Ty Rushing is the former Chief Political Correspondent for Iowa Starting Line. He is a trail-blazing veteran Iowa journalist, an Emmy-nominated filmmaker, and co-founder and president of the Iowa Association of Black Journalists.
Ty Rushing
Latest from Ty Rushing
-
Senate Republicans pass bill that could allow discrimination on religious grounds
Sen. Liz Bennett (D-Cedar Rapids)—Iowa’s only out LGBTQ senator—is fed up with seeing queer Iowans continue to be attacked by her Republican colleagues. “I am sick and tired of my community being the target of mean-spirited discriminatory bills written by Republican politicians,” she said during a Tuesday Iowa Senate debate over a bill she and…
-
Iowa Dems blast Republicans’ latest attack on auditor’s office
Iowa Democrats are accusing Republicans in the Iowa Senate of trying to reduce transparency in government after they passed yet another bill on Monday to dilute the power of State Auditor Rob Sand’s office—the only statewide office held by Democrats. “Governor Reynolds and Senate Republicans are making one of the best cases for why our…
-
‘Big shoes to fill:’ Johnson hopes to replace Abdul-Samad in Iowa House
Rob Johnson knows no one will truly be able to fill the footsteps left by Ako Abdul-Samad, but he hopes to continue to the longtime Des Moines lawmaker’s legacy as the next representative of Iowa House District 34. “People always say, ‘Those are big shoes to fill with Ako,’ and I always tell people, ‘We’re…
-
Iowa teachers could bring their own guns to work under GOP bill
Teachers or school staff members would be allowed to use a personal firearm and the identities of armed staffers would be concealed—per a suggestion from the NRA—under a new bill being considered in the Iowa House. These and other changes were clarified during a Wednesday morning Iowa Hosuse Public Safety Committee meeting over HSB 675,…
-
Iowa Republicans’ answer to school shootings is more guns
Iowa House Republicans’ solution to prevent more students from being shot in Iowa schools in the wake of Perry is to bring more guns into the schools, which includes arming teachers and other staff members. “The scariest place to be in America, I believe, is in a place with ‘gun-free zone’ posted all over the…
-
Iowans call Reynolds’ latest anti-trans bill ‘dystopian’ and destructive
Alexandra Gray compared what is happening in Iowa to a dystopian novel during yet another hearing centered on creating new laws that specifically target trans people and pose harm to Iowans in the LGBTQ community. “What dystopian novel are we in this time because I’m finding us slipping and going backward,” she said. “At one…
-
Iowan asks Republican lawmakers to focus on real issues instead of picking on libraries
Wearing a green Raygun T-shirt that touted her support of public libraries, Anita Christensen of Indianola laid out a case for why Iowa’s Republican lawmakers should stay hands-off when it comes to libraries during a Monday Iowa Senate subcommittee on the topic. “I believe that public libraries build community,” Christensen said. “What public entities invite…
-
‘There’s no reason:’ Iowans question motive of Republican library bills
Librarians don’t want it. The public doesn’t want it. Even the Iowa Leagues of Cities is undecided on the matter, but Iowa Republicans want to change the law to diminish the authority of local library boards and make the institutions more susceptible to political whims. These points and more were raised on Thursday during an…
-
Advocates speak out against Iowa’s anti-immigration bills
As far as Cecilia Martinez is concerned, they are very much an Iowan despite what some Iowa lawmakers may think. Martinez, 27, moved from Mexico to Iowa when they were 1-year-old. They were educated in Iowa schools from kindergarten through college and continue to live, work, and advocate for various causes while residing in the…
-
Iowa Republicans unveil latest plan to arm teachers with guns
Despite Iowa Republicans calling teachers “sinister,” limiting how they can teach history and social studies, what books they can teach from, and proposing cameras in the classroom to monitor them in real-time, they apparently trust them enough to give them guns. Introduced on Wednesday, HSB 675 would allow districts, private schools, and colleges to arm…
