Eric Branstad: Cruz oil stains ethanol

Eric Branstad, leader of a fierce grassroots organization backing renewable-energy sources like ethanol, said last Thursday that Ted Cruz is far and away the most hostile presidential candidate — of either major party — to Iowa-grain-boosting fuels. Branstad, a son of Gov. Terry Branstad, is the state director of America’s Renewable Future,

Rubio talks ag trade, abortion

Republican White House aspirant Marco Rubio spots big openings for Iowa grain and livestock farmers in an emerging Pacific nations trade deal. What’s more, the U.S. Senator from Florida told Political Mercury in a five-minute interview that he supports moving the United States from family-chain migration to fully merit-based immigration. Additionally, Rubio said women who have abortions should

Rubio: Humiliate ISIS on YouTube

Marco Rubio isn’t a patient politician. And a sense of urgency is what the nation — the world scene at this place and time — demands, the Republican presidential candidate told an audience of about 100 people Monday morning at Greasewood Flats, a rustic Carroll events barn. “It’s our identity that’s at

Mrs. Clinton, can’t we cry for New York and shout at Wall Street?

Wall Street judges us every day. Minute to minute, in fact. No tears. No mercy. But if we are to believe Hillary Clinton, the denizens of the New York financial district — and their U.S. senator at the time — earned immunity against our judgment 14 years ago. To challenge Wall

Jindal: America’s a melting pot, not salad bowl

The youngest major-party candidate seeking the presidency passed something of a campaign endurance test Saturday in speaking for 90 minutes — much of it a question-and-answer session — with about three dozen people in the Guthrie Center public library. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, 44, weaved through a raft of socially fiscally conservative

Rubio ‘callous’ on immigration

Marco Rubio wants to change the very immigration system that allowed his family to migrate to the United States from Cuba. And the Republican presidential candidate’s call in the CNBC debate last week for a move from immigration based on family ties to a merit evaluation won’t sit well with the Latino

Senate hopeful Hogg looks to challenge man he calls ‘living legend’

One of Rob Hogg’s campaign pitches could be called a reverse Bruce Braley. Hogg, a veteran Iowa legislator seeking the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate, speaks of his would-be general-election opponent, Republican Charles Grassley, in the way a grade-schooler might talk of the Washington Monument itself on a field trip.

.

A white boy from rural Iowa finds out he’s hated — and that’s good

The comedian Louis C.K. has this insightful bit about time machines. They’d be great for white men, because pretty much any number we hit on the dial — 1855 or 1950 — works OK for us. But for African Americans and women, slide that time-travel lever too far back, and you

ISU president: I ‘underestimated’ racism on campus

“You’re Mexican!” “Go back to Univision!” “You probably don’t pay taxes!” A 27-year-old Latina Iowa State University graduate student said these were just some of the taunts that greeted her and other political protesters outside the Cy-Hawk football game last month in Ames. Maria Alcivar, the student and a representative of the