In a candid interview with Des Moines Register columnist Kathie Obradovich a couple of weeks ago, soon-to-be Republican U.S. candidate Matt Whitaker said that he opposed the outright repeal of the Affordable Care Act. Instead, Whitaker told Obradovich that the law needed to be “reformed and fixed.” He went on to say, “We don’t want [...]
On Tuesday, the Iowa Democratic Party filed an ethics complaint against State Auditor Mary Mosiman. It was her second day on the job. The Iowa Democratic Party contends that Mosiman violated state campaign finance laws when she used funds from her Story County Auditor campaign fund to pay for travel to county Republican conventions in [...]
Iowa Governor Terry Branstad has been adamant that he will not make a decision about running for re-election until sometime in 2014. In an interview with the Des Moines Register in early January, Branstad talked about how Governor Bob Ray waited until February of 1982 to announce his decision not to seek re-election. Branstad, who [...]
Greetings and welcome to Kevin’s Korner. Words are, in my not-so-humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic. Capable of both inflicting injury and remedying it.-Albus Dumbledore So, the good King is out, as expected. Like I said Friday night: Whoever else is interested, jump in. The water’s warm … Here are my quick thoughts [...]
On Monday afternoon, Democrats in the Iowa Senate voted down two of Governor Terry Branstad’s nominees for the Board of Regents. The Senate rejected Robert Cramer, a Des Moines businessman with ties to a conservative group by a vote of 27 to 23. Appointees need at least 34 votes in favor of their confirmation to [...]
DES MOINES—There’s much ado about maps in Iowa. Last week, the Des Moines Register featured an interactive Google map of Iowa school districts, providing specific detail about whether the school employed school resource or security officers and the schools’ enrollment figures. After public outrage, mostly from conservative media outlets and Iowa parents, Register Editor Rick [...]
DES MOINES—Journalists love transparency. But the question of how much weight to give privacy concerns during reporting on public records flared up last week as the Des Moines Register sparked an explosive controversy by publishing a map that some alleged could put the safety of Iowa students at risk. The Des Moines Register published—then quickly [...]