Isabella Murray
Latest from Isabella Murray
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Warren’s New Environmental Plan Addresses Iowa’s Poisoned Water
While nearly all 2020 Democratic presidential candidates have released climate plans, and some frame their policies in the context of social equity, Elizabeth Warren today released a separate plan specifically about environmental justice. The Massachusetts Senator directly addresses rural Iowa’s poisoned drinking water and the state’s recent flooding in her plan, which focuses on tightening…
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The Climate Phrase Tom Steyer Doesn’t Want To Hear
When Tom Steyer visited Crescent last week to tour damage of western Iowa’s third round of major flooding in six months, he was asked a climate question beginning with the clause, “If the science is true … ” Steyer, a Democratic presidential candidate and former California businessman, had a visceral reaction to the statement because he…
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Greta Thunberg Rallies Huge Iowa City Crowd For Climate Action
On her trip Friday to Iowa City, 16-year-old Swedish Climate activist Greta Thunberg echoed local organizers’ pointed calls for leadership to embrace climate reform. Thunberg joined Iowa City Mayor Jim Throgmorton, student organizers Massimo Biggers and Alex Howe and other teenage activists in addressing a crowd of thousands in the city’s Ped Mall. Thunberg tweeted…
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Joni Ernst Again Won’t Link Iowa Disasters To Climate Change
Republican Sen. Joni Ernst said Thursday she couldn’t link Iowa’s heavy, continued flooding this year with climate change. During a town hall in Carroll County, Ernst was asked by a voter to make the connection between the heavy spring rains and the record flooding and “carbon in the atmosphere and global environment change.” Both sides…
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Castro’s Suggestions To Iowa Dems’ Latinx Turnout Problem
If Julián Castro is to do well in the Iowa Caucus, one thing he’ll likely need is strong turnout from the state’s growing Latinx community. But when he visited Perry, Iowa late last month– a town where nearly 40 percent of its residents are of Hispanic or Latino origin– his campaign event had almost all…
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Report: Higher Wages Needed To Afford Housing In Iowa
Nearly a fifth of Iowan households do not make enough to live without public assistance, a new Iowa Policy Project report has found, due to factors like rising housing costs. According to the Cost of Living in Iowa report, released last Tuesday, family budget costs far outpace Iowa’s minimum wage. Costs like housing and transportation…
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The 2020 Leader On America’s Underappreciated Crisis
Affordable housing has an unofficial figurehead as the national crisis makes its debut as a major issue on the presidential campaign trail this cycle. Julián Castro, the former mayor of San Antonio, Texas, served as the Housing and Urban Development Secretary for the last two years of Barack Obama’s presidency. He’s seen housing from the…
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How Young Climate Activists Are Taking Charge In Iowa
It’s been a consequential month for youth dedicated to tackling climate change. Before Swedish 16-year-old activist Greta Thunberg on Monday scolded the U.N. Climate Action Summit audience asking, “How dare you?“, students across Iowa organized and promoted a number of events with presidential candidates over the weekend. Events included a small meeting with Kamala Harris,…
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The Beto/Bobby Connection
Beto O’Rourke supporters debuted signs at Saturday’s Polk County Steak Fry which mirrored those from Bobby Kennedy’s storied 1968 run. ‘Beto is good’ and ‘Leader for the 20s,’ were phrases held up on homemade wooden posts, imitating Kennedy’s ‘Bobby is good’ and ‘Leader for the 60s’ signs — a stark contrast to the modern, mass-produced…
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For Western Iowa Couple, Exhaustion From Constant Floods
Johnny Lynn and Randy Williams parked their burgundy pickup truck behind a barricade last Friday, which sat in front of their property just off of Interstate 29 — a home and farm three feet deep in floodwaters. In one direction was the Missouri River, out of its banks for the third time this year. In…
