Category: Politics

I love the outdoors. It’s a place of solitude and calm. It’s worth traveling for.

But it’s also necessary to preserve places here, near home. 

That’s why I’m going to flip my ballot over and vote “yes” on the $30 million county conservation bond.

The previous bond helped build out the beautiful Clear Creek and the Iowa River trails, where I’ve biked through rolling hills and to community events; acquire the Pechman Creek Delta, where I’ll be bow hunting for deer this fall; buy the Ciha Fen Preserve, which I discovered through Will Kapp’s lovely local hikes book (and where I was when I learned the result of the 2020 election and let out a deep sigh of relief); and with about 12 other big projects throughout Johnson County.

I want more and know we deserve it. Iowa ranks 47th on percentage of public land, and this is a meaningful step we can take locally to expand this and persevere more natural public spaces for the future.

When you vote, please take the time to flip your ballot over and vote “yes” on the $30 million Johnson County conservation bond.

Early voting started today.

Laura and I sent this to the Little Village, The Gazette and the Press-Citizen:

On June 4, we have the opportunity to elect someone who leads from her values, not her ego. That’s why we are voting for Mandi Remington for Johnson County Supervisor in the Democratic primary, and urge you to join us.

If you’ve watched a Board of Supervisors meeting in the last couple of years, you’ve witnessed our elected leaders be, at times, selfish, petty, rude, dismissive, derisive, and purposefully obtuse as they engage each other and the public, and as they conduct the business of our county.

With more than 30 years of local government service between the two of us, we know political dysfunction when we see it. But you don’t need that much history to see we need to change the dynamic at the dais. 

Mandi’s lived experience as a single, working mother brings first-hand, personal understanding of the barriers so many in our community face. Her leadership of the Corridor Community Action Network shows she will work for her community in need. Mandi will lead with hustle, heart, and compassion. 

Join us in voting for Mandi Remington on or before June 4.

Valerie Hopkins and Andrew E. Kramer in The New York Times:

Aleksei A. Navalny, an anticorruption activist who for more than a decade led the political opposition in President Vladimir V. Putin’s Russia while enduring arrests, assaults and a near-fatal poisoning, died Friday in a Russian prison, according to Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service. He was 47.

The prison authorities said that Mr. Navalny lost consciousness on Friday after taking a walk in the Arctic penal colony where he was moved late last year. He was last seen on Thursday, when he had appeared in a court hearing via video link, smiling behind the bars of a cell and making jokes.

That’s a suspiciously sudden turn.

Adam Liptak in The New York Times:

Eight years ago, just before the Iowa caucuses, Donald J. Trump crowed about his invulnerability.

“I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters, OK?” he said. “It’s, like, incredible.”

On Tuesday, at a federal appeals court argument held the week before this year’s caucuses, a lawyer for Mr. Trump said that the Constitution basically states the same thing.

It took a few questions from Judge Florence Y. Pan to pin down the lawyer, D. John Sauer. But in the end he made the jaw-dropping claim that former presidents are absolutely immune from prosecution even for murders they ordered while in office.

“I asked you a yes-or-no question,” Judge Pan said. “Could a president who ordered SEAL Team 6 to assassinate a political rival, who was not impeached, would he be subject to criminal prosecution?”

Mr. Sauer said his answer was a “qualified yes,” by which he meant no. He explained that prosecution would only be permitted if the president were first impeached by the House and convicted by the Senate.

Trump’s argument is that the president could order a rival’s murder and the only possibility of accountability is political process of impeachment.

That seems suspiciously close to Navalny’s downfall.

The Iowa state motto:

Our liberties we prize and our rights we will maintain.

It’s emblazoned on the state flag if you need a refresher.

Erin Murphy in The Gazette:

The Iowa Civil Rights Act would be changed by removing gender identity as a protected class, and by adding gender dysphoria to disabilities covered by the act, under legislation that will be considered by state lawmakers next week at the Iowa Capitol.

Shameful.

A subcommittee will hold a hearing on Jan. 31, and you can provide written or in-person comment.