Iowa Starting Line

Iowa Starting Line Iowa news that works as hard as you do.

Iowa Starting Line covers the issues important to Iowans' day-to-day lives, connecting the policy decisions made by our leaders to how they impact you and your local community.

09/18/2025

Looking for a new podcast host after this one.

Push back on Zach's (really bad) take on the latest episode of Co****le Champions at the link in the comments.

09/18/2025

Corn and soybean farmers are sounding the alarm that Trump's tariffs are causing crop prices to plummet, production costs to rise, and overseas trade opportunities to dry up.

09/18/2025

Kyle Hoylman, CEO at Protect Environmental, the nation's largest radon contractor, says Iowans' exposure to radon is equivalent to smoking half a pack of ci******es a day.

At the link in the comments, subscribe to our newsletter for editions of "The Hot Spot: Investigating Cancer in Iowa" right to your inbox.

Iowa choir director Nick Oswald is a contestant on the special Teachers' Week episode of "Wheel of Fortune."Both WHO13 a...
09/18/2025

Iowa choir director Nick Oswald is a contestant on the special Teachers' Week episode of "Wheel of Fortune."

Both WHO13 and KWWL will air the episode at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 18. Find full TV listings at wheeloffortune.com/watch. Or, join Oswald for an in-person watch party at 5:30 p.m. at The Garden Nightclub in Des Moines.

Take a break from the doomscroll and enjoy some good news from Iowa 💕 For more stories like this, sign up for our newsle...
09/18/2025

Take a break from the doomscroll and enjoy some good news from Iowa 💕

For more stories like this, sign up for our newsletter at iowastartingline.com/newsletter

The aftermath of the assassination of rightwing influencer Charlie Kirk revealed just how broken our nation's political ...
09/18/2025

The aftermath of the assassination of rightwing influencer Charlie Kirk revealed just how broken our nation's political discourse has become. Join the team for a discussion on free speech, expanding our definition of political violence, and who shoulders blame for the toxic media environment.

Listen wherever you get you podcasts, or watch at the link in the comments.

Two local advocacy groups made the latest pass in the game of legal ping pong over Senate File 496, Iowa's "Don't Say LG...
09/17/2025

Two local advocacy groups made the latest pass in the game of legal ping pong over Senate File 496, Iowa's "Don't Say LGBTQ+" law passed in 2023.

OneIowa and the League of Women Voters of Iowa joined PEN America, a national nonprofit, in filing briefs in support of a lawsuit filed by Penguin Random House, the Iowa State Education Association, and bestselling authors Laurie Halse Anderson, John Green, Jodi Picoult, and Malinda Lo.

A district court judge initially ruled to block portions of SF 496, notably the book banning provisions, and sent it up to the Eight Circuit Court of Appeals. That court reversed the initial order and sent the decision back to the district court, where the law was partially blocked again. The state is appealing the partial blockage, but these organizations are officially signing on to support the district court's decision.

Because of SF 496, Iowa was second only to Florida in number of book bans for the 2023-2024 school year, with over 3,600 titles removed from school libraries.

09/16/2025

Skin cancer is preventable. But prevention requires awareness, access to care, and common sense protections.

Follow our series "The Hot Spot: Investigating Cancer in Iowa" for more.

Accompanied by family and colleagues, newly elected Iowa Sen. Catelin Drey was sworn in Monday, breaking the longstandin...
09/16/2025

Accompanied by family and colleagues, newly elected Iowa Sen. Catelin Drey was sworn in Monday, breaking the longstanding GOP supermajority in the state legislature.

📷: Avery Staker/Iowa Starting Line

09/16/2025

Ten years of Republican control. Have we gotten what we were promised?

Happy National Voter Registration Day, Iowa!Go to Vote.gov to check your registration, register to vote, or learn how to...
09/16/2025

Happy National Voter Registration Day, Iowa!

Go to Vote.gov to check your registration, register to vote, or learn how to update your registration.

After three years in court, Iowa will pay $85,000 to several trans students and leaders of Iowa Safe Schools for banning...
09/15/2025

After three years in court, Iowa will pay $85,000 to several trans students and leaders of Iowa Safe Schools for banning them from the State Capitol in 2020.

That year, Iowa Safe Schools brought a group of 150 students to visit the Capitol when building security and Iowa State Patrol officers denied trans teenagers in the group access to a bathroom. When then-executive director Nate Monson pushed back by citing gender identity protections in the state's civil rights law, the entire group was ordered out of the building and threatened with arrest if they returned.

The students and Iowa Safe Schools leaders accused the state of discrimination in a lawsuit filed in 2022. Courts ruled in their favor on Sept. 10, 2025.

The ruling of the case marks an end to those like it in Iowa. This year, Iowa became the first U.S. state to rescind gender identity protections in state civil rights law, meaning trans and nonbinary Iowans who face similar discrimination moving forward will not be able to seek reparations like the students in this case did.

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