Blog:

Steve King
U.S. Rep. Steve King is hoping to derail health care reform legislation scheduled to be debated in the U.S. House by trying to harness the Tea Party protests that took place throughout the summer and once again bringing them to the nation’s capital on Saturday.
King announced Friday that “will join his Republican colleagues and Americans from across the nation” at the U.S. Capitol at 1 p.m.
Continue reading »

Paul McKinley
Senate Majority Leader Paul McKinley, R-Chariton, followed through on his promise Friday and dropped out of the 2010 campaign for governor.
McKinley said last month that when former Gov. Terry Branstad made his candidacy official, he would withdraw. While Branstad has yet to formally enter the race, he’s hired staff and begun holding campaign events, making McKinley’s departure inevitable.
Continue reading »
U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, a congressional leader known for his watchdog approach to federal agencies, believes that an online initiative launched by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services amounts to state-sponsored propaganda.
“The campaign now on hhs.gov is not purely informational because it expressly has visitors ‘affirm’ their commitment to work with congressional leaders to enact legislation this year,” Grassley said, and added that this “looks like the type of violation the law was written to prohibit.”
Continue reading »
The Associated Press broke the news Friday morning that an aide close to Des Moines attorney Roxanne Conlin confirms she will formally announce she will seek the Democratic nomination for Senate next week.
The aide also confirms she will file paperwork with the Federal Election Commission next week.
Continue reading »
Four additional Iowa influenza-related H1N1 deaths are being reported today by the Iowa Department of Public Health, and one of the new fatalities is not attributable to risk factors associated with an additional medical condition.
The latest victims are identified as adults in Dubuque, Polk, Mills and Monona counties. To date, there have been 11 confirmed H1N1 deaths in Iowa, including 10 adults and one child.
Continue reading »
Christopher Reed formally announced his candidacy to unseat Democratic U.S. Rep. Dave Loebsack of the 2nd Congressional District on Thursday, and in doing so vowed to run a less contentious campaign than he did in 2008 against Democratic U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin.
In that campaign, which Reed lost by more than 20 percentage points, the Marion Republican claimed that Harkin’s support for same-sex marriage also meant he supports marriage between “any 2, 3 or multiple people of any and all sexes. Heck, as far as he is concerned, you could marry your horse if it makes you happy.”
Continue reading »
The website designed to allow citizens to track how and where funds are being allocated as part of the $830 million I-JOBS infrastructure plan now includes an interactive tool to improve transparency, Gov. Chet Culver announced Thursday.
In June, Culver’s deputy chief of staff, Phil Roeder, told The Iowa Independent that 100 percent transparency was one of the most important aspects to the program’s success. Bill Allison, a senior fellow with the non-profit government transparency watchdog the Sunlight Foundation, said at the time that the key for Iowa is to ensure there is one spot where citizens can go to follow the money, and that money can be tracked easily with searches by ZIP code or county, a goal that appears to be met by the new website.
Continue reading »
The 2010 GOP gubernatorial primary is shaping up to be a spirited affair, with candidates already actively campaigning and taking shots at their fellow Republicans more than seven months before Election Day.
But Civic Skinny, the anonymous gossip columnist for Des Moines’ Cityview, says the contest is as much about revenge and staking a claim on 2012 as it is about who gets to challenge incumbent Democratic Gov. Chet Culver.
Continue reading »
A 54-year-old physician from Belle Plain, who allegedly engaged in a pattern of sexual misconduct, has entered into a formal agreement with the Iowa Board of Medicine not to treat patients.
Robert A. Bischoff, was charged in September with sexual misconduct, unprofessional conduct and disruptive behavior in the practice of medicine by the state board. The Board believed Bischoff engaged in an inappropriate sexual relationship with a former patient in 2007, and that the patient stole his prescription pad and illegally obtained prescription drugs. The board also alleges that Bischoff made inappropriate sexual advances toward a female co-worker in 2006.
Continue reading »
Two Iowa U.S. attorney’s offices are one step closer to being under new leadership.
The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, of which Iowa Republican Chuck Grassley is a member with seniority, agreed today by unanimous consent to pass the nominations of Stephanie Rose and Nick Klinefeldt on to the full Senate.
“These individuals are enthusiastic, intelligent attorneys, and I’m pleased to support their nominations,” Grassley wrote in his statement for the committee. “I urge my colleagues to join me in voting for [them].”
Continue reading »
According to research completed by sociologists at the University of North Carolina and Northwestern University, even when politically misleading comments are made by public officials — like U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley’s infamous “pulling the plug on grandma” myth — some people choose to believe the mistruths despite compelling information pointing to the contrary.
The study focused on 49 individuals who believed that Saddam Hussein was in part to blame for the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Even when presented with evidence that proved their belief to be false, and even when that evidence came directly from conservative sources like President George W. Bush, all but one created justifications for continuing the belief.
Continue reading »
More blog posts »