Amie Rivers

We all know the Iowa State Fair: Corn dogs, Ferris wheel, teenagers persuading ornery animals to walk around a ring in pursuit of an FFA championship. But it turns out that those in pursuit of natural places can find those among the hundred-thousand fairgoers as well! Thus, my somewhat tongue-in-cheek Amie Takes a Hike: State…

Companies engaged in so-called union-busting tactics, such as hiring expensive law firms to subject their employees to anti-union meetings, can currently treat those expenses as tax write-offs. But under a new US House of Representatives bill sponsored by Cindy Axne, Iowa’s lone federal Democratic representative, they would no longer be able to do so. The No…

People want one basic thing from their elected officials, says Dr. Mary Kathleen Figaro: Someone who cares. Well, that and someone who shares their values. Figaro, who announced she would run for an open Iowa Senate seat in January, is an epidemiologist used to caring for people for the last 25 years, so she knows…

Jean Lincoln, like many of the striking workers picketing their company, doesn’t want to be there. A utility operator at Ingredion in Cedar Rapids who has worked there “almost 30 years to the day,” Lincoln’s work involves chemically treating the incoming water for the manufacturing process and carefully releasing it back out “so the company…

School bus drivers in Cedar Rapids are worried about low staffing brought on by noncompetitive wages, and say a recent cyberattack on the district has made things worse just weeks before school starts. They can agree on one thing: They just want to be able to come together and negotiate a contract again. But after…

Bus drivers with the largest school district in eastern Iowa are upset at what they say is a gutting of their contract just weeks before school starts in the fall. School bus drivers with the Cedar Rapids Community School District, who are covered by the Teamsters Local 238 union, also say they’re concerned the district…

When “the show must go on” at the Five Flags Center in Dubuque, it’s backstage workers that make it happen. Now, those workers are making sure the show goes on for themselves. Backstage technicians employed by ASM Global who work at the multipurpose facility in Dubuque voted unanimously to be represented by the International Alliance…

Warning: graphic descriptions. The man authorities say killed three members of a Cedar Falls family at an Iowa state park campground last month shot, stabbed and strangled them, according to the autopsy report released Thursday morning. Tyler Schmidt, 42, died from a gunshot wound and “multiple sharp force injuries,” according to the medical examiner’s office.…

After months of negotiating over their contract, workers at an eastern Iowa manufacturing plant are on strike until a deal is struck. Ingredion workers affiliated with the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco, and Grain Milling union, or BCTGM Local 100-G in Cedar Rapids, took a contract vote at 9 a.m. Monday that all 116 voting members voted…

I’m hiking every beautiful place I can think of around my home state, to showcase the beauty Iowa has to offer. Follow along on social media using #AmieTakesAHike to pass along your suggestions and see where I’m headed next. I hadn’t been venturing around Wildcat Den State Park near Muscatine since I was a kid.…