Rick Smith

The 2017 Republican-controlled legislature’s destruction of the bargaining rights of public union workers should leave no question about the motives of the Iowa Republican Party. Their 2016 Iowa Republican Platform specifically calls for the “elimination of all public sector unions” in Iowa. Republicans’ successful passage of the most devastating union-busting bills in Iowa history in…

Why would Governor Reynolds and the Iowa GOP think they need to bribe Apple to come to Iowa? Apple was likely coming to Iowa anyway because of Iowa’s combination of cheap and green energy. Iowa is one of the few states that offers these two essential resources Apple demands. Iowa leads the nation in developing…

Former Senator Harkin’s annual Steak Fry was a Democratic political institution in Iowa for nearly 40 years. It had a national appeal as it drew presidential candidates to Iowa for Iowa’s first-in-the-nation caucuses. More importantly, it was the glue that held Iowa Democrats together. Iowa Democrats saw their party election fortunes rise and fall through…

A number of progressive groups have partnered with the new “Not One Penny” campaign. The focus will be to block Trump and the Republicans’ promised tax cuts. Following the success in stopping the repeal of Obamacare, these liberal organizations are moving to stop the second Trump initiative to cut taxes. The group’s pledge and theme…

There is a growing number of dangerously polluted waters in Iowa. More than half (750) of Iowa’s surface waters (lakes, streams and rivers) are designated as impaired. Much of the impairment results from the elevated fecal bacteria in Iowa waters as a result of the 10,000 Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs). Iowa CAFOs produce 22…

President Trump is threatening to scrap the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) status for 800,000 innocent young immigrant children this week. If Trump ends DACA, he will be punishing innocent children “DREAMers” for the actions of their parents. They are the blameless children of immigrants that were brought to this country. There are 6,000…

Some of the adjectives used to describe Hurricane Harvey: unprecedented disaster, catastrophic losses, all-time record breaking rainfall, economic calamity, biblical flooding, unparalleled devastation. When rainfall totals reach 50 inches and meteorologists talk about 500 and 1,000 year floods, it’s clear this isn’t what most of us think of as normal weather conditions. This storm isn’t…

It should come as no surprise that Trump would reward ex-Sheriff Arpaio with the get-out-of-jail-free pardon. They have been attached at the hip since their partnership in their looney birther crusade about President Obama’s birth place. President Trump and Sheriff Joe Arpaio have both used the same hateful, racist and anti-immigrant bombast for years. The…

President Trump has nominated the right-wing radio host, Sam Clovis as the top scientist at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Clovis, who is from Sioux City, served as Trump’s co-chairman and adviser on agricultural issues. He’s a former college economics professor and conservative talk radio host. Senators’ Grassley and Ernst serve on the…

President Trump was perverting history in his defense of Confederate monuments. In his rambling comparison of neo-Nazi groups and the opposition protestors, he twisted history.  He claimed in numerous tweets that by defending these monuments he was defending history.  In his tweets, President Trump compared the nation’s founding fathers to the rebels that attempted to…