. would be importing 300,000 metric tons of tariff-free ground beef over the next 90 days.

The U.S. primarily imports beef from Brazil, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and Mexico. But so far in 2026, imports from Paraguay, Nicaragua, and Argentina have been gaining. Canada and Mexico already are exempt from tariff-rate quotas, so the added imports won’t come from there.

Back in 2017 the USDA temporarily blocked imports of Brazilian processed beef after rejecting 11% due to “public health concerns, sanitary conditions, and animal health issues”. Brazilian meat companies, including JBS, were caught paying bribes to their federal meat inspectors to cover up violations. (China recently rejected Argentine beef containing a banned antibiotic.)

If you’re concerned about food safety and quality, you may think you can rely on the USDA label, or the Country of Origin label (M-COOL). Think again.

Country of Origin Label Should Be Mandatory

Meat processors typically are vertically integrated, and either own cattle supplies, or control cattle through contracts. They’ve been buying imported beef for years, and slapping a USDA label on it, although they only packaged it in the U.S. It has depressed U.S. domestic prices and misled consumers who prefer American-raised beef.

However, the original Mandatory-COOL included in the 2008 Farm Bill, and implemented in 2009, required all imported products to have an origin label when they passed through the U.S. Customs and Border Protection into the U.S., and the labels had to remain in place through their retail sale.

But the World Trade Organization ruled that M-COOL was a non-tariff trade barrier, and Congress repealed it in 2015. (M-COOL still is required for lamb, chicken, fish, nuts, fruits, and vegetables.)

After years of lobbying by cattle producers, the USDA finalized a rule establishing requirements for a new Product of the USA label in 2024, allowing meat packers two years to comply. It took effect in January 2026. The catch? It’s voluntary. It also doesn’t require imported beef products to retain the origin label through retail sales (grocery store meat counter).

Following the announcement of this temporary influx of beef, Missouri Republican Congressman Eric Burlison asked U.S. Trade Representative Greer if consumers will see a country of origin label on this discounted ground beef. He replied, “the administration is very open to doing that. They just feel Congress should take that step, and then they will implement it.”

(On Friday, Trump signed an executive order sending this to Congress, along with other initiatives under his brand of Ranchers First.)

Have I mentioned the word baloney?

The new Farm Bill, currently hanging in cold storage in the Senate, would reinstate the Mandatory COOL provision. Sponsored by Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., its odds of making it through a conference committee are tenuous.

If all else fails, Americans surely can depend on the Food Safety and Inspection Service to protect them? It worked well for FDA’s oversight of lettuce grown in Mexico this summer, right?

Breaking Up Meat Monopoly

In case this sounds like a raw deal for consumers and cattle producers, Trump tossed out another bone. He said he’s authorizing legal documents to break up the “nasty monopoly” of meat processors.

“Farmers should be able to process their own food. . .this should move quickly,” he said, waving his magic wand.

Another helping of baloney, anyone?

Four companies control about 85% of meat processing in the U.S.: Tyson Foods, JBS USA, Cargill, and National Beef Packing Co. Two of these: JBS USA and National Beef Packing Co. are foreign-owned (Brazilian).

It’s as if Trump is unaware that anyone has tackled this issue before. In the mid-1990s, Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller and his staff unsuccessfully defended Iowa’s law banning meatpackers from owning livestock. He helped lead 16 state attorney generals to endorse the 2001 Model Producer Protection Act. It was effectively killed by industry lobbying; Iowa producers only gained the right to discuss and share contracts with their attorneys.

In 2022 USDA awarded $22 million in grants to 110 small meat lockers in 37 states (13 in Iowa), and more than $35 million to 15 independent meat processors in 12 states. USDA also provided $1 million to regional, independent meatpackers, including Cattlemen’s Heritage Beef Company in Mills County, Iowa, and a poultry plant in West Liberty. It was part of the $325 million Meat and Poultry Processing Expansion Program, funded by Biden’s American Rescue Plan.

The Trump administration launched SPUR ( Strengthening Processing for U.S. Ranchers) program last June to bolster independent and regional processing, with up to $500 million in temporary support targeted to eligible small and midsize facilities. Applications are due by September 11, 2026.

Trump’s prediction that ranchers will be able to move fast to process their own food might be tied to The PRIME Act (Processing Revival and Intrastate Meat Exemption). It’s a warmed-over bipartisan initiative from the 2025 legislative hopper, recently inserted in the House-passed farm bill, H.R. 7567. It would legalize in-state sales of locally produced, custom-slaughtered beef, pork, or lamb to consumers, restaurants, hotels, and grocery stores, and help decentralize meat processing. The powerful North American Meat Institute, representing large packers, opposes it, so its passage depends on who is seated at the table.

In 2025, following Biden’s lead, Trump also initiated a Dept. of Justice investigation into anti-competitive practices in meat processing. So far, only crickets!

Speaking at the Farm Progress Show in Boone this week, Rollins declared she had personal reassurances that the three beef plants shuttered by Tyson Foods last month would only be sold to American-owned companies. However, following Rollins’ remarks, Tyson responded it would sell the plants to any buyer.

Wheeling and Dealing Beef

Over the past five years, the price of ground beef has increased more than 60% but demand has remained strong. However, 300,000 metric tons would translate only to 2-3% of U.S. annual beef consumption. One Kansas State economist estimates a consumer would save $15 over a year, based on a consumption of 60 pounds of ground beef.

The imports aren’t likely to bring down retail beef prices. They’re more likely to subsidize meat processors and the fast food industry. If the ground beef makes it to grocery store meat counters, any discount probably is up to the grocery store chains. It doesn’t apply to steaks or roasts.

One day prior to the beef import announcement, the Wall St. Journal reports that a JBS USA executive was ushered into the Oval Office, with Trump seated behind the gold-plated resolute desk. Pilgrim’s Pride, a JBS subsidiary, forked over about $5 million to the Trump Inaugural Committee. Who know what other deals were made or discussed this week?

For the first time in a decade on July 1, the USDA Cattle Report indicated that heifer retention inched up 2.7%. By the time the 90-day import period ends, a cattle producer will have raised about one-third of a calf toward rebuilding the herd.

At the same time this administration is asking producers to take the risk of holding back heifers, feeding them for two years, breeding them, and raising a calf, it’s intervening in the market to lower their profits. What about the law of supply and demand? The free market? What about socialism?

The mantra, Make America Great Again now is Make American Beef Great Again. America First now has morphed into Ranchers First. Which is it? Can it be both?

Trump’s executive orders are mostly baloney, served up on a cold cut platter to distract midterm election voters. No matter how you slice it – consumers and producers can expect slim pickings.

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We journeyed to the West Coast last week to marvel at the Redwoods. And they lived up to the hype! But the veiled warning about the people we’d find there? Simply tall tales.

When my husband mentioned our plans to travel from Portland to the Coastal Redwoods in northern California, the response from a couple of casual acquaintances could be paraphrased like this: “Well, the scenery is real pretty, but the people are passing strange.”

He was surprised they’d gloss over the natural splendor of the Redwoods – immediately pivoting to the stereotypes of the people we’d encounter. It didn’t dampen our enthusiasm for this long-anticipated trip with our adult children and their spouses.

Oh, sure, we knew the jokes about tree-huggers, granola-crunchers, and the gender-bending attitudes. We were aware of the folks blamed for holding Portland hostage over this administration’s immigration policies, creating an opening to send the National Guard in 2025.

But, not surprisingly, we didn’t encounter much resembling this. On our first day we spent time in a massive bookstore in Portland’s Pearl District called Powell’s City of Books. It engulfs an entire city block, filling multiple floors, and showcasing more than one million new and used books. Its Rare Book Room is filled with first editions, signed copies, and out-of-print titles. If you’ve ever despaired over the end of the printed word, you’ve got to love it. And, what about the sign over the men’s and women’s bathrooms, “Use Bathroom of your Choice”? No one seemed to mind.

Portland also is home to the exquisite 2023 James Beard Award Winning restaurant, Kann, featuring Haitian cuisine, prepared with Pacific Northwest ingredients. Chef Gregory Gourdet, named 2024 James Beard Award for Best Chef: Northwest, also was a finalist on the TV show, “Top Chef.”

The Pear/Blue Cheese ice cream at Salt & Straw was pretty terrific, too.

From High Tide to Low Tide and Inbetween

The rising and falling ocean tides along the Pacific West Coast this week reflected the economic high tides and low tides we observed among the people living along Highway 101.

We witnessed high tides at the Willamette Valley Vineyards near Turner. It’s been voted America’s Best Wine Club + Best Wine Tasting Room by USA Today’s Choice Awards in 2024, 2025, and 2026. Beyond the panoramic views of the valley and the vineyard from the lofty patio at Enchanted Valley Way, we also made a reservation to enjoy a wine tasting as we toured the winery. We took a raincheck on becoming one of its share-holders

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Bend, Oregon also was an elevated experience. Recreation revolves around tubing or kayaking the Deschutes River through town, enjoying one of several craft beer breweries, skiing, hiking or biking at Mount Bachelor, fly fishing, or browsing at the Old Mill District with its shopping, restaurants, art galleries, and an IMAX and Hayden Home Amphitheater.

We opted to visit McMenamins Old St. Francis School, built in 1936 and now opening a new chapter as a hotel destination, theatre, pub/brewery, and a unique soaking pool. We also savored some nostalgia. Blockbuster once had 9,094 stores. Today Bend, Oregon boasts the last surviving Blockbuster in the U.S.

Crater Lake in Crater Lake National Park was another literal high point on the crest of the Cascade Mountain Range!

The Bandon Dunes Golf Resort in Bandon features six full golf courses with sweeping views of untamed shores with grassy dunes rolling to the sea. The links-style courses are designed to channel “the spirit of Scotland”. It definitely was a high tide experience for our golfing son-in-law.

It Can be a Hard Knock Life

But, guess what? The aphorism, “A Rising Tide Lifts all Boats” doesn’t hold true. In 1948, 16-year-old Johnny Cash traveled with his father by train to Roseburg, Oregon, looking for work, and took a job as a high climber. He released the song Lumberjack in a 1960 album called Train Rides. It celebrates the work ethic, and the dignity of daily labor:

“I stuck with it and it wasn’t long til I learned that a man’s gotta be a lot tougher than the timber he’s cutting,” he sang. “On Saturday night, you go to Eugene/and on Sunday morning, your pockets are clean.”

We stayed one night in Roseburg, Oregon, along the Umqah River, south of Eugene. The next day we heard news of the passing of Dolly Parton. Our daughter added one of Parton’s less-well-known songs, Eugene, Oregon, to our travel playlist. In 1972, Dolly performed before an audience of 1,500 on Valentine’s Day at the Lane County Fairgrounds in Eugene. She was a young country singer, homesick for Tennessee, just getting her start with the country star Porter Wagoner.

Dolly shared her personal struggles along the road, thousands of miles from home, that night with the audience, and they responded warmly. She received the first standing ovation of her career in Eugene. When she wrote this song, she didn’t mention the glorious Oregon scenery; her takeaway was how she found comfort from the kindness of concert-goers.

“Tired and weary and feelin’ low
Among strange people I didn’t know
A long, long way from home and a long time gone
Oh but Eugene, Oregon, you were kind
The love you gave was genuine
You gave me inspiration and the strength to carry on”

It reinforces the classic advice, “People may forget what you said, or what you did, but they’ll never forget how you made them feel.”

Parton also famously wrote and sang, ‘9 to 5’, including it in her album ‘9 to 5’ and Odd Jobs showcasing the grit and hard work of daily life. The struggle still is real today. We enjoyed some of our best seafood at Woggly’s Fish and Chips Food Truck in Gold Beach, Oregon. The husband-wife owners worked together; he brought in his fresh catch each morning, and she prepared it for customers. She told us it was getting more unpredictable to source enough fresh fish to live up to the “from dock to plate” mantra of their food truck. On that day, their sole employee did not come to work, and this woman was doing double duty at the window and in the kitchen.

As we traveled the Klamath River area of Oregon and California, we were reminded of the 2024 removal of four century old hydroelectric power dams on the Klamath River following a 20-year legal battle law waged by native Americans and environmentalists to restore 420 acres of the Chinook salmon’s spawning habitat. The dams never held water for drinking, irrigation, or flood control. The sole purpose was generating hydroelectric power, but this had dwindled to less than 2% of the company’s total energy output by the 2010s. Nevertheless, it was a polarizing struggle.

One night as dusk was approaching, we were en route to our overnight stay, and caught a glimpse of people fishing along the Detriot Reservoir over the Santiam River near Stayton. We turned around, got out of the car and visited with them along the dam walkway. They weren’t commercial fishermen – simply people hoping to take home a good catch in the fading light of day.

A few days later, after a morning of hiking the phenomenal National and State Park Redwood trails, we stopped at Edebees Snack Shack in Orick, California, population 328. Originally a Yurok settlement, it’s set on the shoulder of U.S. Highway 101, with a few picnic tables for customers to enjoy a menu including elk burgers. Immediately behind it is Hagood’s Hardware Store which now is more of a museum than a store. My husband began talking to a gentleman in his 80s seated at a picnic table, and learned he was James Hagood, owner of the store. He said it was closed, and for sale – lock, stock, and barrel– for $495,000. This included the house behind the store, where he lived. His late wife had run the store, while he drove lumber truck for 40 years.

He told us bits and pieces of the decline of Orick. Gold was discovered in the black sands at Gold Bluff Beach in 1850. When the gold fever ran its course, the new settlers turned to lumber. Hagood said the nearby town of Eureka had seven lumber mills during the mid-20th century. Redwood National Park was designated in 1968 by President Johnson, saving the Coastal redwoods, but hurting the logging economy. When the Park was expanded in 1978, timber companies sent President Jimmy Carter a nine-ton carved redwood peanut on a flatbed, with the protest message, “It may be Peanuts to you, but it’s Jobs to us.” The gift was not accepted, and was hauled back to Orick.

Surrounded by the tourism of the awesome Redwoods, Fern Canyon and the Gold Bluff Beach, Orick doesn’t bask in the glow of its proximity. The exodus of people and jobs accelerated in the 1990s, Hagood told us.

Much of northern Oregon seems hardscrabble. Gas prices hit $6+ (no ethanol) in Crescent City, California. Economic pressures are exacerbated by wildfires and declining air quality. It’s been one of the worst wildfire seasons in recent Oregon history: more than 2.5 million acres have burned. Oregon has spent more than $200 million fighting the fires, plus property losses, and damaged grazing land. The front-page headline of The Bulletin on Sunday, August 23 heralded the feature story, “What the fires took.” After enjoying a gorgeous day at Mt. Hood, we could see distant smoke over the east side of the mountain.

At a small store in Port Orford, we saw this poster, reminding us many people there feel unrepresented, and unheard

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On the bright? side, California is the largest tribal gaming market in the U.S., with 63 federally recognized tribes operating about 76 gaming facilities. But, as James Hagood reminded us as we left, “You’ve seen the best part of California.”

People’s Need to Make Connections

What we brought home from our journey to the Pacific Northwest Coast are the memories of people along the way. Others, like us, who traveled there, reached out to share their wonder and awe of our country’s natural grandeur. No one asked if we were red or blue. They simply shared their stories, hoping to make a connection.

· At one sandy beach, we met woman with two dogs. “Hello, Montana,” she shouted, seeing the license plates on our rented vehicle. “I grew up in Montana,” she explained. After living several years in Texas, she said she moved to Oregon to improve the health of one of her dogs. After moving here, it died. Still, she stayed, living out of her RV.

· On a Redwood trail, we met a couple who from Germany. They recently had dropped off their son at college in Fulton, Missouri. Learning that one of our sons-in-law is a Missouri native, they said they had flown here from St. Louis. After visiting the California redwoods, they would drive to San Francisco, and return home to Germany.

· At the Cape Blanco Lighthouse, on Oregon’s westernmost tip overlooking the Pacific, we met a Portland woman traveling with her young grandson. They were touring Oregon’s remaining lighthouses. She shared that husband always wanted to visit Cape Blanco. But he died two years ago, so they would scatter some of his ashes here.

The Redwoods did not disappoint. But the ephemeral connections we made along the Redwood Highway also are treasured souvenirs. They underscore the greatest lesson the Redwoods impart to our lives. Redwoods often reach a height of 380 feet, with a trunk circumference of 30 feet. Yet their roots are only 10-13 feet deep. These roots extend 60-80 feet around their trunks, intertwining with other redwoods. It’s as if they’re holding hands underground, enabling them to survive an astounding 2,000 years. The daily morning fog is essential for their survival., and they in turn, store carbon for us.

Gazing up in wonder at the enormity of the redwoods diminished our everyday problems during this week. On days to come, when we can’t see the forest for the trees, we need to remember the redwoods, and rely on our connectedness to one another.

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What’s that? You say you don’t know Dave Dawson? That’s OK. Most people don’t – yet.

Do you know Chris McGowan? No? Most people don’t know him, either. McGowan, a Sioux City native and the current president of the Sioux City Chamber of Commerce, is running against Dawson for the 4th Congressional District seat vacated by Randy Feenstra. McGowan is the frontrunner. He has an R behind his name, and in the 4th District, the most Republican district in Iowa, that speaks volumes.

I know Iowa doesn’t have gerrymandered districts. But District 4 seems an incongruously large and contorted geographic district blanketing 36 counties, from Council Bluffs to the north, and as far east as Marshalltown. It’s well-known for electing a series of Republicans: Randy Feenstra, Steve King, Tom Latham, and Greg Ganske, as well as Donald Trump. When I was growing up in Woodbury County, I recall being represented by Berkley Bedell-D for more than a decade.

However, that was long before District 4 was reconfigured. First, with changes in 2003, and later in 2012, when the Iowa Legislature’s plan merged the northern half of the old 5th District with the western third of the old 4th. I wish someone could explain to me why this made sense.

More experience – and more empathy

Thankfully, Iowa didn’t re-draw its district boundaries earlier this year when Trump told Republican governors to do it. Our state constitution makes it difficult to enact mid-decade redistricting. So, regardless of the lumping together of Republican voters in Iowa’s 4th District, it could have been worse. We voters who live here will have a choice between Dave Dawson and Chris McGowan in the mid-term.

Dawson, 51, seems cut from the same cloth as Berkley Bedell. Bedell focused on small businesses, farmers, and working families, and he was openly skeptical of corporate power. Dawson says he grew up an Independent in small-town Iowa, in Washta, and didn’t join the Democratic party until he was 30 years old. He graduated from Iowa State University, and after going on to earn a law degree, he worked as an attorney for a few years prior to returning to Iowa in 2002. He was elected to the Iowa legislature in 2012, representing the 14th District, re-elected in 2014, and served until 2017, when he ran for an open Senate seat, and was defeated.

Dawson has spent two decades serving as a Woodbury County prosecutor, bringing drug dealers, sex offenders, and child abusers to justice. He’s successfully argued cases before the Iowa Supreme Court. In his personal life, he’s married and has three children. Dave’s served on nonprofit boards for disability services and child abuse prevention, advocated for Head Start, and has been an ASCME member since 2003.

I have nothing personal against McGowan. I might even be related to him, way back on my great-grandmother’s branch of the family tree! However, I believe his resume is lacking, compared to Dawson. He’s worked as a political strategist in NW Iowa, served in the Iowa Air National Guard, and worked in sales. This is the first time he’s run for political office, and it’s for U.S. Congress. It seems a large leap for an unknown. Following Trump’s endorsement of McGowan early this year, another candidate dropped out, and McGowan was uncontested in the primary. McGowan already has quit his job – apparently confident of victory.

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Dawson ran against two other candidates in the primary. When I heard Dawson speak again at a house party in Boone in July, he already had visited all 36 counties in the district three times, and he was working on a 4th round. He pointed out that despite an entire slate of Iowa Republicans elected to Congress, along with Republican majorities in Congress, we still do not have a new farm bill. He shared his concerns about affordability, the negative impact of vouchers on Iowa’s public schools, and the repercussions of Medicaid cuts from Trump’s One, Big Beautiful Bill. He said rural hospitals will be threatened by closures.

Dawson spoke again last week at the Des Moines Register’s Political Soapbox at the Iowa State Fair. I hope you had a chance to hear him

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McGowan took a turn at the State Fair Soapbox this week. He focused on military concerns (several of his children are serving). He also reflected on the issue of eminent domain, which is a smart move, considering the impact of the Summit Carbon pipeline on Iowans in this district.

Other Dems Have Made a Mark

Dawson knows he’s facing an uphill battle. However, Catelin Drey, a first-time Democratic candidate, won last year in a Senate District 1 special election including Sioux City and Lawton – a seat formerly held by a Republican. The margin was 11%, and in the process, she flipped the Republican supermajority in the Iowa Senate. Drey will be defending her seat this fall, and it will be more of a challenge this time around.

In 2018, J.D. Scholten lost to former representative Steve King by only about three points. Elected in 2022 to the Iowa legislature from District 1, Scholten will not run again this year. When I asked Dawson if he would have Scholten’s support in this campaign, he replied they have a good relationship, and that J.D. was working hard to help Josh Turek unseat Ashley Hinson.

Dawson does have a successful track record in northwest Iowa. When I asked him why, he told me his district at the time tended to rotate between Democrat and Republican representation. He said he’s hoping momentum from a strong Democratic and Independent turn out, reinforced by sufficient resources, will boost his chances of victory this November.

Bring on the Debate!

When Dawson spoke in Boone, he said he was working hard to raise his profile among likely voters, and he felt it was important for him and McGowan to debate their positions in a public forum.

The League of Women Voters in Sioux City, partnering with the League in Ames and Story County, and the League of Women Voters in Iowa, agree. They’ve offered to host a debate between Dawson and McGowan, issuing an invitation to both on July 22. They suggested three potential dates, and described their plans for an impartial moderator, equal speaking time, and debate rules.

Dawson responded immediately that all three dates were fine. McGowan’s August 4 reply stated that he planned to participate in a debate with Dawson, but wanted additional reassurances of impartiality and fairness. The League provided these on the same day. After failing to receive any response, the League followed up on August 11, asking for a reply within a week.

So far, crickets from McGowan.

The District 4 midterm election is more than a name recognition contest, of course. McGowan hardly is a household name outside of Woodbury County. Surely, it should boil down to more than an R or D behind the candidate’s name? Dawson needs to get out his message of bipartisan cooperation, accountability, and public service to Independents as well as disillusioned traditional Republicans.

“I feel the voters in the 4th District deserve to hear both of us debate,” Dawson says.

Dawson and McGowan have known one another for about 15 years, and say they intend to be civil during the campaign. I applaud that.

But if we’re going to make Dave (Dawson) Famous, he needs a public forum to rib McGowan about the impact of the past decade of Republican policies on Iowans. In addition to highlighting this administration’s lack of a new farm bill, Dawson needs to hammer hard on how Trump’s policies have hurt farmers and small businesses, namely:

· unpredictable and costly trade tariffs

· the Iran War’s impact on raising input costs – fertilizer, gasoline, and diesel

· labor shortages due to the immigration crackdown

· a 17% loss of USDA staff in Iowa due to cut backs in the Federal workforce

· freezing and canceling grants aimed to boost the bottom line of Iowa’s produce growers, offer a healthier food to consumers, and bolster farm practices that help reverse climate change

Trump’s approval rating now has sunk to a record low: 33%. McGowan is closely tied to Trump’s failed policies – policies that may stick in the craw of enough District 4 voters to convince them to get to know Dave Dawson.

Maybe that’s what McGowan is afraid of

.

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Last week, when the Boone County burg of Beaver, population, 49, opened its doors for the August City Council meeting, 100 people were waiting in line.

However, after the five council members took their seats around the table, and citizens squeezed into the room, the mayor asked for a motion to amend the agenda: the scheduled guest speaker was a no-show.

Instead, the mayor read an email sent to the Council. Geronimo Power, a Minnesota-based company, pointed out it had expected to meet with Beaver City Council members, privately and individually, but since public notice of this August meeting had been posted, the meeting was a no-go. The company did not have any interest at this time in a public discussion.

News Flash! Every City Council meeting is open to the public, in accordance with Iowa’s open meetings law. Cities must provide public notice of each meeting at least 24 hours in advance, including the time, date, and place, as well as the tentative agenda. In 2025 the Iowa Legislature also passed a law requiring certain city officials to complete an open meetings/open records training.

Apparently, that’s not how Bloomington-based Geronimo Power, a subsidiary of the Canadian infrastructure giant Brookfield Asset Management, does business. But if your business portfolio is developing and operating data centers, it may be your modus operandi.

One of the comments in the Beaver community discussion group the next day summed up the common sentiment: “This community is a bunch of farmers and others living in this booming metropolis. They like their small town life and don’t need a handout from money-hungry, land-stealing suits from wherever!” The farmers whose land was targeted for development also were angry, saying they had no interest in selling.

During the scorching heat of these dog days of summer, Iowans are dog paddling their way through heavy air dripping with humidity. A data center derecho has opened the floodgates for an unpredictable downpour of emotions.

One Meeting Down, a Half Dozen More to Go

That’s only one data center meeting. My August calendar filled up quickly with at least a half dozen more across the state:

August 10: The Sioux County Courthouse in Orange City was the site of an informational meeting hosted by Des Moines-based PathOne Data Centers, a small-edge data center company that filed as a business on June 11. The audience was limited to 150 due to room capacity. Sioux County currently has a one-year moratorium on data centers, but the former Bison Renewable Energy Plant, southwest of Hull, is a potential site.

August 11: Next, PathOne traveled three counties southeast to Ida County, where residents packed the Community Rec Center. Ida County also has placed a moratorium on data centers, as it works to write an ordinance. Another company that met with local contractors to discuss developing a project dropped out after the moratorium.

PathOne described its potential facility:

· 40,000 square foot building.

· Estimated cost of $100-$150 million

· 5 to 25 acres

· 10-25 megawatts

· Closed-loop water system consuming between 350,000 and 700,000 gallons annually

· Noise levels at or below 55 decibels at the property line

As a northwestern Iowa native, I often drive past these communities. Why would a data center company locate near Galva, population 409, or Arthur, population 213?

Now I know. PathOne focuses on previously zoned industrial areas. This is the case near Arthur, where POET Bioprocessing operates. Quad County Corn Processors, an ethanol plant near Galva, closed in 2024, so its power grid is considered “stranded” power. Furthermore, both Galva and Arthur had Bitcoin operations (BitCap, Iowa) that no longer are active. Northwest Power Cooperative is pushing for a new industry to use this capacity.

PathOne isn’t proposing a specific project yet, but it has plans to process and store data for banks, hospitals, or other businesses. An ad hoc committee advisory committee is being promoted to share information and ask questions. As Ida County Supervisors write ordinances, they’re considering capping the megawatt size to deter hyperscale data center development.

August 12: Salix City Council meeting, 7 p.m. I made plans to attend. Last April, 900 acres of farmland were annexed into city limits without notification of residents or neighbors. The land has not been sold, and retains its agricultural zoning. At the July meeting, the City Council was asked to pass a one-year moratorium on large scale data centers on city land. The vote was 3-2 in support, with a final vote scheduled for August 12.

On August 3, Google announced it had entered into an agreement with Mid-American Energy for a data center in Salix. It pledged not to seek property tax abatements or rebates. (Google opened a hyperscale data center in Council Bluffs in 2007, and another there in 2013.)

Last spring, Salix residents asked the Woodbury County Supervisors to investigate how the annexation was handled. On August 4, the Supervisors filed a petition with the Iowa District Court against the City Council of Salix for violating multiple Iowa Code requirements.

Representatives of Google and Mid-American had agreed to attend the August 12 meeting. Four hours prior to the meeting, just as I was getting in my car, the Mayor of Salix posted that the City Council meeting would be postponed until completion of an investigation of death threats made on Facebook.

August 10: A map distributed during a Sioux City City Council meeting designated 720-acres off Old Highway 141 southeast of Sioux City as a “Proposed Data Center” location”. (It’s not far from Salix.) When landowner Brian Peterson was contacted, he said he was unaware of it, issuing this statement, in part, “We want to make it clear we have not been involved in, nor have we authorized or consented to, any proposal to develop a data center on our farmland.”

One day later, City officials responded that no data center was currently proposed, and the map was “a planning artifact from a Capital Improvement project five years earlier identifying parcels close to power lines that could accommodate various developments.” The City Council stated, “There is no operator, construction schedule, utility agreement, zoning application, or development contract tied to the parcel.”

August 10: Back in Boone County, in nearby Woodward, rumors swirled regarding the City Council’s discussion with a developer and a voluntary annexation south of town, where property was rezoned E-1. At the Council meeting the mayor and Council members said they had signed NDAs. They stated that a data center is one type of development that COULD potentially be allowed there, but no specific project has been decided or proposed at this time. The Council also said that if a project is formally proposed, there would be public notice, and a public meeting.

August 10, Linn County Supervisors met to discuss a potential carve-out from their 18-month moratorium for a future data center located next to a nuclear power plant. This did not move forward, due to negative public feedback. (The issue is closely tied to the Duane Arnold Energy plant near Palo and a Google data center.)

August 10. The Clinton City Council held a committee meeting in advance of its first in a series of public input sessions in September regarding a draft ordinance on data centers. The meeting was packed, and many in the audience wore T-shirts stating, “No Data Centers.” QTS data center is eyeing a 1,100 acre site between the Clinton airport, a golf course, and a residential area. In the meantime, QTS, owned by Blackstone, is building a $1.75 billion data center in Cedar Rapids.

Is your head spinning yet?

If not, mark September 9 to attend a Teach-in on Commercial Data Centers at the Winnevegas Casino, at 7 p.m, hosted by the Winnebago Tribe in Woodbury County. Woodbury County Supervisors also are holding three evening meetings: Aug. 31 in Sloan; September 21 in Moville, and November 9 in Salix.

Bipartisan Voting Issue

Iowa isn’t an outlier state, generating multiple data center flashpoints.

On August 3, Texas Gov. Abbott paused 1,800 data center projects after their requests to connect to the state’s main electric grid threatened to overwhelm it. He said energy audits and several other concerns must be addressed prior to connecting, and data centers should pay their own way.

Texas is projected to surpass Virginia by 2030 at its current rate of data center growth. In June, the Texas GOP convention added new plank calling for a data center pause, until stronger regulations are approved.

Why the concern? A new poll shows a majority of Texans oppose data centers in their communities. A total of 248 data centers are planned statewide, with one-half located in unincorporated areas, where developers are seeking flat farmland, water, electricity –and fewer regulations.

The storm brewing in Texas over data centers cuts deeply into Abbott’s rural voter base. Abbott isn’t alone. Candidates in competitive districts in several other states have adopted data center oversight into their campaigns. Data centers could grow into a grassroots political force of Nature by the midterms, especially if eminent domain comes into play.

Iowa is a case in point. Zach Lahn said he supports a statewide moratorium on new data centers until ordinances, water protections, power-rate safeguards, and local negotiations are in place. He said he might support a law prohibiting tax breaks.

Sand said he’d sign a bill banning tax breaks for data centers. He also would require them to pay for infrastructure upgrades and energy usage, and hire Iowa union members to build them. (There are few other jobs afterwards.)

The Stakes are High

Data centers have existed for decades. It’s the escalating scale and AI component that’s new. Not all data centers are created equal, but this explosive growth, combined with dubious in-the-dead-of-night tactics, are threatening.

Data center opposition is tapping into an aversion to the rising power and wealth of the Big Tech oligarchs. It’s a kitchen table issue, prompting concerns about escalating electricity and water costs. It’s also the worry that emissions from huge footprint data centers exacerbate climate change, and pave over prime farmland.

But superseding all of these is the core bipartisan feeling that hyperscale data centers are taking something precious from people: the serenity of their lives, enjoyment of Nature, and close sense of community. In the eyes of the world, they may not appear to have much, but Gol dang it, what they do have means the world to them.

All for the sake of what? Of course, there are valid uses of AI. We just don’t know for sure what they are yet. We do know data centers will attempt to off-load their costs of doing business on local communities.

Last spring, at a public forum in Boone, I asked Boone County’s elected state legislators what steps they could take to protect Iowans from inappropriate data center growth. I was told:

· there aren’t that many data centers in Iowa

· if data centers are built, they’re more likely to be in urban areas

I felt this response was inaccurate, and uninformed. Today, it seems ignorant. Iowa legislators need to spend their summer vacation developing new strategies for balancing infrastructure needs with community impacts.

On the morning of August 11, beginning in eastern Iowa, a derecho began its path of destruction throughout four Midwestern states, with wind gusts of up to 99 mph, flash flooding, three 1F tornadoes, and causing more than a million power outages.

Thousands of Iowans were left without power, and saddled with scattered debris.

At the same time, powerful data centers, a type of human-made derecho, are sweeping across the state, threatening to suck the power from Iowa communities.

But here’s another date to keep in mind: November 8, 2026. Who will hold the power on that day?

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Sure, it was a risk, but she wasn’t afraid to get her hands dirty. She took money from her nest egg to buy into a new business, and finally, beginning next year, she plans to reap the rewards.

This week I met Ramthun, who doesn’t hide her underground connections. “I’m a proud member of the Oat Mafia,” the sixth generation Minnesota farmer told me.

Together, with 200 other Minnesota and Iowa farmers, she’s working to improve soil health, diversify crops, and shore up water quality. All of this could be achieved if they succeed in creating a new market supply chain for food-grade oats. But it’s a grinding process.

Sowing Her Oats

Ramthun’s dad had been cash-renting the family operation, known as Flying J Farm, as he pursued his career as a pilot. When he said he wanted to sell it, Shea-Lynn decided to move back and take over the family farm near Cannon Falls.

She set to work, switching to no-till, adding cover crops, and diversifying the 250-acre operation. She also found work as a soil health organizer for the Land Stewardship Project (LSP), a private, nonprofit founded in 1982 to foster land stewardship, and promote sustainable agriculture within a community.

At a LSP farmer-to-farmer meeting in 2022, she heard Minnesota corn and soybean farmer Martin Larsen tell how he had begun growing food grade oats in 2018, delivering them to a small miller across the state line in Iowa. In 2022, he and a dozen other farmers secured a contract through a pilot program with Oatly, a Swedish maker of milk alternatives.

“Grandpa always had some acres in oats, and a small herd of beef cattle,” she said. “The oats were primarily fed to our horses and weaned calves, but Grandpa always said they were good for the soil.”

Ramthun was sold. She added food grade oats to her crop rotation.

How Oats Lost Their Edge

The Upper Midwest, Minnesota, Wisconsin, the Dakotas, and parts of Iowa, once was a traditional oat-growing territory. Oats were the go-to crop to break up the corn monoculture, disrupt the weed cycle, and reduce soil erosion. Beginning in the 1950s, herbicides became a game-changer for getting rid of weeds. Soybeans rapidly made inroads after World War II, and became part of a three-way crop rotation. But as export demand grew in the 1970s, farmers began shifting from raising livestock to the more lucrative cash grain combo of corn and soybeans, reducing their physical labor. Government price supports also provided an incentive.

In 1988, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was passed, and our neighbor to the north, Canada could export more of its oats here. In 1989, the Canadian Wheat Board surrendered control to the free market. Oats are a cool-season crop, and Canada was well-suited to expand. Oats became a niche-crop in the U.S.

Consumer Market Expands

Before long, the U.S. became the largest oat importer in the world. Quaker Oats, a subsidiary of PepsiCo, which operates the world’s largest cereal plant in Cedar Rapids, and General Mills, based in the Twin Cities, turned to Canada in the 1980s to secure their supply of food-grade oats. Today a total of 95% of the oats Americans consume are grown in Canada.

In recent years, however, the market for food-grade oats began expanding beyond oatmeal cereal and granola. By 2021, oat milk sales soared to $350 million. The demand for gluten-free products pushed sales of oat flour.

Food-grade oats require higher standards for purity and density than oats fed to livestock. “We kept hearing row crop farmers complain we can’t grow high-quality oats like Canada,” Ramthun says. The average was about 34 pounds, but 38 pounds per bushel is the minimum threshold for food-grade oats. Comparatively few research dollars have flowed to oats. Oats don’t require hybrid seeds, or as much fertilizer, to grow.

But recently the University of Minnesota developed a new oat variety called MN-Amber. After many on-farm trials, it achieved better yields, heavier test weights, and more grain protein. It’s no longer your grandpa’s oats.

Ramthun said she has increased the yield on her 60 acres of oats to 38-39 pounds per acre and raised the test weight to 38.

A small mill in St. Ansgar would continue buying their food-grade oats, but there was less competitive pricing. It also grinds wheat and barley, so oats can’t be 100% guaranteed to be free of allergens.

“The Oat Mafia decided to work as a group to market our oats,” Ramthun says. “We begged and pleaded with Quaker Oats and General Mills to buy our food-grade oats.”

Buying domestic oats would save the companies freight costs, and avoid the potential for temperamental tariffs against Canadian products.

But their pleas have fallen on deaf ears so far. The supply chain stopped them in their tracks. Without a market, why would farmers grow food-grade oats?

Oats Yield Multiple Benefits

There are multiple benefits to growing oats, Ramthun says. They require less nitrogen than corn, and as a result, fewer nitrates end up in the water. Nitrates are a problem in Minnesota, as well as Iowa. In the driftless region of Minnesota, where the karst topography is similar to northeastern Iowa, it’s estimated that about 9,000 residents drink water with unsafe levels of nitrate.

Oats can stem the tide of nitrates, since it’s an early spring crop that can absorb the fertilizer that often washes away during late spring rains. Oat Mafia organizer Larsen, who farms and works part-time for Olmsted County’s soil and water conservation district, collects water samples in a network of caves beneath southeastern Minnesota fields. He has found up to 60% fewer nitrates beneath oat acres than corn acres. Research data backs up Larsen’s claims.

After Ramthun harvests her oats in late July, she grows red clover to protect the soil from erosion. She turns out her cattle on the clover, as the summer pastures grow thin. Her oat crop also saves money on inputs, including fertilizer, an expensive and hard-to-obtain input.

“I would probably continue to grow oats, despite the lack of markets,” she says. But she farms a relatively small operation. It may not pencil out for larger operations without a stable market and supply chain.

However, the government and industry support system for oats is lackluster. Oats had no prioritized insurance programs until 2023, when the USDA expanded an insurance program to protect oats against price volatility. Oat bins also require a different air flow than corn or soybeans.

Risky Business of Food

The self-proclaimed Oat Mafia had continued to grow to about 125 farmers, with 50,000 acres of land, and 6,000 acres of oats. But thousands of bushels of food-grade oats were languishing in the bin for lack of a dedicated processor.

Then Latimer, Iowa farmer and Oat Mafia member Landon Plagge suggested building their own food-grade mill. They applied for a $1.5 million USDA Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure Grant, and the City of Albert Lea offered tax incentives. Investors, including the Oat Mafia members, added almost $20 million.

The oats must be grown using regenerative practices, and be traceable.

This week, Ramthun was asked at the Iowa Women in Agriculture Conference in Ankeny, why the mill was not built in Iowa. “Minnesota, and Albert Lea just wanted it more, compared to Iowa,” she replied.

The $68 million Green Acres Milling plant is a bit behind schedule, but will open its doors in September. It will process about four million bushels of oats annually, and employ two dozen people. Ramthun sold her food-grade oats for $3.25 per bushel last year; but this spring, she will deliver oats to Green Acres Milling for $7.00 per bushel.

“I’m a proud investor in Green Acres Milling,” she says. “I know oats aren’t a silver bullet, but they are a game changer for us.”

Another interested Minnesota buyer, Seven Sundays, an environmentally focused cereal company, has expressed interest. Oat milk sales reached $860 million in 2025, and are projected to grow to $1.74 billion in 2031.

Reversing Ingrained Habits

Many times I’ve heard well-meaning nonfarmers ask, “Why can’t farmers grow more food for people? Why can’t farmers grow different crops?”

Landon Plagge, Shea-Lynn Ramthun, and other farmers agree that they need to move beyond commodities and grow more food crops for people

During the depths of the ‘80s farm crisis, I was writing for Successful Farming magazine when we launched two national ADAPT100 conferences (Ag Diversification Adds Profit Today). A total of 100 workshops showcased alternative crops, from asparagus to zinnias, to fit into a conventional cash grain operation and add possibly 20% to the farm’s gross income. Many new crops evolved from changing consumer habits. Contract production of oats was mentioned at that time. ADAPT100’s cardinal rule of growing any alternate crop was: FIND YOUR MARKET FIRST. No one suggested growing a crop without identifying a market for it.

Food-grade oats has attracted a market. Joining Cheerios and Quaker’s Simply Granola, consumers today can enjoy oat milk lattes and Quaker Oat protein-packed Shake & Go, as well as oat flour in their pancakes and muffins.

The consumer demand is here. But, as members of the 200-member Oat Mafia know, it’s not that simple. They need the processing infrastructure and supply chain to push their food-grade oats out to American consumers. They also require USDA support and research priorities to help even the playing field and reduce their risks in launching a new crop. It’s not enough to alter the agricultural landscape by growing food-grade oats; the economic landscape also must be transformed. In return, farmers can do more to improve their soil and the water quality for themselves and their neighbors.

It’s no secret that farmers today are struggling, as soybean export markets have been pulled out from them, and input costs rise due to blocked access. Without federal assistance, many would go under. “When prices for other crops are lower, you’re more apt to think outside the box, and try something different,” Ramthun says. She describes herself as stubborn, but is sustained by the support of her husband and two children. “I’m looking forward to oats having their moment in the sun,” she says.

Food-grade oats someday may pay off for members of the Oat Mafia, but It’s a substantial risk. Not all farmers will benefit, due to climate and moisture conditions.

It’s a tough row to hoe when you go rogue in agriculture. The Oat Mafia must fight to establish their turf and protect it. After all, growing against the grain ain’t for sissies.

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But something’s wrong with this year’s summertime food selfie. In our haste to set up our hammock, we may have overlooked its sagging and frayed support net. In the same way, this summer we’ve discovered our nation’s food safety net has gaping holes and weakened anchor points. It’s failing us.

The end result is a decidedly unappetizing potluck of nausea, fever, stomach churning, and alarming bouts of explosive diarrhea.

The most blatant example of this failure is the largest-on-record cyclospora outbreak; the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has reported more than 18,000 confirmed or probable cases caused by shredded iceberg lettuce sourced from Mexico. However, Americans also need to make room on their plates this week for a 17-state outbreak of salmonella linked to shell eggs produced in Texas, where Midwest Poultry Services has recalled about 1.6 million dozen eggs.

Food safety is a fundamental role of government. Oversight of our food supply requires a labyrinth of regulations and a sophisticated surveillance system. The federal government has laid the blame for the cyclospora outbreak on Taylor Farms, one of the largest salad and produce processors. Soon after announcing a positive test from a Taylor Farms lettuce sample, the Food and Drug Agency (FDA) retracted it, calling it a false positive. However, it still maintains Taylor Farms is the source. Confused yet? Meanwhile, an inquiry has been launched into whether Taylor Farms, a huge donor to Trump, had attempted to stall the FDA recall.

A total of 45 states have been impacted. To date, there have been 423 hospitalizations. Forty-eight counties in Iowa have reported 226 confirmed cases of cyclospora; in 2025, there were only 69 cases.

Other states, including North Carolina and New York have reported higher than normal cases of cyclospora, from unknown sources. Former FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb recently stated on Face the Nation there are likely other foodborne sources causing these cases, including cilantro, parsley, and other produce grown in central Mexico.

Cyclospora cayetanensis is caused by a parasite found in human feces. One theory is that sewage flooding, a sewage canal break, or overflowing portable toilets in the fields of central Mexico may be to blame.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy, who oversees the FDA and CDC, has described these foodborne illnesses as “under control”. However, both the FDA and CDC currently are served by acting directors. The acting CDC director also heads the National Institutes of Health.

Chickens Coming Home to Roost

Food safety is a shared responsibility of the FDA, USDA, and the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS).

· FSIS is responsible for the safety, labeling, and wholesomeness of meat, poultry, and processed egg products.

· USDA creates and implements policies focused on meat, poultry, and processed eggs and coordinates with FSIS on recalls.

· The FDA oversees about 80% of the food supply, including seafood.

· The CDC partners with all these agencies to monitor and investigate outbreaks.

For almost three decades, I often covered foodborne illness and outbreaks in my beat at Successful Farming. Most of these involved ground beef, deli meat, and poultry processors; salmonella, listeria, and E-coli were the major culprits. In 1992, E.coli 0157:H7 in Jack in the Box burgers killed four children, and infected at least 700 Americans. These outbreaks made national headlines, and the USDA, FSIS, and FDA worked with a sense of urgency to prevent, investigate, and respond to future outbreaks.

More recently, however, an evolving mix of eating habits, packaging innovations, agricultural practices, and processing trends has set the table for the current food safety spike. Fresh produce plays a dominant role. Growing conditions pose serious pathogenic challenges: irrigation systems, droughts, heavy rain, flooding, and wildlife. Furthermore, fruits and vegetables are consumed raw.

Government agencies have had to pivot to new methods of detection and surveillance to adapt, leveraging digital genomic analysis to identify pathogens.

Food safety already had begun sliding off the radar in 2024, as hospitalizations and deaths doubled; E. coli, salmonella, and listeria recalls rose by 41%. A total of 98% of all these illnesses were linked to 13 outbreaks.

However, recently the role of surveillance and traceback has been placed on the backburner. In March 2025, under Trump, the FDA delayed enforcement of a crucial traceability rule in the Obama administration’s Food Safety Modernization Act of 2011. The rule, requiring detailed supply chain records, was scheduled to take effect in January 2026. It was delayed until mid-2028. In addition:

· The CDC Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network (FoodNet), in partnership with 10 state health departments, has monitored eight different pathogens, including cyclospora, over the past 30 years. In 2025, it was cut back to monitor only salmonella and E-coli.

· Staffing cuts to FDA and CDC have adversely affected government’s response. A total of 80% of CDC leadership positions are vacant. DOGE cut eight of the 11 jobs at the CDC lab specializing in cyclospora. FDA also has lost about 20% of its staff.

· Wholesale elimination of communication specialist teams has created information silos between agencies and with the public.

These recent food safety cuts have been penny-wise and pound-foolish. The return on the investment in food safety is fewer foodborne illnesses, fewer medical bills, and reduced economic repercussions for the implicated companies.

Food Safety is Growing Concern

California produces about half of our vegetables and fruits. A total of 40 to 59% of the fruits and vegetables we consume are imported, and the proportion is growing exponentially. The FDA inspects far less imported produce, and many importing countries have less stringent safeguards.

The U.S. has a concentrated food system, subsidized commodities and an entrenched history of prioritizing large cash grain operations that supply the export market. Only 4% of government subsidies go to fruit and vegetable production, yet these crops are extremely vulnerable to extreme weather.

Only four companies control 54% of the fresh-cut salad market in the U.S., according to the nonpartisan, farmer-led group Farm Action: Taylor Fresh Foods, Bonduelle, Itochu and Cultrale-Safra. That’s why one foodborne event stemming from one of these suppliers can quickly spiral into a national foodborne crisis.

Midwestern farms are limited in food crop production by weather and market structure. But the Biden administration, led by USDA Agriculture Secretary Vilsack, promoted local regional food systems and food hubs, and farm to school produce to boost domestic supplies and offer small and mid-size farmers a foothold.

However, small-scale producers of livestock and food have been hamstrung by Trump’s abrupt policy shifts, which have laid off USDA staff and dismantled these initiatives.

Surely Iowa gubernatorial candidate Zach Lahn knows this. Yet he is running campaign ads advocating the production of Iowa-grown food to supply our schools. Last year the USDA canceled the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program (LFPA) and the Local Food for Schools Cooperative Agreement Program (LFS), which funded purchases of local produce by food banks and schools.

The USDA, now led by Brooke Rollins, announced $1.3 billion in assistance this year for growers of specialty crops. It’s a one-time payment for producers not covered by Trump’s Farm Bridge Assistance program compensating grain farmers for damaging tariffs. The application deadline is August 7.

Rebuilding the Food Safety Net

The farm bill could begin to alter the trajectory we’re on, but a new bill hasn’t been passed since 2018. Today this legislation is mired in the House, and it’s unrealistic to expect the U.S. can produce its way out of the foodborne outbreaks in our multinational food supply chain in the near future. Government leaders must respond by prioritizing prevention and surveillance and restoring workforce cuts.

Climate change, with its scorching heat domes, also is expanding the geographic distribution of pathogens in the U.S. RFK’s emphasis on funding chronic disease guarantees less attention to the public health consequences of foodborne illnesses.

Despite ample evidence of the crumbling infrastructure of the U.S. food safety net impacting our daily lives, Americans see a President obsessed with the physical infrastructure of Washington, D.C. monuments and buildings. That’s not what rank-and-file Americans voted for in the last election.

Americans are hungry for new leadership to shore up the public health network that’s made the U.S. the envy of the world. Unless we let elected officials know we see government failing to perform this fundamental role of protecting its citizens, they’ll continue to pretend they haven’t noticed the food safety net unraveling before our eyes.

We need to remind them there’s no way to Make America Healthy Again if our food supply is making us sick.

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RAGBRAI 2026 is one for the record books – another great success! It was fun to mingle with riders in nearby Boone and Ogden, and as an Iowan, it made me proud that 20,000 riders from across the U.S. chose to spend a week enjoying the natural beauty, historic attractions, and people of our state. We can hang our hats on Elkhorn’s Danish windmill, Dyersville’s Field of Dreams, Dubuque’s National Mississippi Museum and Aquarium, and western Iowa’s Loess Hills.

However, if the 2026 RAGBRAI ride beginning in Onawa last week had looped only about six miles from the official route, it would have taken riders past a 6-acre site in the Loess Hills National Scenic Byway that would have shocked them, and should shame Iowans.

Surely this site at 17902 Pear Avenue was unknown to RAGBRAI planners one year ago as they scouted routes. Heck, even the Monona County Board of Supervisors couldn’t have told them about it. They had no idea what was there.

However the Iowa DNR was aware, and this story broke at about the same time as this year’s launch of the Register’s Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa. That’s when we learned the state DNR didn’t inform the DNR field office, and wasn’t obligated to notify Monona County that this farm ground northeast of Castana had been bulldozed and scraped bare in preparation for becoming the storage site of DAF cake waste, an industrial sludge byproduct that would be trucked in daily from a pork processing plant in Sioux City, about 40 miles to the northwest.

The project was withdrawn Tuesday at a Monona County Supervisors meeting, after a letter from Hawthorn Land Holdings, LLC was read aloud to an audience of 50 concerned people. Hawthorn’s farm manager expressed regret for this initiative to collect the residue of the pork plant’s industrial wastewater treatment system into a one-billion gallon run-off basin with engineered slopes. It’s located about 600 feet from Center Cemetery, the final resting place of Robert “Bob” Hawthorn, who died in 2022. Hawthorn never married, or had children. Is this what he would have chosen to build on his farm?

More Questions than Answers

No public hearings had been held. No re-zoning application was made to Monona County. In the letter, the farm manager stated that it “began as a farming decision,” citing the high cost of nitrogen and phosphorus. He described it as an opportunity to apply “a nutrient-rich organic material” to the farm.

The farm manager also said a licensed professional engineer had designed the site and he had consulted with an agronomist. He maintained that the project was exempt from Iowa DNR permitting, and that it “was lawful”. But he admitted that not informing neighbors was a “failure”.

Many questions linger in the murky aftermath of these disclosures:

· If it’s considered “solid waste,” why use a clay liner in the basin, implying a liquid waste?

· The supply contract is “confidential,” so it’s unclear whether Hawthorn Land Holdings, LLC would receive payment for the sludge, or would pay to receive it.

Or, was it simply intended as a disposal site? This makes a critical difference in the ordinances and the oversight of Monona County and the state.

Who Is Watching Out for Us?

This story hits home with me. I grew up in the Loess Hills, just northwest of Monona County. It was a special place to me, long before I knew it was the only other place in the world beyond northern China with such deep deposits of fine loess soils.

But as I have learned, not everyone shares my sense of awe. All you need to do is drive the Loess Hills Scenic Byway to see the human impacts of cropping, removing, and developing the Hills, in complete disregard for their fragile soil structure and beauty.

Two years ago, I was so alarmed about a threat to the farm neighborhood where I grew up that I presented written and oral testimony at Woodbury County planning and zoning and Supervisor meetings in Sioux City. The purpose was to consider a request to rezone agricultural preservation land to build an organic waste composting facility. It would combine manure, food, feed, and plant wastes to make a natural fertilizer. Ten to 12 tons of processed waste would be hauled in weekly from companies like Tyson, AGP, Cargill, Gelita, the Andersens, truck washes, “and others.” Only two employees would work on site, and the owner and developer both lived off site.

I was concerned about possibly unsafe and contaminated substances. “Will there be PFAs, biohazards, or sludge?” I asked. “Is the Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources up to the task of closely monitoring this facility?” (Considering that the Monona County site was exposed to the light of day by the neighbors, the answer to my question is clear: Don’t count on it.)

In Woodbury County, adjoining neighbors were notified of a hearing with only a few days to react prior to the comment deadline. Neither the owner nor developer had notified them. The proposed re-zoning had been printed in the public notices of a county seat newspaper, but not the local paper. Many other neighbors learned by word of mouth.

The location along the Loess Hills Scenic Byway was ill-considered. The entrance from the narrow two-lane highway would be sandwiched between a curve rounding a bluff to the south and a hill immediately to the north. The truck traffic would cause wear and tear and cost the taxpayers; the road would be shared with farm equipment, bicycles, motorcycles, school buses, and sightseers out for a leisurely drive on the Scenic Byway.

What would happen to the site after its grant funding was exhausted – would an even less desirable business relocate there? I asked. Thanks to a petition drive opposing it, several written and oral testimonies, many people attending the hearings, and the common sense of the planning and zoning board and the Woodbury County Board of Supervisors, the rezoning was not approved.

I learned that the developer subsequently attempted to locate the project a couple of counties away, near a state park. Again, it was denied.

Commercial natural compost fertilizer may become an alternative for hard-to-get and costly synthetic fertilizers. I’m not an agronomist, but siting this type of facility requires careful consideration, and managing it properly demands expertise. Marketing it as “organic” and “natural” can be a form of greenwashing; I’d raise questions about the health and safety implications of the waste products added to this compost. (The Iowa DNR is hosting an online organic waste management plan stakeholder event on July 30. Agricultural practices, composting, and anaerobic digesters are mentioned as topics.)

In Search of a Land Ethic

Earlier this spring, Castana neighbors near 17902 Pear Avenue said the fertile ground, planted to soybeans, was headed toward a promising harvest. Suddenly, almost overnight, the crop was torn from its roots, and heavy equipment moved in to excavate the earth.

One moment these Iowans were enjoying the bucolic view of the rolling hills, timber land, growing green crops, and wildlife – their own slice of Americana. It’s what RAGBRAI riders witnessed pedaling across our state this week. But the enduring permanence of the land can be an illusion. The view can be altered in the blink of an eye.

There’s a vulnerability to life in the wide, open rural spaces. . . the distance between homes, the dark night skies, the miles to emergency medical care. You may own the surrounding land, but you don’t own the entire section. When land a quarter mile from your home is sold, it may fall into the hands of a stranger– an out of state distant relative of the original owner, an investor, or a land holding trust.

Today, more than ever, it seems landowners are at the mercy of hazardous pipeline developments, industrial livestock operations, hyperscale data centers, massive solar developments, and even an organic waste composting facility similar to this one near Castana. Who is protecting the economic value of rural Iowans’ assets, and their intrinsic quality of life?

Only six miles away from Castana, RAGBRAI riders passed through the town of Turin, population 72. It’s the site of a Middle Archaic burial ground, where the 6,000-year-old remains of a family of four were discovered in 1955. Photographers from Life magazine arrived to document the excavation of the Turin Man Archaeological Site. Other people came from miles around to see what else was hidden beneath this soil.

Today, what’s hiding beneath our soil might not showcase Iowa in a favorable light; in some cases, it might be a dark underbelly.

Hawthorn Land Holdings, LLC stated it would apply to the county for the entrance and right-of-way permits that it had ignored. But it would not propose an alternative use for the site at this time.

“Any future use of that ground will be one we believe is good for the land, good for the community, and good for the people who live nearest to it – and we will bring it to this Board and to those neighbors before we begin, not after,” the letter concluded.

Time will tell. For now, the constructed basin waste site near Castana in the Loess Hills appears closed for business. However, the questions swirling around it should continue until answers are provided.

Individual thinkers since the days of Ezekiel and Isaiah have asserted that the despoliation of land is not only inexpedient but wrong. Society, however, has not yet affirmed their belief.

The Land Ethic, Aldo Leopold, 1949

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When did data become a four-letter word? Nationwide protests are underway today in more than 50 cities in 22 states. That includes New York, where Gov. Kathy Hochul recently signed an executive order for a one-year pause on hyperscale data centers consuming 50 or more megawatts of power annually. New York is the first state to hit the pause button while it learns the hard lessons of other states that handed over precious natural resources in their haste to cut quick deals. Here are a few of these high-profile, cautionary tales:

· Virginia leads the U.S. with a proliferation of about 637 data centers. As much as 45% of Loudon County’s total revenue is derived from its 50 million square feet of data centers. Recently Virginia became the first state to pass a new tax on data center electricity consumption.

· Arizona is fast-pedaling away from its sugar-high data center subsidies, creating a 3-year moratorium. Instead, it will re-direct $57 million saved from subsidies over the next three years to address health care, child care, and food assistance needs.

· Texas holds the dubious distinction of being the state with the second highest number of data centers. However, it also led the way in more than 3 million private residential electrical disconnections in 2024, tied to climbing monthly energy bills. In 2026, new restrictions aim to reduce energy costs by connecting data centers to the power grid and gaining more leverage during emergency disruptions.

· In Newton County, Georgia, residents are looking at a projected water deficit by 2030, and a 33% rate hike over the next two years. Meta uses at least 10% of the county’s water supply. Rural Louisiana is confronting a similar impact from a Meta AI center.

· New Mexico is home to Oracle’s Open AI. Recently the company has been forced to trim back its 1,400-acre Project Jupiter in southern New Mexico to reduce air pollution. Instead of building natural gas turbines and a diesel generator that spew greenhouse gases, it’s pivoting to solid oxide fuel cells that don’t require combustion, and also will reduce water needs. However, critics accuse the company of greenwashing.

Will some data be powered by eminent domain?

More than 70% of the U.S. power grid is 25 years or older. Demand for electricity is outpacing the supply. The Dept. of Energy predicts that data centers will consume as much as 12% of all U.S. electricity by 2028, up from 4.4% in 2023. . Much of this electricity is generated from fossil fuel, and adds to greenhouse gases. Another projection is that $10-$58 billion will be required to upgrade the public water infrastructure by 2030.

Ramping up the new infrastructure to expand the power grid also may require power plants, larger and more powerful transmission lines, and substations.

We know that Palo, Iowa, was attractive to Google because of its proximity to the Duane Arnold Nuclear Plant northwest of Cedar Rapids. Although it was shuttered in 2020, Gov. Reynolds told Iowa legislators it was necessary to restart the plant. It’s scheduled for completion in 2029.

Currently Alliant Energy is seeking rezoning to build the Morgan Valley Energy Center, along with a natural gas powered plant in Linn County. Alliant does not say the plant is being built exclusively to serve data centers, but it’s not hard to connect the dots to the 13 data centers under construction in Cedar Rapids.

Although data centers are sited on purchased land, the essential infrastructure required to support them may involve another type of power: the coercive power of the state. For instance, transmission lines often are the ticket to expanding the power grid. Atlanta-based Georgia Power plans to build a 35-mile transmission line to power four AI data centers.

Transmission lines are built on property – primarily private property. They’re regarded as public infrastructure and utilities. As we know in Iowa, a public utility can be granted eminent domain powers by the state. The electricity produced or pipeline oil doesn’t have to serve the public exclusively, and the project can primarily benefit private companies. If landowners don’t agree to sell property or to grant easements, the property can be seized, sometimes with take-it-or-leave-it compensation. Condemnation offers the real-world potential of lower property values.

About 330 residential properties are impacted by Georgia Power’s planned transmission line, and as many as 30 might be torn down in the process. Owners Angela Hall and her daughter Ansley Brown have taken to Tik Tok, to advocate for their home, purchased in 2003. They have until August 1 to find a new home. Other Georgia landowners want to know who will benefit from their land.

I could see this playing out in Iowa– after all Iowa has handed over its eminent domain powers to allow the Dakota Access oil pipeline and the Carbon Summit Solutions pipeline. Will it be used again to fuel AI growth?

In fact, pipelines, transmission lines and other infrastructure are playing an increasingly controversial role in Midwestern agriculture. This power struggle pits farmers, landowners, county and city governments, and communities against one another in a mad scramble to build new motherlodes of power for urban areas, and sometimes out-of-state consumers. These utility-scale industrial energy projects require the same open, level acres highly valued by rural and farm communities.

Roger McEowen, a Kansas ag law professor who spent years at ISU’s Center for Ag Law and Taxation, recently wrote that two eminent domain cases involving natural-gas pipelines and water infrastructure “raise broad constitutional questions about the limits of eminent domain authority over privately owned ag land.”

They Will Come, Invited or Not

Here in Iowa, a casual conversation with one of my Boone County supervisors revealed that they’ve been approached by data center developers. However, there were no operators at this time. They’re ubiquitous! Here’s a short list:

· Palo: After a 5-week pause, a 4 to 1 vote was held on the 2nd of three readings of a data center ordinance. More than 100 people showed up to oppose it. If you recall, the original 545-acre Google data center was proposed for unincorporated Linn County. After supervisors set guidelines, seemingly overnight, Google relocated to Palo, population 1,627, with a plan for it to be annexed into city limits. At a recent meeting, City board members admitted a major selling point is tax revenue. Palo officials recently promised residents no property tax abatement would be given. The final reading is set for July 20.

· Salix: Woodbury County Supervisors say the City of Salix may have followed an outdated version of Iowa law when it recently annexed 900 acres They have asked for a judicial review. Woodbury County recently instituted a moratorium on data centers.

· Ames: The Ames City Council has held two public hearings. It voted to temporarily delay any decision while staff develops new regulations. It would be sited on 10 acres, with 1% of the footprint of Googles’ Council Bluffs campus. It’s not expected to house large AI servers.

· Clinton: QTS’s hyperscale data center campus would be one of the largest in Iowa. A draft ordinance has been presented to the City’s planning commission. About 100 people in the audience spent two hours voicing their concerns about water, noise, and air quality. The public hearing will reopen in August. At that time, an ordinance may be sent to the city council for a vote.

· Fairfax: This town of 2,851 already is sandwiched between two data centers under construction to the north, and another in Palo. Its Council has voted 3 to 1 to approve the 1st reading of an ordinance prohibiting large data centers indefinitely. It offers the potential for a future ordinance to reverse this, if economic and environment factors are considered.

AI Gold Rush could be Fool’s Gold

AI has its upsides, and data has a role to play in our economy. I understand some Iowans are attracted by the potential of data centers to keep a lid on their individual taxes during this era of rising property taxes, and diminishing support from state and Federal government. Cash-strapped school districts often can benefit this additional financial support. I know people who worship the convenience and efficiency of AI. I understand it, but I don’t wake up each day terrified we would be catapulted back into the Middle Ages without it.

But a total of 71% of Americans oppose data centers. It may be one issue uniting red and blue state voters and it could be a winning issue for candidates in Iowa in November.

What’s driving this? Beyond the noise, electricity, water, and air pollution, it’s a local control issue. It’s also the unsettling subversion of eminent domain powers to claim AI meets the test of “public convenience and necessity.” It’s the scale, the giant footprint overpowering the landscape.

Superseding all of this, most Americans likely don’t see much value in AI – it’s nothing they couldn’t live without. They argue on Facebook that they already have adequate technology to visit web sites, keep up with family and friends on social media, and take advantage of spell-check. They want their kids and grandkids to write their own essays and research papers.

They don’t necessarily appreciate how Big Tech has degraded our society in many ways, turning us into human automatons staring at hand-held computers, and raising a new generation unable to make eye contact or small talk with their neighbors and family.

They also feel A.I. threatens their livelihoods. After all, A.I. is scraping our human intelligence, creativity, news, and research off the Internet, using it to train its models, and making a mint off it.

Placing a defined moratorium on hyperscale development isn’t hysteria or hyperbole! It’s stopping to ask what is the true cost of becoming a global A.I. data powerhouse?

What we do know is these wealthy tech companies are outsourcing their external costs of doing business on us. Hyperscale data centers also are playing state and local government, taxpayers, utility rate payers, landowners, and water users against one another.

We’re seeing this tsunami of data centers because politicians aren’t listening to their constituents. Local governments aren’t negotiating on behalf of their citizens. Legislators aren’t coming up with smart policies that don’t disadvantage the ordinary people who are most impacted.

Instead of driving a hard bargain with data companies, they’re blinded by the age-old temptations of wealth and power. Some might call it a Faustian bargain. As German author Johann Wolfgang von Goethe wrote in 1808, Dr. Faustus sold his soul for worldly or material benefits: knowledge, power, and riches.

I’m not saying that data centers are the Devil incarnate, or Mephistopheles, but they are amoral. In this renown work of literature, Dr. Faustus ultimately realizes what he has surrendered is far more valuable than what he gained.

There’s a lesson in this for us today.

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“Rain, Too Little, Too Late, in Wrong Areas for Corn” is one of my favorite newspaper headlines. It fits the bill for summertime in Iowa – almost without fail. But not this year. Water is grabbing the headlines this July, but for a polar opposite reason: downpours have inundated the Story County Fairgrounds, flooded Des Moines homes, displaced families, and created ponds in central Iowa farm fields, leaving crops susceptible to late summer diseases.

However, the City of Boone, Iowa is being hit with a double whammy: confronting both the reality of excess summer rainfall today and the future prospect of water shortages, compounded by water quality issues. “We don’t have the perfect answer,” Councilman Kyle Angstrom said. “We’re in a bad spot, but we’re trying to fix it.”

Earlier this week, the Boone City Council invited U.S. Water Services Corporation manager Aaron Voss and McKenzie Hunt of SEH Engineering to respond to an upsurge in residents’ drinking water complaints this summer. A major rehabilitation of the 2-million-gallon Ground Water Storage Reservoir at the Boone Water Treatment Plant and removal of one water tower offline had created temporary operational changes resulting in chlorine odors and discoloration, Voss said. “It was bound to happen with all the major infrastructure projects,” he said. Voss assured residents at the meeting that the water has been safe to drink throughout the months-long process, meeting all testing standards.

But the high water mark of the meeting came next: a public hearing to discuss the city’s plan to accommodate the massive water demands of the new 750,000 square foot Daisy Brand processing facility under construction. An environmental impact project report included in the meeting packet summed up the crux of the issue: “The addition of the Daisy Brand Industry in the community will significantly reduce the city’s operational flexibility for managing nitrates through well rotation since more of the high nitrate wells will need to be in operation to meet additional water demand.”

Two years ago Boone announced that Daisy Brand, a family-owned, Texas-based company with plants in Arizona, Texas, and Ohio, would build a $676 million processing plant here. More than $67 million state and local incentives were awarded to support the project. A total of 255 jobs will be created, with an average employee salary of $28.85 per hour, plus medical benefits. It was good news for this city of 12,400 that’s experienced incremental population growth over the past several decades. However, with growth comes growing pains.

Boone draws its drinking water from a series of shallow wells along the Des Moines River. Currently, its baseline water usage is around 1.5 to 2.1 million gallons per day (MGD). Once Daisy is fully operational in 2028, it will boost daily water usage significantly. To support this surging demand, the city has obtained a 20-year, low-interest State Revolving Fund (SRF) loan to upgrade its water and sewer infrastructure.

However, increasing water output is complicated by water quality challenges. Typically, the city maintains acceptable nitrate levels by blending water from a variety of different wells. Daisy will increase water demands so much that the city plans to dig a new lower-nitrate well to keep nitrate levels from becoming too concentrated. The primary fix is the addition of Alluvial Aquifer Well No. 30. (DNR turned down Boone’s original plan to draw from the Jordan Aquifer; alluvial wells are shallow and prone to contamination) The city also plans to build an elevated storage tank near the Daisy facility. These upgrades will maintain the current nitrate level status quo.

Boone hasn’t exceeded threshold for nitrate levels for several years. Recently, it’s ranged from 8.1 milligrams per liter (mg/L) to 8.6 mg/L, below the 10 mg/L federal drinking water standard. “Nitrates have been higher this spring than past years, but some of it is seasonal,” Voss said “It fluctuates.”

Boone doesn’t have a nitrate-removal system. Given Daisy’s launch, combined with the upward-trending Des Moines River nitrate levels, the City of Boone is discussing the need to invest in one. Council members said that it had been identified as a future need, but it’s likely to be required sooner than expected. “This has been on our radar for a long time,” Angstrom said. “Whether Daisy would come on or not, it was coming.”

McKenzie Hunt, from SEH agreed. “Given the rising nitrate levels, and expected community growth, the need for nitrate removal is probable,” she said. “Without a treatment system in place, there’s no other way to get rid of nitrates at this time. The addition of a lower-nitrate well will give the City more time to plan for the future.”

Boone residents who filled the meeting room in person and watched on Zoom questioned how a future multi-million dollar treatment facility would be paid for, and how the long-term operational costs would impact their monthly utility bills. They were told the new tower will be paid for by a grant and a water revenue bond. The revenue bond also will fund the well.

“Services are paid for by user fees and with bringing on Daisy, there will be more residents to spread the cost,” Hunt said. “It’s not so much Daisy, but the rapid expansion of homes that will put us over the limit.”

Housing Hurdles and Weighty Issues

It’s hard to miss the housing boom in Boone. Three housing developments: Page Flats, Prairie Place, and Kate’s Landing, have created nearly 200 new housing units

.

“Boone has been growing so fast the past year in residential,” Hunt said “We planned for a projected number of homes through 2044, but now some estimates show Boone will grow its population to 13,500 by 2044. But that’s OK, there will be more people to spread the infrastructure costs.”

Daisy Brand’s growth in Boone will extend beyond its water needs. Dan Culhane, president and CEO of the Ames Regional Alliance, speaking at an Ames conference in June, related that Daisy asked for a higher maximum weight limit on Highway 30 between Marshalltown and Boone. The Iowa legislature complied by passing a bill with an increase for permitted vehicles transporting fluid milk: from 98,000 to 136,000 pounds. The Iowa DOT also is providing $3 million to extend roads, install a traffic signal and create a roundabout on Highway 30 near the plant site in 2027.

The city is providing $49 million in local property tax exemption over 20 years through the high-quality jobs program. The property tax exemption is 100 percent from years one through three, and 74 percent beginning year four and continuing through year 20. Beginning in year 21, Daisy has no property tax exemption.

Milk Run

Daisy Brand also will cast a large shadow beyond the city of Boone and its residents. Daisy plans on guzzling down the milk of 43,000 cows per day within a 30-mile radius. Initial reports state that 8,000 cows housed at Marshall Ridge Farms near State Center in Marshall County will “exclusively” supply this pipeline. The farm is adding 7,000 more cows to gear up for Daisy.

As far as I know, Boone County has one dairy farm, and it supplies Pickett Fence Creamery near Woodward. Sundae Morning Dairy is a micro dairy south of Boxholm selling Grade A pasteurized whole milk in glass bottles. I’ve heard rumors that a large dairy is being planned in neighboring Greene County, just beyond Daisy’s 30 mile radius. Time will tell. But with labor shortages pressuring milk production, who will milk these cows?

Iowa ranked #11 in total milk production in 2023, with about 238,000 milk cows on 1,016 farms, according to the 2022 USDA Ag Census. How much manure would 43,000 cows produce? (Granted, manure-generated electricity, produced by biodigesters, could be sold to the grid. Some USDA grant funding is available.)

But wouldn’t it be great if 43,000 dairy cows could be raised on 80 different farms . . . farms with families and children enrolled in local schools, attending local churches, and paying property taxes? Children who would grow up to become the next generation of rural leaders. That would be a win-win growth model for Iowa!

Re-inventing Its Core Identity

Boone is best known for its Chicago and North Western railroad history, and it still operates the Boone & Scenic Valley Railway. But just as central to its core was the legendary Boyd’s Dairy. In 1941 Jim and Gene Boyd opened a dairy in Boone, bottling milk and cream and making natural, 12% butterfat ice cream. They also offered butter and cottage cheese. In 1961, it expanded to Ames.

Boyd’s pioneered 50 flavors, from the ridiculous to the sublime. Jim Boyd was interviewed by NPR about unique ice cream flavors like Rhubarb Sherbet and Bubble Gum ice cream. During the annual Boone Craze Daze, Boyd’s marketed its one-of-a-kind Dill Pickle Ice Cream.

Boyd’s closed in 1986, two years after I moved to Boone County. It was one of the last dairies to sell milk in glass bottles.

At that time, Boone County had many small farms, all milking a few cows. My husband recalls three butter and cream pick-up routes through the Pilot Mound area. Nitrates weren’t a topic of conversation at that time. I hope the City of Boone can navigate the growing pains of improving its water infrastructure, and at the same time, Iowa’s elected leaders will pivot toward making nitrate reduction an economic development priority.

Protein Maxxing Grows the Market

Daisy Brand’s claim to fame is its sour cream and cottage cheese products. More than one of every two cups of sour cream sold in the U. S. comes from Daisy Brand. Daisy’s president has touted the significant growth in Daisy Brand cottage cheese sales last year.

After a 20-year decline in production and consumption, 2024 retail food industry data reveals the sale of all brands of cottage cheese rose 16%. Cottage cheese processors in Michigan, Wisconsin, and New York are expanding their facilities.

What’s going on with cottage cheese? Protein-maxxing. Cottage cheese has about 14 grams of protein per half-cup serving. Protein builds muscle and boosts metabolism, and the increasing number of Americans using GLP-1 weight-loss medications require a significant uptake in protein. Tik Tok recipes advise slathering cottage cheese in penne pasta sauce, mixing it with grilled chicken, or as a base for queso dip. If this isn’t doesn’t tempt you, other recipe options add it to smoothies, spread it on flatbreads and bagels, or pack it into pancakes.

It might be a hard sell for a national brand like Daisy’s sour cream and cottage cheese to displace Boone’s fond memories of Boyd’s Dairy, and at the same time go head to head with Anderson Erickson beloved dairy products. But Daisy Brand’s timing may be fortuitous. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans also are boosting protein consumption. With any luck, protein maxxing will continue to grow the market. No one wants to see the bloom off the Daisy before opening day in 2029. With a heaping dollop of good luck, Daisy may deliver for the City of Boone, and Boone County!

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Yet many Americans have struggled this year to reconcile their feelings about the amorphous and tangled 250th year history of the United States of America, especially viewed through the partisan prism of the current administration.

Here’s an alternative: Celebrate it through the unique lens of the Americans who built and sustained this country through good and bad times: your family.

History comes to life through the stories of the people who have lived it. Today most of our forebearers lead a confined afterlife, trapped within picture frames stored in our closets. But if we uncover their stories, we’ll discover vibrant men and women with dreams, ambitions, joys, and heartbreaks, not that unlike our own.

How did the saga of their lives intersect with the watershed moments of our American history? I climbed one branch of my family tree this week, exploring how the Adams family played out their pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness. I invite you to do the same.

In 1789, the year that the permanent federal government was established and George Washington was elected, Ephraim Adams was born near the southwestern frontier village of Bedford, Pennsylvania. Sometime after 1800, Ephraim’s family took a leap of faith, moving to Nicholas County, Kentucky, near Boonesboro, about 350 miles away. There, in 1813, Ephraim married Elizabeth Ann Riley, another Pennsylvania native. My Great-Great Grandfather Elijah Ephraim Adams was born nine months later, in 1814.

America celebrated its 50 year anniversary, called the Jubilee of Independence, in 1826. John Quincy Adams was president, but there was no White House-led celebration. Americans in 24 states rang village bells, town criers spread the word, and patriots displayed the flag, with its 13 stripes and 24 stars. Little did they know that that two of the Founding Fathers, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, died only a few hours apart on this day. President John Quincy Adams received the news of his father’s death in a letter on July 9.

A few years later, in 1830, the Ephraim Adams family was on the move again. Accompanied by several families, including the Buntins, they pulled up stakes, traveling about 120 miles to Sugar Creek, Indiana, in Boone County. Indiana had been a state for two decades, but it remained a sparsely-settled frontier. Young Elijah bought the first land he ever owned. In 1837, he married Rebecca Buntin, and they made homes in two log houses and two frame houses over the next 14 years, as their family grew to three children. After their sojourn in Indiana, they again braved the hardships and dangers of pioneer life, traveling 160 miles west to Rock Island, Illinois.

Elijah farmed and within a few years, began supplying posts and cord wood for the Rock Island Railway, under construction within a quarter of a mile from their house. The family also boarded railroad workers. The Rock Island line was the first to cross the Mississippi River into Iowa. A fourth child, my great-grandfather Greenbury Elijah, was born in 1853.

By 1855, Iowa’s grass looked greener. Elijah had traveled there a year earlier, buying 320 acres for $3.60 per acre. Along with their 100 head of cattle, nine yoke of oxen, and 23 other pioneers, they began the 200-mile trek.

They crossed the Mississippi on a steam-powered ferry, and continued by covered wagon across the new state of Iowa, traveling through Tipton, Iowa City, Des Moines, Marengo, Newton, and Ida Grove, before stopping on the banks of the Little Sioux River in Woodbury County at Smithland. They built a log house near the town of 25, and began breaking sod. Elijah helped build the first frame bridges across the West Fork of the Little Sioux, as well as the first frame school.

In August of 1855, a prairie fire destroyed 150 tons of wild hay they had mowed and stacked for their cattle. The family survived the historic blizzard of 1855-56, but with only 30 tons of hay, 50 head of their cattle starved and froze in sub-zero temperatures and four feet of crusted snow. Amidst these fraught times, they forged a friendly relationship, trading back and forth, with Inkpaduta and his native American band camped nearby. But in March 1857, Inkpaduta was driven from there by a vigilante militia. From there, he moved north, toward Spirit Lake.

America’s Centennial anniversary was observed in 1876. Three years earlier, on July 4, 1873, Ephraim’s youngest son, known as ‘Lige, had married Ella Ann McClusky. She was 16, and he was 20. Her family had arrived at Maquoketa, Iowa from Pennsylvania in 1854, and Ella Ann (”Nellie”) was born a few years later. Her father, Alexander, born during the 1826 Jubilee of Independence, joined the 22nd Iowa Volunteer Infantry in the Civil War that shook the foundations of this young country.

His wife, Margaret, did her best to maintain the family. In 1863, her brother Calvin Ripple, who served with Alexander wrote home the heartbreaking news that Alexander had died of illness, and he was buried beneath a tree near Young’s Point, Madison Parish, Louisiana. Margaret, with her five children, came by covered wagon to Anthon, Iowa, where their lives intertwined with the Adams family.

This portrait of Alexander McClusky, painted from a photo, hung on my grandma’s wall near the stairs for decades. Today it’s on a wall in my home

.

Ulysses S. Grant was president in 1876, when America celebrated this birthday milestone by hosting its first world’s fair in Philadelphia, showcasing the latest in technology, science, industry, and culture. The 1876 Centennial Exposition ran from May until December, attracting nearly 20% of Americans; they traveled primarily by passenger train. They marveled at the latest inventions: the typewriter, telephone, Heinz ketchup, popcorn – and more.

But all was not well during this birthday anniversary. Civil War wounds still were fresh. Southern states attempted to take back control through violence in 1875. Following a controversial Supreme Court decision, states began adopting measures designed to keep Black Americans from voting. Political scandals had flourished under the Grant administration (gold, whiskey cartels, and railroad bribes). Amidst charges of fraud and vote tampering. Rutherford Hayes, called Rutherfraud by some, was elected by a bipartisan electoral commission.

In Woodbury County, Iowa, after losing their first child at birth, ‘Lige and Nellie celebrated the birthday of a son in 1876. Soon afterward they moved 25 miles west to begin farming on their own in the Loess Hills near Hornick. They built a house at the base of the bluffs, overlooking the Missouri River bottomland. My grandmother, Margaret Rebecca, was born there. Following the death of an infant sister, “Maggie” was joined several years later by a younger brother.

The 820-acre farm, with its livestock, prospered. Elijah built a spacious barn, placing the name West View Farm on it.

The world was opening up to rural Iowa. The first generation of Iowans built towns along the path of the Rock Island Railway; the second generation built grain elevators along branch lines, and the third generation traveled to distant places via passenger trains.

When Maggie was 15 years old, the family traveled by train to San Diego. I have this photo taken of her at Lenz Photo Studio Cor. E and Fifth Ste., SAN DIEGO. In 1893, they boarded the train, headed to the Chicago World’s Fair. Grandma wrote a short journal describing the trip, including seeing Lake Michigan and hearing the new Liberty Bell ring for the first time on September 9, 1893. In the afternoon, they joined the crowd at Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, where Annie Oakley performed. Boarding the train for home, they changed cars about 7 p.m. in Manilla, and two hours later, they arrived within 5 miles of home.

Maggie married her neighbor and childhood sweetheart, “Mont” Burns in 1902, and they built a house just east of her parents below the bluffs, where they farmed and raised three children. Two other children died as toddlers. In 1911, Maggie’s parents moved from their farm to Sioux City, where they built a house with a dumb waiter, laundry chute, open staircase, and leaded glass windows.

America’s 150-year (Sesquicentennial) anniversary in 1926. After Warren Harding’s death in office, vice-president Calvin Coolidge became president during the Roaring 20s. The World’s Fair in Philadelphia aimed to celebrate the event, but was plagued by corruption, political maneuvering, and the rainiest summer on record. Strong thunderstorms on July 4 created leaks in pavilion roofs and damaged exhibits. Despite the rapid adoption of the automobile, and new radio stations to spread the word, only five million Americans attended.

Charles Lindbergh was preparing for his solo flight across the Atlantic. The U.S. was only two years away from Black Friday, but the bottom had fallen out of American agriculture in 1920, after WW1. The Good Roads Movement had paved the road passing by the family farm. Maggie and Mont held onto their farm throughout the extreme heat and cold, heavy snow, dirt storms, and grasshopper plagues of the 1930s. The Rural Electric Act made their lives easier. So did Franklin Roosevelt, elected in 1933, who launched federal farm programs as part of the New Deal. My mother, Erma, was in high school when America turned 150.

In 1940, three generations, including Erma, piled into a green Studebaker and spent the next three weeks on a great American road trip: driving over 6,000 miles, through the Black Hills, Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, Salt Lake City, Colorado, New Mexico, and California. They saw Sally Rand’s Nude Ranch, and visited several wayward Adams cousins who had moved West. My parents married in 1942, moving a small hired-man’s house from ‘Lige and Nellie’s farm onto Mont and Maggie’s farm, where my siblings and I grew up.

‘Lige and Nellie celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary in 1943, with a harpist seated near the open staircase. They still returned to Oak Park in Smithland, along the banks of the Little Sioux River, to celebrate the 4th of July at the Old Settlers’ Picnic. With World War 2 raging on, ‘Lige and Nellie received the tragic news that their youngest grandson, known as “Buddy,” was killed by friendly fire.

Racial segregation ended in schools in 1955, but Civil Rights marches culminated in the Voting Rights Act of 1965. A series of assassinations rocked the U.S.: Martin Luther King, President John Kennedy, and presidential candidate Bobby Kennedy. Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz urged farmers to plant fencerow to fencerow in 1973. Exports boomed, and land prices began an historic ascent.

America’s Bicentennial Birthday in 1976. The Vietnam War provoked violent demonstrations, reaching its bitter end in 1975. Watergate had forced President Richard Nixon to resign. (I celebrated at the University of Missouri School of Journalism in Columbia.) Gerald Ford presided over the Bicentennial. Women began insisting on more rights, and access to male-dominated fields.

National average gas prices were 59¢ per gallon in 1976. Americans turned out for the parade of 200 tall ships in New York Harbor, a Bicentennial Wagon Train to Philadelphia, and King Phillip and Queen Elizabeth’s visit. A National Archives reading of the Declaration of Independent attracted a huge crowd.

In 1980, President Jimmy Carter was elected, and he declared an embargo on grain sold to Russia. An abrupt hike in interest rates to curb inflation helped precipitate the ‘80s Farm Crisis.

My older brother, Dennis, a United Methodist minister, bought part of Mont and Maggie’s farm in the early 80s. After retirement, he and his wife moved back to the four-generation farm. After his sudden death, his ashes were scattered over

the Loess Hills above the farm.

On July 4, 2014, my older daughter, the great-great-great-great granddaughter of Ephraim and Elizabeth Riley, was married at Whiterock Conservancy, with a barn dance following. It wasn’t so different, after all, than the July 4, 1873 wedding of her great-great grandparents, ‘Lige and Nellie, who enjoyed their wedding supper at a blacksmith’s shop, and danced to Uncle Billy Ripple’s fiddling melodies.

Now it’s your turn!

It’s one American story. There are millions of American origin stories. Our Constitution doesn’t apply only to those who arrived here in a covered wagon. It’s for all the McCabes, McGowans, Salamas, Ferraris, Zhangs, and many others who arrived later, in search of a new home. Their stories add to the rich fabric of our nation.

What’s your family’s origin story? Take the America 250 Challenge, and GPS your family’s journey throughout America’s milestone birthdays: 1826, 1876, 1926, and 1976. Your family stories will remind you where you’ve come from. After all, no matter how smart or talented you are, you didn’t get here by yourself, but by standing on the shoulders of the generations who came before you: the generations who struggled through wars, sacrificed during economic crises, and spent their lives working to build safe, secure communities. They endured inept national and state leaders, as well as corrupt American presidents: Harding, Grant, Johnson, Nixon. Washington, D.C. was a swampy place in 1776. It’s still swampy (Drain the Swamp), but for different reasons.

We stand at Crossroads of July 4, 2026. What role will we play in moving our country forward? How will we keep the promises of the Constitution a reality for all Americans and maintain the American dream for generations to come? How will we make our mark on history?

Our ancestors were resilient. They persevered, and so will we, as long as we share our stories.

Cheryl Tevis writes as a member of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. Learn more about the group and consider becoming subscribers — for free or for modest fees, your choice — by using the link below here. Your support keeps us writing for you!

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