Iowa Independent is a collaboration of bloggers and journalists across Iowa with the goal of breaking news and influencing the conversations about issues that face our state. Serving over 70,000 page views per month (based on an average of July, August and September 2007), we are Iowa's largest online-only news outlet.

Our team of writers comes from a variety of backgrounds and places:

Dana Boone wrote for The Des Moines Register for seven years, covering suburban communities, education and minority affairs. She has also written for The Iowa Bystander, one of the oldest African-American newspapers in the state. She grew up in Des Moines and earned her B.A. in journalism (with a minor in Spanish) from Grand View College in 1999.  For Iowa Independent, she covers state commissions, boards, and agencies and anything else of interest in the Des Moines area. Read Dana's posts.

Douglas Burns is a fourth-generation Iowa journalist. After graduating from Carroll High School in 1987, he studied at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. In the past, he has written for The Palm Beach Post in Florida, Inside Washington Publishers in the D.C.-area (he covered energy policy), and The Ames Tribune. From 1995 to 1996, Burns served as the Washington D.C. -based press secretary for U.S. Rep. Pat Danner of Missouri, a Blue Dog Democrat.  In 1996, Burns returned to Carroll to write for his family's newspaper, The Carroll Daily Times Herald, where he is currently a reporter, a twice-weekly columnist, and part owner.  He is registered to vote as an Independent. Read Douglas's posts.

John Deeth grew up in Wisconsin and, after a brief post-college career as a country DJ, moved to Iowa City in 1990 intending to pursue a Ph.D. and write some kind of caucus-related dissertation. Instead, he got sidetracked while working at WSUI public radio, covering the 1991 campus shootings , in which six people died, and the rather minimal 1992 caucus season. He left journalism to do campaign fieldwork for the Democrats during the 1992 general election. In 1996, he ran "less than successfully" for the Iowa House in a Muscatine-Louisa-Johnson district. Since 1997, he has worked for Johnson County. He founded his blog about four years ago. Read John's posts.

Jason Hancock wrote for the Des Moines Business Record and Cityview, Des Moines' alternative weekly, before joining Iowa Independent as a senior fellow.  A native of Indiana, Hancock currently lives in Ames.  He covers politics and does investigative work.  Read Jason's posts.

Dien Judge grew up on a farm in rural Monroe County. After graduating from Albia Community High School in 1991, he attended the University of Iowa and then spent much of the 1990s living in Iowa City. In 1999, he came home to rural Iowa and spent more than six years as a writer, photographer and news editor for Albia Newspapers, Inc. In 2005, he created the Smoky Hollow blog to self-publish his writing and photography. Dien is the son of Iowa Lt. Gov. Patty Judge and former state Senator John Judge. After spending 2006 heavily involved in the Culver-Judge campaign, he has returned to journalism with Iowa Independent, where he will cover agriculture and rural issues. Read Dien's posts.

T.M. Lindsey is a full-time high school English teacher in Iowa City, where he's lived since 1989 — minus a two-year hiatus in southern Oregon. Born in Des Moines, T.M.'s Iowa sojourn took a detour through Colorado Springs during his high school years. Upon graduation, he served two years active duty in the Army and was stationed in Germany. T.M. attended the University of Iowa before beginning his teaching career and moonlighting a bit as a political satirist for his blogs: Nussle and Flow, Iowa Vets Blog, and Political Fallout. Read T.M.'s posts.

Chase Martyn, managing editor of Iowa Indepdendent, moved to Iowa five years ago from Palm Beach County, Fla.  An avid Web user for over a decade, Chase founded the blog Iowa Progress in 2006, and he currently blogs here. He has done paid (and unpaid) political work for the Iowa Democratic Party and progressive candidates across the state. He holds a degree in philosophy from Grinnell College and lives in Des Moines. Read Chase's posts.

Alec Schierenbeck is a summer intern.  A rising senior Political Science major at Grinnell College, Schierenbeck is president of College Democrats of Iowa. In 2008, he was named a Truman Scholar.  He covers poverty and social justice issues. Read Alec's posts.

Lynda Waddington lives in eastern Iowa with her family of five. She serves on the executive committee for Iowans for Voting Integrity, is publicity chair for Women for Peace Iowa and, in 2006, was elected to represent Iowa's 2nd Congressional District on the Democratic State Central Committee. She worked for over a decade as a print journalist prior to launching her own communications business. She also writes at the blog Essential Estrogen. Read Lynda's posts.

Former Fellows and Adjuncts

Adam Burke, originally from the Illinois side of the Quad Cities, has lived in Iowa since 1997. He is a freelance videographer, writer and artist specializing in documentary work. His video camera work (mostly for C-SPAN's "Road to the White House") has been seen on national television, and some of his videos have been screened around the world.  Samples of his work can be found on atomburke.com. Read Adam's posts. 

Jay P. Wagner has spent 25 years in journalism in the state of Iowa. He was editor of his family’s award-winning weekly, The N’West Iowa REVIEW, before taking a job at The Des Moines Register. He served as editor of The Iowan magazine for four years and as editorial director at Business Publications Corporation for three years. He has two children and lives in Des Moines. He covered the Iowa GOP, the state legislature, and Republican presidential candidates for Iowa Independent. Read Jay's posts.

Ben Weyl grew up in New Jersey and graduated from Grinnell College with a degree in political science in 2007. Ben now lives in Washington, D.C., though he sometimes finds himself missing the Iowa cornfields. He has been published by The Los Angeles Times and The American Prospect. He currently blogs here and has also blogged at Iowa Prog
ress. Read Ben's posts.

Chris Woods is a politics major at Drake University in Des Moines, anticipating graduation in May 2008. He started writing on his blog, Political Forecast, in August 2004. Since then, he has covered national and Iowa politics from the eyes of a young Democratic activist. For Iowa Independent, he covered the statehouse beat focusing on Iowa politics, state agencies and everything else on Capitol Hill. Read Chris's posts.