Posted June 24, 2015in Political Mercury
1. The political spectrum of influences in the Iowa congressional delegation has lurched to the right. For the last 30 years, Iowans, or businesses, needing Democratic and Republican influence on Capitol Hill had both in the form of men who became institutions, Tom Harkin and Charles Grassley. We no longer have that, and
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Posted June 17, 2015in Political Mercury
I guess it’s my job to catch these sorts of things. And I’m sure not on the short list of Joni Ernst boosters or apologists. But it never occurred to me, this questioning of the presence of Cy and Herky, the mascots for Iowa State University and the University of
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Posted June 10, 2015in Political Mercury
Four hundred motorcyclists, led by a leather-attired Sen. Joni Ernst, joined another 1,500 largely Republican faithful Saturday for the Red Oak political star’s inaugural Roast & Ride, a blend of Harley-Davidson attitude, just-folks farm culture and open season on Democrats. Pork was on the menu at the Central Iowa Expo
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Posted June 03, 2015in Political Mercury
U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Kiron, said he’s been “turning up” his own focus on national defense and security in the wake of what he sees as alarming events. “I believe that we are at war with radical Islam,” King said. “They’ve declared that war against us. They keep announcing they’re
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Posted May 27, 2015in Political Mercury
A conversation I’ve had with a number of Latino politicos and community activists in Iowa through the years starts like this on my end: “The Latino community needs to learn from the Irish immigrants of a century and a half ago. When met with the infamous ‘Irish Need Not Apply’
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Posted May 20, 2015in Political Mercury
America, it would seem, owes Congressman Steve King a collective apology. Yes, yes, the Kiron conservative made those comments comparing undocumented Latino immigrants to stray pets. And there’s the infamous “cantaloupe” thighs ding, the pinnacle in his career of provocations of the Mexican and Central American immigrant community King suggests brings
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Posted May 13, 2015in Political Mercury
A steady diet of televised police dramas would leave the typical American with a presumption of what happens to the accused in a sexual assault allegation on a college campus. If the finger is pointed at a student for raping a classmate, the allegation will be adjudicated to an innocent-until-proven-guilty,
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Posted May 06, 2015in Political Mercury
The owner of a small restaurant just off Interstate 80 in central Iowa made a provocative observation. “It’s amazing what the white man thinks he’s worth,” said this business owner, who happens to be white. He’s growing frustrated with an entitled mentality he sees in the millennial workforce. As riots and
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Posted April 29, 2015in Political Mercury
The expansive, seemingly borderless roam of Northern Minnesota is the setting for “Heart of Wilderness,” an independent film that explores a claustrophobic blue-collar marriage strained by broken promises, deception and sheer isolation. Travis Wallien, a grit of a man, finds himself on the wrong, but winning, end of a drug
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Posted April 22, 2015in Political Mercury
When Bill Northey reads about California’s historic water-shortage problems he thinks of cows. Not cows for California. But cows for Iowa’s dairy industry. Northey, Iowa’s secretary of agriculture, tells Political Mercury that he’s been having conversations with Iowa ag businesspeople about possible ways the Hawkeye State could take advantage of
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