Ty Rushing

United Auto Workers (UAW) members rejected a second six-year contract from John Deere on Tuesday, meaning they will remain on strike. More than 10,000 UAW members—a bulk of whom are in Iowa—have been on strike since Oct. 14 in a showdown with the multinational manufacturer over wages, benefits, retirement benefits, improved working conditions, and more.…

Rick Bick won’t have to worry about trying to illegally bar LGBTQ events in Ottumwa as he was defeated by Rick Johnson in Tuesday’s mayoral contest. Johnson captured 2,272 votes to Bick’s 1,026 votes. During a forum before the election, Bick compared LGBTQ people to pedophiles and his comments were heavily criticized by local and…

Waterloo Mayor Quentin Hart beat two opponents to secure his fourth two-year term. Hart defeated challengers Margaret Klein and Sophia Mays and captured 7,786 votes with all precincts reporting, according to unofficial results from the Black Hawk County Auditor’s Office. Klein had 5,456 votes while Mays received 154 votes. [inline-ad id=”0″] This was Hart’s first…

A new congressional report details just how bad coronavirus outbreaks were at meatpacking plants in Iowa and across the country. The National Beef plant in Tama, for example, had a 44% infection rate as 379 of the facility’s 857 workers contracted the virus. Across the river from Sioux City in Dakota City, Nebraska, the Tyson…

For the first time in years, the mayor’s race in Waterloo is a competitive affair, as well as a particularly contentious one. Three-term incumbent Quentin Hart faces off against Councilwoman Margaret Klein and Waterloo resident Sophia Mays. Hart is campaigning on economic development, safety, community empowerment, and helping create a future vision for Waterloo. Klein,…

Editor’s Note: Story has been updated with a statement from Ottumwa Pride. Ottumwa mayoral candidate Rick Bick compared the LGBTQ community to pedophiles when questioned about whether he’d approve permits for things like gay pride events. Bick made the remark Monday during a candidate forum put on the League of Women Voters of Ottumwa. Bick…

Ross Wilburn knows he has two targets on his back at all times: He’s a high-profile public official and he’s Black. Wilburn, a state representative and chair of the Iowa Democratic Party, is used to being on the receiving end of racist remarks; however, three incidents earlier this month, including a threat of lynching, caused…

When the Waukee Community School District implemented an equity standard last year, it passed with little pushback. This year, however, it has become a target as part of a national wave of anti-critical race theory (CRT) candidates’ runs for school board. In Waukee, Morgan Hughes, Andrea Lawrence, Vin Thaker, and Jeff Rubino are running on…

Manape LaMere came home to Sioux City to make a difference. The son of the late Native American activist Frank LaMere, Manape is an activist in his own right. The 42-year-old spent five years living in South Dakota fighting for indigenous people’s rights, including participating in the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s fight against the Dakota…

Chris “Chrisco” Hill got his foot in the door of the shoe industry by selling custom-painted sneakers out of his dorm room at Iowa Central Community College. The big reason his work caught on at the school’s Fort Dodge campus was because he served as a walking billboard for his work. Hill, a sports fanatic,…